How Venture Capitalist Uses Finance Skills in Wildlife Conservation - Josep Oriol

What inspired you to connect your experience in venture capital to your passion for wildlife conservation? Visiting wildlife projects and wildlife conservation projects, I soon realized that there was a huge shortage of general strategy, financial and management skills. A lot of well-meaning people with very strong ecosystem management and biology skills, but who were totally at a loss in how to make wildlife conservation projects sustainable. There was a huge disconnect between the business side of things and the landscape or wildlife management side of things. The business side of things tended to take what I call an extractive business approach, where they would almost be parasites from the wildlife conservation efforts of somebody else, generate some revenue out of it and never reinvest any in it. That was generally linked to the mistrust between the wildlife people on one hand and the business people on the other. And somebody had to bridge the gap. And through being able to invest in a way that ensures that some money is reinvested in order to make the assets that generate that revenue more valuable, you're basically benefiting both sides. So I guess it was just very obvious, once you looked at it from that perspective, that there was a need for an interpreter of the two cultures. And the world operates based on money. And if you have the money, then it's much easier to achieve it.