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How Better World Books Built A Multimillion-Dollar, Venture Backed Social Enterprise–with David Murphy

In this 7-minute clip, Better World Books President and CEO David Murphy talks about the company’s fiduciary commitment to its nonprofit literacy partners and how it received funding, initially with an SBA loan and later through Good Capital, a social investment firm. Right-click and download for the MP3. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] […]

How Turning His Non-profit Into a Profitable Company Helped His Social Mission–with Aseem Das

If you want the real story from a successful for-profit social entrepreneur, click the player to listen to Aseem Das talk about founding and transforming World Centric. Prefer MP3? Right-click and download. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] World Centric evolved from a nonprofit to a nonprofit with a revenue-earning component to a for-profit […]

How Vittana Is Using Micro-lending To Help Students Triple Their Earning Power–with Kushal Chakrabarti

Click the player to listen to our conversation. Prefer MP3? Right-click and download. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] After he left Amazon (“one of the hardest, scariest and best decisions” he’s made in his life) Kushal Chakrabarti knew he would start a company.  He’d done well at Amazon, helping to improve its product […]

Green Mountain Coffee’s ‘Organic’ Sustainability Evolution–with Mike Dupee

This was one of the most educational interviews I’ve done. Mike is able to admit when he’s wrong, to explain the internal motivations and strategy behind his company’s social responsibility programs and to go beyond corporate sound bites. Click the player to listen to our conversation. Prefer MP3? Right-click and download. [Audio clip: view full post to […]

How Timberland Engages Diversified Stakeholders–with Beth Holzman

Click the player to listen to our conversation. Prefer MP3? [Audio clip: view full post to listen] With a deep background in sustainability and corporate accountability, Beth Holzman brings an appreciation for impact evaluation and stakeholder involvement to Timberland as the company’s CSR Strategy and Reporting Manager.  I invited Beth to Cause Capitalism to talk about […]

How Catchafire Is Changing the Way You Volunteer–with Rachael Chong

Click the player to listen to our conversation or right-click and save for the MP3. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Rachael Chong thought it was inevitable that someone would create a platform that matched professionals to skills-based volunteer opportunities.  As an investment banker, she realized there were better better ways for her to […]

Two Questions You Need To Answer Before Choosing a Structure For Your Social Enterprise–with Brian Howe

How much control of your company are you willing to give up in exchange for funds? is a question that all investment-seeking entrepreneurs need to answer. Social entrepreneurs are confronted with another key question that impacts how they want to set legally establish their organization: How important is profit versus mission? With these two questions […]

Stay Out Of The Hallway and Other Tips From a Serial Conference-goer

We’ve heard from entrepreneurs before on this blog about the importance of building a network that can support and guide your social enterprise. While he was developing Energy Inside, Veer Gidwaney “networked pretty aggressively over a couple of years,” and Teju Ravilochan who co-founded the Unreasonable Institute “went to where the action was.” Conferences can […]

How To Grow Your Business By Giving Your Employees a Calling–with Chip Conley

When Chip Conley applied his interpretation of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to his hospitality company Joie de Vivre, he tripled its size when most of his competitors were going bankrupt in the post-9/11, Travelocity-frenzy years. Click the player to listen to my 20-minute conversation with Chip or right-click and save for the MP3. [Audio clip: view […]

How Nike, Walmart and Cisco Are Being More HIP and Growing Profits With Purpose–With R. Paul Herman

In between profiteering and starry-eyed do-gooding is a place where values can incur value.  This is the place of Human Impact + Profit (HIP), a methodology created by R. Paul Herman that aims to help investors and businesses make money while solving key human needs.  Companies that deliver human impact and profit can gain a magic […]