Lauren Grattan
Mission Driven Finance
San Diego, CA USA
"There's going to be risk in everything that we do, and there's good risk too. Like, what's the risk of this turning out really well?"
Career Roadmap
Lauren's work combines: Numbers, Entrepreneurship, and Working with Others
See more careers and stories that connect to your interests.
Take Roadmap Quiz
Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Philosophy
Columbia University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
I grew up mixed-race in Hawaii, learning to code switch and bridge different perspectives—a skill that became one of my greatest strengths.
2.
I earned a philosophy degree from Columbia in 2008, and graduated during a financial crisis—that pushed me toward an unexpected path.
3.
I started my career in nonprofit fundraising, where I began wondering how we could unlock more money for social change.
4.
Without a traditional finance background, I learned finance on the job by staying curious and exploring what interested me.
5.
After leaving a work situation that wasn’t right for me, I turned to consulting while exploring what I wanted my next chapter to become.
6.
My partner and I followed our curiosity about impact investing, giving Mission Driven Finance a year to see if our side project could become something more.
7.
As interest grew, our experiment became a real business, eventually managing hundreds of millions of dollars aimed at building stronger communities.
8.
Nearly a decade later, I’m reimagining finance and the workplace itself, building a team and investments that put people, belonging, and community at the center.
