Can Investing in the Stock Market be Cruelty-Free? - Beyond Investing's Claire Smith

This episode features impact investor and entrepreneur Claire Smith. Claire is a well-known figure in the conscious capitalism space, who created the humane investment platform Beyond Investing. In 2019, Claire and her team launched what the media has dubbed the world’s first vegan-themed ETF (VEGN). An ETF is an investment product that consists of a bundle of securities that you can buy or sell on a stock exchange just like stocks and Claire's screens out all animal exploitation and fossil fuel from a US market benchmark. It's currently listed as a tracker fund on the NYSE. Claire is also Chief Investment Officer at Beyond Impact, which undertakes VC investment in vegan, plant-based, and cruelty-free businesses. 

Episode highlights include: 

• What is an ETF? How does it work? Can "regular people" invest in one? 
• How Claire and her team came up with the idea to start the world's first vegan ETF. The unique data-driven process by which they evaluate companies in the ETF to ensure they are ethical, sustainable, and cruelty-free. 
• How exactly to get started if you want to put money into an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) or vegan-themed fund such as Claire's. 
• Why Claire invests in diverse founding teams through her venture capital firm and how she identifies successful startups.

Beyond Investing's website: https://beyondinvesting.com/