Conscious Company Magazine | Winter 2019 by Conscious Company

MAKING A DIFFERENCE WHILE MAKING A PROFIT

CONSCIOUS COM PAN Y

WORLD CHANGING WOMEN SUNRUN CO-FOUNDER AND CEO LYNN JURICH

HOW SHE BUILT A $3 BILLION SOLAR EMPIRE BURTON SNOWBOARDSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; CUTTING-EDGE LEADERSHIP LEADERSHIP | WORKPLACE | SUSTAINABILITY | ENTREPRENEURSHIP

TABLE OF CONTENTS Q1 / WINTER 2019 | ISSUE 21

IMPACT INVESTING SPOTLIGHTS

LEADERSHIP

CASE STUDY: TRU COLORS BREWING

8 IT STARTS WITH YOU SOULTOUR FOUNDER AND CEO TARA-NICHOLLE NELSON’S 5 TIPS FOR UNLOCKING YOUR LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL

WOMEN IN (PRO)MOTION*

AN UP-AND-COMING BREWERY MODELS THE 3 HARD QUESTIONS TO ASK TO ENSURE THE SUCCESS OF IMPACT INVESTMENTS

HOW BURTON SNOWBOARDS CEO DONNA CARPENTER MADE CUTTING-EDGE CHANGES TO INCREASE THE COMPANY’S PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE LEADERS

AWAY WITH HARM

HEART AND SOLAR* HOW SUNRUN CO-FOUNDER AND CEO LYNN JURICH ENDURED THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 2008 AND BUILT A $3 BILLION SOLAR EMPIRE

5 BUSINESS MODELS THAT ILLUSTRATE THE POSSIBILITIES FOR ERADICATING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

THE CASE FOR MORNING PAGES JULIA CAMERON OF “THE ARTIST’S WAY” SHARES WHY PUTTING PEN TO PAGE IS ESSENTIAL FOR INNOVATION

THE LIST

FOOD AND COMFORT

28 35 WORLD-CHANGING WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS* MEET THE CREATORS AND MAKERS, MOVERS AND SHAKERS WHO ARE TRANSFORMING BUSINESS — AND THE PLANET — FOR THE BETTER

HOW HOMEROOM CO-FOUNDER ERIN WADE’S COLLABORATIVE WORKPLACE DEVISED AN INNOVATIVE SYSTEM FOR PREVENTING SEXUAL HARASSMENT FROM ITS CUSTOMERS

66 OUTCOMES OVER OPTICS BRAVA INVESTMENTS CEO NATHALIE MOLINA NIÑO’S PHILOSOPHY ON GENDERLENS INVESTING IS UNAPOLOGETICALLY FOR-PROFIT

LOOK FOR THESE NOTIFICATIONS THROUGHOUT THE ISSUE:

SEE See this leader speak at the 2019 World-Changing Women’s Summit this January *Cover story

worldchangingwomenssummit.com

HEAR

READ

Listen to our interview with this leader on the World-Changing Women Podcast

Read more of this leader’s story in the Spotlight section of this issue

worldchangingwomenpodcast.com

Page number provided

company

Q1 / WINTER 2019 | Issue 21

CONSCIOUS COMPANY EDITORIAL TEAM

CONSCIOUS COMPANY MEDIA

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Vanessa Childers

CEO & CO-FOUNDER Meghan French Dunbar

ART DIRECTOR Cia Lindgren

COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP MANAGER Kate Hermann

COPY EDITORS Robin Dickerhoof Shane Gassaway

PODCAST MANAGER & OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE Nina Bernardin

DIGITAL EDITOR Mary Mazzoni

WEBSITE GURU Rolando Garcia

TRANSCRIPTIONIST Carla Faraldo

CO-FOUNDER Maren Keeley

NEWSSTAND CONSULTANT Curtis Circulation Company PRINTING Publication Printers COVER PHOTO courtesy of Sunrun

INTENTIONAL MEDIA EXECUTIVE TEAM CHAIRMAN Robert Caruso MANAGING PARTNER John Morris CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER Luc Fagerberg CEO, SOCAP Lindsay Smalling MANAGING DIRECTOR, GOOD CAPITAL PROJECT Sharadiya Dasgupta CEO, WHAT WILL IT TAKE MOVEMENTS Marianne Schnall

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CEO’S NOTE: CHEERS TO FOUR YEARS! As of this issue, Conscious Company magazine will mark four full years of being on stands nationwide. Those four years have seen our little company through tremendous transition, including an acquisition, launching our Conscious Company Leaders Forum and World-Changing Women’s Summit, a new podcast — World-Changing Women — and membership for our community. We’ve said goodbye to wonderful team members and welcomed new faces onto our growing team. We’ve pivoted business models, lost clients, won major contracts, and tirelessly worked to make our products and our company better — all

the staples of a good entrepreneurial journey. As I take the time to reflect on this journey and all of the challenges that we’ve overcome, I’m filled with the most profound gratitude because I know at the heart of it is the higher purpose of helping to redefine success in business in service of all life. Our team and our community are committed to supporting the businesses that are making the world a better place, which is the rocket fuel that keeps our little ship flying. So, as we start this new year and mark this milestone for our company, I wanted to express heartfelt gratitude

to you, our reader, along with our unparalleled team. This magazine and the community it has built are a dream come true and would not be possible without the extraordinary people who surround it. So thank you, and may the year to come be your best yet! With gratitude, Meghan

EDITOR’S NOTE: ON YOUR MARK… I’m beyond thrilled to be writing this letter to you and to be sharing in my first issue of Conscious Company the stories you’re about to enjoy. Have you heard the story of runner Roger Bannister? On May 6, 1954, the 25-year-old medical student in London became the first person in recorded history to cross track and field’s most notorious barrier: the four-minute mile. A few years later, a handful of men followed in Bannister’s footsteps, achieving a feat previously deemed impossible. Some of the world’s most significant anthropological advances seem to have exploded onto the scene much like this elite subset of runners did in the 1950s. These include inventions that also happen to be many of my favorite things: farming, art, the domestication of man’s best friend, and delicious creations like bread, chocolate, and wine. While each of these innovations seems to have manifested simultaneously around the globe — a leap in collective human consciousness, if you will — a more plausible explanation is that each started first in a small pocket of civilization before spreading exponentially until it was pervasive. In the case of the subfour-minute mile, while it would take

another year before a second man broke the barrier, the total number of athletes to follow suit 64 years later has climbed to nearly 1,500. Since the emergence of language, storytelling has been humanity’s most powerful vehicle for connection and a profound resource for inspiring action, just like news of Bannister’s breakthrough changed other runners’ perceptions of what’s possible. I’m hoping the stories of this issue inspire a wave of action in you — a collective hustle to shift conscious business from a movement to the mainstream. In addition to our second annual list of World-Changing Women in Conscious Business (page 28), this issue features a case study on how to ensure the success of impact investments (page 14), business models that illustrate the possibilities for chipping away at gender-based violence (page 22), and spotlights on four of our World-Changing Women’s journeys: how Sunrun’s Lynn Jurich endured the infamous financial crisis of 2008 to build a $3 billion public solar empire (page 58), how Homeroom’s Erin Wade fostered a restaurant culture of collaboration that led to an innovative system for preventing sexual harassment from customers (page

62), how Burton’s Donna Carpenter significantly increased the company’s percentage of women in leadership positions over the past 15 years (page 52), and how BRAVA Investments CEO Nathalie Molina Niño is lifting up the next generation of women with her unconventional approach to gender-lens investing (page 66). Many of these women tout the importance of knowing yourself and listening to your intuition — excellent insight for any leader, gender aside. To hone this skill, you’ll find SoulTour founder Tara-Nicholle Nelson’s tips for tapping into your inner guidance system (page 8), and the case for Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages practice from “The Artist’s Way” author herself (page 11). May these stories change your perception of what’s possible and encourage you to take the leap. Get set… Happy reading, Vanessa

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LEADERSHIP

IT STARTS WITH

YOU

SoulTour founder and CEO Tara-Nicholle Nelson shares five tips for unlocking your leadership potential Tara-Nicholle Nelson puts the conscious in conscious leadership. She is the former Vice President of Marketing for MyFitnessPal, now part of Under Armour, and during her time there she grew their users from 45 million to more than 100 million. She is also the author of “The Transformational Consumer: Fuel a Lifelong Love Affair With Your Customers by Helping Them Get Healthier, Wealthier, and Wiser,” creator of the 30 Day Writing Challenge for Conscious Leaders, and an Entrepreneur in Residence with Lightspeed Venture Partners. As the founder and CEO of SoulTour, a personal growth and spiritual community, Nelson creates content and experiences that empower people to become more self-aware, transform their lives, and unearth a leadership goldmine. “My mission in life is to help break the pervasive unworthiness and scarcity [mindset] that people are operating under,” Nelson says. “But you can’t use your work to lift people up and engage them if you yourself are not uplifted and engaged.” Here, the self-professed “impact junkie” shares two daily practices to help tap into your inner guidance system, and three leadership strategies for supporting and cultivating genius in others.

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DAILY PRACTICE: SIT IN SILENCE. Get up in the morning and sit in silence for 15 or 20 minutes. Call it meditation if you want to. Listen for that golden bolt of inspiration, whether it’s small or large, an idea, a phrase, an urge to do something or go somewhere. That’s often how intuition and inspiration from our inner guidance speak to us — just that little bolt.

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“You can’t use your work to lift people up and engage them if you yourself are not uplifted and engaged.” CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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LEADERSHIP

DAILY PRACTICE: FREEWRITE. You may be familiar with the Morning Pages practice, which Julia Cameron originated in “The Artist’s Way.” There’s a lot of emotional windshield-wiping and slate-clearing that happens in the process of freewriting every day. You capture every grudge, everything you remember from yesterday that’s still lingering on your mind, everything about the day ahead that makes it hard for you to be present. You turn your inner editor off entirely for this little piece of time, and it clears all this space where every idea, every piece of inspiration, every answer to every question, every solution to every problem flows in. It just does. (See an interview with Cameron on page 11.) When I was on the road promoting my book “The Transformational Consumer” — which is about how to reach and engage customers by helping make them healthier, wealthier, and wiser — I reconnected with many C-level executives I had consulted with over the years, and they kept saying, “You shared your writing practice with me, and I’ve been doing it. I’ve written every day for two years now, and it changed my clarity. It changed the way I think. It changed the way I see.” If you were only going to devote 20 or 30 minutes every morning to a practice that tunes you in to your inner guidance system, sit in silence for 10 or 15 minutes and write for 10 or 15 minutes.

3 4 5

LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: MANAGE YOUR OWN EMOTIONS. It’s natural for you as an entrepreneur to have a great deal of both wanted and unwanted emotions in the course of your day. Anxiety is a big one. You think, “This could be wonderful or terrible — and I don’t know what to do. There’s a lot of uncertainty and people are depending on me.” That anxiety is incredibly contagious — and also incredibly destructive. It shuts off your access to your highest brain centers, and it does the same thing to people who work for you and with you. Whatever kind of practice you come up with to manage your own emotions and reset and recalibrate on a daily basis — do it, and commit to it.

LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: RECRUIT ON MISSION. Geniuses want to work on really important things, and they want to work with really conscious and self-aware leaders. For me, it’s important to have a whole team of geniuses surrounding me — vendors, contractors, employees, partners — and I have found that people get really excited about mission. If you recruit on mission, you’ll find people to work for you who would be difficult to recruit or convince otherwise.

LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: STICK TO YOUR APPROACH. If you are trying to lead any kind of team, read “Boundaries for Leaders” by Dr. Henry Cloud. Many conscious leaders are people-pleasers. We’re uplifters, and we want people around us to feel good but we must set, install, and maintain boundaries to unlock the best work from our team. One boundary you should set in business is to avoid constantly shifting your strategy, which is something startups often do. This boundary allows genius people to let their brains work on a problem for long enough to have bolts of inspiration, for your team to find those golden threads.

SEE

Nelson at the 2019 World-Changing Women’s Summit

HEAR Nelson on the World-Changing Women Podcast

THE CASE FOR

MORNING PAGES “The Artist’s Way” author shares why putting pen to page is essential for innovation.

ou might not consider yourself an artist, but Julia Cameron will convince you otherwise. For over 25 years, Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self” has graced the shelves of countless creators, including Tim Ferriss of “The 4-Hour Workweek.” The cornerstone of Cameron’s international bestseller is the Morning Pages practice: starting each day with three handwritten pages of stream-of-consciousness thought. We sat down with Cameron to pick her brain about how innovation can arise from these top-ofthe-day ramblings, and why creativity is essential for the conscious leaders who are redefining business as we know it.

and strategize. I often think they should be called Mourning Pages, because they are really a farewell to life as you knew it, and an introduction to life as it’s going to be.

Are Morning Pages meant to be artistic?

JC: It takes imagination to strategize for a better future. Creativity suggests stratagems to both undo and redo destructive patterns. Without creativity, we are doomed to continue — and repeat — dangerous protocols.

JULIA CAMERON: People think they should be artful, but your Morning Pages should be whiny. Write down what’s crossing your mind. They will seem to have nothing to do with creativity, but what they do is clear your head. It’s as though you have taken a Dustbuster to all the corners of your consciousness. It’s useful to think of Morning Pages as a sort of “field report.” The Pages tell us our precise position, our attitudes, and angles. Pages guarantee us a degree of emotional autonomy. We learn to set our own priorities within the agendas of others. Pages make us far more efficient, as they siphon off negativity and free our minds of extraneous worries. We are able to view our colleagues and ourselves with far more objectivity when we have the Pages as a safe place to vent … also to scheme, plot,

How do Morning Pages factor into being an inspiring, effective, and respectable leader? JC: Morning Pages give the practitioner the ability to see the big picture. Pages also grant practitioners the ability to sidestep needless drama and to engage in proactive leadership. What role does creativity play in solving large social and environmental problems?

How can entrepreneurs and startup businesses reframe failure and risk? JC: I believe in taking inventory: setting on the page in black and white our goals, our wins, and our failures. By looking squarely at what has paid off and what hasn’t, we become better able to strategize for the future. I believe in the power of the pen — writing out our business histories enables us to see clearly those areas that need revamping.

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CASE STUDY:

U R TCOLORS BREWING By Nathan Havey + Christine Sanwald Photos by Will Page Photography

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An up-andcoming brewery models the 3 hard questions to ask to ensure the success of impact investments

IMPACT INVESTING

It was a few days before Christmas 2015, and George Taylor could not believe what he was reading. Shane Simpson, a 16-year-old in Wilmington, North Carolina, had been killed in a gang-related drive-by shooting. Taylor didn’t even know his city had gangs, and he was so shocked and saddened by the killing that he vowed to do what countless others have tried to do with limited or no success: end gang violence in his community. Taylor, a man in his mid-50s, is an experienced entrepreneur and

the wrong things. The Global Impact Investing Network defines impact investing as “investments made with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.” While the intention to make such an impact is clear, a widespread lack of sophistication in the measurement of impact is hampering progress. What seems to suffice for most impact investing efforts is the measurement of output rather than impact: the number of people served,

in economic vitality. As champions of the impact investment movement, it is impact investors’ responsibility to ensure that the time and resources we are able to attract and deploy are demonstrably creating a measurable, beneficial impact. That is the only way we will win over our critics and reach the tipping point of redefining business as usual. To do that, we have to ask three hard questions. Answering these questions well is the key to achieving real and lasting impact.

“Take a moment to reflect on your own organization, specifically the parts of it that seek to create an impact. To what extent are the core revenue model and the impact you seek to achieve aligned?” used that perspective to create a startup called TRU Colors, a brewery that employs gang members, slated to open its doors to the public in the first quarter of 2019. While most other employment-related responses to gang violence require people to leave gangs as a condition of employment, TRU Colors wants its team to stay active in their gangs in order to harness the dynamics of gang influence as a powerful driver of solutions to gang violence — and so far it has been met with welcome cooperation. At the time this article went to print (December 2018), TRU Colors had not yet opened its doors and yet gang violence in Wilmington was already down by 90 percent. Results like this demonstrate the world-changing potential of impact investing, but unfortunately, results like this are rare. For all of the attention and capital flowing into the space, examples of real, concrete impact are surprisingly hard to find. The problem is that the norms of impact investing lead us to focus on 16

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the number of dollars invested, the number of hours volunteered, etc. But does all that effort create real impact? We can’t say, and that is unacceptable. It is not impact investing if there is no impact. Consider the example of a Michigan credit union that was debating how to increase the economic vibrancy of the communities it served. Some on the board proposed that the credit union could undertake an aggressive program of financial education, and that impact would be seen in the number of programs established and the number of people who attended them. The ensuing debate raised this question: if dozens of programs were built and were heavily attended, but there was no change in economic vibrancy, would they have achieved real impact? The board finally agreed that the only true measure for impact, and therefore the final measure for the effectiveness of any financial education programs or other efforts, would have to be an actual increase

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1. WHAT PROBLEM ARE YOU TRYING TO SOLVE? At issue in most cases is a lack of specificity about the problem that must be solved. Many efforts to do good through impact investing focus on helping alleviate the symptoms of a problem rather than solving the problem itself. The classic example of this is TOMS shoes. The story goes that the founder of TOMS was traveling in the developing world and observed that many children did not have shoes and suffered a number of heartbreaking consequences that seemed very simple to avoid. The solution? Create a shoe company with a pricing model sufficient to send a pair of shoes to those kids for free every time someone of relative means made a purchase. To date, TOMS has donated 86 million pairs of shoes and inspired a mini-industry of other one-for-one companies. Noble though these efforts are, even TOMS acknowledges that the

one-for-one model helps kids in need but does not solve the underlying problems. To its credit, TOMS shoes has continually evolved its model and has a much more sophisticated approach today. However, most people still only know about the one-for-one model and use that as a shining example of positive impact — even though it is not. By itself, this approach may have the huge unintended consequence of stunting the local economies that otherwise might have developed their own solutions to these problems, in effect perpetuating the root causes of the problem even as they seek to help alleviate the symptoms. In this way, donating 86 million pairs of shoes would be a mere vanity metric absent the other important work TOMS is doing to address root causes. This is the danger of seeking to “do good”

instead of focusing on a specific problem to solve. By contrast, because TRU Colors was created to solve a specific problem (the presence of gang violence in Wilmington, North Carolina), the one and only measure of its success is the number of incidents of gang violence in Wilmington, North Carolina. The number of jobs created and classes attended and the capital deployed and awareness raised are all nice, but they are meaningless if they fail to substantially reduce gang violence. Yet, in impact investing we frequently cite those kinds of proxy results to justify further investment. This failure to keep our eye on the ball of the real impact we seek results in “mission creep” — a gradual shift in objectives during the course of a campaign, often resulting in an unplanned long-term commitment

— and what we fear is a tremendous amount of wasted time and money.

2. WHAT IS REQUIRED TO SOLVE THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED? Even where the problem is clear, far too many impact investors settle for “helping” rather than solving the problem. For example, one organization wanted to solve the problem of teenage mothers struggling to build strong families. Their response was to provide childcare and educational support. It showed its impact by measuring graduation rates, but that system did not lead to building strong families. They “helped” to be sure, and some teenage moms benefited substantially, but the initiative failed

While most other employment-related responses to gang violence require people to leave gangs as a condition of employment, TRU Colors wants its team to stay active in their gangs in order to harness the dynamics of gang influence as a powerful driver of solutions to gang violence — and so far it has been met with welcome cooperation.

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IMPACT INVESTING

At the time this article went to print (December 2018), TRU Colors Brewing had not yet opened its doors to the public and yet gang violence in Wilmington, North Carolina, was already down by 90 percent.

to achieve real impact because its solution only dealt with part of the problem. The key here is dispassionately interviewing all of the stakeholders to learn everything you can about the problem you seek to solve. Only then can you deal effectively with the complexity at play and see the solution that will actually achieve impact. After the drive-by murder that so upset George Taylor, he spent 18 months connecting with and talking to gang leaders to understand their challenges. He realized two things: first, the root of the problem was economic, not moral or social, and second, gang members are terrible at crime — they get arrested a lot — and most would love to get off the street; they just need an opportunity to do so and still make ends meet. But the real key to TRU Colors’ genuine impact lies in a nuanced 18

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understanding of gangs. If you ask him, Taylor will tell you that he thinks gangs are actually a good thing for their members. They provide them with a valuable social structure and support network. That understanding is precisely why he recruited the leaders of all but one of Wilmington’s gangs as executives of TRU Colors — and insisted that they stay active as the leaders of their respective gangs. Since November 2017, members of his team have been making $50,000 salaries (you have to compete with street cash), and they know that they can make a lot more if the company succeeds. There is a catch, though. If they want to keep their jobs, these leaders have to exert their influence to ensure that there is no fighting, and that no one in their gang pulls a trigger. Rather than trying to fight the social dynamics that lead people to

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join gangs in the first place, those same dynamics can be harnessed as a powerful driver of the solution to gang violence. Many impact efforts miss such breakthrough innovations because they fail to get beyond their own (usually subconscious) assumptions and judgments and learn to understand and deal with the full context in which a particular problem arises.

3. WHAT BUSINESS SOLUTION WOULD SOLVE THE PROBLEM? To be sure, in some cases the problem is specific and the root causes are clear, but even then, we may struggle to make a solution sustainable. The problem here is that we often focus on creating an initiative, drive, campaign, or some other approach that is essentially an addon to, and separate from, our core

business model. A well designed and sustainable business model is the greatest problem-solving force on the planet. Nonprofits, social enterprises, and good ole for-profit businesses all live and die by their business model, and we insist that real, sustainable impact can only be achieved when it is 100 percent aligned with the creation of revenue. The core business must be the vehicle for achieving impact. Why? Because making the sustainable impact we all want to achieve is harder than making a profit. Now consider the myriad sophisticated management approaches (i.e., Six Sigma, Lean) that help companies maximize profit by measuring the value creation (or lack thereof) in every step of internal systems. These approaches create a constant process of refining systems until they are highly efficient performance machines. That same level of rigor can and must be used to map the “value” (impact + revenue) in every step of our organizational processes. Any part of our process that fails to advance both the impact and the revenue model is a blinking red light for innovation or elimination. This is even more essential for the impact investment world than it is for profit-only companies precisely because of how hard it is to make and sustain real impact. But at present, this approach is rare indeed. Take a moment to reflect on your own organization, specifically the parts of it that seek to create an impact. To what extent are the core revenue model and the impact you seek to achieve aligned? To what extent is the team focused on the efficiency and impact advancement of every step of your internal processes? By focusing on the question of what is adding real value, you’ll find that a lot of what you are doing is only adding noise. If all has gone according to plan, as you are reading this article, TRU Colors Brewing is now open for business and the staff of 35 has grown to 125 and counting. Just a few years ago these same people might have been trying to kill each other on the streets of Wilmington’s North Side. Now they are working together, learning together, and growing together as they build a

After learning about a 16-year-old who was killed in a gang-related drive-by shooting, George Taylor created TRU Colors Brewing to put a stop to gang violence in Wilmington, North Carolina.

beer company together. But that is only the first step. TRU Colors leaders are conducting research for other businesses that are being planned for their communities, creating ripples of economic stability. For their kids, gang violence won’t be as big of a threat, drug crime will be rare, incarceration rates will plummet, graduation rates will soar, and economic health will improve. In a generation or two, Wilmington may be the poster child for how a community can help all of its people thrive. We hope not, though. We hope that in a generation or two this rosy picture will be our shared reality everywhere. It all starts with you, dear reader, getting more rigorous about the specific, measurable problem you are working to solve.

Christine Sanwald is a process-improvement expert who seeks to harness organizational effectiveness to drive social and organizational change with the highest outcomes.

Nathan Havey is the founding partner of Thrive Consulting Group, where he helps leadership teams fulfill their potential by teaching them to build high-performing, impactful cultures that employees love.

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IMPACT INVESTING

AWAY WITH

HARM

The business models of these five companies illustrate the possibilities for eradicating gender-based violence BY JOY ANDERSON AND TIA SUBRAMANIAN Reducing gender-based violence has long been a focus of the social sector, but little thinking has been done about how these efforts intersect with business and finance. Criterion Institute, a nonprofit think tank that works to expand the number of people who see themselves as able to affect financial systems to achieve social good, launched a program in 2017 focused on using finance to address gender-based violence. One of the tactics Criterion has employed is supporting companies that are having a positive impact on gender-based violence. Gender-based violence is rooted in the power dynamics and imbalances that arise from assumptions about gender norms in any given circumstance — dynamics that are also influenced by factors such as race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Looking at how a given company impacts gender-based violence must take two forms: 1) analyzing how its policies, practices, and culture affect its own employees of different genders, races, etc., and 2) analyzing how the compa-

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ny’s business model and offerings may be addressing the incidences or root causes of gender-based violence in the outside world. The importance of doing these analyses when creating or assessing a company has been highlighted by the spate of revelations in the past year about how various companies have been encouraging or covering up instances of gender-based violence. The consequences so far have varied, but the scrutiny is here to stay, and investors increasingly understand the risk that public revelations of violence can pose to a company’s bottom line. In short: assessing how companies deal with gender-based violence is non-negotiable for responsible investors. Criterion’s most straightforward strategy for using finance to effect positive social change is to take capital away from companies that negatively impact the issue in question and direct capital toward companies that are having a positive effect. As part of Criterion’s broader work, the institute has identified a portfolio of more than 25 for-profit companies that are

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addressing gender-based violence. The following five companies are diverse in terms of their goals as well as the ways in which they are having a positive influence. Gender-based violence is complex and rooted in a host of cultural, economic, and social factors; accordingly, these companies are tackling the issue at different levels. Some have developed business models that enable them to financially support nonprofits that provide services to survivors of violence; another is working to reshape cultural norms with alternative consumer entertainment; still another is publicly refusing to adopt practices within its own sector that protect perpetrators and further gender-based violence while also training survivors of violence to build careers. Be sure to conduct your own due diligence before undertaking any investment; Criterion intends these cases to merely illustrate the possibilities: there are myriad ways companies can reduce the incidences of gender-based violence and myriad ways for consumers and investors to support them.

“Reducing genderbased violence has long been a focus of the social sector, but little thinking has been done about how these efforts intersect with business and finance.”

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IMPACT INVESTING

FIGHTBACK • Year founded: 2013 • Size: 8 full-time staff and 15 contractors • Based in: Nepal • Operates in: Nepal

Adrienne Becker, CEO and Co-founder, Level Forward

Rachel Gould, Co-founder and Head of Business Affairs, Level Forward

Angie Wang, Co-founder, Level Forward

Abigail Disney, Co-founder and Chair, Level Forward

CORE BUSINESS MODEL

Fightback provides safety training to women and girls in Nepal to reduce the risk of sexual harassment and violence that is prevalent in schools, homes, public spaces, and communities. Its trainings incorporate mental, vocal, and physical strategies to give girls and women the ability to detect early warning signs of sexual violence, understand high-risk zones, and manage their own fear, among other things. Fightback has trained over 7,000 women and girls in Nepal, with 95 percent reporting an increase in confidence and skills. It conducts regular evaluations of its work to ensure its programs are increasing women and girls’ confidence and ability to defend themselves.

IMPACT ON GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Gender-based harassment and violence is prevalent in Nepal. Fightback’s programs approach the issue from multiple angles, not only teaching women and girls how to fight back physically but also to assert themselves in various situations. While Fightback provides trainings in all settings, such as classrooms and corporate workplaces, the company believes its most effective programming is focused on populations most vulnerable to violence: for example, adolescent girls in Nepal who are not accustomed to asserting themselves using their voice, body language, or physical power, as well as programs for visually impaired people. It also runs trainings for teachers, parents, and boys that aim to shift social norms away from victim-blaming.

Vikrant Pandey, Founder, Fightback

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LEVEL FORWARD INC. • Year founded: Predecessor companies founded in 2007 (Fork Films) and 2014 (Killer Content), merged and incorporated as Level Forward in 2018 • Size: 12 employees • Based in: New York, New York and Los Angeles, California • Operates in: the United States

CORE BUSINESS MODEL

Level Forward works on film, TV, live entertainment, and innovative tech platforms that level the playing field for women in the industry and help consumers make socially conscious decisions about the media they consume.

IMPACT ON GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Level Forward was born out of an effort to disrupt the pervasive culture of sexual harassment, discrimination, and abuse of power in the entertainment industry. The company works closely with a network of foundations, NGOs, and community groups focused on gender-based violence, engaging them in the production of storytelling so they are influencing the cultural currency coming out of Hollywood. For example, Level Forward asks partners to read and comment on scripts and to provide issue-based training to casts and crews. The partners benefit through having a model of financial participation via fees built into production budgets and profit participation so that they can sustain programs that support survivors and prevent abuse. Level Forward builds campaigns that tackle rape culture, bystander behavior, and issues of consent as well as lift survivor stories. For example, the company created a multimedia impact portfolio of properties called “Believe In This” (BIT), which delivers powerful stories dealing with survivors and the transformations of diverse women. The BIT portfolio includes the musical “Jagged Little Pill,” the female-focused short film series “Shatterbox” from Refinery29, and the “#MeToo” documentary. Additionally, Level Forward has made investments in services such as Rotten Apples, which not only analyzes films and TV shows that have been tainted by gender-based violence but also provides a path to restoration through fan engagement in positive social actions.

From left: Co-founders Yuliya Tarasava and Cat Berman

Relevée was founded by Meredith Lockwood and Sarah Symons (not pictured)

RELEVÉE • Year founded: 2015 • Size: Female-led executive team of 4 and 18 full-time female jewelers • Based in: New York, London, Amsterdam, Jaipur, and Kolkata; training academies in India and Thailand •Operates: Globally

CORE BUSINESS MODEL

Relevée is a jewelry company with an innovative social mission: to economically empower women who have survived hardship or abuse by providing a pathway to a career as a jewelry designer. Relevée also sources only ethical metals and precious stones, such as Kimberley-certified diamonds and recycled gold. The company partners with the international nonprofit Her Future Coalition to provide women with career opportunities through its jewelry-training academy. Upon graduation, they join the Relevée studio as master goldsmiths.

IMPACT ON GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Relevée’s work addresses the problem of gender-based violence in two critical ways. Most obviously, it provides women who have experienced abuse and other forms of hardship with the skills for a sustainable career. It runs two-year jewelry academies in India and Thailand, and once women graduate, the company hires them as designers at the Relevée studio, providing them with salaries that enable them to live independent lives. This profession is typically male in graduates’ regions, so in addition to changing their own trajectories, these women are changing norms within their own communities. Relevée is also changing the norms on gender-based violence by eschewing common practices in the jewelry sector that see large companies taking advantage of unethical labor practices, including slavery, and sourcing materials whose supply chains are murky or rife with abuses.

CNOTE • Year founded: 2016 • Size: 10 employees • Based in: Oakland, California • Operates in: the United States

CORE BUSINESS MODEL

CNote creates competitive financial products embedded with positive social impact. The company was founded by two women, Yuliya Tarasava and Cat Berman, who after decades in finance, wanted to create a product that would mitigate the wealth gap in less-affluent communities. Based on the belief that consumers should not have to choose between their financial security and their values, CNote creates financial products that earn a competitive return while putting that money to work to create safer, stronger, more inclusive communities across the United States. Every dollar invested in a CNote product is invested in things like affordable housing, schools in low-income communities, and minority-led businesses. An example of CNote’s offerings is its web platform, mycnote.com, where consumers can put extra cash to work and earn a competitive return with no fees and no minimum. One hundred percent of that cash is invested in underserved communities.

IMPACT ON GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Financial insecurity is the number one reason women and men stay in abusive relationships and environments. CNote is working to address that in two ways. First, it aims to drive more capital to financially underserved communities so that female entrepreneurs have greater opportunity to gain financial independence. Second, it is developing a new anonymous emergency fund for victims of domestic violence, abuse, and harassment to empower them to get out of abusive situations safely and with a host of support services so they can start a new chapter. CNote is co-creating this product with nonprofit organizations across the country that have expertise in the patterns and causes of gender-based violence to enable the product to be as targeted, accessible, and successful as possible.

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IMPACT INVESTING

Isabelle Ringnes Co-founder, AS ShesGotThis

AS SHESGOTTHIS • Year founded: 2018 • Size: 4 founders and 2 full-time staff • Based in: Norway • Operates in: Oslo and Stockholm, hoping to scale globally within a short period

CORE BUSINESS MODEL

AS ShesGotThis is a nonprofit that aims to mitigate the influence of unconscious bias and gender stereotypes on institutionalized gender discrimination. AS ShesGotThis is building software that will help companies ensure gender balance and equity. Using the tool, companies can record data from research-based indicators that measure gender equality, which includes information on turnover, pay, recruitment, and more. The tool will then provide the companies with an overview of how gender-equal they are, highlighting problem areas and suggesting solutions on how to solve problems based on the best available research. Many companies recognize that increasing their gender balance is both the smart and right thing to do, but struggle with how to do it. Little research exists on validated measures for improving gender equality, and what does 26

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Marie Louise Sunde Co-founder, AS ShesGotThis

Photos by Kristoffer Myhre

exist is difficult to translate for the purposes of the business community. And there are no user-friendly tools to measure gender equality sufficiently.

IMPACT ON GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

By addressing unconscious gender bias, AS ShesGotThis is targeting deep-seated ways of thinking and behaving that lead to issues like workplace harassment, inequity, and violence. The company’s two founders, Isabelle Ringnes and Marie Louise Sunde, have deep experience with workplace inequities in the tech and medical sectors. By creating a tech tool that levels the playing field, they are aiming to mitigate biased decisions in workplaces, resulting in less harassment and more equal opportunities for all genders.

Joy Anderson is the founder and president of Criterion Institute and a prominent leader at the intersection of business and social change. Her leadership and expertise have been at the forefront of the development of the social capital markets over the last 12 years, including her work helping to found the field of gender lens investing. Tia Subramanian is the director of Criterion’s program to combat gender-based violence. She has years of experience in philanthropic strategy, impact investing, and a range of gender equity initiatives, including supporting the design of innovative investment vehicles aimed at achieving social change.

WORLDCHANGING

WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS 28

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Meet the creators and makers, movers and shakers who are transforming business — and the planet — for the better.

eal talk: the first woman ever to grace the list of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies was the late Katherine Graham of The Washington Post Co. in 1972, and as recently as 1995, there were zero — yep, zero — female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. In 2017, the share of female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies reached an all-time high of 6.4 percent, with 32 women heading major firms, but that share fell this year to 4.8 percent after several high-profile women left their posts. The playing field is certainly not level yet, but that won’t stop us from celebrating the women on the front line of transforming business for the better. We introduced the first annual World-Changing Women’s Summit in February 2018, where 175 established and emerging female leaders convened at 1440 Multiversity in a magical setting nestled among the redwoods to nourish themselves, connect with each other, and strategize about

how to elevate humanity. As a virtual summit of sorts, we launched our inaugural list of badass women in business in our 2018 winter issue, and this year we’re back with another summit and list to continue putting a spotlight on the courageous female-identifying game-changers paving the way for positive global impact. This list is comprised of social entrepreneurs (whose business models solve cultural or environmental issues), corporate leaders (who drive the success of their conscious companies), “intrapreneurs” (who innovate and impart change from within a company’s structure), thought leaders (who are transforming global paradigms), and impact investors (who are directing capital to conscious business ventures). The 2019 lineup is not even close to an exhaustive list, but we feel confident it’ll leave you inspired. Ball’s in your court, Fortune 500.

WORLDCHANGING

WORLD-CHANGING WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT: “The saying ‘Comparison is the thief of joy’ resonates with me, especially in a social-media-saturated society where everyone appears to be living their best lives. Although difficult, fully embracing the pace and timing of our own progress is key to being an effective leader.” Photo by Keith Walters

RAHAMA WRIGHT

FOUNDER AND CEO, SHEA YELEEN // WASHINGTON, DC Rahama Wright’s health-and-beauty company is more than meets the eye. After observing her Ghanaian mother, who was not allowed to attend school because of her gender, navigate a new culture as an immigrant in America, Wright developed a passion for women’s rights globally. She studied international affairs in college and joined the Peace Corps soon after, where she lived in a small West African village. It was there that the idea for her shea-butter skincare company was born. Wright founded Shea Yeleen with two key issues to address: 1) the overuse of chemical and

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synthetic ingredients in beauty products and 2) the cycle of poverty created through supply chains that do not fairly compensate small-scale farmers and producers for their raw material. In the shea butter sector, the majority of the 16 million African women who are active members of the supply chain each receive less than $2 a day from their labor, and yet they are part of multi-billion-dollar industries including hair/skincare and confectionery. Shea Yeleen partners with these women and invests in their businesses to produce topof-the-line organic, fair-trade skincare products, generating living wages for women in small villages in the Tamale region of Ghana. HEAR Wright on the World-Changing Women Podcast

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

ERIN PATINKIN

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, OVENLY

Photo by Carey MacArthur

// BROOKLYN, NEW YORK Erin Patinkin and Ovenly co-founder Agatha Kulaga were untrained bakers who met in a food-centered book club and decided to launch a bakery. They began by selling to existing cafes and gourmet grocers and now have five retail bakeshops (and more on the way) in Manhattan and Brooklyn and hundreds of wholesale clients. On top of peddling sweets, Patinkin calls for “radical responsibility” in business. Ovenly has reduced its landfill waste by 70 percent over the past two years and works with various job training programs to hire people who have historically been denied economic opportunities, including formerly incarcerated young people and political refugees. Through her writing and her podcast, “Start to Sale” on Vox Media, which she co-hosts with Natasha Case, founder and CEO of Coolhaus, Patinkin is also a thought leader in entrepreneurship, providing training materials and resources to owners of burgeoning businesses to help them build their companies.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“I love this advice from Jane Wurwand, founder of Dermalogica: ‘I know that you can be a strong and effective leader, and you can also be kind. Kind doesn’t mean weak. I think that oftentimes people feel you have to be unkind in order to appear strong; I think it’s the exact opposite. … I think it’s important to always lead with empathy.’”

Photo by Brian McConkey

EILEEN MURPHY BUCKLEY FOUNDER AND CEO, THINKCERCA // CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Eileen Murphy Buckley is working to close the gap between basic literacy and 21st-century literacy skills. She taught English for 15 years in Chicago public schools before working at the school district’s central office overseeing more than 100,000 students across 115 schools, where she realized that the challenge of preparing students for life after graduation was not being addressed by existing pedagogy. Alongside a handful of veteran educators and academics, Murphy Buckley developed ThinkCERCA, a flexible literacy framework that boosts critical thinking. The program teaches students how to make claims, support their claims with evidence, explain their reasoning, address counterarguments, and use audience-appropriate language, skills that Murphy Buckley strongly believes are the most effective for both improving achievement on assessments and preparing students for post-secondary life. ThinkCERCA is the only personalized literacy platform to include all four core subjects: language arts, social studies, science, and math. An independent evaluation of 26 education-technology products showed that the platform has helped students achieve an extra year’s worth of growth in one school year.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Make decisions based on customer actuals.” CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WORLD-CHANGING WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS

AYLA SCHLOSSER

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, RESONATE // KIGALI, RWANDA Ayla Schlosser knows that investing in women is smart economics, but cultivating new skills and providing access to education is not enough. At Resonate, the programs aren’t focused on teaching hard skills — they’re helping women and girls shift their mindsets and shrink the gender-related confidence gap. Since its inception in 2013, Resonate has trained more than 5,500 women and girls in its leadership-building framework and has partnered with more than 50 organizations in East Africa. As a result of these trainings, 45 percent of participants take on new leadership roles, 38 percent start businesses, and 24 percent get a new job or academic opportunity.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“One of the most important elements of leadership is knowing when to give up ownership. The most intractable problems in our world are best solved by those who are directly impacted by them. That is why next year I am stepping down as CEO and transitioning leadership of Resonate to Norette Turimuci, the organization’s East African director. I will support the organization as a member of the board of directors while continuing to create systemic change for this global problem.”

Photo by Stephen Smith

CAROLINE DUELL

FOUNDER AND CEO, ALL GOOD // MORRO BAY, CALIFORNIA Caroline Duell started her body-care company All Good to rebuild a connection between humans and their surroundings. Duell is more than committed to creating cruelty-free products that are organic, plant-based, and good to the environment. Her track record includes following the work of coral reef scientist Dr. Craig Downs to create a set of criteria that defines “reef-friendly” sun-protection products and developing a nationwide campaign that contributed to the historic legislation in Hawaii banning harmful sunscreen ingredients oxybenzone and octinoxate. All Good donates one percent of all sales to organizations that are creating direct solutions to environmental issues like The Conservation Alliance, United Plant Savers, and the Surfrider Foundation in Hawaii. As a Certified B Corp, the company also invests in the wellbeing of its employees, offering among many things a monthly box of organic fruits and vegetables grown on its farm.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

Photo courtesy: Resonate

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“Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. As soon as I settle into any type of monotonous groove, I’ve lost the leading edge and lost the curious drive for innovation. There is no way to be perfectly comfortable while breaking trail.”

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

NOVA COVINGTON

FOUNDER AND CEO, GODDESS GARDEN ORGANICS // BOULDER, COLORADO Nova Covington aims to make Earth cool again. After the birth of her daughter, Covington’s appreciation for nature grew into a pledge to clean up our oceans and leave the planet better off for the next generation. Since coral reefs support nearly a quarter of all marine life, and a healthy ocean can better combat the effects of global warming, Covington founded Goddess Garden Organics to create reef-safe sunscreen, skincare, and essential oil products made with benign materials and organic plants, and has also supported the Hawaiian ban on chemical sunscreens like oxybenzone and octinoxate.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT: “Follow your intuition.”

STEPH SPEIRS

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, SOLSTICE

Photo courtesy: Goddess Garden Organics

Photo courtesy: Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans

// CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS Steph Speirs is all about democratizing access to clean energy. In 2014 she co-founded Solstice, recognizing that consumers are often excluded from the rooftop solar market due to individual rooftop eligibility, homeownership status, and access to financing. Her company works with solar farms, community organizations, and households to provide a shared-solar option called “community solar.” At no additional cost, local residents can enroll in energy from solar arrays installed in a centralized location. Solstice has also created the EnergyScore, which analyzes data from customer payment records and other demographic data to predict future payment behavior without using their credit score. Solstice has connected customers with solar energy from 17 solar projects in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington, DC. The Solstice team, alongside its Multiply Solar partners, was also recently awarded rights to build about 70 shared solar projects on public housing buildings in Queens and Staten Island.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Great companies are built by great teams, not great founders.” HEAR Speirs on the World-Changing Women Podcast CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WORLDCHANGING

WORLD-CHANGING WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS

MELISSA GARREN

COO AND CHIEF SCIENTIST, PELAGIC DATA SYSTEMS // SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Melissa Garren is a marine biologist on a mission. She helped found Pelagic Data Systems in 2014 to address the interwoven challenges coastal communities face when it comes to food scarcity and the sustainability of fisheries. Pelagic Data Systems is raising the global standard for vessel tracking by bringing forth custom-made technology and data analytics in the form of an affordable, accessible, and rugged service that can document when a fishery’s product brought to market was legally caught, and it works for subsistence fishermen in dugout canoes and large industrial vessels alike. It is a powerful solution for the 95 percent of global fishing vessels currently lacking access to any data-collection platform. The company’s technology has already been deployed in hundreds of communities across 30 countries and recently won the National Geographic Marine Protection Prize.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Flexibility, adaptability, and compassion will always be your allies when figuring out what the right face of leadership is for you in any given moment. If you give the moment your undivided attention and are fully present, the answers to the question, ‘What should my strategy be here?’ will come much more swiftly.” Photo by Staci Giovino

KOMAL AHMAD

FOUNDER AND CEO, COPIA // SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Komal Ahmad says that hunger is not a scarcity problem; it’s a logistics problem. After inviting a homeless veteran to join her for lunch one day, she learned that he had not eaten in three days. At the same time, right across the street, UC Berkeley’s biggest dining hall was throwing away thousands of pounds of food. This experience inspired Ahmad to create Copia, a company out to both relieve hunger and solve food waste at scale. Ahmad has eliminated the logistical complexity of food donation by providing businesses with an automated pickup service that is made possible via Copia’s software and driver network integration. Meanwhile, the company helps businesses save money by using machine learning to provide predictive analytics for reducing over-purchasing and over-production.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Don’t avoid mistakes — fail fast and learn quickly. We try so hard in life to avoid mistakes, but it’s not about avoiding mistakes, it’s about learning from them. It’s about growing from them and not making the same one twice. It’s about what you’re going to do after the mistake was made.” SEE Ahmad at the 2019 World-Changing Women’s Summit

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Photo courtesy: Copia

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

MOLLY HAYWARD FOUNDER, CORA

// SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Molly Hayward is giving women a modern method for managing their periods. While working in Kenya she became increasingly aware of how often girls skip school during their periods due to a lack of access to pads. After looking deeper into the issue, Hayward created Cora, a company that provides feminine products and tackles many of the social issues and stigmas surrounding periods, including the tampon tax and period poverty. Since its launch, Cora has absorbed the cost of the tampon sales tax on behalf of its customers because of the company’s belief that women should not have to pay more to manage their bodies. For every Cora purchase, the company donates pads to girls in India and Kenya so that they can stay in school during their periods. To date, Cora has donated more than two million pads.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“The most exciting thing you can do as a company today is to be real. Connect with us like an old friend. Show us you care about the things we care about. Show us you can feel our pain and fears, but also share our joys and ambitions for the future.” SEE Hayward at the 2019 World-Changing Women’s Summit Photo courtesy: Cora

ZAHRA KASSAM

FOUNDER AND CEO, MONTI KIDS

HEAR Hayward on the World-Changing Women Podcast

// SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Zahra Kassam is closing the education gap in the most critical years of human development, those from birth to preschool. She founded Monti Kids, the only Montessori program delivered to the home for babies from birth to age 3. Every three months, families receive authentic Montessori toys, parental guides based on developmental research, and access to personalized support, classes, and a private community moderated by Montessori experts. Kassam herself is an internationally certified Montessori teacher for children ages 0-6, and in 2016 she was nominated for the Dalai Lama’s Unsung Heroes of Compassion Awards for her work with children.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Love is a crucial part of building a brand that resonates. Build your product with love, treat your team and your customers with love, and don’t forget to be kind and loving to yourself. Your business, and the world, will be better for it.” SEE Kassam at the 2019 World-Changing Women’s Summit Photo courtesy: Monti Kids CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WORLDCHANGING

CORPORATE LEADERS SUZY BATIZ

FOUNDER AND CEO, POO~POURRI // DALLAS, TEXAS Suzy Batiz has built an empire by tackling taboo topics and challenging societal norms. Fed up with the lack of natural bathroom-odor solutions, Batiz created Poo~Pourri, the cult-favorite, all-natural before-you-go toilet spray. Batiz grew the company into an enterprise worth $400 million without borrowing a cent or enlisting a single investor. She is also the force behind supernatural, a new line of all-natural, sustainably sourced cleaning products. Today, Batiz teaches other entrepreneurs the feminine approach to business — how to tune in to intuition, turn

on your body’s intelligence, and dive into creative energy to achieve a naturally abundant flow state — and she strives to share this process with as many people as she can through her lectures and workshops.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT: “I believe the most powerful leadership tool is a commitment to constant personal growth. The world is always evolving and as an effective leader, I have to commit to doing the same.” HEAR Batiz on the World-Changing Women Podcast

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Photo by Daniel N. Johnson CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

CORPORATE LEADERS

KIT CRAWFORD

OWNER AND CO-CEO, CLIF BAR & COMPANY

// EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA Kit Crawford’s conscious business philosophy at Clif Bar & Company is not so much about a triple bottom line as it is a quintuple bottom line. In 2001, when the energy-bar industry was experiencing rapid growth and consolidation, Crawford and husband Gary Erickson made the decision not to sell their company. Staying private allowed them to further develop a business model which focuses on sustaining each of Clif Bar’s “Five Aspirations”: business, brand, people, community, and the planet. Just a handful of Clif Bar & Company’s many sustainability efforts include diverting 85 percent of its office waste from local landfills, doing business in a LEED® Platinum-certified headquarters, and implementing an employee stock ownership plan starting in 2010. The company has become a category leader among health and lifestyle bars, with double-digit compounded annual growth over the past decade, proving that sustainability is good for business.

KELLY SWETTE

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, SWEET EARTH ENLIGHTENED FOODS // MOSS LANDING, CALIFORNIA

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Leadership is a lot about listening to yourself. Don’t ignore your feelings. Act on your intuition. Be brave with your decision even if it goes against the grain.” SEE

Photo courtesy: Sweet Earth Enlightened Foods

Crawford at the 2019 World-Changing Women’s Summit

Kelly Swette wants to change the way people eat. After many years working for major brands like Calvin Klein, PepsiCo, and Baxter Labs, Swette put her global marketing career on hold to raise a family and pursue her passion for international cuisine and organic gardening. An engineer by training, marketer by trade, and foodie by love, Swette and husband Brian Swette started Sweet Earth Enlightened Foods on the belief that the world needs more sustainable food systems. Under Swette’s leadership, Sweet Earth has produced over 5.7 million pounds of plant-based protein — that’s the equivalent of avoiding 37.5 billion gram equivalents of greenhouse gases (CO2) and saving 119 million BTUs of energy. As for health, that’s 121.5 million grams of saturated fat not consumed. Beyond their business, Swette and her husband Brian Swette founded the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University to study food systems from a holistic standpoint and uncover real solutions to the environmental impacts of the food industry. Kelly is also on the board of directors for Goddess Garden, an environmentally conscious skincare company (see more about Goddess Garden on page 33).

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Clearly write out and articulate your vision; hire positive, can-do people for your team; and lead by example. I believe passion and enthusiasm is contagious — a leader must spread the energy across the entire team!” Photo by Stuart Schwartz CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WORLDCHANGING

BITA MILANIAN

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL MARKETING, RIBBON // LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Bita Milanian is on a mission to use technology for good, and her leadership has no corporate boundaries. A refugee and immigrant from Iran, she is an advocate for Iranian Americans and for diversity in the workplace, balancing her duties as a senior executive of Ribbon with traveling the world to help others. She mentors the next generation of women and works to bring opportunities to women and girls in technology and telecommunications — on top of driving tremendous growth in corporate social responsibility programs as part of her role in a fast-growing global tech company.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Working hard gives us a clear head, but when it comes to making the most important decisions, listening to our hearts helps us chart the course in ways where many benefit, and we can feel proud of not only our accomplishments, but our positive impacts on people’s lives.”

Photo by Hamid Moslehi

LYNN JURICH

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, SUNRUN // SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Lynn Jurich loves the planet. After her travels in China, where she says she witnessed shocking levels of pollution, Jurich decided to leave her job in private equity and start Sunrun, a solar energy company. Along with co-founder Edward Fenster, Jurich invented the business model “solar as a service,” which unlocked consumer demand for clean, affordable energy that could be generated directly from residential rooftops. Sunrun, which is now the nation’s largest dedicated provider of residential solar, storage, and energy services, operates in 22 states, has 3,000 employees, serves over 200,000 customers, and has saved those customers more than $200 million in electric bills.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“If you make an agreement with somebody, keep it. If for some reason situations change and you can’t, then you need to go renegotiate it. Once you force yourself to make those renegotiations, you’re more disciplined on what you promise in the first place. Then you can operate as a company without having to check on people all the time. I think that eliminates so much of the politics and friction in how we do business.” READ more of Jurich’s story on page 58 HEAR Jurich on the World-Changing Women Podcast

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Photo courtesy: Sunrun

CORPORATE LEADERS

17 DONNA CARPENTER CO-CEO, BURTON

// BURLINGTON, VERMONT In her own words, Donna Carpenter is an accidental entrepreneur. She met her husband, Jake Burton Carpenter, in 1981 after he started his namesake snowboard venture, and over time Carpenter’s position within the company has grown. Fifteen years ago, when Burton’s rapid growth weakened the diversity of the team, Carpenter realized something must be done to grow the women’s side of the business. Through Burton’s Women’s Leadership Initiative and other efforts, the company’s female leadership went from under 10 percent in 2002 to 45 percent today. Carpenter assumed the CEO role in 2016, became coCEO alongside John Lacy in 2018, and has continued to tackle gender inequality within her workplace.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Create your own personal board of directors. We all need mentors, people who can give us a fresh perspective or coach us through a challenge. The people on your board of directors should be your biggest cheerleaders and critics.”

READ more of Carpenter’s story on page 52 HEAR Carpenter on the World-Changing Women Podcast

Photo by Jesse Dawson CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WORLD-CHANGING WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS

INTRAPRENEURS

Photo courtesy: First United Bank

Photo courtesy: PwC

SHANNON SCHUYLER

PRINCIPAL, CHIEF PURPOSE OFFICER, & CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY LEADER, PWC; PRESIDENT, PWC CHARITABLE FOUNDATION // NEW YORK, NEW YORK Shannon Schuyler is a tireless advocate for responsible business. Under her leadership, PwC is addressing the growing opportunity gap in the US by supporting innovative solutions to societal challenges. In 2012 Schuyler launched Earn Your Future® (EYF), a five-year $190 million investment that equipped 3.5 million students and educators with resources and training to improve their financial literacy. At the end of that commitment, Schuyler nearly doubled the EYF investment with Access Your Potential®, a five-year, $320 million commitment to digitally up-skill underserved youth as well as provide them with the financial and career-selection skills they need to change the trajectory of their lives. Through this initiative, PwC is working to reach 10 million students, train 100,000 teachers, and guide 10,000 mentees. Schuyler works alongside PwC’s US Chairman, Tim Ryan, to drive the strategy for CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, which it was a founding signatory of in July 2017. With more than 520 signatories, the pledge is the largest ever CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Innovation is rewarded. Execution is worshipped.”

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MELISSA PERRIN

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND SENIOR CULTURE OFFICER, FIRST UNITED BANK // DURANT, OKLAHOMA Melissa Perrin is all about making sure stakeholders are cashing in on physical, mental, financial, and spiritual wellbeing. Ten years ago, the First United Bank executive team (including Perrin) transformed the large financial organization into a conscious business, with the mission of inspiring and empowering others to “spend life wisely.” Perrin leads this effort to help all of the company’s stakeholders (employees, customers, partners, community, and shareholders) live a well-rounded, fulfilled life through four key pillars: faith, financial wellbeing, wellness, and personal growth. As a result, First United Bank has been named one of Oklahoma’s best places to work for 10 years in a row and has a high-performer turnover rate of less than 3 percent.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Only work on the work that only you can do. I love this advice and remind myself of it almost daily. It reminds me to focus on my unique purpose and the gifts I have been given. It also encourages me to delegate and not hold on to work that I could teach others to do so that they have the opportunity to learn and grow while allowing me to invest my energy in new dreams and initiatives.”

INTRAPRENEURS

SUNYA OJURE

DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY, SALESFORCE // SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Sunya Ojure is passionate about creating happy, healthy communities. As the director of sustainability for Salesforce, she leads sustainability communications, event greening, and stakeholder engagement initiatives. She has acted as a champion of Pledge 1%, an integrated philanthropy movement Salesforce co-founded to encourage other companies to leverage their resources for social impact. With Sunya’s leadership, Salesforce has achieved net-zero greenhouse gas emissions globally; the company delivers a carbon-neutral cloud service to all customers and is on track to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2022.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Know yourself and know your audience. If you’re able to be honest with yourself about your passions, motivations, strengths, and weaknesses, then you can build an amazing, diverse, high-performing team around you. Ask yourself what keeps people up at night and then set about solving that pain point. When you bring value to the table, others are much more likely to support you and your work in return.”

Photo courtesy: Salesforce

DAYA FIELDS

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, ALAFFIA // OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON Daya Fields’ work isn’t just about branding or profits; it’s about strengthening Alaffia’s mission, brand, and unique social enterprise. Each sale of one of the company’s Fair Trade skincare products supports Alaffia’s empowerment work in Togo, West Africa, the twelfth-poorest country in the world. Alaffia employs more than 700 cooperative members and pays fair-trade wages to over 14,000 Togolese citizens, making the company one of the largest employers in Central Togo — second only to the Togolese government. The company is also Fair-for-Life-certified, which means it pays its members four times the living wage in Togo and provides full healthcare benefits as well as one month or more of paid time off. Fields has had her team create marketing-led business processes, which have led to the promotion of gender equality, diminishing poverty, reducing component waste, and empowering a community that previously was voiceless, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Seek others’ perspective on larger decisions, even when you think you know all there is to consider.” Photo by Taylor Gibbs CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WORLDCHANGING

WORLD-CHANGING WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS

THOUGHT LEADERS ERIN WADE

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, HOMEROOM RESTAURANT // OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA Erin Wade thrives on finding purpose — and on mac and cheese. Having an unfulfilled craving for her favorite comfort food one night inspired the former lawyer to pursue her dream of opening Homeroom in Oakland, California, an eatery dedicated not only to her family’s mac-and-cheese recipe but also to challenging the norms of the restaurant industry. Over the last decade, Wade has built Homeroom into a thriving business, employing over 100 people, creating an inclusive and diverse workplace culture, and becoming a staple of the Bay Area food scene. Wade pays higher-than-average entry-level hourly wages, practices profit sharing across the company, and employs a leadership team of which 70 percent are women and people of color. An unexpected outcome of Wade’s conscious leadership style is the development of a new system that has received national attention for drastically reducing the number of incidents of sexual harassment committed by customers against team members.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Spend a lot of time getting to know yourself. Where I’ve stumbled over the past eight years is when I lacked the self-awareness to see where I even was and what was keeping me and the team from moving forward.”

READ more of Wade’s story on page 62 SEE

Photo courtesy: Homeroom

Wade at the 2019 World-Changing Women’s Summit

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CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

HEAR Wade on the World-Changing Women Podcast

THOUGHT LEADERS

MINDY CORPORON

CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, FAITH ALWAYS WINS FOUNDATION // OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS Mindy Corporon knows the heartache and healing process brought on by gun violence all too well. Her father and teenage son were murdered by a white supremacist in a 2014 shooting at a Jewish community center in Kansas City. Now she’s on a mission to build resilience, transform hurt into love, and drive kindness across the nation as a spokesperson and activist. Corporon believes that when a tragedy occurs, a healthy workplace is a critical part of the healing process. Only months after the tragic hate crime, she founded the Faith Always Wins Foundation. After three years, Corporon stepped down from her job as CEP of a wealth-management firm to invest 100 percent of her time in developing resources to assist others with healing after a tragedy. The Foundation stands on three pillars: kindness, faith, and healing. The Foundation also formed a community-wide event, SevenDays: Make a Ripple, Change the World, and high school programs for productive inter-faith dialogue.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“My dad told me at a young age, ‘Do not be afraid to fail, and when you do, admit it.’ Because of this, I have confidence to take risks, knowing I will learn from the leap or the fall I take.”

SARU JAYARAMAN

Photo by Overflow Storytelling

Photo by Sekou Luke

CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, ROC UNITED & ROC ACTION; DIRECTOR, FOOD LABOR RESEARCH CENTER // OAKLAND, CALIFONIA Saru Jayaraman is a warrior for the restaurant industry. In response to 9/11, the young organizer and attorney joined forces with displaced World Trade Center workers to create the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) of New York, which has organized those who work in restaurants to win workplace justice campaigns, conduct research and policy work, partner with socially responsible restaurateurs, and launch cooperatively owned restaurants. Over the last 17 years, the ROC has grown into a national organization with 130,000 restaurant workers, employers, and consumers fighting for better wages and working conditions.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT: “Nevertheless, she persisted.”

CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WORLDCHANGING

WORLD-CHANGING WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS

25 JANA MCCLELLAND CO-OWNER AND FARMER, MCCLELLAND’S DAIRY // PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA Jana McClelland starts her day by strolling around her 100-percent-organic 3,300-acre dairy farm. The third-generation dairywoman is changing the face of farming and blazing a climate-smart trail for others. In the next five years, McClelland’s carbon farming and manure management methodologies will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an amount of carbon that is the equivalent of saving 46.8 million miles of driving by standard passenger vehicles. With the help of Organic Valley, her farm’s work at local and regional events is already shaping the conversation around how farms in California and other states might follow suit.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Get involved! Lead by example. Don’t just sit on the sidelines. By nature, people are scared to do things differently. Once they can see other people implementing new practices and being successful, they are not as scared to try it themselves.”

Photo courtesy: Organic Valley

THOUGHT LEADERS

Photo courtesy: Konda Mason

KONDA MASON

CO-FOUNDER, JUBILEE PARTNERS; STRATEGIC DIRECTOR, THE RUNWAY PROJECT; CO-FOUNDER, IMPACT HUB OAKLAND // OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA Konda Mason holds an impressive resume. Her career in the entertainment industry as a Grammy-winning artist manager in London turned to being an Academy Award-nominated film producer in Hollywood, and then an Off-Off-Broadway theater producer in New York. Mason, along with her partners Laura Louie and actor Woody Harrelson, owned the first home delivery service of organic food in the Los Angeles area and were the first to negotiate an organic food section in a major grocery store in 1997. Her roles as a social entrepreneur, earth and social justice activist, and spiritual teacher include being co-founder of Jubilee Partners, a business of wisdom-keepers and wealth-holders exploring the deep end of the pool in direct impact investing; being strategic director of The Runway Project, a micro-lending fund for African-American entrepreneurs intended to close the “Friends and Family” gap in funding opportunities; being co-founder of the annual COCAP conference in Oakland, focused on “Building the We Economy”; and being co-founder and CEO of Impact Hub Oakland, an inspiring co-working space that connects social entrepreneurs and supports their missions.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“We have bought into a mindset of lack, of not-enoughness, of hyper-individualism, creating disconnection. So, [change] begins with our minds and opening up and moving through that ignorance. The root word of ignorance is ‘ignore.’ Ignoring is a willful act. There’s an abundance of information everywhere. Be curious and move with that curiosity. Create an internal space to understand who we need to ‘be’ to create the world that we really want.” SEE Mason at the 2019 World-Changing Women’s Summit

Photo by Niall Kingston Photography

ROBIN GENTRY MCGEE

FOUNDER, FUNCTIONAL FORMULARIES // BARNARD, VERMONT Robin Gentry McGee is revolutionizing clinical nutrition. In 2005, after her father endured a freak accident and was placed on a feeding tube, Gentry McGee learned that his feeding-tube formula was high in sugar and other questionable ingredients and that there was no wholesome alternative available. As a chef who specializes in whole foods, she became determined to solve this lack of nutrition in medical liquid diets and devised a recipe that significantly improved her father’s condition. Gentry McGee founded Functional Formularies in 2006, and after many years of researching and investing her life savings to get the product to market, she and husband Brian McGee created Liquid Hope and other formulas. Liquid Hope is the world’s first and only feeding-tube meal replacement formula that is certified as 100 percent organic, nutritionally complete, made from whole foods, and shelf-stable — and now billable through insurance and sold worldwide, further demonstrating Gentry McGee’s fervent belief in the famous mantra, “Let food be thy medicine.” In November 2018, Swander Pace Capital acquired Functional Formularies, and McGee continues to work closely with the company.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“When pursuing your passion, mission, or purpose, always seek help along the way. If someone tells you that it can’t be done, this only means they are showing you their limitations, not yours.” CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WORLDCHANGING

WORLD-CHANGING WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS

IMPACT INVESTORS

ARLAN HAMILTON

FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, BACKSTAGE CAPITAL // LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Arlan Hamilton was homeless when she built a venture capital fund from scratch in 2015. As founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, she is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are of color, women, and/or LGBT. Since its inception, Backstage Capital has invested nearly $5 million in more than 100 startup companies led by underestimated founders.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“I try to practice what I preach, because I know I can’t tell someone what to do then not do it myself.” Photo by Sarah Deragon

MONICA JAIN

FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FISH 2.0 // CARMEL, CALIFORNIA Monica Jain believes we can balance our love of seafood with our love — and need — for diverse sea life in healthy oceans. She was inspired to launch Fish 2.0 in 2012 when she saw that impact investors looking at food systems, local foods, and farm-to-table distribution were overlooking seafood. Fish 2.0 is a global network and competition for investment opportunities with the goal of building connections among entrepreneurs, investors, and seafood experts in order to spur growth, investment, and innovation in the sustainable seafood sector — and the enterprise has become a powerhouse in the sustainable seafood world. Finalists in the competition get instant credibility as well as key connections; at least 75 percent of finalists in Fish 2.0 2017 made connections during the program that resulted in investment, new partners, or new customers. This has made Fish 2.0 a launch pad for high-impact businesses.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“A rising tide lifts all boats! If we help others achieve their dreams, then we will achieve ours.” 46

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CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

Photo courtesy: Fish 2.0

Photo courtesy: RSF

IMPACT INVESTORS

DEB NELSON

VICE PRESIDENT, CLIENT AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, RSF SOCIAL FINANCE // SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Deb Nelson has advanced economic justice, women’s rights, and diversity in leadership through impact investing and social enterprise for more than two decades. After a 15-year tenure as the executive director of Social Venture Network, a community of over 500 mission-driven entrepreneurs and investors, Nelson joined RSF Social Finance, where she concentrates on empowering women in the field of impact investing and training other conscious leaders to leverage capital for positive change. For the past two years, Nelson has led RSF’s Women’s Capital Collaborative, the first initiative of its kind to provide integrated capital for women-led organizations that support women and girls. To date, the Collaborative has raised over $4 million for women-led ventures and has disbursed nearly $2 million to support groundbreaking social enterprises benefiting women. Nelson is also the driving force behind RSF’s Integrated Capital Institute, a nine-month program dedicated to training the next generation of financial activists.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Be brave, and keep your eyes on the prize.”

NATHALIE MOLINA NIÑO CEO, BRAVA INVESTMENTS // NEW YORK, NEW YORK Nathalie Molina Niño launched her first tech startup at the age of 20. A technologist and coder by training, Molina Niño is a consummate entrepreneur and a storyteller at heart. She led the launch of SELF MADE, the company, mobile app, and learning platform curated from the New York Times Best Sellers list book “Self Made” by Telemundo’s former Entertainment President Nely Galán, co-authored with Guy Garcia. With the mission of leveling the playing field for women entrepreneurs, she also co-founded Entrepreneurs@Athena at the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College of Columbia University. Molina Niño launched BRAVA Investments to focus on creating wealth for a billion women rather than obsessing over creating the next woman billionaire. As CEO of BRAVA and author of “Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs,” co-authored by Sara Grace, Molina Niño is committed to delivering returns to investors while making an economic impact on women at scale.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Impostor syndrome is real. And it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been at it, most of us don’t succeed at silencing those skeptical and sometimes cruel voices in our head. Sometimes the best you can do is drown them out with other things, like this mantra gifted to me by my mentor, the amazing opera singer Awilda Verdejo, that goes simply, ‘I am the source of my own supply.’” READ more of Molina Niño’s story on page 66

Photo by Tanya Malott CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WORLDCHANGING

WORLD-CHANGING WOMEN IN CONSCIOUS BUSINESS

KRISTIN HULL

FOUNDER, CEO, AND CIO, NIA IMPACT CAPITAL // OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA Kristin Hull is working to empower women — and their finances — so that they are able to live fulfilled lives as well as direct their money toward the issues that matter. Hull started Nia Impact Capital — “Nia” is of Swahili origin and translates to “purpose” — seeking to address some of the world’s most pressing environmental and social issues. Her Nia Global Solutions Equity Portfolio currently has over $20 million dollars working toward six solution themes: a sustainable planet; healthcare; natural and organic foods; sustainable and affordable transportation; education, communication, and financial services; and affordable housing. Hull’s investment philosophy also boasts a heavy emphasis on inclusive workplaces and thriving communities. The Nia Global Solutions Portfolio weaves a gender lens into its process of choosing companies; all companies in the portfolio have women in executive leadership positions or on the board of directors. Nia Community Investments has deployed more than $5 million in investments and loans in its community since 2010, and the Nia Community Foundation has granted over $1 million since 2007. Photo courtesy: Cornerstone Capital Group

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Walk the walk, and lead by example. Make change fun, inclusive, and irresistible.”

ERIKA KARP

FOUNDER AND CEO, CORNERSTONE CAPITAL GROUP // NEW YORK, NEW YORK Erika Karp believes socially conscious investing is the most financially sound investing. With a deep, fundamental understanding of investment research, corporate governance, and client advisory work, Karp and her team at Cornerstone Capital Group have learned that the systemic integration of environmental, social, and governance performance is critical to an investment process allowing for robust risk-adjusted return analysis. With this systems-based investment philosophy, Cornerstone Capital Group drives capital toward positive social impact on issues ranging from climate change, resource scarcity, and waste elimination to gender and racial equity, sustainable food systems, and healing the seas.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT: Photo by In Her Image Photography

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CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

“You build trust with a combination of credibility and intimacy while minimizing risk as best you can. And trust then allows for innovation.”

IMPACT INVESTORS

Photo by Teresa Lathrop

LISA KLEISSNER Photo by Suzette Hibble

BETSY MOSZETER

COO AND PARTNER, GREEN ALPHA ADVISORS, LLC // BOULDER, COLORADO When Betsy Moszeter learned about impact investing after 14 years of traditional investing, she was excited but could not bear the fact that many of the portfolios that claimed to advance the cause of sustainability were riddled with companies that were doing more harm than good. At the beginning of 2015 Moszeter joined Green Alpha, where she is building a resilient, scalable company that offers environmentally and socially innovative portfolios and educates wealth advisors and their clients about creating change with the power of their investment portfolio. Rather than taking an existing index of stocks and screening it to create something marginally greener, Green Alpha starts from scratch. They begin with a model of a sustainable global economy and then conduct deep research to identify leading companies that are building this economy and creating innovative products and services that are solutions to the world’s greatest systemic risks.

CO-FOUNDER AND BOARD CHAIR, TONIIC // BIG SUR, CALIFORNIA Lisa Kleissner is on a mission to change the way people invest. When she and her husband Charly came into wealth in 1999, Kleissner knew that their journey would be about redefining how wealth can serve both humanity and the planet. In 2000, the couple launched the KL Felicitas Foundation with $10 million. The foundation actively advocates its impact-investing strategy, which connects the entrepreneurial spirit and business discipline of social enterprise with the significant capital of a growing network of impact investors. Today, KL Felicitas Foundation’s 99.5 percent impact portfolio provides models for a broad range of investors. In 2009, Kleissner co-founded Toniic, a network of impact investors. About two-thirds of Toniic investors, with portfolios ranging in size from $3 million to $1 billion, have pledged to run a 100-percent impact-investing portfolio and have their financial and impact results reported on anonymously to be used as a guide for other investors. In 2005, Kleissner co-founded Social-Impact International, a program that enables social entrepreneurs worldwide to develop and grow sustainable, scalable enterprises with high measurable social impact. She also brings her passion to her home state: in 2013 she founded Hawaii Investment Ready, an accelerator for helping innovative island social enterprises scale.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“Be authentic. Nobody succeeds by trying to be someone else. Being yourself, especially as a woman in so many industries dominated by men, can feel uncomfortable, but it’s nowhere near as uncomfortable as pretending to be someone you’re not. Happiness and success can only be achieved by developing and using strengths that are truly yours and are consistent with your deep values.”

LEADERSHIP INSIGHT:

“The 80/20 rule. Nothing is perfect. If we celebrate the 80 percent that is working and focus on solutions for the remainder, we will go farther faster.”

CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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WOMEN IN

Photos courtesy of Burton

(PRO)MOTION How Burton Snowboards CEO Donna Carpenter made cutting-edge changes to increase the company’s percentage of women in leadership positions

Carpenter led Burton’s Women’s Leadership Initiative and other gender-equality efforts, growing the company’s female leadership from under 10 percent in 2002 to 45 percent today. CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

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SPOTLIGHT

onna Carpenter knows a thing or two about being a female business leader. She met her husband, Jake Burton Carpenter, in 1981, not long after he started his namesake snowboard venture, and for over 30 years she has played a key role in Burton’s success. In 2016 Carpenter assumed the role of CEO and in 2018 shared her title with John Lacy following his three-year tenure as Burton’s president. Carpenter describes herself as an “accidental entrepreneur,” and realizes that it took strong nudges of encouragement from her husband for her to believe she was worthy of her ever-increasing responsibility within the company. “It’s typical of women,” Carpenter says of this confidence gap between genders. “With a promotion, a woman will give you five reasons why she’s not ready. A man will give you five reasons why he should’ve had that job yesterday.” Carpenter experienced an aha moment 15 years ago when the company’s rapid growth diluted the team’s diversity and inclusion, stifling innovation and limiting their ability to recruit top talent and grow the women’s side of the business. In the excerpt from our interview with her below, Carpenter explains how Burton’s Women’s Leadership Initiative and other efforts have grown the company’s female leadership from under 10 percent in 2002 to 45 percent today. “We’ve always had a value of inclusion. That’s always been important to us. In the beginning, [snowboarders] were excluded from ski areas and we were excluded from their trade shows, so we always saw ourselves as a very inclusive community. “Jake and I woke up one day in 2002 [when we] looked around a room of leaders, and realized that, out of 25 global leaders, there were only two women. I think Jake knew, at a gut entrepreneurial level, that this was not going to bode well for our company — not just that it didn’t match our

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“In the beginning, [snowboarders] were excluded from ski areas and we were excluded from their trade shows,” says Burton CEO Donna Carpenter, “so we always saw ourselves as a very inclusive community.”

(

CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

“With a promotion, a woman will give you five reasons why she’s not ready. A man will give you five reasons why he should’ve had that job yesterday.”

(

In January 2017, Carpenter paid for employees to attend the Women’s March in Washington, DC. “It was an incredibly empowering experience, and everybody came back even more determined than ever to work on gender diversity here.”

values, which it didn’t, but that we were never going to be innovative, or be able to pull from the best talent, or reach the women’s market unless we had women in the room. “We created the Women’s Leadership Initiative, which was a comprehensive effort and is still ongoing. We looked at how to recruit more women, how to retain them, and how to proactively advance them. We looked at maternity leave but also, more importantly, post-maternity leave. Any woman in our company who’s in a high-profile product-marketing or sales role has to travel, so we put very progressive travel policies in place. For instance, you can take a caretaker with you, and we’ll pay to have a caretaker at home while you’re traveling

during the first 18 months of your child’s life. “We’ve also focused on mentoring. Women said they craved having a mentor. If you’re the only woman in the room, it’s harder to organically develop a mentoring relationship than if you’re ‘one of the guys.’ We started a mentoring program for female employees and launched an all-day women’s leadership training. After about five years, the mentoring program was so successful that we made it co-ed and available to all of our employees. We’ve since built a culture around mentoring and coaching, which all began with this pilot women’s group. “On the recruiting side, we told hiring managers that they had to have a female finalist for every leadership po-

sition they were looking to fill. If they didn’t have a female finalist, they had to go out and find one. If you have two equally qualified candidates, chances are you’re going to end up hiring the woman half the time. “There were a lot of things that we did that we continue to do to move the needle, and it’s made us a better company. If you ask any guy who works here, he would say that we’ve become more family-friendly and we see employees as whole human beings. We have a mentoring culture. That would never have happened without the Women’s Leadership Initiative.” Hear the full interview on the World-Changing Women Podcast at consciouscompanymedia.com/DonnaCarpenter

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COVER

HEART

SOLAR

How Sunrun co-founder and CEO Lynn Jurich beat the odds and built a $3 billion public solar empire

hen Edward Fenster approached his Stanford business school classmate Lynn Jurich in the mid-2000s about starting a solar energy company, Jurich’s impression of the industry was typical at the time: it’s expensive and will never become a mainstream technology. But when Fenster contended that solar energy was becoming cheaper and a viable pursuit, Jurich jumped on board. Little did they know how tumultuous the journey would be, as the infamous financial crisis of 2008 was just around the corner. “I’m a pretty methodical person,” Jurich says, “so when I think about that decision I wonder, ‘Why did I jump at that?’” Upon deeper reflection, Jurich finds a number of life experiences that caused her to act, including childhood memories of her mother encouraging a love of the outdoors. “There’s a rhythm to walking through nature that soothes the soul,” Jurich says. “It’s always been important to me to help preserve that.”

Her love for the planet strengthened after she witnessed what she says was a shocking amount of pollution while working in China. “I knew I wanted to have children one day, and I was convinced that this was our generation’s biggest problem to solve.” By the time Fenster’s proposal came along, it was only natural for Jurich to take the leap. “That palpable feeling that the world needs renewable energy allowed me to simply say, ‘Yeah, I’m in!’” The two graduate students started Sunrun out of Fenster’s attic in San Francisco with a simple yet ambitious mission: create a planet run by the sun.

A COMPETITIVE EDGE Jurich has always considered herself a fierce competitor, striving “to prove that women could do things just as well as men could.” This sock-it-to’em attitude revealed itself first in sports and then in her pursuit of math, engineering, and finance tracks in school. When Jurich called upon her network of Stanford alumni in the energy industry for insight on her new venture, she received a familiar source of motivation.

“Their response was: ‘Yes, solar is becoming a more viable option, but there are so many sophisticated people doing this that [yours] will never work,’” Jurich recalls. “What I heard very clearly was an implication that I wasn’t sophisticated, or that I was too young, naive, or inexperienced in energy for it to work.” Thus a fire was fueled. With a newfound zest, she and Fenster dove into a first-person market research project, reaching out to potential clients. “We called some of the early solar customers in those days, which were universities, public schools, governments, and some forward-thinking businesses, trying to understand what they wanted, what their needs were,” Jurich says. “Because it was a nascent industry, there wasn’t a lot of research — so we did our own, talking to anybody who would take our call.” The duo’s research paid off. “We quickly realized that there was strong interest in solar, but it was complex and expensive,” Jurich says. Then the aha moment came: “People will switch to solar if we can just make it easy.”

Sunrun is the largest dedicated provider of residential solar, storage, and energy services in the United States. The company operates in 22 states, has 3,000 employees, serves over 200,000 customers, and has saved those customers more than $200 million in electric bills.

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COVER SOLAR AS A SERVICE “There was a lot of investment going into solar panels to make them more efficient and cost-effective,” Jurich says, “but there weren’t a lot of people thinking about the business models to get these panels up on rooftops.” Jurich and Fenster pioneered a monthly billing model — solar as a service — similar to how people typically paid for utilities. Consumers buy the power, not the solar panels producing it; these Sunrun installs and

the curveball: after they had spent millions of dollars on their startup, the market crashed. The day Sunrun closed their first project finance fund in November 2008, the S&P hit an 11-year low. “When the markets collapsed, we were faced with: ‘Can we get the capital raised? Do we have to shut the business down?’” To add insult to injury, the subsidies available for solar changed, so they had to restart the business altogether. “We looked at each other and said, ‘We’re going to get it done because we have to; we

“As long as you’re consistent with your values, the decisions you make for short-term results are often the right ones for long-term results as well.” maintains. This model required the company to incur large up-front costs for solar panel installation (around $50,000 per home) and ask consumers to sign long-term contracts to pay for the electricity. “There were some early subsidies for it,” Jurich says. “Even though solar was fairly expensive 10 years ago compared to now, we could sell electricity for a slight premium versus what the utility company was selling it for, even with zero up-front costs for customers.” Convincing people to sign a longterm contract with a startup was not an easy feat — nor was financing the endeavor. “In retrospect, what we did was quite risky,” Jurich says. “We spent all of our own money, buying all these systems up front. We didn’t pay ourselves for quite a long time.”

A RENEWABLE SPIRIT The duo did raise $7 million from venture capital firms, but they were still spending all of that equity capital to purchase systems. And then came

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have no choice.’” It was a stressful time, Jurich admits, but eventually they were able to find a bank that had been less exposed to the subprime mortgage crisis and still had capital available to invest. “We convinced U.S. Bank to give us $40 million, which kept us going for the next year, through the crisis. We developed a track record that proved consumers wanted this, that people were paying their bills, that there was a deep market for solar. From that point forward, we’ve been able to steadily attract the capital to finance the business,” Jurich says. Sunrun has raised more than $3 billion worth of that capital over the last 10 years. Today, Sunrun is the largest dedicated provider of residential solar, storage, and energy services in the United States. Sunrun operates in 22 states, has 3,000 employees, serves over 200,000 customers, and has saved those customers more than $200 million in electric bills. “I don’t think we would’ve done

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anything different, but we questioned our sanity,” Jurich laughs. “Had we not been a little bit naive in what we were getting ourselves into, we would not have done it — the story of every entrepreneur on the planet.”

BEHIND THE SUCCESS Sunrun’s tremendous growth in the past decade boils down to two things, according to Jurich. The first is knowing your market; the second is building a business in a sector that’s somewhat difficult to enter in terms of competition. “I’m a big believer that you need these two dynamics,” she says. “Force of will and smart business skills are not enough, but you can be prepared. You can do the leg work on truly understanding what the consumer wants and figuring out whether or not you’re going to be in the unique position to deliver that in a [competitive] way.” The traditional utility industry is letting people down. “They are still burning dirty fuel, their prices continue to go up, and they are run inefficiently,” says Jurich. “The aging grid and infrastructure are often crashing during extreme weather, leaving people without power.” While it’s important to identity consumers’ needs, Jurich urges that as CEO or founder of the company, you have to do the work to talk to consumers yourself — not hire a salesperson to do it for you. Jurich’s early conversations with consumers enabled her to cultivate the resilience to endure the pressure and doubt in Sunrun’s early stages. “It was really important for me to have that personal conviction from talking to the customer,” she says. “I was able to say, ‘I see the need, and I have the vision for what this can be.’” Sunrun went public in 2015, and Jurich rejects out of hand the notion that there’s a tradeoff between accounting for the needs of stakeholders versus shareholders. “I do think people overestimate this tradeoff of short-term versus long-term [results]. I don’t think it’s so stark, and I don’t think it’s such a tradeoff. As

In August 2015 — with a one-monthold baby in tow — Jurich completed Sunrun’s IPO.

long as you’re consistent with your values, the decisions you make for short-term results are often the right ones for long-term results as well.”

MAKE IT LIGHT Jurich likes victorious outcomes. “I’m competitive,” she says. “I like to win. I believe that our mission is so important that we need the outcomes of more solar panels up on more roofs. But over the years I’ve learned to nourish the heart and the soul as well as deliver the outcomes. As a leader, that’s what I’ve grown to model and build into the culture and the values of the organization. We’ve gotten better and more attuned to that heart-and-soul part of the company, as well as the heart and soul of the people who come to help deliver the mission.” In this business, things can feel so serious — quarterly earnings, the planet, signing a 20-year contract with a customer. “I’ve really come around to realizing that you can make those

things fun and playful; you can make them light. If I find myself getting too serious, it’s a sign for me to look into it a little bit deeper. Is there some fear in there? What’s really going on? How do we actually zoom out and make this light?” On top of running a publicly traded company, Jurich has a 3-year-old and a 6-week-old, and her key to managing time and stress comes back to nourishment. “You need to nourish your mind, your spirituality, and your body,” she says. “You can’t ignore one of them, because it’s going to make the others fall apart.” On her list of practices is a three-mile walk to work on hilly San Francisco streets, frequent tennis matches, and a morning meditation session that has become “a huge life-changer.”

A BRIGHT FUTURE Jurich always bets on technology and consumer choice to drive the future.

“In the world right now, we’re so politicized. The environment and renewable energy are kind of political topics, yet if you look at any of the research, 80 percent of people believe we should move towards renewable energy. I just don’t know of any other political issue out there that has so much one-sided public support. I’m really hopeful that these horrible climate-change challenges we’re facing can be a real unifying force for humanity,” Jurich says. She is optimistic that if we invest in more rooftop solar and energy storage we can make our goods stronger, increase savings for consumers, and help improve the climate. “Since starting the company 10 years ago, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the advancements in technology. The cost of solar and storage, and the number of consumers who have switched to solar have far exceeded my expectations. I believe the next 10 years will bring similar surprises.”

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SPOTLIGHT

F D AND C MF RT How Homeroom co-founder Erin Wade’s collaborative workplace devised an innovative system for preventing sexual harassment from its customers When Erin Wade left her lawyering days behind to pursue her dream of opening a mac-and-cheese eatery called Homeroom in Oakland, California, her main goal, besides sharing her family recipe with the masses, was for the restaurant to be the best part of people’s day — for both guests and staff. Over the last decade, Wade has built Homeroom into a thriving business with an inclusive workplace culture, proving that it’s possible to be both profitable and progressive in the restaurant industry. Homeroom’s culture is rooted in four tenets: focusing on what makes customers and workers happy, building a diverse team of staff and leaders, using a mediation model drawn from restorative justice that empowers employees to be responsible and accountable, and developing a collaborative workplace so that people are involved in the decision-making process regarding any issues that affect them. “We encourage our staff to not only notify us of problems but to help create solutions,” Wade says. When they realized that sexual harassment from customers was a pervasive issue, the solution arose naturally from Homeroom’s well-established culture. “The staff felt empowered to hold a meeting with me, and we decided to turn it into a series of problem-solving sessions,” says Wade.

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The result of this collaborative brainstorm is the Management Alert Color System — or MAC System, for short — which has drastically reduced customer-based sexual harassment at Homeroom over the last four years. The innovative and yet remarkably simple system has received national attention from media outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times, and “20/20.” Wade was even asked to testify about Homeroom’s protocol in front of a US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Special Task Force studying harassment in the workplace. Here, Wade explains how the MAC System works, in her own words. “We sort behavior into three different color categories. Yellow is nothing more than a creepy vibe. Orange is a creepy vibe plus a comment that is not blatantly sexual. For instance, ‘I like your shirt.’ Depending on how someone says it, it can be gross or it can be completely benign. And then red is either an overtly sexual comment, like, ‘You look sexy in that shirt,’ or touching someone else’s body. “A server, host, or whoever is being impacted reports the color and then a manager has an automatic action to take. In the case of yellow, it’s actually staff choice. You can just alert the manager and say, ‘I have a yellow at Table 2. I want you to take over the table,’ and

Homeroomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culture is rooted in four tenets: focusing on what makes customers and workers happy, building a diverse team of staff and leaders, using a mediation model drawn from restorative justice that empowers employees to be responsible and accountable, and developing a collaborative workplace so that people are involved in the decision-making process regarding any issues that affect them.

Photos courtesy of Homeroom

SPOTLIGHT

The MAC System has received national attention from media outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times, and “20/20.” Wade was asked to testify about Homeroom’s protocol in front of a US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Special Task Force studying harassment in the workplace.

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CONSCIOUS COMPANY MAGAZINE

the manager does it, no questions asked. In the case of orange, the manager automatically has to take over the table. In the case of red, the manager automatically asks the guest to leave. “Honestly, when we came up with it, we thought it was just going to give us a way to get impacted employees out of bad situations. We didn’t think it was going to curtail the harassment, but what’s amazing is that it really has. When we first started using it, almost all the staff members at that meeting had their own ‘red’ stories. It was something that was relatively common. And now, almost four years later, almost no one has a ‘red’ story. It’s something that happens maybe once a year. We find ourselves asking, ‘Does anyone even remember the last time this happened?’ “It turns out that the most severe sexual harassment incidents don’t start there. Someone doesn’t start by putting their hand down someone’s shirt. They start by giving them a look from across the room, then making a low-level comment and seeing if the person comes back to the table and puts up with it. They keep testTHE MAC SYSTEM ing boundaries, and then they end up pushing COLOR REPORTED = really awful boundaries. ACTION TAKEN “It’s a great system because it gets predominantly women out of bad situations that make Creepy vibe = Staff choice them feel uncomfortable, even if nothing’s happened. They don’t have to justify themCreepy vibe + creepy comment = selves. And it’s really Manager takes over table easy for managers to use because it’s simple and effective. I don’t think this system would have An overtly sexual comment ever been created if it or unwanted physical touch = hadn’t been created by Manager asks guest to leave our staff themselves.” Hear the full interview on the World-Changing Women Podcast at consciouscompanymedia.com/ ErinWade

SPOTLIGHT

OUTCOMES OVER

OPTICS BRAVA Investments CEO Nathalie Molina Niño’s philosophy on gender-lens investing is unapologetically for-profit BY RACHEL ZURER AND MARY MAZZONI

athalie Molina Niño marches to the beat of her own drum. A technologist and coder by training, Molina Niño launched her first tech startup at the tender age of 20. In 2013, she co-founded Entrepreneurs@Athena, a training program for women entrepreneurs at Columbia University’s Barnard College. Three years later, she headed up the launch of SELF MADE, an entrepreneurship platform from media mogul and Telemundo alum Nely Galán. With her latest venture, BRAVA Investments, Molina Niño is out to back startups that support women, but in keeping with her fierce independent streak, she’s doing it her own way. BRAVA focuses on longview, later-stage investing in the style of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway — which means that unlike other upstart funds, it’s not interested in the latest unicorn or the next headline-grabbing IPO. In another departure from what’s expected, BRAVA is a women-focused investment fund that looks beyond companies with female founders.

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“Our thesis is rooted in the idea of investing in women, but in a slightly different way than my colleagues in the industry,” Molina Niño says. “I do what I call ‘outcomes over optics’ investing, which is to say I’m not so concerned with the gender of the founder or with the things that make nice, fancy, pink headlines. I’m more concerned with making sure the business model is substantive in a meaningful, measurable way. I want our investments to benefit as many women as possible — not just one or two founders, but on a truly global scale.” Molina Niño’s new book, “Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs,” hit store shelves in August 2018. We sat down with her to learn more about her unconventional approach to investing and her dream of lifting up the next generation of women with equity investing. BRAVA invests with a focus on women, but you hesitate to describe yourselves as “impact investors.” Why?

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NATHALIE MOLINA NIÑO: A lot of people equate impact with concessionary returns. At BRAVA, we invest with a strong impact lens, but scale is the name of the game for me. We’re hoping to get the attention of pension plans, endowments, and the other big-capital forces in the world — which means we’re unapologetically for-profit. I do not accept concessionary returns. We’re really cutthroat about our financials — not only because that’s our growth strategy, but also because I feel strongly that until we prove to people that investing in women is good business, it will never be mainstream. My goal is to make a gender-lens investing thesis so lucrative and so interesting — even for the non-impact sector — that it’s the sexy thing every allbusiness-all-the-time capital force wants to do. What makes BRAVA different from other gender-focused investors? NMN: When we first launched, we caught some heat. People wrote think-pieces [about BRAVA] to the

effect of, “I just read about this new investment platform that purports to support women, yet it looks like most of the partners are white men.” I wish those journalists had called me to ask about the reasoning behind those choices, because it wasn’t an accident. It was by design. White men have the power, the influence, and the capital. I decided that I’m not going to do this unless it involves them, and not just as allies — I don’t even use that word — but as a part of the process. We don’t need more cheerleaders. We need people to roll up their sleeves, get dirty, and come together to invest in women. How do you make sure your focus on scale and profit isn’t detrimental to the companies you fund? NMN: When I looked at women-focused funds and their portfolios, I found a lot of spray-and-pray, Peter Thiel-type thinking: You invest in 100 companies, knowing at least 90 of them will go bust, and hope one unicorn emerges. That feels extractive by design. How do we build societies by putting money, energy, and resources into a 90 percent failure rate? From a structural standpoint, BRAVA invests in five or six later-stage, larger-ticket companies that I’m sure are here to stay. These are companies with the potential to last, and my job is to help them double, triple, or quadruple in size. How did you develop your investment philosophy? “By keeping my bar on returns the same as everyone else’s, I hope to convince the market that funds like mine are a good investment,” Molina Niño says. Her book, “Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs,” hit store shelves in August 2018.

NMN: It’s rooted in my personal experience as a woman of color, quite honestly. If I were to tell you the thing that bothers me most about short-term thinking or the focus on who is in the leadership role [in most gender-lens impact investing], it would fundamentally be the lack of urgency — and I think that comes with privilege.

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SPOTLIGHT

When I ask gender-lens investors who exclusively fund female founders about their theory of change, I get what I call the virtuous-cycle answer: If we successfully invest in a woman who becomes the next Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, she becomes a billionaire philanthropist, and then she lifts up other women. I don’t deny the truth in that, but that scenario takes decades to play out. I grew up in the sweatshops of Los Angeles, and I know there are millions

change global population numbers. And who’s going to argue with me about whether or not the founder is female? That’s ridiculous. Whoever the founder is, this is something that can effect change for women in the here and now. Do you run into resistance when promoting this model? How do you deal with it? NMN: Resistance comes from all sides — often from progressive do-gooders

less Girl” if the only requirement for your gender-lens portfolio is having a certain number of women on the board. They can keep their statues and their headlines. I know my stance is controversial, but my hope is that naysayers won’t have much to say once the numbers start to come in. How do you choose companies that will impart that kind of systems-level change?

“If you’re selling me this idea that you create one woman billionaire and somehow the benefits trickle down to all of the other women in the world, you’re selling me trickle-down economics, and I don’t buy it.” of women who have zero interest in a theory of change that won’t make an impact for 30 years — if it ever does. If you’re selling me this idea that you create one woman billionaire and somehow the benefits trickle down to all of the other women in the world, you’re selling me trickle-down economics, and I don’t buy it. You can make it pink or dress it up as progressive, but it’s a flawed model. It’s not that I don’t think it’s important to invest in women founders, but I’m looking for scalable, long-view solutions that will impact women tomorrow. My philosophy is about systems-level change — and that goes beyond a founder, CEO, or board. Can you give us an example of a systems-level investment with the potential to positively impact women on a broad scale? NMN: Right now, we’re trying to take the birth control pill over the counter. If we’re successful, who cares who the founders are? Millions of women will suddenly have access to something they didn’t have for decades. If we can make it affordable, we have the potential to

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who feel married to a model they’ve used for a long time. People tell me, “You think entrepreneurship can solve all problems.” Maybe I am a little myopic, but I know we haven’t maximized that tool yet. We haven’t used entrepreneurship enough. Philanthropists say philanthropy is a better tool or try to convince me to accept concessionary returns because someone is doing such good work. I disagree. By keeping my bar on returns the same as everyone else’s, I hope to convince the market that funds like mine are a good investment. Yes, there’s a place for philanthropy. But if you really want to impart social change, that means channeling sovereign-wealth-size buckets of money into things that support women. On the other side, the typical financial person is skeptical of anything related to a gender lens. They see a firm like BRAVA, with our focus on women, and assume it must be a charity. But when they see how cutthroat I am about returns, as well as about impact, they start to see things differently. I don’t care if you put a beautiful statue on Wall Street and call it the “Fear-

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NMN: Companies pitch me with their amazing parental leave policies or their One Percent for the Planet contributions, for example. In my opinion, everybody should be doing that anyway, but that’s the sort of thing a lot of people consider “impact.” To me, that’s not good enough. A company’s impact should be core to its business model. If it’s not, then it’s expendable, and that is problematic to me. What if they exit? What if they’re acquired? If there’s no commitment to continue making the sort of impact I’m tracking as an investor, I see no reason to invest. I want to invest in companies with impact at their core — which means the business can’t exist without it.

Mary Mazzoni is an environmental journalist and editor based in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in print and online, including TriplePundit, AlterNet, Yahoo Travel, and multiple Philadelphia publications including the Philadelphia Daily News. Rachel Zurer is Conscious Company’s former editor-in-chief. Before joining the CCM team, she worked at Backpacker and Wired magazines.

PA R T I N G T H O U G H T

“Courage is contagious. A critical mass of brave leaders is the foundation of an intentionally courageous culture. Every time we are brave with our lives, we make the people around us a little braver and our organizations bolder and stronger.” – Brené Brown

Conscious Company Magazine | Winter 2019

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