Taanya Khare, Senior Associate, Impact, Acumen

For early-stage companies, tracking impact offers several benefits. 

It allows them to measure and validate the impact of their products and services. Having greater awareness as an entrepreneur regarding your impact can make it really actionable by helping you improve project performance during the implementation phase. Any early-stage company often has to experiment with different kinds of business models, not only to achieve financial sustainability, but also to be able to better meet customer needs. Translating impact into business outcomes can therefore be highly meaningful, helping companies strengthen both their social impact and their broader business objectives.

A second benefit would be a greater appetite and ability to get access to capital. Investors have become increasingly intentional, and it’s important for them to see how their funding creates real additionality and changes people’s lives. Social enterprises that understand this investor appetite – and can translate it into the way they talk about their impact – are better positioned to grow across stages and attract different kinds of investors who value measurable impact.

A third benefit is stronger stakeholder engagement, which would be not just investors, but also different kinds of partners who would want to work with an impactful company. Also, for customers who are much more socially and environmentally conscious, being able to see your impact would make them much more interested to follow through and be loyal.

Key takeaways

• Measuring impact early helps you refine the business model and truly meet customer needs.

• A strong impact narrative makes it easier to raise funds from aligned investors.

• Showing real impact builds trust with partners and keeps conscious customers coming back.