Disruptors for GOOD | Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises

In Episode 164 of the Disruptors for Good podcast, I speak with Steven Izen, founder of Lokai, on building a $100M brand that gives back to causes around the world.Lokai bracelets were created with the intention of reminding people to stay balanced. The bracelet is composed of two elements: a white bead filled with water from Mt. Everest, the highest point on Earth, and a black bead containing mud from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth.These bracelets serve as a physical representation of life’s highs and lows—a reminder that it’s important to stay balanced amidst life’s challengesLokai was founded by Steven Izen with the mission of inspiring people to “live with purpose and find balance in an ever-changing world.” Since then, they have grown wildly successful due to their commitment to helping others—10% of all proceeds go back to charity partners focused on helping those in need around the world.Today, Lokai offers dozens designs for both men and women, each conveying its own message or cause. They also produce limited edition collections periodically throughout the year based on current events or meaningful occasions such as Pride Month, Earth Day, or Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The company also has major partnerships with the NFL, MLB, NBA, and College Teams. ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In this episode of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, we speak with Rahama Wright, Founder of Shea Yeleen, on empowering women in West Africa and the United States through the production, sale, and use of shea butter products. If you enjoy this podcast, please rate and review the show. It's a huge help. Thanks!Rahama is creating living-wage jobs for women-owned shea butter cooperatives in Ghana. Having grown up personally aware of inequalities in the world, Rahama developed an interest in women’s economic empowerment. Making up for her lack of business experience with pure passion and determination, she started Shea Yeleen, a social impact company focused on financial empowerment and ethical sourcing. Shea Yeleen is a company that specializes in manufacturing high quality, organic, fair trade skin care products and utilizing a sales strategy that incorporates women's micro enterprise development. Shea Yeleen offers five times Ghana's minimum wage and provides access to health insurance. Its business model has a direct and regenerative community impact that allows the ongoing education of more than 268 children. ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In this episode of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Ruben Harris, Founder and CEO of Career Karma, on using Software Development Bootcamps to re-skill America and make high paying tech jobs accessible to all individuals and communities.Over the past couple of years, Ruben has worked with academics, organizers, politicians, and union leaders at Hustle, Honor and AltSchool focused on improving their personalized outreach, healthcare and education.Ruben began his technology career working in Partnerships and Sales after writing a viral blog post called Breaking Into Startups about how moved to San Francisco without a job and landed a position 3 weeks later.After receiving thousands of e-mails asking how to break into tech, Ruben Co-Founded the Breaking Into Startups Podcast to demystify the process, resulting in a social media reach of ~3 million people, 200,000+ downloads, 10,000+ website visits per month, over 100+ reviews on iTunes, a Facebook Community of 10,000+ people, and invitations to be a Contributor for TechCrunch and Black Enterprise.Prior to working in tech, Ruben worked as an Investment Banker focused on Food, Consumer, and Retail companies in Chicago and Atlanta. As a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, he recruited others to focus on issues related to food security, climate change, and agriculture.Career Karma is a member of Y Combinator's 2019 class and since then has been helping people that want to become software engineers by matching them with the right coding bootcamp and supporting them throughout their careers. Hundreds of millions of people will need to change jobs in the coming years. Career Karma gives them a placement quiz and gets them accepted at coding bootcamps and other training programs. With income-sharing agreements growing in popularity, plenty of job skill providers will be willing to pay to enroll the highest potential students.Another epic initiative by Ruben and his team is their current Reskill America campaign. Covid - 19 has left over 42 million Americans without jobs over the last few weeks — disproportionately impacting low - income communities, women, and people of color. ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In this episode of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast I speak with Kimberly Shenk, Co-founder and CEO of Novi, on connecting brands, manufacturers, and suppliers to help launch sustainable products faster.Technology is fundamentally changing the way we live, work, connect with each other and with the outside world. Current breakthroughs are challenging every sector in every country, with a speed and depth previously unseen.  Now, more than ever, the emergence of new technologies has the potential to transform our lives, make the planet a better place, and transform our path from unsustainable to sustainable.No one knows better how to harness the power of technology for the greater good than Kimberly. Her mission in life is to replace unsustainable products with sustainable ones, a way of life she reflects in both her home and business. When Kimberly became pregnant, her constant questioning of chemical ingredients in beauty and personal care products culminated in a tech company start-up, Novi,  a groundbreaking platform for researching, sampling and sourcing raw ingredients and packaging that has enabled a new era of sustainable, transparent consumer products.Today, Novi’s vast dataset and Artificial Intelligence has had a hand in the formulas and packaging of thousands of beauty and personal care products that are clean and sustainable, and better for people and the planet.Kimberly’s earlier days saw her graduating top of her class from the United States Air Force Academy with a double major in Mathematics & Operations Research.  When stationed at Pearl Harbor as a Captain in the Air Force with a highly coveted Top Secret security clearance and working directly for the Pacific’s 3-star General running intelligence models, she won the 2013 Richard H. Barchi Prize for her work in “Analytics on Improving Integrated Air & Missile Defense in the Pacific Area of Responsibility.”She then attended graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a full-ride scholarship to study Data Science, and graduated with a Master’s Degree in Operations Research.After the Air Force, she started a second career in the tech industry. She built and led the Data Organization at Eventbrite and led the Product Organization at tech startup Domino Data Lab. With a passion for clean products, she co-founded NakedPoppy in 2017, raising $4 million to use data to bring clean and sustainable products to market. ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In Episode 163 of the Disruptors for Good podcast, we speak with Josh Hile, Founder and CEO of Citizen Mint, on connecting investors with private market opportunities that have the potential to make real positive impact on society and our planet.Citizen Mint is a startup company dedicated to making impact investments accessible to everyone. By leveraging technology and an extensive network of contacts, Citizen Mint seeks to bridge the gap between private market investors and those that are interested in making an impact with their investments.The team behind Citizen Mint is made up of experienced professionals from different areas such as finance, technology, and sustainability. Each team member has extensive experience in the industry, allowing them to thoroughly research each potential investment for both its financial return and positive social or environmental impact.By uniting private capital, society has the opportunity to make a real difference in areas like renewable energy, affordable housing and development of underserved communities to create lasting sustainability.To further ensure success for this mission, Josh Hile, CEO of Citizen Mint and former Director of Investment Strategy & Research at a $16B RIA--brings more than 10 years of experience working closely with ultra high net worth individuals and Fortune 100 companies to his post at the forefront of sustainable finance innovation.After seeing these trends, it became clear – private capital is needed to solve global challenges.Prior to Citizen Mint, Josh was the Director of Investment Strategy & Research at Laird Norton Wealth Management, a $16 billion registered investment advisor (RIA) headquartered in Seattle, WA.He was instrumental in developing, maintaining, and improving LNWM’s impact and sustainable investing capabilities for both public and private markets. He was further responsible for worldwide sourcing, ongoing due diligence, and the monitoring of all equity asset managers as well as real estate, private equity, private debt, and venture capital opportunities.Prior to this, Josh worked at Russell Investments performing due diligence on fund managers for Russell’s mutual fund and consulting divisions (Russell advised on $2.2 trillion). Josh has a B.A. in Business Administration and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. In addition, he is both a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In Episode 162 of the Disruptors for Good podcast, we speak with Sascha Deri, Founder and CEO of bluShift Aerospace, on empowering humanity’s access to explore and develop our economy to Space while safeguarding life on our home planet.In 1999 Sascha co-founded the altE Store, a national renewable energy product distribution and light manufacturing company, where as CEO he is responsible for setting the company’s market and product development strategy for the $29M/year organization.In 2014 he founded bluShift Aerospace.The company made history on January 31, 2021 with the first commercial rocket launch powered by bio-derived fuel in the world, using a proprietary modular hybrid rocket engine that is also unique to the aerospace industry. Their series of small rockets will be able to lift 30-kilogram payloads suborbitally to space and then to low Earth orbit for academic research and commercial customers.Sascha grew up in Maine. He earned a degree in physics from Earlham College and a second degree in electrical engineering from University of Southern Maine. He lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife and two daughters.About bluShiftIn 2021, blueShift launched Stardust to great success - now their sights are set on 2023 for suborbital launches and 2025 for low-Earth orbits!With MAREVL™'s non-toxic fuel blend leading the charge, bluShift will revolutionize skyward trajectories while fostering an environmentally conscious future.The bio fuel is also non-toxic, and the oxidizer is non-cryogenic. No hazardous materials means a safer and healthier team, and a rocket that will not poison the air, or the water when it splashes down.A stable, renewable, non-toxic, non-cryogenic fuel reduces many of the costs associated with handling liquid rocket fuel or synthetic solid fuel.The company has also succeeded in the commitment to perform most manufacturing in-house by using CNC milling machines and 3d printers, and manufacturing their own fuel grains.In the long term, blueShift expects to save 60% of our manufacturing costs as a result. ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In Episode 161 of the Disruptors for Good podcast, we speak with Ian Bentley, Founder & CEO of Parker Clay, on building a powerhouse ethical fashion brand and becoming one of the largest employers of women in Ethiopia.Ian is the Co-Founder and CEO of Parker Clay, TEDx Speaker, and Social Entrepreneur.Parker Clay is a powerhouse in ethical fashion, delivering sustainable style with no compromise. Boasting its own vertically integrated supply chain and loyal customers who provide industry-leading eCommerce metrics, it has become one of the largest employers of women in Africa's rapidly growing economy.Parker Clay is on a mission to bring sustainable change - transforming communities through trade and creating social and economic empowerment. Believing that potential lies in places where others may only see problems, they were founded in Ethiopia with the goal of giving back.With every purchase from Parker Clay, customers join this movement to empower individuals within local communities as well as partnering with non-profit Women at Risk for impactful support towards women living in Ethiopia who have yet to realize their true potential.Check out all of Parker Clay's impact here.The 12 Best Parker Clay Bags for Everyday Life and Travel - Read more ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In this episode of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast I speak with Hasan Siber, Co-founder and CEO of Colive, on becoming a food entrepreneur in the middle of a conflict zone to address peacekeeping through business.Colive was born out of a passion for quality and equality. Hasan and Alex met in their first days at a university in the UK and discovered they were both from the same island but on different sides of a border. Their friendship grew with time for more than a decade. When Hasan realized Cyprus could be the birthplace of the world's rarest olive oil, he knew that with Alex's help, they could not only create an amazing product but also help their island thrive. Thus, Colive Oil was born. They bring high-quality, locally grown indigenous Cypriot olives from groves in northern and southern Cyprus to be pressed together into the rarest olive oil in the world. In crossing the demilitarised zone dividing Cyprus, these olives create a truly and wholly Cypriot, globally unique olive oil with the social mission of bringing people together despite conflicts. Alex and Hasan are leading by example.Colive is the first company in Cyprus for over 50 years to operate truly island-wide and directed jointly by Greek and Turkish Cypriots.Colive is the first Cyprus company to operate across the division in more than 50 years and only Cypriot olive oil brand available in the U.S. at retail - is using its high-quality extra virgin olive oil made with hand-picked olives to pursue peace on the divided Mediterranean island, bringing new meaning to food with purpose.After the division of Cyprus into northern and southern parts in 1974 following civil unrest, war and displacement, families and friends have been divided on the island, unable to cross the border. Hasan Siber, co-founder and CEO of Colive, decided to collect the one-of-a-kind Cypriot olives from both sides of the line and combine them into one extra virgin olive oil that offered not only a unique taste, but also a unique social mission.To help foster peace and a united Cyprus, the company has committed to donating 10% of profits from each bottle sold to organizations dedicated to that cause. Colive works with ~15 family farms across the conflict zone to harvest its olives, and educates farmers on how to utilize sustainable and climate-friendly farming practices, including hand-picking the olives, regenerative farming and water conservation.  ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In Episode 160 of the Disruptors for Good podcast, we speak with the Co-founders of Global Income Coin(Glo), on using blockchain to end extreme poverty through a fully backed stablecoin.Glo is a nonprofit that thinks and operates like a startup.Glo has raised a $2 million seed donation from a personal donation by Sid Sijbrandij (co-founder and CEO of GitLab Inc.). Their operational costs and employee salaries run on philanthropic donations.With Glo, you can make a powerful impact on ending extreme poverty.Simply by owning money in the form of Glo, you generate new money which then goes to people living in extreme poverty.The US dollar-pegged stablecoin not only gives back to those in need but also allows you to put your money where it matters most: directly into the hands of impoverished people around the world.How it works:You send us $1000.In return, we create 1000 Glo and send it to you.Glo is a cryptocurrency, so we send the 1000 Glo on the blockchain and you receive it in your crypto wallet. We don't like crypto for the sake of crypto—it's just the only viable way to create a new currency.We put your $1000 in the Glo reserve. Keeping it there is how we make sure your 1000 Glo stays worth $1000. Every Glo that exists is backed by one US dollar in the Glo reserve.You can always convert your Glo back to regular US dollars if you need the money, so you're not losing any money in the process.So how does Glo generate basic income? The trick is that we don't literally keep your $1000 sitting in a bank account. We invest a part of it in 3-month T-bills, a type of US government bond.3-month T-bills are about the least risky investment you can think of. For that reason, they are often categorized as "cash or cash equivalents".Still, they generate a small interest. This varies, but our rough assumption is that the Glo reserve will return about 2.5% per year on average. That means every $1000 in the Glo reserve generates $25 per year of profit.We give 100% of this profit away as basic income to people living in extreme poverty.Each recipient gets $1 a day, which is often enough to lift them above the extreme poverty line. ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In Episode 159 of the Disruptors for Good podcast, we speak with George Peppou, Founder and CEO of Vow, on inventing a new category of food from animal cells and disrupting food production around the world.Prior to founding Vow in 2019, George founded GrowLab in 2017, an Australian accelerator for agrifood tech startups. From 2015 - 2017, he was a design innovation practitioner at the UTS Design Innovation Research Center where he led the development and delivery of design innovation programs for Federal Government clients facing complex, sector-level challenges.In-between these jobs, George also worked as a course director, lecturer, and tutor at the University of Technology Sydney where taught topics like the process and methods of inventions, as well as how to approach sector-level transformation and strategy.Earlier in his career, he worked as an inventor for a company called Intellectual Ventures and later as a research analyst for the University of Technology Sydney.About VowVow is built on a diverse, cross-functional team of innovators, engineers, scientists, artists and most importantly, foodies! They’re reinventing food from the ground up to make it more delicious and sustainable for everyone.Vow is a cultivated meat company working to make the food industry more progressive in environmentally sustainable ways. George and co-founder Tim Noakesmitha launched Vow in April 2019 after previously bonding over wanting to find a solution to replace animal agriculture with a more sustainable method of food production.Vow has recently experienced tremendous company growth using state-of-the-art cultured meat technology—where new meat products are produced directly from the cells of animals instead of the animals themselves. The Potential of This on the WorldFeeding ten billion people becomes reality. Fast.No more ethical headaches around meat.Mother Earth gets some much-needed R&R.More options for different consumers, with different needs, anywhere in the world.A cell library to fit any culture and diet.More delicious and nutritious food options for everyone.Getting food down to an exact science means reliable and delicious quality every time, everywhere.The prevention of food illness pandemics with a safer solution to food. ----------------------------------------Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.