#1 Meet our Team — People first 💙
Do you want to know how promising a project is? Firstly, get to know the people behind it.
From a team of 3 (co-founders Marco Barbosa, Bernardo Vieira, and Afonso Barbosa) back in early 2020 when impactMarket was born, to 23 (and counting!) now in 2022, our team has grown a lot enabling our protocol to expand its reach and impact exponentially across the globe.
Our people are our most valuable asset. Thanks to each one of them, we keep building and improving the impactMarket protocol while we expand our operations onboarding new communities and beneficiaries every day. And we do this with excellence, agility, and passion for the mission of fighting extreme poverty.
This is the first from a series of blog posts here on Medium where you will get to know the people who are part of impactMarket. But first, see below some figures that represent the diversity and the multiculturalism of our talents.
The impact team
Since the beginning, our co-founders have established strong core values to guide impactMarket’s development:
- Culture of Collaboration and Excellence;
- Diversity and Integrity;
- Commitment to Engagement and Connectivity;
- Continuous Learning;
- Efficient Execution;
- Positive Energy.
We start by highlighting how distributed, 100% remote, and diverse our team is!
- Gender: 14 Male / 9 Female (35% Female)
- Nationalities: 13
- Languages: 15
- 5 continents: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
On the Spotlight: Mariana Vilaça (HR manager)
Talking about impactMarket’s team, this series of blog posts could only start with the one who is in charge of taking care of our talent, our HR Manager Mariana Vilaça.
She joined impactMarket on March 16th, following an expressive growth in our team in 2022. In this interview, you will get to know more about Mariana.
From Porto, Portugal, and the proud mother of a 1 and a half-year-old daughter. Passionate about human behavior and social justice, very curious about the world around her, and always eager to learn more.
Throughout her professional career, she has worked for almost 10 years in multinational organizations across different sectors, like retail and FMCG, consultancy, financial services, and industry, mostly in the Human Resources field, but also in business development and account management.
Loves traveling, volunteering, the beach and the sea, hanging out with friends, playing padel, Interior Design, Theatre and is a Food lover, and doesn’t like violence, fanaticism, hypocrisy, and prejudice.
Mariana, please start by telling us a bit about yourself and why did you choose to work with Human Resources
I have always been interested in human behavior-related fields and in understanding people’s attitudes and interactions. That is the reason why I studied Psychology at the University of Porto, my hometown, and then specialized in and did my Master’s in Organisational and Work Psychology.
Having the opportunity to communicate and engage with people from all backgrounds, HR is a strategic role in any organization which encompasses policy, process, and practice at the same time.
I strongly believe that HR professionals are an important asset for any organization and play a very important role in day-to-day business, as giving the opportunity to influence innumerable aspects of the organization, assist in the development of its employees, and play a part in influencing strategic business decisions.
It’s extremely fulfilling and empowering to have a sense of mission and responsibility not only to the employees of all levels, but also to the wider needs of the organization and to know that as HR professionals we can significantly and positively impact the companies where we work for, but most importantly their employees.
After several years working in big international corporations, what brings you to a social impact startup?
When I first had the opportunity to talk to Jessica, our COO, and hear about Impact Market’s mission and purpose right away clicked for me. I have done volunteer work since I was very young and I have always been passionate about giving back to the ones with fewer opportunities and contributing in whatever way I can to make the community and ultimately the world a better place.
So when the opportunity came to bring my professional expertise to a company that has this goal for a mission it looked like the perfect fit for me. I am thrilled to be part of the team and contribute to our mission of making a real impact.
What are the main challenges you’ve been facing since joining impactMarket?
As the company is growing and scaling my main goal is to help set the foundations of an HR team at ImpactMarket, that can sustain and support that growth. Getting to know the team and getting up to speed on the operational details of the company has been my number one goal. Some of the initiatives that we are currently taking on are: implementing an HR solution that can address and meet our needs and make our lives easier on a day to day basis; standardizing the onboarding process for new hires, which is critical to ensure we leverage to support our growth; ensuring that we attract and hire great people aligned with our values and committed to our vision and mission, just to name a few. Bottom line, we’re streamlining the end-to-end employee lifecycle process, from A to Z to make sure we attract the right people and develop and retain our talented employees.
Share an impactful moment you experienced since you started working with us.
I must highlight the moment when my colleagues who attended Celo Connect in Barcelona, shared the testimonials and feedback they received about impactMarket’s global impact. It was a very emotional moment and made me feel incredibly proud to work here. I feel 100% personally connected to the purpose of the company I work for, and that is just huge for me.
What would you say for those who would like to work at impactMarket?
Are you looking for an opportunity to make your work reach thousands of people around the world and improve their lives? This is just the right place. ImpactMarket provides so many opportunities for learning and development in a fast-growth and multicultural startup environment. It’s truly a company where you can grow a career for many years to come in an environment that truly fosters innovation, opportunity, and diversity. You will have the possibility to work from anywhere and collaborate with a diverse and international team from over 13 nationalities (and counting).
Join our mission and be part of the change!
If you want to join our amazing team and work on a disruptive social good blockchain startup that is already helping thousands worldwide, please check out our opportunities on our careers page at careers.impactmarket.com.
In the next edition, you will get to know more about our co-founder and Web3 Product Designer Afonso Barbosa. Stay tuned!
If you have any questions, you can reach out to us at impactmarket.com, docs.impactmarket.com, or directly by emailing us at hello@impactmarket.com.
You can also find us on Medium, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, Youtube, Telegram, and Discord.
Dare to dream with us!
You can be part of the change and empower people all around the world. Your contribution goes to the UBI communities, and when donating cUSD to a specific community or through the impact Farming page or to a specific community, you get $PACT tokens as a reward for the impact you´ll have made. You can also stake your $PACT to get even more rewards.
impactMarket (The Human Empowerment Protocol)
impactMarket provides accessible financial solutions to empower underprivileged people all over the world, unlocking opportunities and human potential. Our inclusive protocol is transparent, reliable, and borderless. It operates as a DAO on top of the Celo network, using $PACT as its governance token while running autonomously through smart contracts.
impactLabs (the company)
impactLabs Lda, based in Portugal, was founded in Nov 2020 by Marco Barbosa, Bernardo Vieira, Afonso Barbosa, and eSolidar. The company is focused on building accessible decentralized systems to unleash human potential and disrupt access to finance while driving DeFi adoption.
