Niraj Varia, Investment Director, Novastar Ventures, On Purpose Chairman

In the social sector, we all have a tendency to get up on ourselves. We say, ‘We’re doing good, look at us. We could be making money, but we chose not to.’ I think there’s a danger in that which is that we think people are impressed, but it puts people off. People are put off coming into the sector.

And frankly, I think it’s a lot less fun than you saying, ‘You know what? I’m doing this because I love it. I love it because they’re really interesting problems, or I love it because of the impact, or I love it because it gives me a chance to travel to adventurous places or because it gives me great stories to tell at the bar.’ There’s a lot of reasons why we
love it, but unfortunately we tend to come across as full of ourselves. ‘Look at us, we’re trying to save the world’.

There’s a danger in that. Let’s just remember we’re doing this because we love it, not because it makes us more
worthy than anybody else. It’s easy to judge others. Because we don’t ever understand anybody else, really. We should be less judgemental about others who have made other choices.

Niraj Varia, Investment Director, Novastar Ventures, Kenya

On Purpose Chairman