In this episode of the Impact Highlight Series, Jon Coker, founding partner of EcoVentures, discusses his firm's focus on shared value, founder assessments, and investing in consumer health and sustainable consumption. Jon shares his journey into venture capital, emphasizing EcoVentures' dedication to creating economic and societal value in parallel by investing in companies that are building blocks of system change within their themes. He highlights the importance of a preventative approach in consumer health and efficient, circular supply chains in sustainable consumption, noting that EcoVentures often leads investments where they are the only term sheet, demonstrating true impact additionality. Coker stresses the significance of identifying founders with a desire to learn and scale alongside their businesses, advocating for a thematic investment approach and emphasizing the need for impact VCs to focus on both the "what" (impact) and the "how" (ESG) of a company.
