I spent my summer helping Sonen Capital develop a Latin America-focused impact investment strategy. As part of their mission to deliver financially competitive investment solutions with meaningful impact on society, it was crucial that the firm understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on both investors and businesses in the impact investment ecosystem to be more able to attract and deploy capital within the region. As such, my project was to research and analyze the state of the market, which I did by preparing a survey of capital providers in Latin America. With findings from 100 responses to the survey from a range of investors across markets, from traditional VC/PE firms to philanthropic organizations and more, I was able to show Sonen the major trends in the region prior to the pandemic and, more importantly, provide firsthand knowledge of how things such as financial performance, investor sentiment, and fundraising have changed across different countries, sectors, portfolio company stages, and more throughout Latin America. Not only does this information help Sonen better understand the new state of the market and allow them to make more informed investment decisions (as well as position themselves to raise more capital), we released most of the data in a public report that will help other investors in the region support impactful businesses that hopefully provide services that will help people throughout the region.

A large part of my MBA was focused on learning about capital markets and how private equity and venture capital firms evaluate opportunities. I was able to apply this skillset to my internship with Sonen in developing the survey, analyzing the results, and delivering actionable recommendations to the firm because I now recognize the important considerations that a firm like Sonen looks for, and I was able to structure my project to tease out the necessary information. On top of that, I also spent a good portion of my time at Columbia Business School learning about impact investing, even participating in (and winning) a case competition focused on the practice. This further enabled me to support both pillars of Sonen’s investment thesis of providing strong financial returns alongside real and measurable impact. Not only was I able to construct an effective process for gaining insight into the Latin America impact investing ecosystem, but my new skillset helped me talk the talk with members of the community to further my research. All of this was helpful for a small firm like Sonen, as they were able to trust my abilities and understanding of the tasks at hand rather than spend a lot of time educating me on the space.

The largest challenge that I faced was a learning curve in understanding the day-to-day operational and legal side of the investment business. While I learned about how to evaluate opportunities in school, running the business behind those investments was a new experience for me and it took some getting used to. For example, in my attempts to be transparent with survey respondents, I expected to reach out and explain my position as an MBA intern working on a project for Sonen. However, I was unaware that, legally, I could not directly communicate information about certain activities that I was engaged in to prospective investors, so I had to quickly absorb and navigate regulatory matters in order to complete my project. It proved to be very useful and I am glad I gained exposure to this side of the business, but it did create roadblocks for me initially.

And, of course, being remote due to COVID-19 added challenges to my experience, though it proved to be less disruptive than I initially expected. The Sonen Capital team is located in San Francisco and I am in New York, so I was unable to even meet with a member of the team in person. The time difference was a tad difficult because if I had questions prior to noon eastern I had to wait, and it was tough to reach out with ad hoc questions like one can while co-located in the same office. That being said, though, I’m not sure I would have looked at a firm like Sonen, nor would they have considered an intern on the east coast, had the precedent for a remote internship not been established by the pandemic, so I can’t complain about the distance too much.

My biggest takeaway from this experience is that although investing is notorious for research-driven insights and decision-making, relationship-building and maintenance are potentially even larger parts of the business. While my main project focused on firsthand research, I saw how hard the Sonen team works to maintain contacts and establish leads, even when they were not actively investing. It is all about building a pipeline for the future, and I was glad to see that side of the business as a big goal of mine was to gain an understanding of how asset management firms operate day to day. I will soon begin a full-time consulting job focused on evaluating potential private equity investments and I am keeping PE as a potential future career path, so it was very important for me to see how the business operates outside of evaluating opportunities and deploying capital. And the fact that Sonen is impact-oriented made my experience even more enriching, as I would like to support sustainable, impactful, and responsible enterprises later in my career since I used to work in renewable energy and was intent on broadening my understanding of businesses that are helping solve the world’s most pressing issues.

Having hands-on experience developing pipelines, creating marketing materials, researching potential investment areas, and maintaining relationships gave me a real appreciation for the type of work and skills required behind making an investment that not only targets financial return, but also meaningful impact for society, and I believe this internship laid the foundation for an eventual transition from consulting to in impact investing.