Mission-Driven Companies, Mission-Driven Dollars

It’s powerful when the mission of investors is aligned with the mission of the company they invest in. We all know what too often happens when there isn’t mission alignment between investors and companies. Short-term financial return becomes more important than the company mission or than what the company can realistically achieve even with the best management practices. This is how the term “vulture capitalists” came to be, assigned to some venture capitalists and even to some “angel” investors.

Many investors say they value financial return and social return equally, but their terms and actions prove otherwise. Mission-driven companies getting non-mission money inevitably leads to painful problems — founders whose knowledge and care are needed to actualize the mission are booted out; investors bring in management teams who aren’t mission-aligned and create more problems; and committed staff leave due to culture change and dysfunction. We all have heard horror stories of this model of desperation to raise funds — the net-net is often failure.

Successful investments require coherent energetic flow between investors and entrepreneurs. When there isn’t resonance and alignment, there is lack of flow and dysfunctional relationships. Successful impact investors understand this and go into the investment with the view that achieving the social mission is as important as financial return. They provide what is needed, whether patient money or flexibility. Successful entrepreneurs understand “no margin, no mission” and employ the best practices to achieve a healthy bottom line to increase their social impact.

Mission-driven resonance and investment from RSF Social Finance and Calvert Social Equities Funds are helping to drive growth for Quantum Intech and its HeartMath mission.

“If the Quantum Intech/HeartMath mission is successful, it will empower so many to fulfill what they’re here for. Something deep inside gets confirmed by their emWave technology that gives you feedback on when you are in a state of heart-coherence and alignment. The HeartMath science is confirming what people already intuitively know inside.”—Mark Finser, Chairman, RSF

Quantum Intech just launched its new emWave2® handheld Personal Stress Reliever that displays your level of heart rhythm coherence and alignment, and syncs with your desktop computer to track your progress. (emWave1 won the Computer Electronic Show Last Gadget Standing People’s Choice Award.) Now Quantum Intech is raising an additional $2 million to build on the success of its emWave Stress Relief System that has been shown to significantly improve health and wellness outcomes. The company will create a “HeartMath anytime, anywhere” platform creating emWave Smartphones integrated with market-specific training applications.

Because of Mike Van Patten’s deep resonance and alignment with the HeartMath mission, Mission Markets invited Quantum Intech to be one of the lead issuers on their platform.

“Quantum Intech is filling an extreme need by reducing health care costs, and employer costs in particular. They are providing health care cost reduction as a socially responsible Triple Bottom Line act for their clients. That’s their mission and motive. Quantum Intech/HeartMath has been at this a long time and are ahead of the curve. They are in the health and wellness market, are profitable, are approaching personal and organizational stress in ways that are unique based on research, and are doing it from social responsibility — people, profits, planet. That’s “Wow” — Triple Bottom Line — helping companies reduce costs, being socially responsible, and with a committed mission to help shift consciousness and health on the planet. These are obvious things about Quantum Intech that maybe companies don’t look at or yet appreciate due to the current difficult economic environment. As things stabilize, they’ll all realize this is the way to come to social responsibility in terms of productivity, employee happiness and wellness.”—Michael Van Patten, founder and President of Mission Markets.

Deborah Rozman is President and CEO of Quantum Intech, Inc. (dba HeartMath Inc.) and serves on the advisory board of the Institute of HeartMath. Quantum Intech, with its scientifically validated HeartMath® programs, is a world leader in personal and organizational stress reduction. HeartMath provides individuals and businesses with a set of tools, methods and emWave technologies to empower themselves to navigate through stressful, changing times. HeartMath programs have enabled organizations to achieve a 2:1 ROI in lowered health costs within one year — while at the same time increasing employee satisfaction and performance. The aggregate savings - and additional returns from enhanced performance — add up fast, creating a significant value proposition for companies and society as a whole.

Quantum Intech also has a strong reputation as a socially responsible company with a triple bottom line mission in partnership with the 501(c)3 non-profit stress research organization, Institute of HeartMath, which provides HeartMath’s stress solutions to the underserved, including schools, community service organizations and veterans.

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