The story behind Impact Drive
Why I believe a platform like Impact Drive should exist
I think there are three traits of myself - which, I believe apply to many of you readers - that convinced me a platform like Impact Drive should exist.
A platform encouraging open idea sharing, innovation and collaboration should exist
Firstly, since being a child, I love coming up with new ideas. Be it a wish fulfillment machine, cars that can float in the air through magnetic repulsion, or renewable energy created through exercise, I wasn’t short of naive and idealistic ideas. Learning more about entrepreneurship, I realised that coming up with ideas is the “easy” part. Implementing them is the actual work. Yet, for me, sharing an idea, such as my idea for Impact Drive with all of you, is still something that requires a lot of courage and overcoming self-doubt. Moreover, whilst sharing an idea is just the first step, it is undoubtedly necessary. As Linda Rottenberg, founder of Endeavour, puts it “The best ideas don't die in the marketplace or in the laboratory - they die in the shower”1.
Oxford and Cambridge are great places to do this informally. Indeed, studying for my Masters in Practical Ethics was how I became friends with my inspiring co-founder, Utkarsh Ambitabh. But not everyone has access to such a community. Impact Drive therefore wants to enable anyone, anywhere, to share ideas with driven, impact-focused, and entrepreneurial individuals. We want to create a safe space for all of you to share your ideas - as openly as you feel comfortable with - to allow you to iterate quickly and develop the best version.
And we won’t stop there: We will help you find a co-founder, and guide you through your journey of implementation and scaling.
A platform enabling entrepreneurs to maximise their impact should exist
Secondly, I always wanted to have a positive impact in my career. As philosophers, religions, and researchers all know, a sense of meaning is essential to living a good life. What “positive impact” means, and how I could best achieve this, have, however, been big question marks for many years of my life.
Coming to Cambridge, I became part of the “Effective Altruism” community, which seeks to critically analyse how we can do the most good. The precise recommendations may not be for everyone. However, a mindset I learned through Effective Altruism, and which I greatly value, is to critically question ones’ way of doing good, and being open to updating ones’ beliefs in light of new evidence. Impact Drive does not subscribe to one definition of impact. Instead, we want to encourage each one of you to find your own definition and remain open to changing it in the future.
When developing and implementing ideas, social impact should be a central design choice. Our platform and community will help guide you through the process of identifying and acting on the highest impact opportunities.
A platform centered around projects, not people, should exist
Finally, I have never been a big fan of social media. As someone who greatly values her privacy, I find the idea of sharing the intricacies of my daily life online uncomfortable. It is implicit in the design of social media that we follow individuals and focus on building our own brand. This undoubtedly has many advantages, e.g., it helps bring people with common interests together. Yet, it can also lead to excessive self-focus and social comparison.
I believe projects, rather than individual users, should be placed at the center of attention. People could then comment, like, share and follow individual projects, rather than the project creators (who can maintain their privacy if they prefer). This way, communities will be built first and foremost around shared goals and ambitions.
Putting it all together
Reflecting on these features, I became convinced a platform like Impact Drive should exist: A platform centred around projects, not people, that encourages open innovation and collaboration, thereby enabling entrepreneurs to maximise their impact.
Importantly, the concrete design of Impact Drive is not yet determined. Like all future projects created on Impact Drive, we want to design the platform through open innovation and collaboration.
We invite you to be part of the journey!
Thank you for reading and all the best,
Caroline Baumöhl
Hoffman, Reid, et al. Masters of Scale. New York, Currency, 2021, p. 56.