Disruptors for GOOD | Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises

In episode 76 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Mark McTavish, CEO & Co-Founder of Pulp Culture on changing our relationship with alcohol and creating the world's healthiest adult beverage.Beverage Industry Veteran Mark McTavish (CEO & Co-Founder) and Plant-Based Performance Mogul Brendan Brazier (Co-Founder) combined their areas of expertise to create the healthiest alcohol on the planet.These two fitness-minded foodies turned social entrepreneurs, set out to create an alcoholic beverage that uses 100% raw, fresh juice that naturally ferments over three months (thank you, mother nature). Called “wild fermentation,” the result is a zero-additive, zero-sugar, bone-dry beverage with 6 billion naturally-occurring probiotics, B vitamins, and 4.9% ABV. The final touch is blending in fermented, nutrient-dense super fruits and performance-boostings botanical adaptogensMark was raised in the apple growing region of southwest Ontario, he began his career in the craft beverage industry at the age of 19. Soon after earning his Bachelor of Commerce at Canada’s top beverage management school, Mark established his foothold in the marketplace by opening one of the first craft bars in Canada in 2003.After helping to pioneer the craft beer industry in Canada, Mark followed his other passion and built a successful career in the commercial fitness business. With a focus on product design and brand development, Mark spent nearly a decade working with fitness professionals across North America. Mark’s career path came full circle when he realized his dream to craft the healthiest alcoholic beverages on the planet; a convergence of two industries that had previously seemed to be an impossible pairing.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.Check out:ImpactInvestor.io - Discover impact investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------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 75 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Joseph MacLean on his life in social enterprise, finding the best pepper ever, and his journey to donate 50 million meals.Joseph is a social entrepreneur based in North Vancouver, British Columbia and lives half the year in Phnom Voar, Cambodia, in the heart of the Kampot Pepper growing region. He is building a community-based, Fair Trade distribution system for Kampot Pepper, the best pepper in the world. Using a custom B2C/B2B platform charities, non-profits and worthwhile causes can register for free and open their own custom storefront and during the pandemic receive 50% of all sales revenue.Kampot Pepper is regarded as the ‘best pepper in the world. It has received Protected Geographical Indicator status (PGI). This puts Kampot Pepper on the same footing as other ‘appellation of origin’ brands like: Champagne, Darjeeling tea, Cognac etc.Kampot pepper comes in four varieties: green, black, white and red, all from the same plant (Piper Nigrum). The local climate offers perfect conditions for growing pepper and the quartz content of the soil i helps to give Kampot Pepper its unique flavour. The growing conditions are only one of several elements of importance to the production of Kampot pepper.Knowledge of pepper cultivation and production has been handed down from generation to generation since at least the 13th century and was first described by Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan when he visited the area during the height of the Angkor Empire.North Americans consume 217 grams of pepper a year. If 1/10th of one percent bought Fair Trade Kampot Pepper, the best pepper in the world, that can provide 50 million meals because Food Banks can deliver from six to ten meals for every dollar they receive.Another benefit to this social purpose campaign is that when you purchase Fair Trade Kampot Pepper your purchase not only helps local causes but is integral in rebuilding an industry virtually destroyed by the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia and one that is struggling due to the disastrous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.Please visit www.50millionmeals.com for more info on how we Help Farmers & Feed Kids.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.Causeartist Executive Network - We’re building a global network of impact founders, impact investors, and impact professionals. Apply HereSubmit news to Causeartist hereCheck out:ImpactInvestor.io - Discover impact investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------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 4 of the Tools for Scale podcast, I speak with Wilián Iralzabal, founder of Zabal Media on immigrating from Cuba at 8 years old, lessons from door to door sales at 14, working for Google, mastering tech tools, and becoming a founder of his own tech company."Having the ability to make a difference by building products that help people live a better life is magic."Wilian Iralzabal is a Cuban product designer, Webflow expert. Adalo expert, and a lover of learning. Growing up in Cuba, he was fascinated by magicians and how they are able to captivate their audience's attention with ease.This passion later developed into a love for communication which later led to receiving a full-ride scholarship to the number one forensics speech and debate team in the nation. As a member of the speech team, he presented speeches to small, medium and large audiences while studying a BFA in design.Wilián loved communication and design, but was lacking the ability to build and share ideas with the world. He began the long road to teach himself how to code, so that he could empower himself to not only build, but also establish a healthy relationship between he and engineers when working on a project together.Today, he focuses on mastering tech tools as much as possible while maintaining a healthy balance between design, communication and front-end development.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.Check out:ImpactInvestor.io - Discover impact investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------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 74 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Cullen Schwarz, Co-founder of DoneGood, on building the Amazon for social impact brands and launching an ethical Prime Day alternative.    In 2015, Cullen decided to change his career path because of his belief that we all have incredible power. As consumers, whatever we demand, the market supplies. When we demand products made with systems that empower workers and protect the environment, we get more of those--and less products made with systems that exploit people and the planet.DoneGood was created with a simple mission: to make it quick, easy and affordable to use our purchasing power for good. When you give a business your money, you want to know you’re getting a quality product, and that your money will be used in a way that fits your beliefs.“In 2015, while working in Washington, D.C. with the Obama administration, I became painfully aware that all of the hours, votes, donations, petitions, and marches did not stand up to the thousands of dollars I was handing over to massive, profit-hungry corporations every year. So where can I go to discover companies that I can feel good about supporting?” - Cullen Schwarz, DoneGood Founder.In the U.S. we all spent $130 trillion buying stuff last year. To drive some of that $130 trillion to more ethical brands, DoneGood has launched -Better Days, a joint effort among dozens of brands leading the ethical-and-sustainable business movement.This year Better Days will run from September 28 – 30.  Shop and Save big on ethical brand here.The companies participating in Better Days believe that the dollars we all spend are the world’s most powerful force for change.  Americans donated $400 billion to charity last year, but spent 325 times more than that buying stuff!  If even a fraction of that spending can reduce poverty, fight climate change, invest in communities, make the world better—the impact is huge. The more we support businesses doing the right thing, the more they succeed. The more others follow suit. Eventually even Big Corps start to change.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.Check out:ImpactInvestor.io - Discover impact investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------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 73 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Tiila Abbitt, Founder of Āether Beauty on disrupting the $500 billion beauty industry through actual clean cosmetics and sustainable packaging.Founded in 2018 by Tiila Abbitt, a passionate, highly creative product development professional with 11+ years' experience - including the international prestige beauty industry. Tiila has a BFA in sculpture and an MFA in fashion design. She worked in the fashion industry for over 5 years before transitioning to beauty. She is highly passionate for the sustainable beauty product realm. Tiila spent 7 years at Sephora in charge of product development for makeup collaborations and accessories. Her obsession with sustainability lead her to become the lead R+D for sustainable materials while also being on the sustainability leadership council for the retailer.Being a global brand, Tiila quickly learned that in the USA, there are only 11 banned chemicals in color cosmetics while in the European Union, there are over 1300. Because of this, she learned how to formulate color cosmetics with a very large chemical ban list and how to substitute for cleaner alternatives. Tiila has had a long tenure passion for the organic product realm and has been a vegetarian for over 24 years, and also incorporating a plant based diet.Always bringing natural, organic alternatives into her everyday (including learning how to cook organic food at an organic restaurant while in college) she started to look at natural makeup formulation and just found that none of the offerings could truly compete with the efficacy of conventional beauty. The space lacked choice of color and trend, as well as truly sustainable packaging.Plastic makeup componentry is a huge source of pollution globally and Tiila really wanted to create a brand that was ethically-sustainable, beyond the formulation, but in everything that Āether Beauty creates.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.Check out:ImpactInvestor.io - Discover impact investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------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 72 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Dr. Angela Jackson on leading New Profit’s $15M Future of Work global fund to invest in entrepreneurs and companies developing innovative technical solutions to upskill low-income and entry-level workers at scale. Dr. Angela Jackson leads New Profit’s Future of Work Initiative, which seeks to close the career-readiness gap for Americans from low-income backgrounds. Angela’s career started in the private sector leading business development for organizations like Viacom and Nokia. While working internationally, she began to wonder: if multinational companies can deliver their products consistently and with quality at scale, what would it take to deliver social interventions like education and health in a similar manner?She began to tackle this question by founding Global Language Project, a social venture that aimed to transform how we prepare students with skills to succeed in a global economy and workforce. Angela completed a Doctoral degree at Harvard University, where her focus was on this question, along with the role of scale and strategic capital deployment and philanthropy in systems change initiatives.Angela’s work with New Profit allows her to marry her research interests with practice. She currently leads New Profit’s $15M Future of Work global fund to invest in entrepreneurs and companies developing innovative technical solutions to upskill low-income and entry-level workers at scale. Angela recently launched a $6 million Future of Work Grand Challenge, powered by XPRIZE and MIT Solve, to rapidly reskill 25,000 displaced workers into living-wage jobs in the next 24 months.About New Profit: New Profit is a venture philanthropy organization that backs breakthrough social entrepreneurs who are advancing equity and opportunity in America.Her work and writing has been featured in CNN, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune and Harvard Business Review. You can read her thoughts on the intersection of race and the Future of Work on Medium and follow her on Twitter at @angjack.Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.Check out:ImpactInvestor.io - Discover impact investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------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 71 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Dinesh Tadpalli, Founder of incrEDIBLE, on creating the first company to mass-produce edible cutlery and help alleviate waste from 100 million plastic utensils used every day in America.Dinesh is an Impact based entrepreneur, hiker, engineer and angel investor. Crazy enough to sell my home for the sake of the planet and startup. He is the founder of incrEDIBLE, edible spoons, and sustainable cutlery. Plastic cutlery takes 1000 years to decompose - compostable products take equally as long if thrown in the trash. This makes Edible Spoons the most ECO-Friendly option for your special occasion.100 million plastic utensils are used every day. As the first company to mass-produce edible cutlery, you can help us grow to put an end to this crisis. Saving the planet never tasted this good!Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.CauseartistPRO - We’re building a global community of impact founders, impact investors, and impact professionals. Apply HereSubmit news to Causeartist hereCheck out:ImpactInvestor.io - Discover impact investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------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 70 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Tom O’Keefe on using Twitter as a force of good and how sponsoring race bibs for immigrant and low-income runners have a tremendous impact on lives.Tom O’Keefe is the founder of Stride for Stride, a running organization that buys race bibs for immigrant, BIPOC and low-income runners. In Boston Tom is widely known as Bostontweet - a popular social media account he started back in 2008 to create awareness for local business during the recession. In 2015 Tom founded Flutter - a charitable platform that created local experiences for local charities in which people donated $10 for the chance to win. And more recently he launched Heart to Cart - a program that buys supermarket gift cards for those suffering the most during the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.Check out:ImpactInvestor.io - Discover impact investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------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 69 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Shireen Jaffer CEO of Edvo and Forbes 30 under 30 recipient about building innovative educational tools to empower life long learning for billions around the world.Shireen Jaffer is a second-time founder, Forbes 30 under 30, and CEO of Edvo, a venture-backed startup in Los Angeles that empowers people with the tools to think better and live better. Shireen has helped over 50,000 people in their careers over the last 10 years, from recent grads to executives, and is passionate about helping people build meaningful lives. She has also worked with hundreds of companies, from Fortune 500s to early stage startups, advising them on recruiting and hiring practices. Shireen is an active angel investor, people advisor at PIF.vc, and host of the Edvolution Podcast. Edvo exists to empower people to think for themselves and live better lives. They provide the tools for a life full of meaningful learning, critical thinking, and better results. If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, then join us and explore a like-minded community of people on the same journey!To get started you can also check out the Mental Models app that Shireen and her co-founder creator. Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.Check out:ImpactInvestor.io - Discover impact investors from around the world.Podcast Made with TransistorPodcast cover design Made with CanvaBuild amazing web platforms with Webflow ----------------------------------------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 quick bonus episode I talk about moving to Amsterdam and getting involved in the social entrepreneur and impact investing scene in Europe. I am very excited about the move and very much looking forward to creating great content around social impact from around the world. :)CauseartistPRO - We’re building a global community of impact founders, impact investors, and impact professionals. Apply Here ----------------------------------------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.