Karla Mora, Founder and Managing Partner at Alante Capital

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Karla Mora fully expects to have a major impact on the apparel industry, the clothes we wear, and where we dispose of those clothes after we wear them. She is a self-described impact investor, and her venture capital fund, Alante Capital, co-led by former JP Morgan executive, Leslie Harwell, and backed enthusiastically by women’s fashion legend Eileen Fisher, is investing in a future in which landfills won’t be overloaded with yesterday’s throwaway polyesters — meaning a future of sustainable apparel. Alante Capital is investing in young companies that are offering a better process for making and re-making apparel. The road that Karla Mora took to this went by way of a United Nations Compound in Kabul, Afghanistan and a neighborhood in Costa Rica, Barrio Escalante. Listen in for her story.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> <br /></span></p> <h1><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Key Takeaways:</strong></span></h1> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[:23] Ray Hoffman introduces Karla Mora, Founder and Managing Partner of Alante Capital.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[1:14] Karla Mora’s background was in international political economics and improving livelihoods in emerging markets. She worked for a while at the UN, looking at inefficiencies in the coffee sector, then Peace Dividend Trust (Building Markets), to build vibrant ecosystems where people can lift themselves out of poverty.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[2:06] In Kabul for six months, Karla collected data and wrote a report. She returned to California to finish writing the report. She ran into a person running an impact investment fund and she was inspired to start a fund in 2012 to invest with purpose.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[2:44] Karla describes the challenges of living in Kabul. She was not able to exercise outside, but the Afghan people were amazing and resilient.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[3:57] In Karla’s off hours, she kept