Welcome to Crown Casté, your financial literacy podcast for small businesses. We publish inspiring, insightful conversations with investors and stewards of capital. In this episode of Crown Casté, we sit down with Eric Collins, co-founder and CEO of Impact X Capital Partners — a double bottom line venture firm backing underrepresented founders building fast-growth technology companies. Before backing founders, Eric was one. Born in Alabama, raised in North Carolina, and now based in the UK, he has spent his career growing venture-backed tech companies and selling them on to public acquirers. That operator's lens, paired with a mission to redirect capital where it has historically been denied, shapes everything about how Impact X invests (0:48). Eric's book, We Don't Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World, frames the central problem he is trying to solve: sufficient capital is still not controlled by Black founders, women, or other underrepresented entrepreneurs — and without ownership of capital, the cycle is hard to break (3:33). We get into the three doors founders typically knock on — family and friends, banks, and venture capital — and why all three are stacked against Black entrepreneurs in the UK. One in two Black children live below the poverty line, so family wealth often isn't there. Black founders are four times less likely to secure a high street bank loan than non-Black peers with the same profile. And less than 0.24% of annual venture capital reaches Black founders (4:24). Not every business is venture-appropriate, and Eric is direct about it. A venture investor needs a 3x to 10x return in two to five years — so slow-growth, sustainable companies (hair care, skincare, services) generally aren't a fit. Fintech, health tech, and digital technology are the categories that can credibly compound at venture scale (6:22). For venture-appropriate founders, Eric walks through the funding ladder in plain English: angel rounds of £50K–£250K from family and friends (often for a third to half the company); seed rounds of £250K–£1M against a working MVP (typically 20%–33% equity); and Series A rounds of £5M–£10M+ once you have around £1M in recurring revenue. Each round buys 18 to 24 months of runway to prove product-market fit and bring down burn (7:44). Eric makes the case that the UK's biggest constraint on producing global tech winners isn't capital — it's ambition. The UK economy is roughly the size of California's, or Texas's. Founders who set out to "conquer the UK" are building inside a pond. The English-speaking advantage — the US, India, and much of Africa — is sitting right there for founders willing to think beyond home turf (13:54). He points to Marshmallow — the Impact X portfolio company that grew from a £30M pre-money valuation to a £1.2B valuation in 18 months — as proof of what UK fintech can produce. Marshmallow built motor insurance for expats whose driving records don't follow them across borders, is now EBITDA positive, and runs a workforce that is 50% women and 20% people of colour (16:40). Plus — why Eric believes diverse teams are competitively advantaged, the daily reality of being a fund manager who is always raising, and details on Impact X's current fund (first close October 2023 with Bank of America, Visa Foundation, Guy's & St Thomas' Charity, and Atomico among the LPs). Learn more about Impact X Capital Partners at www.impactxcapital.com and follow Eric on LinkedIn. If you've enjoyed this episode, follow Crown Casté wherever you listen to podcasts and share it with a founder or allocator who needs to hear this conversation.
