ONE, our start-up venture program, provides everything that companies at early stage need to arrive at Series A – foundations for its growth, access to a high quality network, strong legal support including a clean term sheet while incorporating practices to measure a start-up’s sustainable impact (ESG) and funding support.
Currently no more applications accepted. We’ll open up again later this year.
Impact We Invest Into
ONE is the early-stage start-up program run by JUST DAMN RIGHT, aiming at partnering with visionary founders – female and male – who share our ambitions for a sustainable future in alignment with the UN global sustainable Development Goals.
Our focus is on backing scalable solutions with high impact in these broader areas: climate technology, FinTech/finance, circular economy, food/AgriTech, LegalTech, affordable housing, digital health and education.
Numbers That Inform Our Actions
IPCC scientists have proven in 2021 that global warming needs to be limited to 1.5° compared to pre-industrial levels for us to still have a decent life on this planet. Hence, we have to achieve a zero-emission economy asap! To help achieve this, ONE provides ESG measurements to start-ups so that they know about the positive impact that their solutions make.
Women-owned businesses are growing faster and more sustainably than all other businesses. “From 2007 to 2018, women-owned businesses grew by 58% in terms of the number of firms and 46% in terms of revenue,” according to American Express research advisor Geri Stengel. However, women owned 39% of all businesses in the US in 2018, but female entrepreneurs got only 2% of venture funding. In Europe and in India gender gap ratios are similar – So ONE wants to change that by supporting female entrepreneurs and mixed-gender founding teams.
The ONE Approach
Our approach empowers bold, visionary female and male founders to reach the next phase of their business faster and more reliably. They are enabled through strategic, operational and legal support.
Additionally, they get the insights to measure the sustainable effects (ESG) of their product or service, so that they can make better business decisions along their way. Such knowledge also provides value to investors as they can understand the positive impact of their investments made into early-stage start-ups.
Our Commitment to Founders
We aspire to be the best at supporting early-stage founders that want to change the world.
IMPACT / ESG MEASUREMENT
We help start-ups to incorporate sustainable practices and metrics so that they can measure the positive impact of their business model. Such information empowers the start-up, customers, business partners and investors.
ONE NETWORKS
We provide access to our networks of serial entrepreneurs, senior executives, domain experts, investors, and other like-minded industry leaders to help founders start and grow.
LEGAL SUPPORT
It’s critical for young founders to stay in control of their business and investment rounds. With our legal support, we want them to focus on what they can do best: executing on their vision.
FUNDING
We tap into our international network of VC firms and impact investors, companies and individual investors to support start-ups with their fundraising.
BUSINESS MENTORING
We share our expertise in strategy, marketing, consumer technology, legal, ESG/SDG, operations and brand building in virtual one-on-one sessions and through on-demand formats. When possible, we also love to meet in person.
COACHING
We care about a founder’s wellbeing, therefore we share hard-earned lessons and powerful coaching tools. In general, we aspire to be the people you text when you’ve had a hard day.
Manifesto
We believe that ONE economy that puts the planet and people first is possible, lucrative and holds exciting opportunities for societies that we cannot imagine yet.
We believe it’s ONE “let’s do this!” spirit paired with compassion and scientific arguments that leads the way.
We believe more than ONE way to fund the needed market transitions and founders’ bold ideas is required.
And we know…
It takes a village to raise ONE child;
It is ONE idea that can make a difference;
It can be ONE moment that changes trajectory;
That’s why JUST DAMN RIGHT is committed to provide through ONE the best support system and growth opportunities to early stage, purpose-driven founders who seek ONE change at a time.
ONE India
The first early-stage and sustainability-focused European-Indian venture partner that is led by women only and runs fully remotely.
Pritika Kumar & Nadine Bruder, Venture Partners ONE India
“We both live in different regions of the world and work in different areas, but our path crossed in 2020. We quickly realized that we share the same vision, innovative spirit and wanted to join forces for helping build the future generation of purpose-driven founders seeking to positively impacting the lives of millions of people. So it felt natural to run ONE India together.
We see great benefits for start-ups in India because of our European-Indian market insights, ESG measurements, and our combined networks of companies and investors. Empowering entrepreneurs locally and collaborating internationally for zero-emission, circular and inclusive economies, that’s what we hope to also inspire in others through our partnership. Because we’re all in this together.”
About Nadine Bruder
Nadine Bruder is a 12x award-winning strategist, entrepreneur, educator, angel investor and ESG/SDGs advocate. Before having founded JUST DAMN RIGHT she was an international advisory partner for digital innovation, sustainability, purpose and strategic growth to executive managers and founders from the technology and lifestyle industries.
Bruder believes that economies that put people and the planet first are possible, lucrative and hold exciting opportunities for societies that we cannot imagine yet. Consequently her Germany-based JUST DAMN RIGHT is a platform focused on sustainability-led ventures and investing, future-leading education and culture.
The first strategy work of Nadine Bruder in 2007 was destined to turn Steve Jobs into a fan of her client’s product. A year later, she turned MAN Truck & Bus into the first internationally operating company that publicly introduced smart city living, electric cars and energy-efficient transport as we start to implement only today. Her first mobile app in 2013 was awarded Best App of the Year by Europe’s TNW, being followed by long term advisory engagement to strategize, execute and scale the innovation activities of an international payments company. In 2016 Bruder successfully launched Germany’s first IT-developer bootcamp startup to help people start a new career in technology. Since 2018 she’s fully engaged in sustainability-led innovations across industries as well as in the measurement and funding thereof.
About Pritika Kumar
Pritika Kumar is a fiercely independent and internationally recognized business and human rights lawyer as well as the founder of PeoPLe, India’s first result and action oriented platform for change designed to recreate India. The platform is being built by a community of international lawyers, entrepreneurs, researchers and marketers who are doing their best to realize the Dream of India.
Kumar’s advocacy clients include award-winning multinational corporations, investment funds, nonprofits and foundations. Her practice areas cover venture capital, impact investments, foreign investments, mergers and acquisitions, general corporate advisory, technology, finance, education, agriculture and health. For international investors she facilitates impact-oriented foreign investments in India, and she also enjoys helping entrepreneurs design products and businesses that are legally compliant, sustainable and scalable. In addition, Kumar makes representations to the Government of India advocating regulatory changes to support new sustainable technologies and innovation.
In her early years, Pritika Kumar was mentored by some of the most courageous generals of the India armed forces and leading educators which led her into becoming deeply passionate about the ‘rule of law’ and driven towards change. She wakes up everyday to fulfil her dream of Recreating India.
When Do We Partner With Founders?
We partner with start-ups at seed and late seed stage that have a viable, technology-enhanced business model.
We are active in European markets and in India.
We prefer teams that have at least one woman at its helm, but it’s not a must-have for us (we know, sometimes it’s just not possible at early stage).
We join as venture partner when founders and their teams possess relevant domain and/or technical experience.
We focus on these areas: climate technology, FinTech/finance, circular economy, food/AgriTech, LegalTech, digital health and education.
Submit Your Startup!
If you feel there is a fit between you and us, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch and send us your pitchdeck for us to review. We will get back to you if we also think it fit’s.