Purpose vs Profit: Benevity’s Bryan de Lottinville on the new era of corporate purpose
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What motivates Bryan de Lottinville’s belief in doing well by doing good?
Despite some of the polarization and and binary thinking that is prevalent today, I truly believe that most people want to leave the world better than they found it. I've never had to say, Well, we're going to sacrifice who we are and doing the right thing. for the sake of the rapacious pursuit of profit. I mean I fundamentally believe that doing well by doing good is more than just a catchy tagline.
Welcome to Orbit. This is the HG podcast series where we speak to leaders and innovators from across the software and tech ecosystem to discuss the key trends that change how we all do business. Today I have the real pleasure to be joined by Brian Delottenville, who's a founder and executive chairperson of Benevity, a leader in purposeful software and purposeful Corporations. It's the leading provider of workplace giving, volunteering, and grant-making programs and HG investment since 2020. So hello, Brian, and thank you so much for joining me. Hey, Nick. Thanks so much for having me. So, Brian, we're going to dive in and discuss the balance between purpose and profit in tech and software businesses today.
But if you don't mind, before we do that, I'd love to just get you to give the listeners a little bit of your own personal background and kind of how you started out in business, if that's okay.
Sure. You know, first of all, in in in many ways, I I think my journey and it has been something of a lifelong one. Toward you know, being more active in in this area represents the vast majority of people that are discovering the the power and and the opportunity and perhaps even the imperative of pursuing a more purpose-driven life. You know, we've talked about this a little bit before, but I I don't I don't come from from much. I was raised by a single mom and and we were Poor enough and I had a good enough memory that I got some grants and and all scholarships and was able to go to business school and then on to law school. So I'm a card carrying recovering lawyer. And I've been really fortunate in my professional career and gr and grateful to live in a country where education could be such an emancipator and had always wanted to pay some of that forward in some fashion.
And despite some of the polarization and binary thinking uh that is prevalent today, I truly believe that most people want to leave the world better than they found it. And I'm no different. You know, I was a corporate finance growth growth capital lawyer for a number of years and became a partner at a a large Bay Street law firm in Canada and wanted to become a partner so that I could say I was a partner, but it didn't want to be a lifer. And I I left law to take some operational roles in in growth companies, as you as you mentioned. And notably my last gig before Benevity was being the Adult supervision at an early stage company called iStock Photo, which was one of the first multi-sided platform businesses in the world before they were everywhere.
And I got to see the power of user-generated content, crowdsourcing, community democratization, and and and ultimately network effect.
I remember the business so well, Brian. I didn't know you at the time, but it was a super successful business and as you say, kind of pretty pretty innovative and and one of the first businesses of its type.
Yeah, I I d I don't know how much of this you really want to go into, but the the reality is I I uh you know, the the catalyst for actually doing something in furtherance of my long-held goal was uh a question that my then five-year-old daughter asked me, you know, as part of I think she was in kindergarten and doing a project. And she asked me, what it is I did for a living. And the simplicity of the question and my difficulty answering. it uh was kind of telling. But you know, the first thing that popped into my head was I fix up companies and sell them for as much as I can, honey. And I didn't say that to her, but uh gave her a more sanitized answer that I think involved being, you know, sort of a lawyer or something.
How did Bryan’s early career and a kindergarten‑question spark the idea for Benevity?
But uh I determined that in the latter part of my career, the next phase I would, I would do more to pursue this idea of leaving the world better than I found it.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What motivates Bryan de Lottinville’s belief in doing well by doing good?
0:03–4:03
2
How did Bryan’s early career and a kindergarten‑question spark the idea for Benevity?
4:03–7:07
3
What does ‘purpose’ mean to Bryan and how does it fit into a for‑profit tech business?
7:07–10:55
4
Why are employees, Millennials and Gen Z demanding purpose‑driven workplaces?
10:55–13:58
5
How can private‑equity investors support purpose without sacrificing profit?
13:58–17:10
6
What practical steps can leaders take to balance growth, profit and purpose?
17:10–20:40
7
How is Benevity scaling its impact and what milestones lie ahead?
20:40–24:01
8
What should the wider corporate community do to embed purpose more deeply?
24:01–24:38
Speakers
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