Doing Well By Doing Good

Check out our latest episode with January AI Co-founder & CEO, Noosheen Hashemi. She is a storied Silicon Valley veteran who was critical the early growth at Oracle and has over 20 years of experience supporting nonprofits, building a family office and funding high growth businesses. In this episode we hear about how the motive to Do Well by Doing Good drove her to start January AI and how it addresses the epidemic of chronic diseases like diabetes. We talk about her recent speech at GSB which you can find @ https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/experience/news-history/commencement/keynote-speaker-remarks In the episode she references the concept of Ikigai - or marrying what you love, what you're good at and what the world needs. You can find more about Ikigai @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai Learn more about January AI @ https://www.january.ai/ Subscribe to our newsletter for key insights from this podcast @ https://dwdg.substack.com

Brian Trelstad teaches Social Entrepreneurship and Social Change at Harvard Business School and is a long-time impact investor. Brian is currently a Partner of the US Sustainability Growth Fund at Bridges investing in service-based companies making a difference. In this episode, he shares his experiences at Acumen, the thesis of his current fund Bridges US Sustainability Growth Fund, and provides examples of portfolio companies Doing Well by Doing Good via the for-profit services they provide. Learn more about Brian and his work at Bridges US Sustainability Growth Fund: https://www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/us/team/brian-trelstad/ Learn more about Brian and his teaching at HBS: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=1132519

Vikram Gandhi is a Professor of Sustainable Investing at Harvard Business School, a long-time investor, and the Managing Partner at Asha Impact Fund, an India-focused fund investing in product and services companies across multiple sectors. In this episode Vikram talks about his journey and the impetus for starting Asha Impact. We also explore the portfolio companies that are Doing Well by Doing Good and explore how impact investing is like traditional financing and what makes it different. Learn more about Vikram's teaching: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=103852 Learn more about Asha Impact Fund: https://ashaimpact.com/

CEO of Kenya-based Smart Agriculture company MyFugo, Allan Tollo, talks about his experience witnessing the struggle of rural farmers in Kenya finding a way build a sustainable livelihood and how he leveraged his technical background to engineer a data-driven solution. Allan walks us through the business model -- Doing Well -- and tangible examples of the positive impact MyFugo is already having with its customers -- Doing Good. You can learn more about MyFugo at http://myfugo.com/

In Part 2 of our conversation with Sandeep Farias, we go deeper into how the Elevar Method is used in practice with a few examples and talk about how they Do Well by Doing Good using the LAHWS framework. Listen in to hear about Elevar's investments and for some advice for the listeners on how to think about making an impact by joining or creating your own DWDG startup.

Elevar Equity is an early stage impact fund focused on funding companies that tackle fundamental problems for low income populations in LatAm and India. We sat down with Sandeep Farias where he describes The Elevar Method of investing in companies that follow the Low ARPU, High Wallet Share (aka LAHWS) framework and talk deeply about the recent COVID crisis in India and how DWDG companies can help. Listen in for Part 1 of this episode and stay tuned for Part 2 where we delve deeper into examples of DWDG portfolio companies and advice for the listeners.

Nat Robinson, CEO of Leaf Global, and author of the book Creating a Cash Cow in Kenya, talks to us about building social enterprises, raising money from investors, and the motivation for building financial services for the unbanked and highly vulnerable refugee population. Listen in to hear his stories of building businesses in Africa and his advice for the next social enterprise entrepreneur. Learn more about Leaf and their work here @ https://leafglobalfintech.com/ and check out Nat's book at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AOB7BWE/

CEO, cure sherpa, and entrepreneur-scientist Ethan Perlstein joins us to talk about how Biopharma PBC Perlara works with families, patient organizations, and researchers to develop cures for rare diseases. In this podcast, we learn how it all got started, how Perlara is taking a novel approach to the traditional Pharma business model to create recurring revenue models which Do Well by Doing Good, and end with some advice for listeners looking to follow a similar approach. Learn more @ https://www.perlara.com/ or Tweet Ethan @eperlste

In this episode we chat with Ahmad Wani, the CEO of One Concern about Doing Well by Doing Good in the sustainability and climate change space. We discuss mission, culture, and the intersection of Doing Well and profitability with Social Good. You can find out more about One Concern and careers on their Website: https://oneconcern.com and recent work on their Medium page: https://medium.com/@oneconcerninc.

In this episode, we explore the key takeaways from our interviews in less than 5 min. We explore questions like what does it take to found a company? how can we create sustainable companies? how does culture play a role? how can one make the leap? But we'd love to hear from you too! What do you think? Are there any insights we missed? Tweet us @dwdgsf or email us at hello@doingwellbydoinggood.co.

Copia CEO Komal Ahmad joins us to talk about how her Public Benefit Corporation is solving hunger in the US today and eventually throughout the globe. We talk mission, culture, Doing Well by Doing Good, and how a PBC differs from a traditional C-corp but still enforces a high-growth mindset, with a legally-binding social bend.

Shelf Engine Co-founder & CEO Stefan Kalb joins us to talk about fixing the food waste problem and building a sustainable Doing Well by Doing Good business in the process. Shelf Engine is a Seattle-based started, which recently raised a seed round and is growing. To learn more about how it works check out this video.

Ride Health Co-founder and CEO Imran Cronk joins us to talk about how Ride Health is positioning itself to change the world, and how they are building a sustainable, high-growth Doing Well by Doing Good business in the process. Ride Health is a seed stage startup ensuring transit is never a barrier to healthcare access. You can find the original Atlantic article written by Imran and referenced in the episode here.

Nova Credit Co-founder and CEO Misha Esipov joins us to talk about their approach to building a for-profit, VC-backed, high-growth social enterprise and how they approach Doing Well by Doing Good in their business and culture. Nova Credit recently raised a Series B, and is growing. For a quick overview of Nova Credit's business check out this CNBC interview.

Check out the trailer introducing the podcast. In this we cover a quick overview of what we mean by Doing Well by Doing Good, who we plan to highlight, why we created this, and how we plan to achieve the goal. Subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify, or your favorite podcasting app for the latest episodes. Happy listening!