2018 Letter from the Founders

To Impakt’s friends and family,

Thank you!

First and foremost, we both want to thank you for your support over the last twelve months as we’ve worked nights and weekends to bring Impakt to life. Since we have decided to operate as a not-for-profit, doors have opened for us in both the not-for-profit space and the academic community that we are excited to share, including new team members and a promising partnership with the NYU Stern School of Business!

Our challenges

With new opportunities also came new challenges. When we first began our journey, we were of a team of three who had quit our old jobs to build Impakt as a business full-time. If we had continued down the for-profit path, we would have raised funding to continue full-time work on Impakt, but at an immense cost. Bringing professional investors into our leadership would have shifted our focus towards turning a profit and away from fulfilling our mission. One of us thought Impakt should be a for-profit business, and advocated enthusiastically for this path. Two of us remained to build Impakt as a not-for-profit. As a consequence of having a smaller team and needing salaried work to support ourselves, we have been forced to execute against a longer timeline. Nevertheless, committing to Impakt as a not-for-profit has already proven to be the right thing decision. Impakt remains on course to realize its potential: an open, transparent, community-driven platform that empowers consumers to judge businesses by their actions, not by their marketing.

New teammates!

In the last few months, many of our dear friends have come forward to contribute their skills and make this vision a reality. Among them are Vincent Garcia and Ayesha Godil. Vincent, our legal counsel, is a commercial and business lawyer, specializing in intellectual property and corporate/non-profit business formations. He will be shepherding us through the legal journeys of incorporation and the 501(C)3 process. Ayesha is our new Communications Director and will be documenting our journey, share our successes, and facilitating the growth of our community. She’s a recent college graduate with a background in biology and a keen interest in ethical fashion and environmental sustainability. Share your ideas for Impakt with her at tech@betheimpakt.com.

Making Impakt happen

We owe incredible thanks to our tech and development team, who are completing the design and infrastructure work we need to make Impakt publicly available in 2019. Moreover, we are excited to announce our new research partnership with faculty at NYU Stern, as well our award from NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business. We continue to make progress every day after day, and we could not have done any this without your help, your advice, and your encouragement.

Yours sincerely,

Ridge & Nida