Moving from IRR to IMM: Investing Based on the Impact Multiple of Money | Michael Etzel, Bridgespan

Episode notes

My guest today is Michael Etzel - a partner at Bridgespan, and one of the key architects behind a shift that’s still unfolding: the effort to bring hard-nosed analytical discipline to a field once seen as closer to charity than capital. Michael came to this work from the social sector, back when “impact investing” wasn’t yet a defined field. At Bridgespan, he began advising philanthropists and foundations - and over time, that work expanded to include some of the world’s largest asset managers as they started asking how capital could solve problems philanthropy couldn’t. His idea was pretty simple: to put impact first. Our conversation starts with that principle - and where it sits between two poles. On one side: traditional philanthropy willing to lose money in service of outcomes. On the other: finance-first investing chasing market-rate returns. Impact-first lives in the messy middle.

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