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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:01] SPEAKER_01: If you're an entrepreneur in BC, sign up for Canada's Trade Accelerator Program and extend
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[08:23] SPEAKER_00: We have always been rooted in our communities and trying to do good through our philanthropy, the creation of our foundation, a lot of volunteerism from our team members through our TELSA's giving and many other initiatives, the establishment of our community boards across Canada and now globally to really ensure that we're supporting our local communities where we live and work.
[08:47] SPEAKER_00: We also have our community investment programs through our internet for good, providing access to internet for low income families or health for good mobile clinics that go into urban areas where vulnerable populations don't necessarily have access to the same care.
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: That's always been part of our corporate ethos of doing all this good in our communities and so one of the things that we're trying to do across TELSA is further embed purpose as part of our business and so every business unit is taking a lens as to how they incorporate that.
[09:26] SPEAKER_00: And so prior to being part of the pollinator fund, I was actually part of our TELSA Ventures team and that's our more traditional corporate venture arm which invests in companies that have a business strategy alignment to tell us and drive financial returns so while I was in the Ventures team, I was tasked with figuring out how do we incorporate an impact or social lens to what we do.
[09:48] SPEAKER_00: So that led to the creation of a proposal that we put forth in front of our CEO and our CFO and they loved it so much.
[09:58] SPEAKER_00: They said, let's go do this. Let's build up this.
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: Wow.
[10:01] SPEAKER_01: Do you nailed it? Right timing.
[10:02] SPEAKER_01: Like you said, right goal, probably right evolution of society and commerce and capitalism where things are going, they're kind of leading much more to abundance in the future.
[10:14] SPEAKER_01: Right so I just have a little bit of a curious question. So tell us Ventures was actually a fund set up before in order to build or invest in outside companies.
[10:25] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[10:25] SPEAKER_01: And so pollinator fund is a similar structure but a different goal with that.
[10:32] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[10:32] SPEAKER_01: Okay. And so I mean, how is this renowned as a, you know, your transactional relationship to most people is as a communications provider.
[10:41] SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious here. This is now that was your main core business and yet you have this little I call it an EXO exponential organizational edge project. Right.
[10:54] SPEAKER_01: So you have this extra revenue stream on the edge, which is actually helping fuel the ecosystem.
[11:01] SPEAKER_01: Would that be a fair analogy?
[11:03] SPEAKER_00: Well, I would say it's bigger than that.
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: If you look at tell us over the last 20 years, we've really transformed beyond become being just a traditional telecom.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: Right. Yes, we have all of our traditional services like your home phone, your, your high speed internet TV and then we moved into smart security.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: But we've also built out a very robust digital health business.
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: We've launched a tell us agriculture business.
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: We recently had an IPO for our tell us international business.
[11:32] SPEAKER_00: Yeah. And so what going on?
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: We're not a multiple tell call anymore. Right.
[11:37] SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what surprises a lot of people about how we transformed.
[11:43] SPEAKER_00: So when you start seeing all of those other building of tell us and zoom out and you see all these other elements, you realize now that having a corporate venture arm like tell us ventures, investing in these new opportunities and new segments makes a lot of sense.
[11:58] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[11:58] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[11:59] SPEAKER_00: Because now I've tried to find where those new verticals, right.
[12:03] SPEAKER_00: I always think of tell us beyond being a telco is our core competency is about connecting people and data.
[12:10] SPEAKER_00: That's at the corrects of everything we do.
[12:13] SPEAKER_00: And so when you look at that and you apply that to our other businesses, it makes a lot of sense in health.
[12:19] SPEAKER_00: It's a lot about connecting the dots between your providers, your pharmacies, your insurance providers, right.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: In agriculture is the same thing. We're really trying to disrupt and ensure that there's easier access and flow of that information to make things more streamlined and easier for farmers and ranchers and food producers to make the right decisions to increase transparency.
[12:42] SPEAKER_00: There's supply chains, right. Tell us international that business started as call center offsourcing for other other companies that didn't necessarily want to focus on that.
[12:53] SPEAKER_00: And is now expanded to be a full service digital solutions provider service integrator and business process outsourcing as a whole not just a call center side. Right. So you see when you start putting all those pieces together.
[13:06] SPEAKER_00: Now you see like the broader picture of tell us we're not just the telco that you grew up with.
[13:11] SPEAKER_01: I think that's a really.
[13:12] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a really important context, right. As far as everything that you're doing and I see a whole nother podcast dedicated to health and agriculture being a firm's daughter.
[13:23] SPEAKER_01: And I mean, Vulcan where we have a mandate to live long and prosper and accelerate longevity of humans. We have a whole entire idea forming there.
[13:32] SPEAKER_01: But back to the tell us pollinator.
[13:36] SPEAKER_01: And so tell me specifically and really my goal is to provide kind of the steps and the and get people mobilized to saying this is a real opportunity and access to capital that I could.
[13:49] SPEAKER_01: I could have a reasonable chance at accessing and then understanding why why would they want to access this particular fund and what are your criteria.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that's a great.
[14:04] SPEAKER_00: It really starts with what are we investing in because that will help companies understand what we're looking for.
[14:09] SPEAKER_00: And so the mandate of our fund is really about how do we drive remarkable human outcomes for Canadians across four key areas.
[14:18] SPEAKER_00: The first is around climate and sustainability.
[14:20] SPEAKER_00: We know that there are a lot of challenges to be able to get us to a point where we can meet the 2030 targets around reducing our global temperature and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
[14:35] SPEAKER_00: So we're really looking at solutions in that space that are measurable ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are reducing waste.
[14:44] SPEAKER_00: And you know, we're really excited about the circular economy, for example, how do you cycle things and to be able to then create a byproduct out of something that has value as opposed to creating more waste.
[14:56] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[14:56] SPEAKER_00: So one of the investments we made is a Washington state based they call title vision, which really embodies that and takes.
[15:04] SPEAKER_00: Crab shells that would have been discarded in the ocean or in landfill takes that converts it to a substance called kytosan, which then gets used for things like what we used water treatment for textiles to.
[15:16] SPEAKER_00: Displace synthetic chemicals and has potential use cases in agriculture as well.
[15:21] SPEAKER_00: So that's one one area of focus.
[15:26] SPEAKER_00: The second area for us is around transforming health care.
[15:29] SPEAKER_00: So if you think about now with the context of our tell us help business.
[15:32] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how.
[15:33] SPEAKER_00: How that that makes sense for us to be able to try to find ways to continue to ensure that Canadians have access to quality care and a lot of it through technology and how do we help enable that.
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: The third piece is around supporting responsible agriculture and as I mentioned, we recently launched an agriculture business.
[15:52] SPEAKER_00: So our working thesis within agriculture for the pollinator fund specifically is around who does medicine.
[15:58] SPEAKER_00: Because we know that there are a lot of linkages between the access to quality food as well as health conditions, but also conversely on how food is produced and the impact it has on the environmental health.
[16:11] SPEAKER_00: So we're really looking at food as medicine in terms of both the human elements, but also the environmental elements.
[16:18] SPEAKER_00: So localization of food production. How do we reduce food miles are a big part of the that theme.
[16:24] SPEAKER_00: And then the fourth theme that we focus on is how to enable more inclusive communities.
[16:29] SPEAKER_00: So it's about building solutions that are enabling more social and economic inclusion.
[16:34] SPEAKER_00: Education is a really big component of that right the socio economic mobility of enabling education for folks that has been proven time and time again, but also ensuring that you know there's other opportunities to upskill, re-skill employees and people to reach their full potential because oftentimes, you know, it's that one little thing that you need to unlock in order for people to be able to really shine.
[16:59] SPEAKER_00: So we're really looking at solutions that drive that and across the board across all four pillars, what we really put in on this on is understanding how you measure for impact right and ensuring that impact is for to your business so that every widget you sell every customer you're serving.
[17:16] SPEAKER_00: There's a clear, demonstrable impact that's associated with that.
[17:20] SPEAKER_00: So that we know that we're investing in things that are going to scale the impact not have impact as a byproduct of what they're doing.
[17:28] SPEAKER_01: Right. Yeah, it's actually internal and external in other words, right.
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: So going back to and we talked a little bit about the so we've got the four pillars, the type of comment or let's talk about the geographical location while you're based here in Canada.
[17:43] SPEAKER_01: In fact, based here in British Columbia, you do serve both Canadian companies and global companies looking to invest here.
[17:50] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because at the end of the day for us, it's about how do we drive outcomes better outcomes for Canadians and a lot of those solutions will be homegrown and homemade.
[17:59] SPEAKER_00: But sometimes the solutions will come outside of Canada, we know innovation has no boundaries, especially now in a COVID virtual world where you can source innovation from anywhere.
[18:08] SPEAKER_00: And so we're really looking at what are those opportunities that we think will address the issues that we want to tackle and where the best resources for that.
[18:17] SPEAKER_01: So now that people know that you can kind of apply from anywhere to you see like a massive sort of, you know, bottle neck of applications.
[18:26] SPEAKER_01: What could be the challenge there?
[18:28] SPEAKER_00: Oh, I mean, we already have so many applications coming in.
[18:32] SPEAKER_00: It's a tremendous the amount of enthusiasm for the space.
[18:36] SPEAKER_00: I think the big challenge for us is having enough time in the day to be able to go through all of those.
[18:40] SPEAKER_00: And so we do have to filter a bit in order to determine which ones we we progress.
[18:46] SPEAKER_00: But I would say we were already actively talking to companies in the UK in the US.
[18:52] SPEAKER_00: And obviously a lot of companies across Canada, which we're really excited about.
[18:59] SPEAKER_01: Canada's trade accelerator program is presented by the World Trade Center Vancouver.
[19:04] SPEAKER_01: It provides entrepreneurs access to Canada's top exporting advisors, resources and contacts and gives the ongoing training needed to become a successful export trader.
[19:16] SPEAKER_01: Go to www.wtc Vancouver dot CA slash tap and find out more.
[19:26] SPEAKER_01: Well, and let's talk about the flow because I know you're a workflow woman had to do when we get from idea.
[19:33] SPEAKER_01: So we think, oh, they could be a good source of capital for me.
[19:37] SPEAKER_01: What what would be the steps to get from idea to commercialization with the pollinator?
[19:42] SPEAKER_00: So pollinator invest in things that are already early commercialization.
[19:46] SPEAKER_00: So if you're still in that idea phase, the best thing for you to do is flush out that idea.
[19:52] SPEAKER_00: Start testing it out, try to see what customers are looking for and trial a bit of that product market fit.
[19:59] SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of great incubators and accelerator programs that are out there, a lot of mentorship programs as well that you can leverage.
[20:06] SPEAKER_00: But we're really looking for companies that are already in that early commercialization phase.
[20:11] SPEAKER_00: So starting to generate revenue and are really looking for help in terms of understanding how they can scale or refine their product or service offering in order to drive more impact.
[20:23] SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of the sweet spot that we look at in terms of when we're looking to invest.
[20:29] SPEAKER_01: Have a dollar amount via that you want them to be at or what would kind of be the minimum revenue that they're generating the at before you would look at them.
[20:41] SPEAKER_00: We haven't defined a specific threshold from a minimum revenue target amount.
[20:46] SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of it depends on the market that they're in as well.
[20:50] SPEAKER_00: So if it's a more mature established market, then I think the revenue amounts need to be a bit higher to demonstrate how they're in the win versus if it's a new nascent market.
[20:59] SPEAKER_00: I think it's still being figured out.
[21:03] SPEAKER_00: I think what's more important to the revenue amount in itself is what's the trajectory?
[21:08] SPEAKER_00: How are they growing month over month, quarter over quarter, because that gives a better set of how they're looking to scale.
[21:17] SPEAKER_01: And then when it comes down to investment.
[21:18] SPEAKER_01: So we've got a trajectory.
[21:19] SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to assume that somebody's on a tenfold trajectory and they got let's start with the million.
[21:24] SPEAKER_01: They're at a million now.
[21:25] SPEAKER_01: They want to be a 10 million type that does for the case study.
[21:31] SPEAKER_01: And so they would apply for capital with you.
[21:34] SPEAKER_01: Do you offer mentorship?
[21:36] SPEAKER_01: Like what is the process or like one of my traditional banks, typically they lend you money and then they leave you alone.
[21:44] SPEAKER_01: Right? As long as you're paying the premium and the interest, that's kind of the basic formula.
[21:49] SPEAKER_01: Is this different?
[21:50] SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
[21:52] SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad you asked that question because when we think about the investments we make,
[21:56] SPEAKER_00: there's obviously the fit to the criteria that we've talked about in terms of the thematic areas, as well as the impact measure ability.
[22:03] SPEAKER_00: One of the other critical dimensions for us is what is the additionality that tell us brings to the table?
[22:08] SPEAKER_00: What is the value add that we can offer?
[22:11] SPEAKER_00: Because we don't want to just be writing checks for the sake of writing checks.
[22:15] SPEAKER_00: We want to make sure that there is some value that we can offer, whether it's tapping into our network of expert or different partners that we have in the marketplace.
[22:25] SPEAKER_00: How can we help connect to us in order to help you grow and scale?
[22:30] SPEAKER_00: Because for us, that's the best value of having to help.
[22:34] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
[22:35] SPEAKER_00: It's not just about money.
[22:36] SPEAKER_00: Like, don't give me your own.
[22:38] SPEAKER_00: But what you really want is the goodness of the rest of what tell us can bring.
[22:42] SPEAKER_01: You're like your only little mini dragons, Den, but with actual not just investing, but connections and mentors and, you know, text solutions and obviously health and agricultural solutions on the side, right?
[22:54] SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
[22:55] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, there's so many different facets within tell us like, I know.
[23:00] SPEAKER_00: And what's exciting is about how, how excited internally people at tell us are and how proud they are of what we're doing with the Paul Nader Fund.
[23:07] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[23:07] SPEAKER_00: I've had so many people reach out who love the current job, but also love what we're doing and have asked how can we get involved?
[23:12] SPEAKER_00: How we can help out.
[23:14] SPEAKER_00: And so we were in the early days of building out a plan for how we can get them to help act as mentors or as coaches to the different startups we have.
[23:23] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[23:24] SPEAKER_00: If I'm talking to a startup and they're trying to figure out how to unlock their enterprise sales process.
[23:30] SPEAKER_00: Well, you know what?
[23:31] SPEAKER_00: We have a whole part of our business that focuses on enterprise sales.
[23:35] SPEAKER_00: So there's a handful of people there that have already put up their hands and said like, hey, I'm more than happy to have a chat and and support whatever way we can.
[23:42] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[23:42] SPEAKER_00: And so that's, that's the magic of why tell us.
[23:46] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
[23:48] SPEAKER_00: It's not just about you get money, but you also have all of these other resources that we can try to tap into to help support you.
[23:55] SPEAKER_01: And I think that's probably one of the most important value propositions here is just the community, the support, the mentoring, the almost internal accelerator and incubator they offered within your company.
[24:08] SPEAKER_01: So I think that's amazing.
[24:10] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[24:10] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[24:11] SPEAKER_01: One, let's talk about the actual value of the fund.
[24:15] SPEAKER_01: Do you have like a, can we talk about that? Are we allowed to?
[24:18] SPEAKER_01: Yes.
[24:19] SPEAKER_00: So no value is stated now we're a hundred million dollar commitment from tell us.
[24:23] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[24:24] SPEAKER_00: And so what that will look like is in more traditional venture capital world, right?
[24:30] SPEAKER_00: Usually there's a carve out for follow on.
[24:32] SPEAKER_00: So we set aside a part of that as reserved.
[24:34] SPEAKER_00: So for any of the companies that we've invested in will look to double down as they continue to grow.
[24:40] SPEAKER_00: But a good chunk of that will be saved specific for direct investments and companies.
[24:45] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[24:45] SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
[24:46] SPEAKER_01: And what are you finding that people are applying for so far?
[24:48] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know you're reasonably early out of the gate, but what kind of are they applying for 10 million, 5 million, 50 million.
[24:55] SPEAKER_01: What are they applying for?
[24:57] SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, I mean, 50 million just would not happen given our size of funds.
[25:00] SPEAKER_00: I would be like one investment and then we'd be done.
[25:03] SPEAKER_00: So it's across the board.
[25:06] SPEAKER_00: And I think this is where ensuring that the entrepreneur has a better sense of what the ask is, right?
[25:12] SPEAKER_00: It isn't free money.
[25:12] SPEAKER_00: So it's not like, hey, tell us to give me a whack load of money.
[25:16] SPEAKER_00: It's actually an investment for an equity stake in your company.
[25:19] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we really implore the entrepreneurs to think through what does that look like?
[25:24] SPEAKER_00: What is the ownership then that you're giving up in order to have the investment from tell us.
[25:29] SPEAKER_00: And what is it that you're looking to drive from a value perspective?
[25:34] SPEAKER_00: Right. So I think that that's the main thing.
[25:38] SPEAKER_00: And so the amounts are anywhere ranging from a few hundred thousand to a few million.
[25:45] SPEAKER_00: I, you know, we have a target of the size of companies that were size of checks that we're looking to write.
[25:53] SPEAKER_00: And it depends on the nature of the company, the impact of generating the size and scale of whether at.
[25:59] SPEAKER_00: But I would say check the initial check size.
[26:01] SPEAKER_00: There's are going to be sub two million for the most part.
[26:05] SPEAKER_01: What about the other end?
[26:07] SPEAKER_01: I mean, you were, I mean, I've been involved in investment deals before where they have an equity stake,
[26:13] SPEAKER_01: but you always have a buyout right at some point is would that be your game as far as, you know,
[26:20] SPEAKER_01: when as you negotiate a deal, is there a buyout option in terms of buying us out or buying the entrepreneur as an equity stake or with or would the intention be that you are in it for the long haul.
[26:35] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I think we keep our options open, right? Like at the end of the day, it's what at what point is the business at and doesn't make sense for them to bring on additional investors.
[26:46] SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, we're trying to make money off of this investment, right?
[26:50] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[26:50] SPEAKER_00: And so there is an element of liquidity that comes into play, whether it's being bought out, whether it's the company going public, whether it's an acquisition by another organization, right?
[27:02] SPEAKER_00: So there's different scenarios that are there that can be contemplated.
[27:07] SPEAKER_00: We don't have a fixed, it must be, you know, X amount of return per investment, but the goal is to make money on every investment that we make.
[27:16] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely. And I think that and then that might just gets reinvested back into doing more great stuff in the world under the tailless brand. I love it.
[27:26] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, at the end of the day, it's about not just making money as much as, you know, we've kind of emphasized that point just now.
[27:32] SPEAKER_00: It's about making sure that every investment we make actually has a clear way that it's demonstrating impact, right?
[27:38] SPEAKER_00: So we, and that's a very selective filter that we have in terms of ensuring that, right?
[27:44] SPEAKER_00: So we've had companies that we talked to, which they're great financial investment, but they're not the right bit from an impact perspective, right?
[27:50] SPEAKER_00: It's not deep enough for what we're looking for.
[27:51] SPEAKER_00: And so it's really making sure that we hold ourselves to accounting for both sides of that, not just the only impact or only financial.
[28:00] SPEAKER_00: It's bringing those both together.
[28:02] SPEAKER_00: Leah, how big is your team?
[28:04] SPEAKER_00: Right now we are team with three.
[28:06] SPEAKER_00: It's myself, Blair, who's our managing partner and Gwen, who's our EA.
[28:13] SPEAKER_00: We're looking to grow and add four more team members this year.
[28:16] SPEAKER_00: So we'll bring ourselves to seven.
[28:18] SPEAKER_01: And what were those roles be?
[28:21] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[28:22] SPEAKER_01: How were you going to grow yourself?
[28:25] SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a mix of both investment roles, so building out the team so that we can increase how many investors we have on the team, but also bringing on someone from a strategy perspective as well.
[28:36] SPEAKER_00: So as we continue to evolve our fund, we'll want to make sure we have the right support for that.
[28:43] SPEAKER_01: Well, one of our goals at Canada's podcast is really about networking entrepreneurs, host to coast across Canada.
[28:49] SPEAKER_01: So we have seven hosts, we have eight hosts, I think right now we across Canada.
[28:55] SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes some of the best innovations are on the fringe, right?
[28:59] SPEAKER_01: In these rural communities where innovation and resourcefulness has to happen.
[29:05] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, while I know you're probably based camped in most of the major urban centers, that's part of my goal was to bring you on to the show.
[29:14] SPEAKER_01: You know, get us into having having it on a podcast that people everywhere can listen to so that you know it increases the chances of people in more remote rural areas, even to be aware of.
[29:26] SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, let's and global audiences to for all of those who are listening, we had a lot of Brazil and American and UK listeners here too.
[29:35] SPEAKER_01: So know that everybody has potential to tap into Canada as a fantastic resource.
[29:42] SPEAKER_01: I have one last question about Canada via a near experience.
[29:47] SPEAKER_01: Do you think we have a geographic distinctiveness or advantage as far as getting capital and connections to entrepreneurs?
[29:56] SPEAKER_01: That are that have Canadian roots?
[30:00] SPEAKER_00: I think there are a lot of great programs out there and a lot of funds that are focused on growing Canadian talent.
[30:05] SPEAKER_00: I think we're really proud of who we are and our identity on a world stage.
[30:10] SPEAKER_00: And if you look at a lot of great companies even in the US, there's a lot of Canadian connections in that, right?
[30:17] SPEAKER_00: So I would say there's a breadth of talent. I think the biggest challenges are often about location of of being getting access to those right networks.
[30:28] SPEAKER_00: And I think what you're doing with this podcast is a great example of how to broaden that.
[30:32] SPEAKER_00: And I think because of the move to digital, it's actually accelerated the ability for people to be in disparate locations, but still have these types of conversations more easily now.
[30:46] SPEAKER_00: I've been talking to some entrepreneurs based on the opposite coast and Halifax, which in a more traditional world would be much more difficult to do because I don't go to Halifax very often.
[30:58] SPEAKER_00: But now I'm more easily the norms have shifted a bit to make it easier for folks like that to be able to gain access to these types of networks.
[31:07] SPEAKER_00: So I think that's kind of one element.
[31:08] SPEAKER_00: I think from a social finance perspective though in Canada, I think we have an opportunity to continue to grow.
[31:17] SPEAKER_00: The pollinator fund is one of the first large funds of our type here in Canada.
[31:23] SPEAKER_00: And one of the first corporate impact funds that are in Canada.
[31:26] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[31:27] SPEAKER_00: I look globally in the UK and the US. There's so many more examples of that.
[31:32] SPEAKER_00: And so I think especially for socially oriented entrepreneurs, that part's been a bit more challenging because they.
[31:41] SPEAKER_00: They they still a lot of education in the market that has to happen to help people understand that investing in a social entrepreneur is the same as investing in an entrepreneur period.
[31:51] SPEAKER_00: And so that's why I think that the way I do it is just about what their focus areas are and that there's still opportunity to make money in this space.
[31:56] SPEAKER_00: And that's why I'm really excited and proud of what we're doing with the pollinator fund because we're trying to prove out that thesis that you can do good and make money at the same time.
[32:05] SPEAKER_00: They're not mutually close concepts.
[32:07] SPEAKER_00: And through that process really wanting to help bring others into the market because there are a lot of folks that are what are deemed impact curious where they're thinking of it.
[32:16] SPEAKER_00: But they're still thinking of impact from a philosophy lens and not from an investment lens.
[32:21] SPEAKER_00: And we really want to transform and shift the tide so that we're like our peers in the UK and then the US where they're doing a lot more of this social finance innovation.
[32:30] SPEAKER_00: So that's really the forefront of of where we think we can go.
[32:34] SPEAKER_01: Do you see opportunity for more corporate social impact funds?
[32:40] SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely. I think this is just the start of it.
[32:44] SPEAKER_00: And I think as more companies start to understand the opportunity that's there.
[32:51] SPEAKER_00: I think you'll start seeing some of them come in.
[32:54] SPEAKER_00: I think you see a lot of that right now on the climate side specifically.
[32:58] SPEAKER_00: So Mark Carney joining Brookfield, for example, and launching a multi billion dollar climate oriented fund is a great example of how people are moving into this space in a big way.
[33:09] SPEAKER_00: And I think there's going to be more shifts of that over time.
[33:13] SPEAKER_01: And I, yeah, and I'll add to that. I think that's a little bit of the future of I see.
[33:19] SPEAKER_01: You know, places, actual communities having their own social impact funds and corporations that are that are in those locations to fuel their own.
[33:30] SPEAKER_01: Sort of entrepreneurial ecosystem, but also having a global impact.
[33:34] SPEAKER_01: So I look forward to watching this space and I'm going to draw a champion.
[33:38] SPEAKER_01: Tell us pollinator fund is a bit of an accelerator for the concept of encouraging companies to develop their own social impact fund.
[33:47] SPEAKER_01: Leah, how do people get a hold of you after today? What's the best process?
[33:52] SPEAKER_00: Well, the best process is you're looking to apply to our fund is to go to our website is tell us.com backslash pollinator fund.
[34:00] SPEAKER_00: And on that site, you'll be able to find a web form to fill out.
[34:04] SPEAKER_00: We encourage folks to include a deck or a link to a deck, because that gives us just a bit more insight and information to better understand what you're about.
[34:14] SPEAKER_00: So that's the best way if you're looking to apply specifically for the fund.
[34:19] SPEAKER_00: But if more generally you're looking to connect, then you can reach me on LinkedIn.
[34:23] SPEAKER_00: And so it's Leah Wing on LinkedIn. And I think there's a few of us.
[34:28] SPEAKER_00: But if you look for the one that's based in Vancouver, I think I'm the only one in Vancouver still so.
[34:33] SPEAKER_01: Fantastic. I really appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us on Canada's podcast.
[34:38] SPEAKER_01: And we were proud to be able to accelerate your message to to both Canadian and global audiences.
[34:44] SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Angel. I really appreciate the opportunity to chat with you, get to know you a bit.
[34:48] SPEAKER_00: And really just share what I love so much about what we do here at the pollinator fund. So thank you for that.
[34:55] SPEAKER_01: You're welcome. Thanks, Leah. We'll talk to you soon.
[34:57] SPEAKER_00: All right. Take care. Bye.
[35:00] SPEAKER_01: For BC entrepreneurs, Canada's Trade Accelerator Program has been successfully operated by the World Trade Center Vancouver since 2017.
[35:10] SPEAKER_01: The Trade Accelerator Program gives BC-based businesses the training and support needed to become a successful exporter.
[35:19] SPEAKER_01: Go to www.wtc Vancouver.ca slash tab and find out more.
