A lot of people I know are sick of hearing me say, “I hate attending investment pitches”.  Those same lot of people will also hear me say, “I don’t watch Shark Tank. It makes me nervous.” While I appreciate the entertainment value of good pitches and also the fact that this seems to be the most accepted way for Founders to present their story to investors, pitches have become “the deal”. No. The DEAL is “the deal.” Can we just skip to that?

So with this surly attitude I sat down one day to hear Brittany Hill’s pitch her start-up SaaS platform, Catalist (www.gocatalist.com), which helps connect “companies with causes.”  Within five minutes, I realized I was looking at something which could be truly transformational. Catalist uses the latest technology to bring nonprofit fundraising into a more modern era, and at the same time,  employs the latest algorithms and data analytics to help corporations’ CSR (“corporate social responsibility’, i.e. their charitable giving programs) measure the impact of their efforts and also find new non profits which more closely aligned with their branding, customer base and mission.

I liked it so much I invested! However, my greatest hope is that Catalist will help great causes raise more money to have more far-reaching impact.

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“All great restaurants are manifestations of their place and time,” said Buley. He continued, “What purer manifestation of place than heirloom grains that only grew here?”

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For a company to grow, it first must understand the components that actually drive the growth of its value.

Once a KPI target has been set, dive into the characteristics of the users to understand the perfect client profile.

To sustain growth, measure the actions that correspond to user retention and focus on them going forward.

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To be clear, I’m not talking about “simplified” agreements with fewer words, better headings, and cleaner fonts. I’m talking about a contract that a high schooler could understand with zero context or explanation. As Robert Eagleson, a scholar on the topic, has put it: Plain language “lets the message come through with the greatest of ease.”

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20 years ago corporate social responsibility (CSR) might have been considered a "feel good" duty for most businesses. Today, it is increasingly a necessary part of each corporation's shareholder value proposition. With this statement, the world's largest investment fund makes the path forward more clear.

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