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Understanding Conscious Business–with Richi Gil

Perhaps you’ve noticed a slight twist in topic, unfamiliar terms and different companies referenced in recent posts. I’ve become  enthralled by the concept of conscious business, which I view as an extension of cause capitalism to include organizational culture and structure, leadership, and communication. I’ve always explained cause capitalism as the merger of business and […]

How Do You Measure Something As Elusive As Impact?–Interview with Andy Mercy

If you measure progress, you can improve it. But how exactly do you measure the growth of something as elusive as impact? That’s what AngelPoints, Andy Mercy’s company, does well, which is why I invited him to do a Cause Capitalism interview. Andy founded AngelPoints after stumbling into a volunteer experience at work and being underwhelmed […]

Creating High Impact Through BoP Business–with Unmesh Brahme

There’s a market at the bottom of the economic pyramid valued at $5 trillion dollars.  But the real allure of this market, at least for me, is the opportunity to help its 4 billion people access healthcare, educational and basic living services.  How can businesses access this market and how can they do it without […]

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 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 […]