My day job
60 Decibels
Social impact is the lived experience of people: farmers, shop owners, customers, employees. When we launched 60 Decibels in 2019, our thesis was simple: understanding social impact should be based on listening directly to people. We’re still at it.
Why we exist
Most impact measurement skips the people it’s about.
Too often, when investors “measure” impact, nobody talks to the people whose lives the money is meant to improve.
Listening is the simplest place to start.
Short phone surveys with customers, suppliers and employees, anywhere in the world, with results in weeks.
Data should help the business, not just the funder.
We wanted measurement to stop being a compliance stick and become something enterprises use to serve customers better.
Standard questions make results comparable.
Asking the same questions everywhere lets us build benchmarks, so a company can see how it compares to its peers.
And if you’re wondering, 60 decibels is the volume of human conversation. Our 2019 white paper, A Simpler Way to Measure Impact, lays it all out.
What I’ve written about this work
- LinkedInThe 2026 Microfinance IndexWhat drives the big trends in microfinance, not just whether they correlate with better outcomes.2026
- LinkedInFor investors who prioritize customer impactAn easier way to understand customer experience across a portfolio.2026
- LinkedInBehind the scenes on annual impact reportsA session with EEP Africa and Symbiotics on how funders put their reports together.2026
- BlogThe Global Majority Data Project2026
- BlogMore Typos, PleaseA reader’s note about our newsletter, The Volume.2026
- BlogWhat is a company newsletter worth reading?2024
- LinkedIn articleAnecdotal Evidence Won’t Help Us Understand Financial Inclusion2023
- BlogThe Greatest Unmanaged Risk in Fintech2023
- LinkedIn articleA textbook example of why we need better social impact data2022
- BlogWhy We Need Impact Performance Data2021
- LinkedInListening During COVID-19: A Year in Review2021
- BlogAnnouncing the Launch of 60 Decibels2019
Visit 60decibels.com
Reports, benchmarks, case studies and the team.
60dB Signal
Helps funders vet companies using verified customer data, plus a free map of 10,000+ impact funders and companies.
The Volume
60 Decibels’ monthly newsletter, read by more than 11,000 people. We call it “the only company newsletter worth reading.”