When governments fail to provide solutions to our most pressing social problems, where are we to turn?
In March 2015 Ella Goldner MBA2011, co-founder of the mission-led venture-builder Zinc VC, asked herself the same question. Having twins and taking maternity leave from her job as Strategy Director for IPG Mediabrands sparked a shift in outlook that led her to change direction towards making a positive social impact on the world: “It had to be something that was my own,” says Goldner, “and I didn’t want it to be an app or a digital product. That was my brief to myself.”
A successful graduate of London Business School’s MBA programme in 2010, she reached out to LBS’s career coaches and, through “serendipity” and getting to know the right people, met the man who was to become one of her co-founders: Saul Klein, a venture capitalist and Executive Fellow of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at LBS. Together with third co-founder Paul Kirby, a former partner at KPMG, they started to flesh out what Zinc would look like; they have since raised £3 million from a mixture of venture capitalists and the London School of Economics, enabling them to fund three ‘missions’.
Goldner’s MBA at LBS has been fundamental in the relationships she has formed whilst establishing Zinc. Her top takeaways are just as relevant to her today as they were in 2010:
A global and diverse network
The success of creating a global reaching business that achieves a positive impact on the world can, in part, be credited to studying in a diverse and global institution, such as LBS: “You have people all over the world and in every industry to connect with and ask for advice or help,” reflects Goldner.
Give back and it will keep giving
Goldner is an active alumna and, in the decade since matriculating, has kept an ongoing relationship which has both supported her and LBS: “I have been actively working with London Business School via various collaborations, as well as trying to give back, which keeps my connection to the school and its amazing networks alive, which in return keeps giving back to me and my work.”
The network goes well beyond the other students
It’s not only fellow students and alumni that can make a lasting impact on your successes. Goldner has been able to draw on the talent of LBS faculty: “I am fortunate that Diane Morgan (previous Associate Dean/Head of Career services at LBS) is now Zinc's talent director,” says Goldner. “And some of the alumni who joined our programmes, did an internship with Zinc.”
Zinc’s first mission, focusing on women’s emotional and mental health, spawned 16 companies, addressing a raft of issues from gauging the likelihood of developing psychological side-effects from using the contraceptive pill to how to navigate through the maze of seeking help for infertility.
“There’s a lot of data available now to help solve these problems,” says Goldner. “It’s just not been tapped into. But with more female founders and investors who care about these issues, we can change that.”
“Being an entrepreneur is hard. If I ever needed anything, I knew I could email someone at LBS for help and advice.”
In every mission, Zinc brings together a diverse group of minds for nine months to find co-founders to build new businesses from scratch. Each mission has three criteria: it must tackle one of the great-unmet needs in the developed world; it must have a potential market of more than 100 million people; and there must be opportunities to disrupt, extend and improve existing services through new technologies and insights from research.
The venture-builder’s most recent venture sees it investing in 70 founders – including senior professors, ex-Premier league footballers, experts from giant tech companies, serial entrepreneurs, and others – to create better, more accessible and more effective solutions to ensure that every child and young person can grow to become a healthy adult. According to the NHS, 75% of children and young people experience mental health, and aren’t getting the help. This is where Zinc is focussing its efforts. “We’re hugely excited to be backing such an extraordinary cohort of diverse, passionate, skilled and experienced founders,” says Goldner.
Zinc’s biggest challenge is also its biggest strength: It’s one of a kind. The mission-led model has been used before (by Francis Crick Institute in the UK, for example), but not with creating companies from scratch and not in the social sciences. That’s why one of its first hires was Rachel Carey, a consultant at University College London’s Centre for Behaviour Change. “Her job is to translate the research that’s done in leading academic institutes so all our solutions can be evidence-based, and proven to work,” Goldner says. “There are no examples to give people when they ask how our specific model will work. It needs to be proven. We’re pioneering a different ecosystem.”
The support that has been given to Zinc since its conception is impressive. Both Camden Council and LBS gave the start-up office space and more than 20 coaches share their expertise with the founders and develop them on a pro bono basis.
But, for Goldner, Zinc’s biggest asset is the networks it creates. “Someone among our fellows on one mission might be a professor at the LSE. They can meet someone who is a serial tech entrepreneur, or a head of a charity, or someone who runs an NHS authority. These combinations would not ordinarily happen and everyone, including us, can tap into these networks. There is so much inspiration.”
Inspiration for Goldner comes not just from the high-achievers who surround her in her job, but a source closer to home: her mother.
A serial entrepreneur who brought the first professional training franchise to Israel in the 1970s before starting the first and biggest chain of female-only gyms in the country and selling it to pay for an MBA in her sixties, she showed Goldner that anything is possible.
Goldner’s husband is another business owner who has supported her and their family through the risk-taking and uncertainty inherent in founding an enterprise. She also credits LBS as a vital component in her journey: “Being an entrepreneur is hard, especially if you’re trying to break boundaries. If I ever needed anything, I knew I could email someone at LBS for help and advice.”
Financially, she knows Zinc has been fortunate to raise £3 million and is aware that getting money can become harder further down the track. “We’re opening it up to our network of investors and advisors,” she says. “These are challenges facing any business and we’re fortunate to have brilliant investors and advisors to be able to lean on.”
But it is the challenges facing society that have led Goldner to do what she does now; to try her utmost to fulfil the ambition to make the world a better place. People simply have a responsibility to make a difference: “Technology has created opportunities for individuals to make a huge difference, but it has also left people behind,” she says.
That’s where Zinc’s second mission comes in: to unlock new opportunities for people in places hit hard by globalisation and automation. Having kicked off in October 2018, the full-time programme is overseeing the creation of new businesses, ready to be unleashed on the world in June this year.
The cohort is half-men, half-women, which is important to Goldner, who has always been passionate about diversity. Zinc also includes a fair portion of entrepreneurs over 35, as statistics show they are more likely to be successful.
She is also a big proponent of another proven way to increase one’s chances of success: reaching out for help. “Never think that someone is too important to help you,” she says. “Think big. You might have to start small, but think big.”
On 1st November 2021 Zinc launched their latest programme, on which 68 Founders from across the globe create and build commercial ventures with the mission to improve and maintain every child and young person's mental and emotional health. You can learn more here.
Sign up to receive our latest news and business thinking direct to your inbox
London Business School takes your privacy seriously. We may process your personal information for carefully considered, specific purposes which enable us to enhance our services and benefit our customers. Please note that by subscribing now you may from time to time receive other emails from LBS about events or other activities that we think might interest you. View our Privacy Policy to learn more.
Thank you. You're almost ready to start enjoying Think. To verify your email and confirm your subscription please click on the link that we've sent to your email address.
