Few people would see a global pandemic as an opportunity to open a co-work and event space, but this is exactly what my guest today did in 2020.

Abbey Pantano is Founder of Seed Impact Business Community.

As a retail marketing specialist of 12 years, and eco side hustle owner for two, it was a stream of devastating world events and climate anxiety that led to a new dream... What if we brought together a community of mission-driven entrepreneurs, dedicated to using their businesses as a force for good? The arrival of COVID created the platform Abbey needed to take the leap. Using a redundancy package, learnings from 12 years of big business marketing and a defunct purpose-built start up – Seed Spaces was born.

Today the co-work and event space, based on the outskirts of Sydney’s CBD, has blossomed into an Australia-wide digital membership with 70+ social impact businesses in the mix (and growing!).

Since our interview, Abbey has moved her focus fully into the Seed Impact Business Community, embracing her passion for and expertise in community and collaboration; with a goal to seed ideas and help those who want to make business for good, good for business.

The power of community and collaboration runs deeply through this interview. Not surprising for such a purpose-led individual as Abbey – purpose inspires people to think ambitiously; ambition inspires collaboration.

Here are some of the themes we discuss in this interview:

Abbey’s entrepreneurial journey, from working in marketing and partnerships in a large organisation to her start-up tackling plastic pollution
Abbey’s realisation of the value of partnerships to grow and empower purpose-driven businesses
The origins of Seed Spaces from the initial spark generated by the Covid pandemic to now
The value of B Corp Certifications as a public framework for businesses to grow and improve, aspiring businesses to build like-minded communities. Link to the B Corp Assessment we discuss here
A discussion about Seed Impact and focusing on the idea of making one’s vision deeper instead of bigger, helping each other achieve success
Abbey’s take on the importance of finding common ground, and the benefits of coming together over a common goal to support one another’s vision for the future
Abbey’s view of how the power of business should be used to reroute energy into the hands of those powerful enough to make wide-reaching, positive change
We discuss the Sustainable Development Goals and the importance of mapping your impact to the Global Goals framework. Abbey mentions Elaine Hendrick’s Sustainable Development Goals Tool which you can link to here, as well as Kirrily Graham’s Dovetail Social Enterprise which matches charity partners to businesses wanting to make an impact.
Abbey shares her view on the Voice to Parliament and the experiences she's had that have helped to shape it.

Connect With Abbey

linkedin.com/in/abbeypantano

https://seedspaces.com/