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Behind the Brand™ with Threadless

T-shirts are awesome. So are people. Mix the two together and you get Threadless, a community based tee shirt company launched in 2000 by punk brat turned entrepreneur, Jake Nickell. But Threadless, isn’t the same old deal.

Before a tee shirt gets printed, it has to be submitted by an artist and voted by the people. So only the good get worn. The chosen designs are original, quirky, and fun. Not to mention limited edition so you shouldn’t have to worry about someone else wearing the same shirt in the same room. Heaven forbid.

Since its launch, Threadless has grown to a following of over 200,000 people voting on designs submitted by artists from around the world. Each week, Threadless selects 10 designs to print and awards the selected artist with $2,000. Last year, Threadless awarded over one million dollars to artists. We’ll let Jake tell you the rest of the story and how 2010 panned out in our video interview with him.

#behind the brand #jake nickell #threadless #motto agency #consumer goods

Now this is inspiring. He's a brand in and of himself.

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Behind the Brand : Socks for Happy People

Socks for Happy People was conceived in early 2007 when Tom Minter sold his previous company, Budda Bag, and was looking for the next project to focus on.

Socks for Happy People is not your run of the mill sock brand. Their intention is to become the most magnificent and inspiring sock company in the history of the world, creating and delivering beautiful and amazing socks in a way that empowers the human mind and uplifts the human spirit. Socks for Happy People exists to inspire a deeper understanding of genuine happiness throughout the world.

Tom has always been a firm believer that you should go into business doing what you really love. It just so happens that Tom is a sock fanatic, so a sock company was a natural fit. As a social entrepreneur, Tom believes in businesses that have a positive impact on the world, so he contacted a designer friend named Richard Taylor (who is now Joint-CEO) and Socks for Happy People was born. The first order of socks launched in February 2010.

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What gets you out of bed every day? To live, learn, grow, and evolve. To live an inspired life, embrace new challenges, and experience all life has to offer. What do you want to communicate to the world? That we’re all perfect just the way we are. We don’t need to achieve this, or do that, or make this amount money, or whatever. We may want to be, do, and have all those things, and that’s absolutely fine, but we don’t need them in order to be happy and fulfilled in our lives. Describe the big influences that led you to where you are. Family - My family have been my biggest influence. I’ve never thought for a second there’s anything in the world I cannot be, do, or have. I’ve always dreamed huge and never once did I ever get the sense I couldn’t do it. I’m so grateful for that. Knocking doors - My first job was as a commission-only door-to-door salesman, which I did for two years. It taught me the importance of persistence, focus, setting goals, communication, and – most importantly – attitude. Everything in life is 10% ability and 90% attitude, and there are few better examples of this than a salesperson knocking doors for twelve hours a day. I learnt to handle rejection, set goals, manage my emotional state, communicate clearly, create immediate rapport, build meaningful relationships in a very short space of time, think quickly on my feet, sell, and an entire bucket load of other stuff that comes in useful almost every day. If anyone ever asks me how to learn the skills required to become a successful entrepreneur I say ‘go and knock doors’! In my opinion there’s no better training ground. Direct spiritual experiences - I’ve always been aware there is something deeper and more profound than the physical world in which we live, and in 2001 I began to have experiences where I could access this deeper reality more directly. I gained an even deeper insight into the universe, consciousness, and the meaning of existence, and from this point I knew life’s my purpose was to support the universe in its conscious evolution. This is why I am a social entrepreneur. Tony Robbins - I went to my first Tony Robbins seminar in October 2004 and it completely took my life to another level. For the next two years I immersed myself in personal development, travelling all over the world learning from some of the most talented and brilliant people on earth. It is impossible to place a value on the people I’ve met and the things I’ve experienced because of my choice to attend that first Tony Robbins seminar. Four out of six Socks for Happy People Directors are from the personal development environment. Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics? Some people might say I have a few strange mannerisms, although they don’t really seem strange to me. Many of us have been conditioned into behaving in a way that’s acceptable to society and I don’t really subscribe to those things if they don’t resonate with me. After all, what is ‘strange’? It’s only something that is not accepted and embraced by the majority. We take for granted today many things that were considered very strange in the past. If you want specifics, as one example, I have two invisible dogs called Chancellor Valorum and Wellington Boot; they come everywhere with me. I do have paintings of them: See them here. A lot of people think it’s a bit strange to have invisible dogs. Even though they’re invisible that doesn’t mean they’re not real, they just haven’t been born yet. They like socks.

Tell us how you came up with your name. As a social entrepreneur my purpose is to combine the concepts of successful business with doing good in the world and raising the universal consciousness of humanity, so when I decided to go into the sock business I thought about how best to do that with socks. Happiness was a natural choice. What is the one dramatic thing that distinguishes you from you competitors? We don’t consider ourselves as having competitors in the traditional sense of the word. How can one have competitors when we’re first and foremost in the happiness business?! Our mission states that we’re committed to inspiring a deeper understanding of genuine happiness throughout the world and that includes our ‘competitors’, of course! The concept of ‘the competitor’ is an outdated one. It implies that there’s only so much to go around, the pie can only be split a finite number of ways, and we all have to scrap to get as much of it as we can. That’s simply not true. There’s more than enough to go around and there’s no reason we can’t all be successful. The more we help and support other sock brands the more people can enjoy brilliant socks, and the more people who enjoy brilliant socks the more people will buy our socks. Why fight over a small pie when we can work together and build an even bigger pie? A pie so big that we couldn’t possibly eat it all ourselves, so we therefore end up having to give a lot of the pie away! An answer to your question – if you want a traditional answer – is that we’re the first mainstream sock brand to be made with organic materials in a sustainable way, and that we exist to do a huge amount of good in the world as well as making a profit. When you invest in a pair of Socks for Happy People you know that at the same time you’re also helping to make the world a happier place. To give you one example of our projects, we have an initiative called Buy One Give One Free, not buy one get one but Buy One Give One, where every time you buy a pair of Socks for Happy People for yourself you’re also – at the same time – buying a pair for someone somewhere in the world who really needs them. Our first project is with the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation in Mongolia, where temperatures fall as low as -40C in the winter. A lot of the street children there lose their toes to frostbite so good quality warm socks are super-important and greatly received. We partnered with the only sock factory in the whole of Mongolia and they’ve created some super-warm Mongolian camel wool socks. Camels are good to -80C, so these socks will do the job just fine. :-) This is just one example of one of the many projects we’re working on. If you’re interested go here. Really, the socks – brilliant as they are – are just a good excuse to work on some awesome and inspiring projects that will help to make the world a happier place. If you think we’re in the sock business, you’ve already missed the point. What role does design play in your brand? Design is central to our brand. When you choose to invest in a pair of Socks for Happy People you’re investing first and foremost in our brand. You’re effectively saying ‘I’m investing my money in Socks for Happy People because they share the same values as me; I want to do good in the world and play my part in helping it become a happier place. If I invest my money in these socks not only am I receiving a great pair of socks for myself I’m also doing something that supports the well-being of the world and that makes me feel happy.’ All this needs to be summed up, captured, and communicated in a nanosecond. Design is the only way to do this. As you can see, our brand colours are bright and our font is rounded. It’s very warm and inviting. When you see it, you want to know more. It appeals to our natural sense of fun. Do you consider your company to be passion-driven, mission-driven, socially-driven or other? All of the above! If you’re living your life to the full how can there be any distinction between these things? If you’re not passionate about your social missions, you’re in the wrong game. What is your marketing strategy? In a nutshell: To provide such authentic and stellar customer experiences that our customers become Raving Fans go out and do our PR for us. Social media is central to our marketing, although not because ‘social media is good for marketing’ but because we genuinely love and care for all our customers and supporters (and detractors!) and social media is the best way to get to know them better. Where and how are your products made? Socks for Happy People Head Designer Richard Taylor first creates some concepts, which we discuss amongst ourselves and put out to our focus groups. When certain concepts have been agreed on Richard then develops those concepts into actual sock designs using colours chosen by Elena, our trend prediction expert. We then send those designs to our developers in Leicester where they get converted into computer programs and samples are made. There is then what can be a lengthy process of tweaking the designs until they look just right when they’re on your feet! When the samples have been finalized the computer programs are sent over to our factories in India to begin bulk production. Our socks are manufactured in Mumbai using organic cotton. Our organic cotton grown is actually in India, so the transportation distance is short. The yarn is first taken to the dye house and dyed with azo-free dyes, meaning the organic cotton fibres can biodegrade naturally when the socks have been disposed of. The socks themselves are made on a machine and then the toes are hand-linked, meaning there are no irritable seams and your feet stay super-comfy. All our factories have passed the international standards for working conditions, of course, and all our packaging is made from recycled card and paper. What is your advice to companies on building an authentic brand? An authentic brand is an extension of the people who have created and are running it, and the brand’s purpose is no more than to act as a vehicle to magnify your own personal missions. An authentic brand is like you but bigger, so if something your brand is doing doesn’t resonate with you, stop doing it. Some of my and Richard’s highest values are that of love, happiness, inspiration, and kindness yet there are only so many people we can personally inspire or be kind to throughout the day. With an organization like Socks for Happy People, however, we can inspire a deeper understanding of genuine happiness and kindness throughout the world, potentially to billions of people. Always check in with how a course of action or inaction is making you feel. If it feels right, do it more… if it doesn’t, don’t. What has been your proudest moment as a company? The first time we had some samples that were actually good enough to show people, and were a fair representation of our product and company. What is it that people really want? That can be answered on so many different levels… one could fill volumes with its answers and implications. On many levels we all want different things yet on many others we all want the same. If I had to give a ‘best fit’ answer I would say Happiness, while also understanding that happiness looks and feels different to different people. While you and I may both want to be happy, what makes us happy could be poles apart. If you could travel to any place in the world, where would you go? In the world, the bottom of the Mariana trench – there’re some pretty interesting things to see down there. There are some truly breathtaking sites in the universe I’d love to see – The Cat’s Eye Nebula is awesome. I’d also like to go and walk on the moon, or Mars.

-------------------------------------------------------------- TOM FILLS IN THE BLANK I believe that life is a great adventure to be experienced to the full. This includes experiences we may not consider ‘good’ at the time. There are many riches to be experienced and received in moments of authentic sadness. The world would be better if we accepted that everyone has different points of view and ways of doing things, and that’s quite alright. When we unite in and celebrate the beauty of our diversity, the world will know peace. Someday I am going to master my mind once and for all. I'm not very good at getting boring things done. I love being in the moment and experiencing life for what it really is. When I need a break I I sometimes watch poker videos on YouTube. I am most happy when I’m travelling the world meeting unique, inspiring, and interesting people. It bothers me when young people are unkind to the elderly. I never thought I would end up liking mayonnaise, but I do. Only on certain sandwiches though, or with fries and ketchup. My motto: So long as you start and never stop, you’ll get there eventually… and in perfect time.

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Behind the Brand : CYCLE DOG

Lanette Fidrych, an avid bike rider, had many flat tires over the years. Instead of piling these harmful tubes in the landfill, she began making dog collars and leashes out of them. This smart idea led her to create Cycle Dog in 2009.

Since then, Cycle Dog has grown to take shelf in over 500 retail locations with other cyclists and companies alike sending her their old bicycle tubes so they too stay out of the landfill. Each collar and leash is handmade by Lanette and contains a bottle opener she named The Pup Top so man’s best friend can be there for you when you need a beer too. Last year, the ever-crafty Lanette added belts to her product line. We look forward to seeing what else Lanette has in store for us and our pets in the future. Watch Lanette give you the inside scoop of how she got to be where she is today in our exclusive three part video interview her!

Video Interview Part II

Video Interview Part III

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Behind the Brand : Charity: water

In the summer of 2006, Scott Harrison remembers writing words about global poverty all over the walls; hunger, education, AIDS, justice, water. He was 30 years old, and had just returned from a humanitarian tour in Liberia West Africa that had changed him forever. charity: water started in a Soho apartment as a crazy dream.

A couple years earlier, Scott realized how selfish and arrogant his life had become after spending a decade in nightlife, and came back to his Christian faith. He ditched his New York career selling $16 margaritas and $350 bottles of Grey Goose to serve God and the poor as a volunteer photojournalist alongside facial surgeons in West Africa on a hospital ship, the Mercy Ship Anastasis.

Scott found himself in Liberia, a country that just came out of 14 years of civil war. The place was a wreck. No public electricity, no running water, no sewage, no mail. There was one doctor for 50,000 citizens (in America we have one per 200).

After two years of service with Mercy Ships, Scott went back to New York and decided to throw the rest of his life at helping the poor. Many of his friends were disenchanted with charity and giving, and cited bloated organizations and what they saw was a lack of transparency in the sector. In short, they didn’t know how much of their money went to help the poor, and what impact it actually had.

Scott wanted to start a charity to bring people back to the table. In faith, he stepped out with a new 100% model (finding separate donors to fund operations and staff) and a promise to prove all the work they did in the field. Then he needed an issue to launch, and water just screamed at me. A billion people without it on the planet. 80% of all disease related to the lack of it and basic sanitation. Water touched everything, changed everything. On September 7th, he launched charity: water. Their mission then and today is to bring clean and safe drinking water to every single person on the planet.

It’s hard not to think about water today. In the western world, we face growing concerns about our stewardship of the world’s most precious resource. There’s talk of shortages, evidence of reservoirs and aquifers drying up, and of course, plenty of people who simply don’t care. But forget about us...

Most of us have never really been thirsty. We’ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 miles to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean. Yet more than 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have clean water. It’s hard to imagine what a billion people looks like really, but one in six might be easier. One in six people in our world don’t have access to the most basic of human needs. Something we can’t imagine going 12 hours without. charity: water is not offering grand solutions and billion dollar schemes, but instead, simple things that work. Things like freshwater wells, rainwater catchments and sand filters. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q+A with Scott Harrison What gets you out of bed everyday? I love my job. I get to fight everyday for justice. I get to engage people here in the developing world in the issue, and then see the results in the communities we serve. I try to live by a verse in the Bible’s book of James. It says true religion is this: To look after widows and orphans in their distress, and to keep yourself from being polluted by the world. What do you want to communicate to the world? To the world here, my world, I think it’s opportunity. We have an incredible opportunity to radically affect the lives of those in need in the developing world. Most of us were born into affluence. Most of us have never been thirsty. Water comes out of taps here. We take long showers and buy bottled water. And in Africa, India, Southeast Asia and other parts of the world it’s so so different. Mom’s and their daughters walk 5 hours each day breaking their backs hauling dirty water. Kids drop out of school and sometimes die from symptoms of Diarrhea and parasites. We can do so much - there are tangible solutions that can bring clean water to a billion people. And the money exists – last year, Americans spent $450 billion on activities surrounding Christmas. We simply lack the will. Describe the big influences that led you to where you are. My family, my faith, and a guy called Dr. Gary Parker, who was the chief medical officer on the Mercy Ship. He signed up for a couple-month tour and stayed for 24 years. He’s still there, operating on the poor with no pay, day in and day out. He taught me a lot about the importance of humility, of true service. Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics? Yeah. I bite my nails. My fiancée hates it. Tell us how you came up with your name. Well, at the beginning, we were calling ourselves “charity,” and water was just the first initiative. I chose the name because I really wanted to reinvent charity – again, to bring disenchanted people back to the table. The word in Latin is caritas – it means love. I’d thought that we’d do charity: education. charity: malaria, charity: health, etc. But the more we’ve learned about the water crisis, the less likely any other initiatives become. The plan is to bring our expertise in water TO those other issues. We’ve started bringing clean water to schools and health clinics for example. How will water make a difference? We say that water changes everything. Clean water brings dignity into communities. Clean water brings better health. It puts kids back in school and radically improves education. What role does design play in your brand? Give us the details of your logo and other design/image elements. Logo, what logo? Well first, design is one of the most important things to me. When I started charity: water, I looked around and saw such bad design in the sector. Charity website with animated flashing gif’s and a world of Comic Sans or Mistral. I didn’t see any reason why we should look like one of the brands we admire just because we’re a non-profit. The first person working alongside me was in operations / programs. The second was our amazing designer. She took a pay cut, and built the brand from scratch. There’s been a lot of talk about a logo lately, and we’ve been contemplating creating one for months, we just haven’t come up with anything yet. What is your approach to marketing? Nick Kristof wrote recently that “humanitarians are abjectly ineffective at selling their causes. Any brand of toothpaste is peddled with far more sophistication than the life-saving work of aid groups” Sadly, I agree, but it shouldn’t be that way. I mean come on. We’re not selling toothpaste. We’re selling a $5,000 solution for a village that will dramatically impact the lives of 250 men, women and children. If you can’t get excited about bring a level of sophistication and excitement to presenting that value proposition, you should probably go home. For us, the communication has been pretty simple.

Spend lots of time in the field learning about the problems and solutions.

Get to know the people you wish to serve.

Tell their stories. Truthfully, and without exaggeration.

Share them back home with great enthusiasm.

Give people an opportunity to help.

Show them what that help looks like after they have.

Repeat.

What inspires you? Revisiting a village where I first saw people drinking muddy brown from a swamp, and watching clean water flow from taps. Hearing women sing, watching them dance, watching them cry as they point up and say “water is falling from the sky.” What is your proudest moment as a non-profit organization? Our September campaign. In 2007, we asked 92 people to give up their birthdays, and instead of gifts, to ask for their age in dollars. They raised $150,000, and we brought clean water to health clinics and schools in Kenya. In 2008, 800 people joined, and we raised $950,000 for Ethiopia. Today, the 2009 campaign launches, and we’re looking to break all records. Motto: How can people get involved? In September of 2008, over 800 people gave up birthday gifts and asked for donations from friends, family and strangers. Together with matching gifts, almost $1,000,000 was raised to bring clean water to people in Ethiopia. We knew they were on to something. Since then, we've been busy building a website where everybody can give up their birthday, but also use weddings, anniversaries and holidays - run marathons, climb mountains and jump out of planes - or just create a fundraising page to give people clean drinking water. Check out Born in September - If you have a September birthday, you can give up the gifts and ask for your age in dollars instead. If you weren't born in September, you can setup a campaign to run, walk, swim, and use your wedding or anniversary, just about anything to bring clean water to people. What does social responsibility mean to you? You know, I don’t even know what to think of that phrase anymore. I think it’s been misused and thrown around corporate boardrooms too much. I think people and companies should be true to their values. They should get excited about using their affluence and influence to transform the lives of those beneath them. They should give to the point where it hurts, and watch the giving infect and positively change them from the inside out.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott fills in the blank… I believe everyone on earth should have clean and safe water to drink. The world would be better if more people lived like they were made to live. Someday I am going to be accountable for everything I’ve said and done. I want that to go well. I'm not very good at saying no. I love working with an amazing team at charity: water When I need a break I try to get alone and pray. I am most happy when I’m creating change. It bothers me when I see apathy I never thought I would have the chance to do this for a living. My motto: Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly with God.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- FIND 'EM ONLINE! Website Facebook Twitter Blog

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On World Water day, March 22, charity: water is launched Unshaken - a campaign to help Haiti recover by providing long-term clean water solutions.

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An authentic brand is like you but bigger, so if something your brand is doing doesn’t resonate with you, stop doing it.

Tom Minter, CEO, Socks For Happy People

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CHARITY: WATER

There are a billion people living without clean water. charity: water uses 100% of the money raised to build water projects. So far they’ve helped over a million people get clean water. Watch the Trailer.

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Behind the Brand : Bloomsberry & Co.

There they were, a happy little designer chocolate bar company just starting out in New Zealand in 2001. Bloomsberry & Co. founders Giles Baker and his wife Vanessa Kettelwell were quietly minding their own business making chocolate and designing quirky wrappers, when they were suddenly hit by a wave of popularity.

They started getting crazy emails from people raving about their fun chocolate bars and wanting it in bizarre and exotic places like Manchester, Melbourne, Paris, Singapore and New York. Requests, requests and more requests. Flattery. Compliments. Gosh, a company can only take so much. Now this exotic designer chocolate, infused with a delectable sense of humor and superior ingredients, is in all those places and spreading to more. Bloomsberry & Co. uses all natural, kosher certified, premium chocolate. It's the smoothest, silkiest chocolate you may ever enjoy - artfully cloaked in funky desirable packaging to boot. It melts on your tongue in a way no other chocolate quite manages. Irresistible and irrepressible to say the very least. The company is now based in famed witch-town, Salem, Massachusetts, and is dominating the chocolate landscape with each Bloomsberry chocolate bar it creates. The exotic high-design product promises a finely balanced combination of delectable sense of humor and superior ingredients. This is not your conventional branding “that consistencies sells." Nope, Bloomsberry goes against the grain. The only thing unchanging is their wit and playfulness. Bloomsberry's proprietary Milk chocolate in the United Sates is blended with 34% cocoa. The Dark chocolate formulation is crafted at a 55% cocoa level. Since coming to America, Bloomsberry & Co. has proudly sold millions of its bars in the States and are both thrilled and humbled by America's embrace of its premium product.

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Q+A WITH PAUL PRUETT Why do you get out of bed every day? I have always enjoyed the challenges of creating consumer products that make a positive impact in people’s lives. As former Principal and Chief Operating Officer of ZonePerfect Nutrition Co. I dedicated many years to establishing a line of better-for-you foods that improve the health and livelihood for those seeking alternative solutions. When ZonePerfect was acquired in 2004 by Abbott Laboratories I was able to walk away 1 year later knowing that the ZonePerfect brand would be extended to reaches well beyond that of its former founding management team. It was soon thereafter that I embarked on a new mission of educating consumers on the wonders of Bloomsberry & Co. all natural chocolate gift bars. And with dark chocolate’s health halo now understood around the globe it is a pleasure to be pioneering a brand that is uniquely design-driven as well as good for the sole. What do you want to communicate to the world? Time is of the essence. And what makes our own precious little time on this earth all worthwhile are those who surround us with love, support, and encouragement. Taking the time to say thank-you to one’s core inner circle can be easily overlooked. Bloomsberry Co.’s chocolate bars contain the delicate ingredients of meaning and sentiment when it comes to great gift giving. Each bar communicates to the recipient that you care. Describe the big influences that led you to where you are. I am currently CEO of Bloomsberry & Co. because of luck, perseverance, and positive outlook. My talented professors that guided my MBA learning in the mid 90’s provided the critical tools that enable me to recognize infancy consumer brands showing future promise. It has been proven time and time again that a brand’s commercial success is often fleeting. Combining my entrepreneurial spirit with my more formal business training has been the most useful & significant influence in my career to date. Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics? I am definitely a morning person. I often have my brightest thoughts between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. I have never drunk coffee. However I cannot start the day without my morning hot cup of yerba mate. A delicate blend of tea that is very popular in South America. I like to compete in all sports that require a paddle or racket. Perhaps it is because I can frivolously toss or bang a racket when frustrated with my play? Win or lose it gives me solace to be able to compete at the highest levels. I did repeatedly learn how to lose gracefully when playing Division 1 tennis as an under graduate student. Humility is an acquired trait. Tell us how you came up with your name. Bloomsberry & Co.’s brand name is the collaboration of my partners’ random brainstorm session in the park back in the summer of 2001. It is named Bloomsberry & Co. because it has a nice ring to it. Don’t you think? The very talented Giles Barker and Vanessa Kettelwell established the brand in Christchurch, New Zealand. After a few years of honing the Bloomsberry concept they partnered with me to prove its commercial worth in other countries beyond the quaint villages of New Zealand. The United States and Canada is the most significant market for the Bloomsberry brand today. But the bars can also be found in countless retail stores in Australia, Ireland, England, Germany, and beyond. Great design + delicious chocolate seem to have no boundaries! What is the one dramatic thing that distinguishes you from you competitors? Every brand’s ultimate goal is to create an individual emotional connection with each consumer. This rule especially holds true to food items. Unfortunately many brands fall well short of this goal. Bloomsberry & Co. unmistakably connects with consumers. Its messages communicated via its chocolate bars are universal shared human experiences. For example, when the recipient of an Emergency Chocolate bar realizes the implicit meaning of its playful design and copy…inner joy and appreciation is never lost in the receiver’s outward facial expressions. The intimate and very human experience of giving or receiving a Bloomsberry gift bar is a moment remembered. What role does design play in your brand? Uniquely memorable and personal design is the essence of the Bloomsberry & Co. brand. It is both a visual and a palate experience. The Bloomsberry brand is challenging to describe to others verbally. The uniquely visual blend of wit and graphic design elements set it apart from any other “chocolate bar” company on the market. Our logo is playful and non-corporate-like. After all we sell chocolate…shouldn’t it be all about the fun?! The most successfully commercial designs for Bloomsberry & Co. are clean, simple, and pithy. Less is typically more. Do you consider your company to be passion-driven, mission-driven, socially-driven or other? Bloomsberry & Co. is both passion & fashion driven. It has to be in order to continue to develop new award winning designs that tantalize tastebuds and seduce the senses. We are an exotic designer chocolate bar company that infuses each new product with a delectable sense of humor and superior ingredients. It’s a combo that appears to be resonating with consumers. What is your marketing strategy? Bloomsberry & Co. is a brand to be discovered. Did you smile when discovering your first Bloomsberry chocolate bar? We think we know the answer to that question. Simply put our marketing strategy is to create smiles far and wide enough that it will inspire consumers to tell all their friends about Bloomsberry & Co. Our goal is not to be the biggest chocolate company in the world but to be the most fun. To be able to have such a positive impact on consumers so that the Bloomsberry chocolate bar experience ultimately creates millions of smiles each day…one irrepressible grin at a time. Where and how are your products made? Bloomsberry’s all natural kosher certified chocolate is made with much TLC in various local regions of the world. The process is both an art and a science…literally. Each cocoa formulation used in different parts of the world is specifically chosen due to local palate preferences. The dark chocolate sold in the US for example is 55% cocoa. As opposed to Bloomsberry’s 70% dark chocolate distributed in Europe and New Zealand. Our strategy of producing locally also has the added benefit of decreasing freight costs which in turn minimizes our overall carbon footprint. Although Bloomsberry’s cocoa formulations are proprietary it does partner with co-manufacturers in order to stay nimble and maximize production efficiencies. This of course makes our world a much cleaner place! And allows Bloomsberry to stay focused on satisfying the growing consumer demand of inspired design. What is your advice to companies on building an authentic brand? Beat to your own drum. One cannot be authentic if you are trying to better your “competition”. At Bloomsberry we do not consider other chocolate brands foes. We do not sell chocolate per se. We market shared experiences. This puts Bloomsberry on a different playing field than other “chocolate” companies. What is your proudest moment as a company? We do feel strongly that our proudest moments are yet to come. But so far officially launching in the US and Canada in 2005 was a significant milestone for the brand. The United States is the single largest cocoa consuming market in the world. Bloomsberry & Co. has made great strides in the US. Millions have enjoyed the Bloomsberry experience thus far. We look forward to reaching the many millions more who have not been able to make smile yet! What is it that people really want? To be remembered. Bloomsberry & Co. was established on this one single premise. Each Bloomsberry bar communicates to the recipient “I remembered you”. That’s quite a powerful statement. Where can people buy your products? Bloomsberryusa.com online Store or find local retail outlet near you via online Store Locator. What song(s) do you enjoy singing at the top of your lungs? Forever Young. Especially as the years race by me.

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I believe in tomorrow. The world would be better if we all ate more chocolate. Someday I am going to donate all my time to charitable causes. I'm not very good at remembering names. I love aimless travel vacations. When I need a break I enjoy my kids. I am most happy when I look into her eyes. It bothers me when I can’t fix the problem. I never thought I would be so happy. My motto: Attitude not aptitude determines altitude.

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My title is Inspired Protagonist – it is what you call an inspirational figure who raises hell.

Jeffery Hollender, Seventh Generation

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Behind the Brand : Seventh Generation

One of the first socially-responsible companies in the U.S., Seventh Generation was founded in Burlington, Vermont in 1988 by Jeffrey Hollender as mail-order company selling environmentally-friendly household products, who believed that there was a growing need for a better way to do things.

Twenty-one years later, people understand the importance of using products that are safer for people and safer for the environment, and they've transformed themselves into the leading provider of household cleaning and personal care products made from natural, non-toxic, and recycled materials. And they’re just getting warmed up.

Seventh Generation is still pioneering new products and teaching other companies how to redesign their businesses so that they’re fair to employees and kind to the environment. It is work they love, and to paraphrase the Native American wisdom that inspired their name, work they will continue to do in order to help people in their every deliberation lessen the impact of their decisions on the next seven generations. Seventh Generation operates according to a new and different set of principles and values that in many ways are a marked departure from those long considered "traditional." All of its products, raw materials, byproducts, and the processes by which they are made are sustainable, not just those of one particular product line. Its business practice is focused on offering people avenues to express their idealism, passion, and commitment to causes larger than themselves at every point along its supply chain—from suppliers and partners to shareholders, customers and its own staff. The company derives its name from the Great Law of the Iroquois that states, "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." Every time you use a Seventh Generation product you are making a difference by saving natural resources, reducing pollution, keeping toxic chemicals out of the environment and making the world a safer place for this and the next seven generations.

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Q+A with Jeffrey Hollender Motto: Why do you get out of bed every day? Many reasons: to catch the first glimpse of my 15-year-old daughter as she opens her eyes to the new day, to greet the morning with my wife of 25 years, Sheila, and to experience the beauty of living on a huge lake overlooking the Adirondack mountains. Motto: What do you want to communicate to the world? We’re in deep trouble, but there is hope. As Gandhi says, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” In other words, point to yourself and say, “Change starts here.” Motto: Describe the big influences that led you to where you are. I’ve studied with some amazing teachers, Marshall McLuhan, RD Rang, and Peter Senge. The Vietnam War shaped my sense of responsibility. My brother’s illness deepened my compassion. My wife helped me understand unconditional love. Motto: Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics? I only like to ride in convertibles. My favorite activity in the world is surfing. In my next life I’m going to be a sea shell collector. I love bright colors (glasses and socks are my specialty.) Motto: Tell us how you came up with your name. My title is Inspired Protagonist – it is what you call an inspirational figure who raises hell. The name Seventh Generation comes from the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee (the Iroquois Confederacy), which says that “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” Motto: What is the one dramatic thing that distinguishes you from you competitors? We are green from the inside out. We are completely transparent – what you see is what you get, warts and all. Motto: What role does design play in your brand? Our brand design is getting growing attention these days but not from me. After 20 years, I’m stepping out of the way so that a new design culture can flourish at Seventh Generation. Motto: Do you consider your company to be passion-driven, mission-driven, socially-driven or other? How could you be socially driven with out being mission driven? And if you aren’t driven by your passion you won’t succeed. I think we are all of those things and more. Motto: What is your approach to marketing? Create highly engaging social activism campaigns that address the most important issues around protecting the world and protecting your family. We want to create opportunities for people to partner with us to make a difference, feel good about doing it, and then every time someone dabs some Seventh Generation dish liquid onto a sponge a little voice inside them says, “Wow, you’re really helping to make the world a better place.” Motto: Where and how are your products made? It depends on the product. Dish liquid, for example, starts on a sustainably-certified palm oil plantation in Indonesia, where the farmer is committed to protecting an indigenous lifestyle. We are trying to prevent the growth of palm oil plantations that destroy the rainforest (half of it’s already gone). Our bathroom tissue, starts in an industrial trash bin on the outskirts of Montreal where high-quality office waste is collected and shipped to the converting factory where we make our 100% recycled, non-chlorine bleached paper product Motto: What is your advice to companies on building an authentic brand? Try to avoid managed money (venture capital or private equity) unless you are absolutely certain that the money manager shares your agenda. Be transparent ‘til it hurts: If staffers aren’t nervous about how transparent you’re being, you’re probably not being transparent enough. Commit yourself to creating the best workplace anyone has ever experienced. Study the Seventh Generation story in my last book,In Our Every Deliberation.http://tinyurl.com/yanu29h Motto: What is your proudest moment as a company? Watching the smiles on our employees’ faces as they received their checks from the sale of some of their Seventh Generation stock and knowing that the value was going to those who deserved it the most. Motto: What is it that people really want? To be heard, to be part of a community, to do what they deeply believe in, to feel respected and appreciated, to have fun. Motto: Where can people buy your products? Natural food stores, grocery stores, larger merchants like Target and online at etailers like Amazon.com, Diapers.com and Drugstore.com. You can get a complete list at our website,www.seventhgeneration.com/where-to-buy. Motto: If you could be reincarnated as any animal, what would you be? That’s a tough question. I feel a deep connection to chipmunks, but they don’t swim, and that would be a problem for me. Guess I’d have to go with a seal, they surf.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey Fills in the Blank... I believe in endless possibility. The world would be better if it was filled with more “we” and less “me”. Someday I am going to live at the beach. I'm not very good at keeping my mouth shut. I love the surf. When I need a break I get in a hot bath and read a novel. I am most happy when I can wake up at home on a Saturday morning with my family. It bothers me when people think that they know all the answers. I never thought I would spend so many nights sleeping in hotel rooms. My motto: Be the change you wish to see in the world – Gandhi

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Find em' online! Seventh Generation Website Become a fan of Seventh Generation on Facebook Follow Seventh Generation on Twitter

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Behind the Brand : 18 Rabbits

Childhood was a time of simplicity. Riding our bikes. Playing with our imagination. Having people tell us they like us by circling yes, no, or maybe. Ah, the good old days. 18 Rabbits, a San Francisco based company, wants people to feel the same goodness when they eat their yummy granola products. For founder Alison Bailey Vercruysse, memories of her mom baking her special granola recipe while she played outside with her four siblings and their rabbit, Blackjack, are what inspired her idea for her brand.

After leaving her career in banking to pursue her passions in the kitchen, Alison created her own recipe for 18 Rabbits granola that was inspired by her childhood. With no wheat, no corn, no soy and the lowest sugar per serving of any other granola on the market, they’re raising the granola bar. Get up close and personal in our video interview with Alison and learn how she’s bringing food back to its roots.

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Behind the Brand : PLUM ORGANICS

Gigi Lee Chang, mom and third-generation entrepreneur, is the founder of leading baby and toddler food brand, Plum Organics. She launched with a line of frozen baby foods in 2006 on the basic principles of creating organic meals that exemplify freshness, optimal nutrition and great taste without compromise.

The inspiration for Plum Organics came about when Gigi took a trip with her son Cato – then 8 months. At that time, Gigi had only been feeding Cato homemade baby food, and when she tried to give him commercial baby food on their trip, he refused to eat it. Using a food grinder, Gigi quickly ground some adult food and waalaa, he was happily eating again. This caused her to stop and think: Why wasn’t he interested in commercial food? Why did he only want to eat mom's cookin'?

Upon returning to New York, Gigi started looking into the topic and found a couple of key points. 1) Research shows taste preferences are formed by the age of two, and 2) Commercial baby food was invented more than 50 years ago and not much has evolved to improve it since. So on a mission, Gigi went to change how kids eat and food is made by offering better tasting, more nutritious options. In 2009, Plum Organics launched their next line of baby purees in shelf-stable pouches. The pouch delivers a much better quality product than traditional shelf-stable baby foods while also offering more convenience and portability than their original frozen line. Last year they also launched a toddler line to address the market need for a full-range of organic snacks to encourage eating independence. In just four short years, Plum Organics has grown its distribution to over 1,500 stores in national retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Babies “R” Us and Target. Recognized as a leader and innovator in baby food, Plum Organics was selected for Entrepreneur’s 2007 annual “HOT LIST” and named “Brand Innovator 2008 & 2010” by Brand Packaging. Gigi and Plum Organics have been featured in over 250 media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, MORE magazine, Yogi Times, KIWI Magazine, Cookie, Parenting, OK! Weekly, Celebrity Baby Blog, TODAY Show, Newsweek and Time Out New York Kids. Quite the accomplishments.

Q+A with Gigi Lee Chang Motto: What driving force propels you out of bed each morning? Quite literally at 6:30am, my 6-year old son. He was the inspiration for Plum Organics and continues to be my inspiration every day. Motto: What is the one thing you want to communicate to the world? I believe that Plum Organics is about solutions for the contemporary family. Today’s consumers are about individuality and “a la carte” choices. No one brand or solution will be able to meet all needs at all times. We want Plum to be a brand that today’s parents can identify with and trust to bring them innovative solutions to meet their baby and toddler’s eating needs. Motto: Do you consider your company to be passion-driven, mission-driven, socially-driven, all, or other? As a triple-bottom line company, we are all three – but if you really look at it – we are passion driven. Our passion is our mission - which is about healthier, more nutritious foods for babies and toddlers. One way to deliver on our mission is through our products, but education is also a big part of what we do which leads to the social side of our mission. At the end of the day, it is all intertwined.

We are also the only baby and toddler foods company to be a B Corporations. B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Certified by a third-party – B Lab - they help us by providing additional accountability and external metrics against which we are measured against our own triple bottom line goals. Motto: What are big influences that have led you to where you are in life? From a professional perspective, I would say that all my various career experiences have been like puzzle pieces that gave me specific skills to create Plum Organics. Prior to starting Plum, I had worked in management consulting and strategic planning for Fortune 100 companies as well as agencies. I also spent time working for my family’s manufacturing business in Asia, which was formative in helping me to gain a big picture view of end-to-end business processes. All of these learning helped me to put the pieces together and launch Plum Organics. Personally, it is my family and their support that has enabled me to make this journey. My husband has been supportive of the business from the beginning and advised me behind the scenes. My parents also provided tremendous support. Everyone in my family has a real entrepreneurial spirit so I think that also allowed me to “go for it”.

Motto: Where does the name Plum Organics come from? I worked with an agency to go through a naming process and decided on Plum Organics. I wanted a name that had an association with babies/children, but was not cutesy. I also knew I didn’t want any “earthy, granola” names because they weren’t contemporary. We ended up with Plum because it had the qualities I was looking for, I liked the double meaning of the word “Plum” and purple is my favorite color. Motto: Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics? I like to think I am fairly normal, but my family may disagree ☺ One quirk I have is that I am a neat freak. It is really important to me that everything is in its right place and if something is used, it is cleaned and put away straight away. When I am cooking for example, I can’t start cooking unless the entire kitchen is clean and everything is put away, even if I know I’m going to need to take it out to use it in 30 seconds time. Does that qualify as a strange mannerism??? Motto: What is your advice to companies on building authentic brands? Authenticity is really about heart. I believe that if a company is passionate and true to their beliefs it will be authentic. Often times in business, there are choices and trade-offs which sometimes may seem like the better decision but if there isn’t a direct line back to the vision and mission of the company, it will not sit right with the brand. Consumers are very insightful and over time, these choices will eventually erode a brand’s authenticity.

Motto: What role does design play in your brand? Design and innovation is a big part of Plum Organics’ success. When we first launched, we made some bold design choices that continue to be the hallmark of what people like about our brand. For example, the white background, the imagery and photography come together in a way that really wasn’t applied to packaged food products in 2006. Now, for example, we see so many food brands using white packaging, but 5 years ago, that wasn’t the case. Now that we are part of the Nest Collective, design continues to be at the heart of the brand. Nest has design and innovation at its core. One example of this is the ability to integrate design into the DNA of the company by having an internal R&D, design and innovation team. By taking these functions in-house, the classic tension between operations and innovation is reduced, enabling us to bring ideas to fruition that otherwise might not make it. As we continue to innovate, we are building on our core brand imagery, but also using intuitive product design to meet the needs of our core consumers. Our new baby food pouches are an example of this. The pouch format is more user friendly and creates a better feeding experience. It lets parents feed their children with one hand or easily dispense the food onto a spoon. To make the experience even better, we had the idea to make a spoon that would attach to our pouches and dispense baby food, creating a one-handed feeding effort. When we had the idea for the spoon, we looked to partner with Boon, Inc. – another brand that clearly has innovation at its core. The result is the Plum Dispensing Spoon by Boon. Recently launched in July, it has been a big hit. Motto: What is your proudest moment as a brand? I would say it is when I saw the product on the retail shelf for the first time. This moment continues to be replicated every time we launch a new product line or we gain a new retail partner. As a start-up company, it is the “I can’t believe it’s real” moment that makes me most proud. Motto: What is your definition of success? Knowing that you achieved your goal, not necessarily by external or material measures, more from within. Motto: If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing? I would love to do a culinary course or degree in holistic health. Through starting Plum Organics, I am now part of the larger health and wellness community. There is so much I want to know more about and gain more knowledge in, especially around food and nutrition.

Motto: How are Plum products developed? There is no single process since we have a variety of product platforms, but through our research and insights into the market and consumer needs, we identify opportunities and gaps. We challenge ourselves to improve on the product itself (taste, quality, nutrition), and also the consumer experience (usability, functionality). As we go through our innovation process, we garner further input from consumers and also share the concepts with our key retail partners and get their feedback and support as well. Gigi Fills in the Blank... I believe what you put out into the universe is what you will receive back. The world would be better if we all behaved as truthfully and transparently as children. Someday I am going to go to bed early. I'm not very good at turning off the computer at night. I love answering my son’s endless stream of questions because it really challenges my assumptions and understanding of things we take for granted. When I need a break I get a massage. I am most happy when I am lying in bed reading or talking with my son. It bothers me when people don’t acknowledge the collaboration and team effort that is required to be successful. I never thought I’d be an entrepreneur. My motto: Never be afraid to ask questions, better to learn something than pretend. Find Plum Organics online! Visit their Website Become a fan on Facebook Follow them on Twitter

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Behind the Brand : PYRRHA

Husband and wife team Wade Papin and Danielle Wilmore, the force behind Pyrrha, don’t try to hide the fact that they are self taught jewelry designers, in fact they cite it as one of the reasons for their success.

From their Vancouver studio, a 100 year-old converted house, the pair craft the heraldic seal talismans that have become the brand's signature, using techniques that evolved from a laborious process of trial and error (mostly error, they say) and a disregard for rules. “Jewelers traditionally try to make everything look flawless,” says Wade, “but we like to show the maker’s hand. We celebrate the flaws.”

Wade and Danielle tell us that Pyrrha had very humble beginnings. Some sixteen years ago, with a hundred dollars between them, they quit their day jobs and began making necklaces without really knowing how. In order to buy supplies, they had to first sell the original pieces that they'd made. They even admit to buying food on a department store credit card. The struggle went on like this during their first few years in business. Then they launched their Seals Collection, an incarnation that came about after the designers envisioned antique 19th century wax seals cast into striking silver or gold pendants, rings, and other to-die-for pieces. Bearing latin mottos and family-crest motifs like stags' heads, gryphons, and cherubs, the seals are oxidized to look passed down through generations. The collection is sensual, sexy, raw, and beautifully handcrafted, all qualities that have earned Pyrhha a cult-like following.

“Making jewelry out of the wax seals was inspired by a desire to give the seals new life and permancence,” says Danielle. “As we started researching the imagery in the seals, we were intrigued by the richness of the symbolism.” Initially the seal collection was met with a luke warm reception and cries of "where's your old collection?!" But Wade and Danielle knew that the collection was a hit because it was the first one that they felt meaningfully attached to. The whole concept of taking something so fragile and giving it a new life and permanence was very exciting to them. Given the perfect timing of a return to old world tailoring and all things handmade, their pieces were right on target for what people wanted-- meaningful fashion. Needless to say, the collection has become a huge hit, first appearing on the necks of Vancouver’s more stylish denizens. International acclaim followed when Reese Witherspoon lobbied Los Angeles boutique Fred Segal to carry the line, and when lingerie label Araksaccessorized their Fall 2006 New York Fashion Week show with Pyrrha pendants. Pyrrha has since appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers including Instyle, O, Nylon, The New York Times, Lucky, Elle and Glamour, and has a celebrity client list that includes Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Miley Cyrus, Brad Pitt, Jodie Foster, Emma Thompson, Ashton Kucher and Taylor Lautner. As their business has grown, Wade and Danielle have remained solidly connected to their Vancouver base. They’re firmly committed to local production. Pyrrha jewelry is made with reclaimed silver and gold, without chemical cleaners, and packaged in recyclable containers and biodegradable bags. Both vegetarians, Wade and Danielle have made environmental responsibility a priority in a business which hasn’t typically been green. Their design direction is largely a reaction to the proliferation of overseas factory made, mass produced jewelry that is so common in their industry. Wade explains, “everything seems to be cranked out at a staggering pace and then left for dead. Because we live in such a throwaway society, it’s necessary to create some things that can be kept.” In April 2010, Pyrrha opened its first retail store in Los Angeles, and Wade and Danielle can't wait to explore even more possibilities; for them standing still = boredom. Q+A with Danielle Wilmore and Wade Papin Motto: What driving force propels you out of bed each morning? Wade: I get bored of sleeping. My mind never stops and sleeping is a bit of a chore rather than a privilege for me. Danielle: Wade. Motto: What is the one thing you want to communicate to the world? Wade: Do what you love to do, no matter what it is. You only get one life (fingers crossed for more). Motto: Do you consider your company to be passion-driven, mission-driven, socially-driven, all, or other? Danielle: Passion driven, mostly. We don't really have a grand plan - as long as we feel fulfilled we'll keep doing what we're doing. We're also passionate about animals so there are social aspects to our business that come into play. We're big supporters of Animal Acres, a charity that rescues and rehabilitates abused factory farm animals and we periodically donate partial proceeds from our sales to this and other charities. For June and July we're donating $25 from each bird related pendant to the International Bird Rescue Research Center. They have their hands full at the moment due to the BP disaster. Motto: What are big influences that have led you to where you are in life? Wade: From a business perspective, my father was (and continues to be) a huge influence. He was never afraid to take chances and I grew up with an entrepreneurial spirit that made it impossible for me to be satisfied being an employee. He was also the king of the proverb. When I was young I groaned at his incessant cliches, but as I got older I realized that many of them stayed with me and shaped my thinking. Motto: Where does the name Pyrrha come from? Pyrrha and Deucalion were the last two people left on the earth after a great flood. To repopulate the earth, they were told to throw stones over their shoulders - the stones Pyrrha threw became women, Deucalion's became men. Motto: Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics? Danielle: We spend almost 24 hours, 7 days a week together, so I think that we've moved on from that subject or else we would have killed each other by now. Motto: What is your advice to companies on building authentic brands? Wade: Avoid spin. Most people can see right through it. Authenticity is achieved by avoiding rhetoric and creating a meaningful bond with the consumer. Of course this is a lot easier if your product is something that you truly connect with. I think that our brand has authenticity because Pyrrha is a reflection of who we are. Motto: How do you market your brand? Danielle: We do several trade shows a year, in New York with plans to exhibit in Europe. We market to the public via our website, Facebook and Twitter. As we're generally turned off by conventional advertising we try to let the brand grow organically without too much intervention. Motto: What is your proudest moment as a brand? Danielle: When someone at the grocery store asks me where I got my Pyrrha pendant, and before I can answer, they give me a 5 minute monologue about which ones they have, what they mean, where they got them, and which ones they want to get next. Knowing that something you're creating is impacting someone is such a positive way is extremely rewarding. Motto: What is your definition of success? Wade: To me, success is about feeling good about what you do and who you are. People spend a good part of their lives (some their whole lives) worrying about what others think about them. To live fearlessly in the moment is my ultimate goal. Motto: If you weren’t designing jewelry, what would you be doing? Danielle: raising goats (not eating them). Motto: Describe the process of how your jewelry is made. We salvage and cast 19th century wax seals in reclaimed sterling silver, bronze and 14 karat gold via a proprietary process and design each piece around them. Each one is then individually finished by hand and oxidized to bring out the detail. Motto: What is Wade’s favorite piece? The Duke ring - it was the first ring (the actual prototype) that we ever made from this collection and the first piece of jewelry of ours that I've ever worn. It's a classic "I LOVE your ring but I couldn't pull it off" ring. Motto: Danielle’s favorite? The Vanity seal pendant - because it reads Omnia Vanitas (All is Vanity) and that couldn't be more true. Danielle and Wade Fill in the Blank... Danielle: I believe in having tea at 4:00. Wade: The world would be better if people talked more to strangers. Danielle: Someday I am going to spend a year on a boat in the Mediterranean. Wade: I'm not very good at telling myself no. Danielle: I love single malt scotch. Wade: When I need a break I take a bath (even if it's the middle of the day). Danielle: I am most happy when eating with friends. Wade: It bothers me when restaurants over salt. Danielle: I never thought we would open a retail store in Los Angeles. Wade: My motto: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Find Pyrrha online! Visit their Website Become a fan on Facebook Follow them on Twitter

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Behind the Brand : Khaya Cookie Co.

Alicia Polak is the founder of Khaya Cookie Company in South Africa, an innovative business with a social objective. These cookies with a conscious come in five exotic and hard-to-stop-eating flavors: Orange Rooibos Shortbread, Cranberry Rooibos Shortbread, Grapeseed Shortbread, Orange & Chocolate Krunchi (orange zest, Belgium chocolate & honey-sweetened grains) and Granola Fruit Krunchi. The ingredients are all-natural, locally sourced in South Africa, pronounceable, and are created with care to give you the kind of pleasure that only handcrafted, naturally wholesome treats can deliver. After visiting a South African shantytown devastated by unemployment, Alicia, a former investment banker turned entrepreneur, made one sweet sacrifice. In 2004, using her savings, a recipe for chocolate-chip cookies scribbled on a piece of paper, and one Xhosa-speaking worker, she quit her corporate job and launched what turned out to be the first iteration of her cookie company in the township of Khayelitsha outside Cape Town. It all started one night after obsessing about and longing for her favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. With no ice cream shop in sight, a visit to their website was the next closest thing. Did you know ex-bankers read annual reports for fun? Yep, it’s true. Killing time, Alicia came across a statement in their report that said, "We create wealth and we redistribute that wealth." That’s when the light bulb went on. Though she admits she never turned on an oven on in her life, she figured she could make cookies using the same idea. Little did she expect that her clever endeavor would raise the eyebrows of do-gooders and cookie lovers alike. In two years it grew from one worker to ten and supplied brownies and cookies to high-end hotels, restaurants and cafes throughout South Africa. She sold the company in 2005 to local South Africans in order to expand on her mission. In 2006, in collaboration with the Wharton Societal Wealth Program, Alicia founded Khaya Cookie Company. The endeavor utilizes the entrepreneurial and analytical skills that she gained during her years on Wall Street to expand on her venture for social change, allowing her to fulfill a personal commitment to better the lives of the residents in her adopted home of South Africa. Today, Khaya Cookie Company is located deep in the winelands of western South Africa where it produces its range of cookies for the export market, and as a result, provides more jobs, job skills training, and opportunities to a greater number of women and men. The products are produced in a shared production facility in an area surrounded by a large township were jobs are desperately needed. 70% of all women who are head of their household are unemployed, making employment even more crucial. Khaya Cookie Compay is preparing for an even more intense jobs skills training to not only sharpen the baking skills of the women and men in the township, but also provide life skills as well as basic household financial guidance. Khaya is even teaching their employees how to garden for themselves. They run a small local market at the factory. The best part of all is that for every 1,500 boxes of cookies sold, one new job is created in South Africa. These jobs provide sustainable opportunities and job skills training for the women and men of the local community. In the United States, for every 500 orders placed, four new jobs are created at their distribution center in Philadelphia. Alicia and her work have been featured in CNN Headline News “Small & Global” and in publications such as The Financial Times, Glamour (South Africa), O, the Oprah Magazine (South Africa), and Business 2.0. Plus, she received the Food Network Awards 2007 Edible Entrepreneur of the Year award for her “passionate pursuit of bright ideas.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Q+A with Alicia Polak Motto: What driving force propels you out of bed each morning? To know I have the unique opportunity and privlige to help create opportunity one bite at a time. Making cookies can change a life. Just one box sold can make a difference. Motto: What is the one thing you want to communicate to the world? That no matter how small a “thing” or step one thinks they are taking we are all capable of making a ripple in a pond. My father taught me this. Motto: Do you consider your company to be passion-driven, mission-driven, socially-driven, all, or other? I am driven by my passion to create a difference in others lives and I am fortunate that is my mission which is socially driven. Motto: What are big influences that have led you to where you are in life? My father was hidden during the war. He had a tough upbringing yet went on to help people. I think this was and is a large influence. I understand his father, who did not survive the war was very instrumental in helping people during the war. Maybe it is just genetics. My ex boss at the UN is an amazing force in my life. She is calm, gracious, brilliant and serene. I learned so much from her and my exboss from BlackRock taught me stamina and discipline so I am lucky to have an incredible group of people. My best friend and my brother are two others I could not fuction without. They are my North Star. All these people help guide me. I have guidance from a very close friend and mentor at Wharton so my list goes on..I am very, very lucky! Motto: Where does the name come from? Khaya means home in Xhosa a local language spoken in South Africa. Motto: Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics? Sure, quirks..I can’t sit still. I make spreadsheets with more colors than a rainbow. Annoying habits…I chomp on gum. Terrible habit I know! I love my baggy, baggy old levis. I HATE purses and this is not very lady like but I prefer a good back pack to a fendi bag any day. I love Levis but don’t get me wrong, Calvin Klein catches my eye. Motto: What is your advice to companies on building authentic brands? You have to love what you do in order to be able to talk about what you do. You and the brand are in a sense on in the same so you must love you product. Motto: How do you market your brand? We rely a great deal on word of mouth, traditional PR, news articles, blog reviews, facebook and twitter. Motto: What is your proudest moment as a brand? The day I got my first order. 300 cookies from a local hotel in South Africa. I remember standing outside in the parking lot. I called my dad from 10,000 miles away. I felt better than any IPO ever did on Wall Street. Motto: What is your definition of success? Knowing I made just one ripple in someones life. Motto: Describe the process of how/where your products are made. 99% of our goods are locally sourced from South Africa. We hand pick the majority of our suppliers to create even more jobs. For example, our organic apricots are sourced from a farm owned and half managed by a women. She helps subsidize the school fees for the farmers childrens. I use Allison’s apricots for two reasons. One is that they are picked like grapes. They are picked when they are not too sweet or acidic, just like grapes! The other is that she is so involved in trying to make her ripple in the community. Like meets like. These hand picked ingredients are brought to our production facility where they are swirled into our receipes by women and men once deemed formerly unemployable. Our factory is HAACP approved with is a European standard similar but harder to obtain than FDA approval. From here our cookies are baked, marked and approved Kosher, and packed in containers and sent on the ocean to our distribution center in Philadelphia.

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Alicia Fills in the Blank... I believe in creating opportunity one bite at a time. The world would be better if we all tried to do just one small thing to make a difference. Someday I am going to help build homes for all those who don’t have proper housing in SA! I'm not very good at asking for help. I love being needed. When I need a break I feel overwhelmed..that I can’t do enough. I am most happy when I am surrounded by my friends. It bothers me when I feel I can help enough. I never thought I would ever ever leave banking. My motto: thoughts become things.

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