As a strate­gic, hands-on investor, Ost­werk sup­ports ear­ly-stage com­pa­nies with equi­ty – com­pa­nies that take respon­si­bil­i­ty for their regions and want to cre­ate long-term prospects in east­ern Ger­many. Impact is not an add-on, but a core part of the invest­ment strat­e­gy. In this inter­view, man­ag­ing direc­tor Johannes Ulrich explains why the IMM­PACT Guide is a key tool for iden­ti­fy­ing impact poten­tial ear­ly on, sup­port­ing teams in a tar­get­ed way and anchor­ing impact as a real dri­ver of suc­cess.

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Johannes Ulrich, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor Ost­werk GmbH

Johannes, what led you to the IMM­PACT Guide?

From day one, impact invest­ing has been cen­tral to what we do at Ost­werk. Our goal is to cre­ate mea­sur­able social impact in east­ern Ger­many and to sup­port star­tups that are dri­ving sus­tain­able change. Net­works like SEND and PHI­NEO are impor­tant plat­forms for us to exchange ideas with com­mit­ted founders and impact experts. We first came across the IMM­PACT Guide on LinkedIn, and it imme­di­ate­ly caught our atten­tion because it sits right at the inter­sec­tion of impact and entre­pre­neur­ship.

What role does impact play in your work?

Impact is the heart of our invest­ment strat­e­gy. We invest respon­si­bly and with a clear impact focus in star­tups that are build­ing solu­tions in and for east­ern Ger­many. In our part­ner­ships, we work close­ly with founders to strength­en and scale the social impact of their busi­ness mod­els.

Was there a par­tic­u­lar “aha” moment in your work with the IMM­PACT Guide?

One key insight was just how impor­tant pro­fes­sion­al­iza­tion is for impact-dri­ven star­tups. The IMM­PACT Guide bridges the gap between the tra­di­tion­al start­up world and entre­pre­neurs with a strong impact mind­set. That allows us to sup­port teams more effec­tive­ly and help them grow sus­tain­ably.

How does the IMM­PACT Guide sup­port your work?

For us, the IMM­PACT Guide is a self-empow­er­ment tool. It asks star­tups the right ques­tions and helps them grow in a struc­tured, impact-ori­ent­ed way. As investors, it enables us to assess seri­ous­ness and poten­tial ear­ly on and to define a shared start­ing point for col­lab­o­ra­tion.

How impor­tant is impact in your invest­ment deci­sions?

Impact is a core deci­sion cri­te­ri­on for us. With every invest­ment, we enter into a dia­logue about the social val­ue a start­up can cre­ate – both region­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly. What mat­ters is that impact is not just a promise, but an inte­gral part of the busi­ness mod­el.

What do many star­tups lack when it comes to impact and mea­sure­ment?

Too often, there is no sys­tem­at­ic approach and no clear, mea­sur­able goals that are tru­ly embed­ded in the busi­ness mod­el. Some teams have strong impact moti­va­tion but lack entre­pre­neur­ial tools and data. Oth­ers are strong on met­rics but under­es­ti­mate the impact poten­tial of what they are already doing. What’s need­ed is the con­vic­tion that impact is a dri­ver of suc­cess.

How does the IMM­PACT Guide help you assess teams?

The Guide gives us a struc­tured frame­work to assess both a team’s impact moti­va­tion and its impact capa­bil­i­ties. It shows how thought­ful­ly and con­sis­tent­ly a start­up has already engaged with impact – and how seri­ous­ly it is work­ing to strength­en it. For us, it cre­ates a sol­id base­line for pro­vid­ing tar­get­ed sup­port on the path to sus­tain­able impact.

What needs to hap­pen for impact mea­sure­ment to become eas­i­er and more intu­itive?

Impact mea­sure­ment needs to be under­stood as an inte­gral part of com­pa­ny build­ing – not as a box-tick­ing exer­cise for some anony­mous third par­ty. If impact is approached entre­pre­neuri­al­ly from the start, guid­ed by a clear vision, data col­lec­tion and impact com­mu­ni­ca­tion nat­u­ral­ly align with a startup’s growth phas­es. Mea­sur­ing impact is mea­sur­ing suc­cess.

What would you like to see in future IMM­PACT events or tools?

I’d like to see more space for exchange between investors and impact-dri­ven founders. We need greater aware­ness, a shared lan­guage and a more stan­dard­ized way of look­ing at impact. When investors engage direct­ly with real-world exam­ples of impact-ori­ent­ed busi­ness­es, it broad­ens per­spec­tives and helps break down bar­ri­ers.

What could change if more teams mea­sured and com­mu­ni­cat­ed impact sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly?

Sys­tem­at­ic impact man­age­ment first and fore­most cre­ates more val­ue for the peo­ple a start­up serves. It increas­es a company’s rel­e­vance and use­ful­ness at a soci­etal lev­el. At the same time, impact mea­sure­ment makes this val­ue trans­par­ent and ver­i­fi­able – for investors and oth­er stake­hold­ers alike. A holis­tic view of a startup’s goals and achieve­ments can spark inter­est, open doors and ulti­mate­ly lead to high­er rev­enues and greater finan­cial resources. I’m con­vinced that this is the only way to tack­le soci­etal chal­lenges sus­tain­ably through entre­pre­neur­ship.

Who would you rec­om­mend the IMM­PACT Road­show to – and why?

I’d rec­om­mend the IMM­PACT Road­show to all star­tups, espe­cial­ly those that already ref­er­ence the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals in their pitch decks. The Road­show offers inspi­ra­tion, hands-on knowl­edge and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with impact in a cred­i­ble, mean­ing­ful way – while becom­ing part of a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty..

And I’d rec­om­mend it just as strong­ly to investors. Look­ing at impact can make any invest­ment bet­ter. When impact is man­aged entre­pre­neuri­al­ly, it doesn’t come at the expense of returns – it strength­ens them.