Samantha Duncan: The importance of first-hand experience

Companies boasting a social and environmental impact focus are set to grow over the coming years – and at the same time, consumers and investors increasingly want to put their money where their principles are.

But how is the actual impact these businesses achieve measured, so investors know their money really is doing good? That was a question Samantha Duncan found herself asking time and again, and after experiencing the truth first-hand, she felt compelled to create a platform that provided the honest data missing from the jigsaw.

She founded Net Purpose, which uses data examining the social and environmental outcomes of companies and investment portfolios, to allow investors to make quantifiable decisions. Duncan puts her drive to work with purpose down to a childhood spent in Australia’s stunning wilderness.

"The change you observe in places you frequent is dramatic – the fact snow won’t be in the mountains in 10 years, it’s crazy," she says. "The decisions we’re making every single day about where we consume, where we invest, where we save, are driving that."

A truth-seeker

Duncan also acknowledges that she has an innate desire to always find the truth, and she realized this could be transferred to the workplace during her first job as an investment banker, at Goldman Sachs, almost 20 years ago.

"I was a traditional investment banker, optimizing models around financial performance, and it was all about profit. But it was interesting, because I was working in the healthcare sector, and the CEOs of the healthcare companies didn’t only care about their shareholders’ returns," she reflects.

"They cared about their patient’s health and the social impacts the business could have. It was interesting because we, as bankers, were always looking at it only through profit and they were looking through a different lens. It made me think, ‘Why, as an investor, am I not thinking about that, too?’ Because if I was, maybe I would make a different decision about whether this deal is good or not."

As someone who admits she likes to get things done, Duncan took a leap of faith, and a plane to Peru, to work with a microfinance company helping women set up businesses to support their households. She soon realized, however, that although the intentions were good, the results of their charitable model were not having the impact in practice one would have hoped.

"It sounded great – lend to women with small loans so they can start their business and generate a financial return, but it wasn’t working," Duncan explains. "I had a gracious opportunity to sit with them in their homes and just listen.

"All they wanted was to generate income, but they weren’t going to grow if we were just giving them donations and not expecting them to pay it back or charging interest."

Duncan changed the model and charged one percent per month variable interest, instead of the 15 percent the bank would charge, and if they repaid it, then bigger loans were available and a credit history built.

The women were then able to transition to a bank. Soon loans were being repaid every month and the companies began to thrive.

"It was really inspiring," she recalls. "For me, if I was going to spend a lot of time dedicating my career to figuring out how to quantify the impact, I needed to know that the good was actually possible. I needed to know it deep in my bones before I spent my time quantifying it and trying to embed it into investment decisions."

Purpose-driven investing

Duncan recognized that the actual impact any ESG-focused company was achieving in practice was important, but something hard to quantify and measure. However, when she began work as Head of Investments at LeapFrog, a pioneer in profit-with-purpose investment, she was digging out the details needed to make those assessments.

Her decision to launch Net Purpose reflected what she could see would grow from a trend to a movement toward purpose-driven investing, even though it could be said she was ahead of the curve.

"I was sitting with the problem and felt, I just can’t sit here and not solve it. Someone needs to build the data infrastructure," Duncan says.

In the past year there has been increasing regulation and standardization of terms surrounding social, environmental and governance impact globally – but again, Net Purpose was ready.

"I could see what was coming very clearly," Duncan says, with the benefit of being so passionate about the subject, as well as having layers of experience.

"I was involved in those conversations eight years ago – we essentially built a data foundation that collects all the metrics that map to all the standards. Because the reality is, the standards landing now are consolidating a whole host of other industry initiatives that existed."

As well as finding the purpose she felt destined for, Duncan has also found a host of like-minded people to employ. "I love the people I work with," she says.

"I am so inspired by everyone every day, we have a lot of people in our team who want to work for something impactful and won’t sacrifice on that."

Adaptable leadership

Finding roles that bring out her team’s superpowers, to not only enthuse them but also enhance Net Purpose, is an ongoing commitment, according to Duncan.

She also highlights the importance of a CEO ‘getting out of the way’ and not stifling the ideas and perspectives someone else can bringing to the company. And when working in a field changing as quickly as this one, being adaptable and open to new ideas is a huge advantage.

"I don’t think people build businesses to make money – you do it because you’re passionate about the topic as well as wanting to chart a new path, and what keeps me going is the team," Duncan explains.

"I don’t want to feel uncomfortable at work in a job that doesn't reflect me. We’ve tried to match individual ambition with the company’s ambition because I think that’s where magic happens."

And by decoding the truth about company impact, hopefully that magic will happen through investment in many more companies with the same ethos.