Invest Like The Best
Episode 195 Investing in Dignity and Character
Invest Like The Best

Episode 195: Investing in Dignity and Character

Invest Like The Best

Episode 195

Investing in Dignity and Character

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen. We cover her move from Wall Street to philanthropic capital, how creating dignity plays such a major role in her investments, and how governments and businesses can work together to solve the world’s toughest problems.

This episode is brought to you by:

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[00:02:29] – Where the concept of the blue sweater came from for her book

[00:04:29] – Every child has a humiliating experience and the impact on their life 

[00:10:42] – Why character is such an important investing filter for her

[00:11:59] – How the markets have changed through the lens of Acumen

[00:16:59] – The challenges of getting started 

[00:19:46] – Embracing the idea of being uncomfortable and an example for her

[00:21:50] – The space between government action and market action 

[00:26:11] – The concept of conformity traps

[00:29:29] – The lens of moral imagination

[00:30:32] – The importance of bringing dignity to others

[00:35:09] – Entrepreneurial skills she sees outside of the US that we lack here

[00:39:38] – Biggest problems across the globe she is interested in tackling

[00:42:48] – Impediments to investing in global problems 

[00:49:11] – Kindest thing anyone has done for her

Investing in Dignity and Character

Introduction

Patrick
My guest today is Jacqueline Novogratz. Jacqueline is the founder and CEO of Acumen, a nonprofit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of poverty. Our conversation touches on how Jacqueline left Wall Street and ended up starting a microfinance bank in Rwanda, how she thinks about investing in character, how creating dignity plays such a major role in her investments, and how governments and businesses can work together to solve the world's toughest problems. It is a bit of a departure from my normal investing conversation, but contains powerful lessons for many investors and builders. I really enjoyed our conversation and hope you will too.

Jacqueline, I've been so excited to do this with you. What we're going to talk about today is a bit of a departure from my normal investing conversations, but I suspect it will be one of the most interesting. I thought an interesting jump-off point would be to have you tell the audience the story of The Blue Sweater, the name of your first book, and I just think it's such a neat way to frame our conversation.

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