The startup case for impact
- rs1499
- May 2
- 4 min read
Why it matters from day one
If you’re building a startup, you’ll be juggling 47 priorities before breakfast. So when someone says, “You should be thinking about impact,” it’s natural to ask:
“Why now? Can’t we figure that out later?”
Here’s the truth: designing for impact isn’t a luxury. It’s a strategic advantage and one that we believe pays off faster than you might think. This article breaks down why impact should be part of your startup’s DNA from day one.
1. Impact helps you focus on the right problem
Startups live or die by problem clarity. When you focus on impact early, you’re not just building features, you’re building toward a specific change you want to create in people’s lives.
Without that clarity, it’s easy to:
Get distracted by cool tech
Overbuild features no one really needs
Solve symptoms instead of root causes
Waste money on marketing but impact sells itself
With impact in mind, your questions shift from:
“What can we build?”→ to
“What should we build to create the outcome we want?”
2. Impact drives better product decisions
Let’s say you’re building a coaching platform to help jobseekers land roles faster. You have two features on the table:
A personalised resume builder
A community discussion board
Which one will actually move the needle on employment outcomes?
When you’re thinking in terms of impact, the answer gets clearer. You can test which feature contributes to your users’ success, not just which one increases engagement. You may need both features, but by testing the outcomes, you’ll identify which feature simply keeps users engaged and which one truly adds value they can’t get elsewhere. This gives you a competitive edge, allowing you to build a product that's not sticky because of clicks, but because of the real difference it makes.
Brighteye mentor and co-founder at Newsela, Jenny Coogan, shared her perspective:
"Not only are the decisions you make better, but they'll also make more sense to your team. Startups always have to make sacrifices in the roadmap. Keeping a team aligned and bought-in on why one initiative gets prioritized over another is hard. Being able to point to the outcome answers that question definitively."
Impact turns product development into hypothesis testing, not guesswork.
3. Many impact investors are looking for real outcomes
Especially in the education and workforce sectors, funders can be impact-conscious or least highly aware of customers’ ROI (Return on Impact), whether they’re social impact VCs, family offices, public sector buyers, or philanthropic grant makers.
When you can say, “Here’s the problem, here’s our solution, and here’s the measurable difference we’re making,” you stand out.
You’re not just a company with traction, you’re a company with purpose and a steadily growing proof.
NB: Brighteye is not explicitly an impact fund, but we are cognisant of the need for provable ROI for customers, particularly in markets that are particularly competitive!
4. Big customers want to buy results
Schools, employers, companies, individuals and government agencies aren’t buying shiny features. They’re buying outcomes:
“Will this tool improve literacy rates?”
“Will this platform reduce our training costs?”
“Will this service help us hire better candidates?”
If you can speak their language - with evidence to back it up - you make their decision easy.
Jenny added:
"Think about who your buyer is and what their performance review looks like. The goals they are tasked with achieving and the outcomes that result from your product must overlap. Will your product help them keep their job? If not, it may be that you're not driving the right outcomes."
Remember that impact is a must in education; all companies aiming for the education market should be built for impact by design. Read more:
5. Impact builds credibility and trust
It’s one thing to say your product helps. It’s another to show:
82% of your learners improved by one grade level
60% of your users landed interviews within 4 weeks
40% of teachers saved at least 5 hours admin time a week
These numbers build trust with partners, press, funders and your own team.
You’re not just promising. You’re proving. How you prove this can vary and develop as you scale. Early on, you might rely on survey data showing some improvement. Over time, you can conduct experiments comparing users to non-users, providing more rigorous and confident proof of your product’s impact. The type of research you use will depend on your product’s maturity and what you're aiming to demonstrate. Keep in mind that there’s a suitable research approach at every stage, and it’s good to have an early sense of what you’re trying to prove.
Explore the different research options available based on your product's stage of development:
6. Your team will care more (and stay longer)
People join education and work in mission-driven companies because they want to do something that matters. If they can see the impact of their work - real stories, real outcomes - they’re more engaged, more motivated, and more loyal.
Especially in early-stage startups, impact is a culture glue.
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