In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, I speak with Rogerine Miguel-Irvine, former Chief for Strategic Policy and Innovations at the National Economic and Development Authority , about her work to build a national framework for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Rogerine shares her journey from building a social enterprise supporting indigenous weaving communities to helping shape national innovation policy in the Philippines. We explore why governments often struggle to support entrepreneurs, the barriers startups face navigating bureaucracy, and why innovation policy frequently fails at the implementation stage.

We also discuss the role of procurement in supporting startups, the challenge of fragmented systems, why human capital and R&D investment matter, and what it was like bringing an entrepreneurial mindset into government itself.

This conversation is a candid look at the realities of building innovation ecosystems — and why governments must evolve if they want entrepreneurs to help solve the major economic and social challenges ahead.

Key Takeaways:

1. Governments should support innovation ecosystems — not control them.

2. The Philippines has strong talent and innovation output, but struggles with implementation and commercialization.

3. Bureaucracy and outdated procurement systems remain major barriers for startups and innovators.

4. Policy making improves when entrepreneurs and private-sector voices are directly involved in the process.

5. Procurement reform could become one of the most powerful tools governments use to support startups and innovation

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In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, Rich speaks with David Lynn, co-founder and CEO of Mission Driven Finance, about the ambitious vision to move trillions of dollars into communities and build a financial system designed around impact.

Inspired by the rise of firms like Blackstone and Brookfield, David shares why he believes the next trillion-dollar investment platform could — and should — be built around community outcomes, access to capital, and long-term social value.

The conversation explores the challenges of financing mission-driven businesses, the gap between small community lending and large institutional capital, how impact is measured and managed, and why Mission Driven Finance is now moving into care economy real estate — including child care facilities — as a way to build long-term community assets.

Key Takeaways

- The problem isn’t lack of capital — it’s lack of infrastructure.

- Mission-driven finance needs scale to move institutional money.

- Impact must be intentional and built into the business model.

- The biggest financing gap is now in the lower middle market.

- Care economy real estate is a major untapped opportunity.

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In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, I speak with Uli Grabenwarter, Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Director of Equity Investments at the European Investment Fund, about one of the most uncomfortable questions in impact finance: Why impact investing does not work.

Uli brings a rare perspective to this conversation. Over the course of his career, he has moved from derivatives and traditional finance into venture capital, responsible investing, and impact investing, and today helps oversee one of Europe’s largest fund-of-funds investment platforms.

Our conversation explores the core contradiction at the heart of impact investing: the belief that investors can always generate market-rate returns while also solving society’s most urgent environmental and social challenges. Uli challenges the “no trade-off” narrative, arguing that while some business models can align impact and return, society as a whole still faces a massive trade-off — and until we are honest about who pays for it, progress will remain limited.

We discuss why capital has flowed into impact investing without delivering the level of progress promised by the SDGs, how fiduciary duty limits what investors are willing or able to do, and why the next generation of impact finance needs to become more focused, impact-centric, and grounded in the real problems it claims to solve.

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