FAV FOOD: Vietnamese. FAV COUNTRY: Canada. CELEB CRUSH: Rachel Maddow. PEOPLE DON’T KNOW: I play hockey. FAV QUOTE: “If you ask for money, you get advice. Sometimes, if you ask for advice, it leads to money.”
Dahna Goldstein
Repairing the world through social entrepreneurship
SEEDS OF SERVICE. Dahna Goldstein has always held close the Jewish notion of “tikkun olam:” repairing the world. This guiding principle has shaped her journey as a founder, driving her to create businesses with profound social impact. Her latest venture, Halcyon Venture Partners (HVP), invests in seed-stage startups focused on Climate, Health, and EquityTech, working alongside entrepreneurs to support scalable solutions for significant social, environmental, and economic gain.
Dahna’s dedication to social good is deeply rooted in her upbringing. Growing up in Montreal, she was inspired by her parents’ commitment to community service. “My dad was a very accomplished lawyer, but he was also passionate about volunteering,” she recalls. This environment fostered a strong sense of responsibility in Dahna to leverage her privileges for the greater good.
Dahna’s experience at Williams College was transformative. Initially set on a pre-med path, she soon discovered her passion for combining creativity with social impact. A service-learning class in her sophomore year was particularly influential, leading her to create a CD of original music by students, raising funds for a local middle school to buy library books. “That clicked in me that you can bring creativity and entrepreneurship together with doing something that’s good for the world,” she says.
BRIDGING TECH AND IMPACT. After college, Dahna entered the world of Ed-tech startups. She identified a significant problem in this sector: the inefficiency of grant administration. In response, she founded PhilanTech to streamline grant management, ensuring more funds were directed towards impactful programs.
PhilanTech taught Dahna numerous lessons about the founder world, particularly the challenges of fundraising. “Fundraising is hard, and I think I went into my first company thinking I have this clear plan for growth,” she reflects.
Around the time Dahna sold PhilanTech, she came out professionally as a lesbian, a profound period in her life. “I sold one baby and had another,” she jokes, referring to selling her company while her wife was pregnant with their son. This period marked a shift towards seeking more from life and integrating her personal and professional identities. “I had accomplished the vision for what I wanted with the company,” she says. “Now, I was wanting a little bit more out of life and realizing that I was finding that in my family. I wanted to have that be more integrated so that I could be a more integrated human in all of my interactions.”
Dahna’s next venture, Resistance by Design, aimed to raise awareness and funds for various organizations by creating products that would enable people to literally wear their values. “We were very intentional about supporting organizations that were organizing in communities of color and underrepresented groups,” she explains. “There’s tremendous political power in people who have been historically marginalized.”
LEGACY OF CHANGE. In 2024, Dahna co-founded Halcyon Venture Partners, a venture fund that excites her deeply. “We’re building a firm that will outlast me. We’re focused on supporting and scaling social entrepreneurs and historically excluded founders,” she says. HVP aims to create a lasting impact through multiple funds, ensuring that the firm’s mission continues beyond Dahna’s tenure.
Reflecting on her founder journey so far, Dahna offers heartfelt advice to aspiring LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs: “Just do it—take that leap. A lot of people actually want to support you as you’re starting something. It can be super scary to ask, but people will help you succeed if you give them an opportunity to.”
