Only 3% of the $147B invested by venture capitalists in 2020 went to Black founders. While the reason for this is simple, that same reason is also very complex. Marvin, a Black founder, speaks very candidly about his current and ongoing search for venture capital to fund Twiine, a livestream social commerce app, that aspires to counteract all of the headwinds BIPOC creators have traditionally faced when trying to bring their goods to market.

Bananas are the most consumed fruit in the world, but that’s not what makes them so cheap. What makes them so cheap are exploited workers at the bottom of the supply chain & an entrenched belief amongst retailers that consumers are not willing to pay $1 more per month for fairtrade certified bananas that ensure workers are taken care of. Jennie Coleman, President of Equifruit provides all the history & inspiration you need.

Few people can find jeans that fit, which makes it that much more incredible that Beth Esponnette, co-founder of Unspun, has discovered jeans that solve most of the problems facing the fashion industry, including excess inventory, limited sizes, an outsized carbon footprint, reliance on cheap overseas labor, and a few others too.

We have often talked about how the only one who feels good about a very cheap product is the one buying it. It’s not different for t-shirts. But what’s so much better about a $30 t-shirt vs. one that costs $5? Adila Cokar, founder of The Good T takes us through the details. By the end, you will love the $30 t-shirt but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

We all know the apparel & fashion industry exploits people & the environment, but who can say no to cheap & abundant clothes. For decades, the industry has said they are improving but then comes another tragedy or revelation. We have yet to talk about the good, bad & ugly of the industry on here because we have felt the task too daunting. Until now. In this episode we dip our tows in with Andrea Reyes who explains where the water's warm, where it's cold, & where it's just an abyss.

Would you use a search engine called BackRub? That was Google's original name. Had they gone to Brad Flowers, a naming expert & author of The Naming Book, or just followed the 5 steps from Brad's book, which he details in this episode, they would have come up with something much better & with more longevity than BackRub. But would they have been as successful? Find out on this great how-to episode during which Brad also shares very practical tips for becoming a BCorp, which his agency, Bullhorn, has done.

Our personal, values-driven selves want to see local businesses thrive for the betterment of our communities. On the other hand, our business-thinking, consumer selves focus only on what we gain from the lowest cost, most convenient products. In this episode we speak with Adrienne Fudge of 40 Dreams Catering, along with Charles Rosen of Ironbound Hard Cider, to illustrate what we gain from local economies and what we lose when we rely on the speed and low cost of a national system.

It is impossible to quantify how books, especially those written for children and young adults, shape our perceptions of just about everything, including ourselves. So, what happens when those making the decisions about what stories to tell all come from the same, mostly white, mostly wealthy backgrounds?

Amazon & Etsy contribute to marginalizing communities that do not have easy access to startup capital. Marvin Francois and his partners are building a retail platform that is free of the barriers that have contributed to an extreme loss of economic opportunity and have widened the racial income and wealth gaps.

Troy Prince, founder of Wall Street Bound and Prometheus Capital Management, knows that the key to diversifying the ranks of Wall St traders is not filling the pipeline, which has plenty of untapped talent. Rather, the key is providing minorities with the social capital that too many undeserving people are born with.

What if we all lived and ran businesses with the same central tenet as Charles Rosen, founder of Ironbound Hard Cider, which is this: “My success should not come at the expense of others. Rather, my success should be tied to the success of others.”

If you want to see change in the way race plays out in America, it is up to you to go beyond the marches and social media to prompt economic change as much as social change. Jill Johnston talks about how we can all make that happen.

30 years running the same business while always thinking about your entire range of stakeholders will teach you a few lessons about how to navigate the current crisis. For Sharon, it meant acting fast then doing nothing.