#5: Social entrepreneurship, self-discovery, and measuring impact – Alexandra Pastollnigg
The story of Alexandra Pastollnigg sounds like a movie plot. An established banking and wealth management professional, goes on holiday to Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and write a book. This trip marked the beginning of her journey to social entrepreneurship.
Alexandra is the founder and CEO of Fair Voyage – an online travel agency for tailor-made socially and environmentally responsible travel. As a speaker, she often addresses topics of sustainable innovation in the travel industry. She built a career in the banking and asset management industry before embarking on a founder journey, cycling from Cairo to Cape Town.
There is a need for a stronger ecosystem to support impact unicorns
Alexandra reflects on the key pillars a successful social enterprise. We discuss a notable gap in the venture capital structure and how she tackles the challenges around measuring impact. She explains why there is a need for more patient capital investment.
“Sometimes impact isn’t something you can measure and it can be delayed but it is still impact.”
Defining quality time
Many founders subscribe to the common belief that “the more we do, the bigger the output”. Alexandra explains why less is often more, as we talk about the correlation between time-off and productivity and how recovery is key for a creative mind.