The EU-Startups Podcast | Interview with Jack Mardack, co-founder of Oyster

Key points:

• Why impact should be treated as a design problem built into a business model from day one, rather than a values commitment bolted on later
• The difference between impact by intention and impact by design – and how founders and investors can tell the difference
• What it takes to prove impact with evidence, and why investors should fund proof rather than claims
• What replaces the ESG scorecard as the scorecard era comes to an end
• A ten-year vision for the European workforce if talent, capital, and opportunity finally connect across borders

In this conversation, recorded ahead of the MeOut Summit in Budapest, we sit down with Jack Mardack, co-founder of Oyster, the global employment platform that became one of only a handful of companies in the world to reach unicorn status while holding B Corp certification.

Jack shares what he learned scaling Oyster, why he believes the perceived trade-off between financial success and impact is a design failure rather than an economic law, and what the role of Chief Impact Officer actually involves day to day.

We also get into the bigger picture: why the ESG debate has become more ideological than useful, why the notable impact investing market suggests investors have already moved past that argument, and what it would mean for European capital allocation if investors started funding evidence of impact instead of claims of impact.

Finally, we look ahead: whether Europe is measuring itself against the US on the wrong dimensions, what the European workforce could look like in ten years if we get better at connecting talent, capital, and opportunity across borders, and why Jack will be sitting down at the MeOut Summit in Budapest with the founder of Hungary’s first B Corp. His book, “Impact Unleashed: Building Businesses That Scale Positive Change“, unpacks many of these ideas in depth.

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