RedHat Impact: Fix the Capital, Not the Company, in Practice
What does “fix the capital, not the company” look like in practice? In this episode, Joy Anderson sits down with Cameron Neil, David Carbines, and Paul Howorth, the three founders of Red Hat Impact, to look back on ten years of experimenting with ways to help impact enterprises access capital without giving up unnecessary ownership or control. Their story begins small, with relationships, their own money, and a willingness to learn by doing, and grows into experiments with non-dilutive debt, trade finance, crowdlending and investor syndication.
The conversation explores why the innovative finance needs may not always be a novel financial instrument. Sometimes it is about changing who has access to familiar instruments, how risk is understood, how quickly capital can circulate, and whose needs shape the terms. Along the way, they return repeatedly to trust: trust among partners, between investors and enterprises, and as a foundation for experimentation. Drawing on their work with Criterion around menstrual health businesses in the Pacific, the conversation offers a practical example of what it takes to move from talking about financial innovation to actually building and testing something different.
00:00 - Introduction to Red Hat Impact and its mission
02:35 - The origins of the founders' collaboration over sushi
04:21 - Starting small and proving impact through proof points
07:10 - The importance of trust and chemistry among founders
09:35 - Relationship-based approach and candor in impact finance
12:52 - Fixing the capital with non-dilutive, short-term instruments
16:05 - Understanding investor expectations and market needs
18:00 - The role of velocity and small bets in business growth
21:14 - Building and structuring impact entities and instruments
22:39 - The menstrual health trade finance vehicle and its evolution
24:50 - Addressing power dynamics and systemic change in finance
26:43 - The importance of play, experimentation, and relational work
30:29 - Challenges and opportunities in impact finance markets
33:21 - The need for innovation beyond traditional venture capital
36:13 - Reimagining impact finance instruments and access
39:04 - The role of imagination, mindset, and systemic change
42:26 - Looking ahead: impact, trust, and systemic transformation
43:29 - Closing remarks and call to action for impact change
Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn
Joy Anderson’s LinkedIn
Cameron Neil’s LinkedIn
David Carbines’ LinkedIn
Paul Howorth’s LinkedIn
Advanced practices in local capital design: Trade Lenda
This is probably the strongest companion piece. It examines another model that starts with the realities of underserved markets and asks capital to adapt, rather than treating the market or entrepreneur as the problem to be fixed.
Innovative finance navigation guide
A useful complement to the episode’s discussion of moving beyond a narrow set of financial instruments and asking how different forms of finance can serve mission-driven organizations. Criterion’s current Advanced Practice library identifies this as an existing resource published May 22, 2026.
Fòs Feminista: Building Feminist Financial Infrastructure
Connects to the episode’s larger argument that moving money differently requires infrastructure, intermediaries and relationships, not simply another financial product. Criterion’s current Advanced Practice library lists the resource under this exact title.
#83: Trust as Infrastructure: Trade Lenda and the Power of Informal Markets
Probably the closest companion episode. Joy Anderson and Adeshina Adewumi explore designing finance around informal markets, rethinking creditworthiness, trade finance, capital turnover and the proposition that “capital moves at the speed of trust.”
#79: From Invitation to Trust: Rethinking Relationships in Finance
Extends the RedHat conversation about finance as a relationship by examining trust, proximity, power and the conditions needed for healthier relationships between investors and companies.
#78: Intermediation Is Not Overhead
A particularly useful follow-on for listeners interested in the financial infrastructure underneath capital flows. The episode reframes intermediaries, instruments and relationships as essential infrastructure rather than overhead.
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