“Impact is Not a Vibe”: Eva Cruz on why Dominican innovation keeps getting it wrong

By Jonathan Joel Mentor | @jonathanjmentor 

In this exclusive Digital Nomad Weekly feature, Eva Cruz, PhD, Principal Consultant at QuantDI and proud Santiaguera now living in Atlanta, delivers a masterclass on what real impact looks like and why Dominican institutions keep missing the mark.

Dominican startups love to talk about “impact.” So do government officials, accelerators, and every other glossy PDF that wants to stay grant-eligible. But very few can define it. Even fewer are funding it.

According to Eva Cruz, a stealth leader in the DR’s social impact investment movement, that failure is costing the country its future.

“The first challenge is the lack of understanding and consensus regarding what social impact investment and social impact enterprises are.”
— Eva Cruz

In this Digital Nomad Weekly column, Cruz breaks down where we’re getting it wrong and why the DR is falling behind LATAM peers who’ve already figured this out.

1. Impact isn’t Intention

Not all businesses that do good are built for good. A company that hires locals isn’t automatically an impact venture. Neither is a tech startup that solves a minor annoyance for the middle class.

Real impact starts with why you exist. If your core reason for building is to solve a structural, societal, or environmental problem and your incentives, metrics, and model reflect that, you’re in the conversation. Otherwise, sit down.

Cruz illustrates the point simply:

A car wash that hires a few people? That’s employment.
A car wash designed to hire disabled workers or reduce water waste with graywater reuse? That’s impact.

2. The “Missing Middle” Is Where Good Ideas Go to Die

The DR has microfinance for the smallest players. And it has VCs who throw their money at the next crypto app. But in between. where most real, durable, socially-conscious businesses live, there’s nothing.  Crickets.  Tumbleweed.  Void.

This “missing middle” is where we’re bleeding opportunity. Cruz calls for ecosystem scaffolding.  Accelerators adapted for social ventures, patient capital, and alternative financing. You can’t greenlight impact with grandstanding and nepotism.

3. We Must Redefine Success

Venture math doesn’t work for every mission. Not every business needs a 10X exit.

Cruz urges us to adopt revenue-based financing, hybrid equity, and models that prioritize sustainability over blitz-scaling. Otherwise, we’ll keep punishing the founders solving real problems just because they don’t want to play the Silicon Valley or Startup Chile lottery.

4. Institutions Need to Get Off the Sidelines

“Universities, accelerators, and diaspora investors all have a role to play,” Cruz explains.

Universities should act as R&D hubs and IP incubators. Accelerators must rewire their criteria to accommodate impact ventures. And diaspora-linked investors need to bring their frameworks, fund structures, and firepower back home.

5. Real Impact Doesn’t Fear Standards

We do need better criteria, especially to stop greenwashing. But those guardrails should separate the serious from the opportunistic, not exclude founders doing the real work.

According to Cruz, “Social entrepreneurs won’t be scared as long as their motivation is aligned with the criteria.”

Translation? If you’re scared, you’re probably faking it.  Why are the biggest national backers of Dominican Tech not more stringent on scalable IP?  But they’ll jump at anything that’s even remotely tech-enabled, even hardware like fire extinguisher technology as long as the founders come from the right schools and have the right last names.

Final Word:

The DR has the talent. The DR has the need. What it doesn’t yet have is the courage to rethink how we define, fund, and scale the enterprises solving its biggest problems.

Eva Cruz is setting the terms. And Digital Nomad Weekly is making sure the right people hear them.

Now the question is: will the institutions catch up or get left behind while they pose for the press at their fancy galas?

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Jonathan Joel Mentor is the CEO of Successment and architect of the Provoke Visibility™ campaign, scaling startups and challenging institutions to evolve. UN World Summit Award nominee. www.jonathanjmentor.co