Stepping off the beaten consulting path without losing your ambition with Daniel Handschuh

We caught up with Daniel Handschuh, an Accenture and Kearney consulting alum who always had an itch for entrepreneurship. After considering several start-up opportunities in climate, Daniel pivoted to the more neglected topic of global health and founded Notify Health, which provides families in developing countries with effective reminders for childhood vaccinations. Together, we walk through Daniel’s decision to leave consulting and climate behind and why he’s still betting big on consultants tackling neglected problems.

How did you decide to take the leap to leave consulting and start Notify Health? 

I was in consulting for around five years, and my time there wasn't initially impact-motivated. At first, I was just focused on learning by doing projects with interesting people on interesting topics. But a year or so into my consulting career, a talk by a colleague on effective donations at Accenture really made me start thinking more about how I could be impactful. Nils Volker, fellow charity entrepreneur and Consultants for Impact Member, gave that talk, and it prompted me to begin considering how I could maximize the impact of my time and money. Over time, I spoke regularly with Nils and ultimately joined a Consultants for Impact workplace group at Accenture. I worked on implementing donation matching for effective charities through the company and although it didn’t come through during my time at the firm, I hope I laid the groundwork. Being a part of the workplace group kept me engaged with the Consultants for Impact community, and I started reading Peter Singer’s Ethics in the Real World and listening to the 80,000 Hours podcast. I also made some effectiveness-focused donations and wrote a blog post encouraging colleagues to do the same. 

That process got me thinking about the limitations of consulting for making a significant impact in the long run. I started questioning the counterfactual impact of my work and realized that within consulting, my marginal impact is limited given I only play a small part in the project.

Let’s rewind to before you joined the Accenture workplace group. What were you focused on back then, and what made you decide to join the group?

Wow, it’s been a while. I hadn’t even met Nils at that point!  At that time, I was primarily involved in growth strategy and pricing. I considered whether I should be spending my extra time on career advancement or another hobby, but honestly, the workplace group provided a boost of energy and fulfillment that I didn’t get from my consulting projects. It was like an oasis in the week where I could focus on something outside of the usual pricing and growth strategies I was working on. It felt like something I’d do in my free time!

What other energy boosters have you found on your journey to becoming more impact-focused?

Internal competitions! I joined one at Accenture to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions for homes. I assembled a team, and we developed a concept and entered it. It was completely different from my usual work and really rewarding. Later, at Kearney, I participated in another competition to reduce carbon emissions. We created a point system to incentivize sustainable travel, and the whole experience energized me more than it cost in terms of time and effort. Unlike a typical consulting project, where maybe only a portion of your hours are about impact, these competitions were almost 100% impact-focused. That made a big difference to my energy.

Another source of energy was my annual donations. Each year, I’d challenge myself to donate a little more, think about tax efficiency, and maybe write a post to encourage others to donate more too. These activities kept me connected to the impact side of things.

It sounds like you were running mini-challenges for yourself!

Yes, exactly. I’m always trying to improve by a few percentage points each year. For instance, in my first year of consulting, I donated about €1,700. Then it went up to €4,000 or €5,000 and then to €10,000. I kept asking, "How can I increase this?"

In hindsight, I could have advanced my donation journey even further by seeding new charities through Ambitious Impact. If my donations had kept increasing, I might have joined their funding circle, which is kind of like angel investing but for charities.

What led you from focusing on effective giving and working in climate to deciding to found a charity in global health? 

Over time, I shifted from growth strategy toward energy and sustainability in my consulting work, but I had always wanted to pursue entrepreneurship. I felt I had a good tolerance for risk, and I was confident in my ability to build structures from scratch. Initially, I considered climate-focused for-profit entrepreneurship, which felt like a high-impact, potentially high-payoff path. But I ultimately realized that if I wanted to make a significant impact right away, it would be easier to do that through charity entrepreneurship rather than waiting for a profitable exit in ten or more years. The idea of spending a decade before transitioning to impact-focused work didn't sit well with me. I was concerned about both career lock-in and whether I'd maintain my drive to maximize impact after establishing myself in a particular field. I wanted to ensure I was choosing a direction that would allow me to have the greatest positive impact, whether that ended up being in climate work or other areas.  So, charity entrepreneurship felt like a more direct way to have an impact with my time.

Many folks argue that climate change is the “defining challenge of our generation.” So, how did you get comfortable stepping away from it?

Right now, I'm working on improving people's health in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. When I think about my consulting colleagues, I see more of them working on climate or other topics that are popular right now. I think climate is important, but I felt like I had enough of a risk appetite to jump into something different and didn’t see many other consultants who were starting non-profits like Notify Health. If you’re talking with other social impact-oriented consultants and none of them are too worried about an important, tractable problem, maybe that’s a green flag to work on it yourself. In the end, I felt like the area I work in is in more need of consultant talent than climate change.

Before I worked in global health, I’d heard stereotypes about nonprofits— that they’re unstructured, not very analytical, or emotionally driven. But that hasn’t been my experience. I found that for organizations who wanted to excel at measurement and evaluations, the consulting skillset was really valued, specifically analytical thinking, financial acumen, and a focus on effectiveness.

Looking back, what other paths did you consider? What made you confident to move forward with Notify Health?

One argument that weighed on my decision to step away from climate was the neglectedness factor. Climate change is a massive issue, but it also receives a lot of attention, funding, and interest. I felt like there were enough people pursuing climate solutions, and I wasn’t sure if adding one more voice would make a big difference. Within climate, I considered paths like deep tech startups and policy advocacy, but I didn’t see myself fitting well into those roles. I didn’t have the right background for R&D or policy work, and I didn’t find them personally appealing. Global health felt like a neglected area where I could contribute uniquely. So, I chose to focus on something that felt both high-impact and more neglected. 

At Consultants for Impact, we’re excited to see more social impact-focused professionals consider pivoting to neglected cause areas. We want to do this without making people feel like their current work isn’t valuable, but it’s a challenge. 

I know! For me, seeing other consultants, like Nils, take the leap into global health charity work made a difference. I think many consultants are attracted to working with smart people on tough problems and gaining professional reputation. Leaving that path for something like founding a charity or global health work can feel like a big leap, socially and professionally.  I considered starting a charity focused on fish welfare at one point, but I realized that the idea might feel too outlandish to discuss with my social circle.  Global health, however, felt like a more accessible and relatable step, which made it feel easier to pursue for me.

‍One downside to working on more neglected causes is that it can feel isolating when fewer people understand them.

‍I’ve definitely experienced a disconnect when I’ve tried to introduce a neglected topic. It often doesn’t resonate; people see it as strange or unnecessary. When I was selecting ideas during the charity entrepreneurship program, I actually factored in how well I could talk about them at the dinner table with friends and family. That was a small but real consideration. I think it’s essential to strike a balance between impact and fit.

Thank you so much for all that you're doing to make the world a better place. You could have done anything with your career, and your doing this inspires us.

Thank you. Likewise, thank you for encouraging consultants to think afresh about their career trajectories. I think it's important!

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