Inflection Point with Lauren Schiller; #2; Kirsten Tobey & Kristin Richmond, Revolution Foods; Alex Bernadotte, Beyond12: Hot Food and High Tech

welcome to inflection point interviews with women changing the status quo i'm lauren shuler four kind of landscape you die for three dollars a bag accept them as though they're testing organic apple the federal government allotted only two dollars and ninety three cents for each school lunch our vision and our goal from the beginning was healthy affordable delicious food for all kids and only eight percent of low income students actually get a college degree or high school making the grade when it comes to college prep they've been working blindly right not knowing what's happening to their kid once they get to college today we're speaking with revolution foods co founders kristen richmond interest in tempe and founder of beyond twelve our exported not nurturing the next generation for success with harvey and high tech without their inflection point first in his thigh the piece

you're listening to inflection point i'm lauren shuler my guest is alexander brand and our founder and ceo of the on twelve hour expert diana welcome to the program thank you thanks for having me toss about beyond twelve and why you felt about so we are a national nonprofit organization our nation is to increase the number of low income and first generation students who graduate from college and we do that in freeway is we track students' we connect students and we coached at and the first piece of the work is the tracking we've built an alumni tracker that allows us to collect all kinds of data about how kids are doing once they get to college it's everything from did they show up on day one what are their grades have they made any meaningful connections on campus to be utilizing campuses resources and we synthesize all about information and the feedback to their high schools are the programs that they were wet towel to make decisions about how effective their models were sent out your high school you have access to information like you know what percentage of my students failed

freshman what percentage of my students had to be re mediated an english once they got there what are my kids xi ph is how long on average is the taking my kids to graduate from college where they going to college you know that kind of information that's really valuable for you as you're trying to build your model is you're trying to figure out whether you're effectively not as a high school as the high school where as a scholarship or to the center or as an after school program like the boys and girls club you know so anybody who's working at the high school level to get kids into college even working blindly right not knowing what's happening to their keds once they get to college and so really the point they were trying to make as let's use video outlets use actual steve india not just college dr about workforce entreaty to help reform your practices rather than conventional wisdom shut i started the organization large part to address some of the challenges that i faced as a first generation college goers and i was going for a prince haiti i

grew up in inner city boston and my parents did not have a college degree but dean yale with a college degree was really our path out of poverty our path to a better future so they stressed the importance without really necessarily having the tools to allow me to follow that dream but i always had that as the motivation and inspiration my mom used to work in the emergency room of a hospital in one day she came running home after hearing overhearing a group of doctors talking about when they were sending their kids to college and she came running home and said you have to go to this thing called an ivy league and you have to go to this place called dartmouth you know that way i can only imagine what she was visualizing with ivy league a serio idea which is happening added sesay was that like isn't that i heard the doctors talking about it seems like it's important and the path to go and that's where you should go south out how the dream of a specific college was born in you know threw that over a conversation and so i worked really hard did everything i was supposed to do and coincidentally i did land at the start now

plays and sally realizes announced that men but i landed their hands we all celebrated the moment because we felt like we had won we won the lottery because that's what it was all about that was about getting in but we were wrong i went in hanover new hampshire totally unprepared for what lay ahead and i had a very good horrible and difficult transition from high school college and quickly discovered that getting that college acceptance letter was really only the first you know in many ways is the easiest step so luckily my story has a happy ending so they would turn things around and i did graduate from dartmouth and to become the first person i need a family to earn a college degree but unfortunately that's not the story for lots and lots of students with backgrounds it's very similar to mine so each year hundreds and thousands of kids aren't with their college acceptance letters you know embark on their college journeys believing like i did that ever go further ahead but the statistics tell us otherwise they're actually not prepared only eight percent of students from the lowest income quite how can expect to earn a bachelor's degree by their mid twenties

versus eighty two percent of students from the highest income what else do you need to then be connected with the earth the high school and then the colleges that those graduates eventually get to know who are you working with fat so it's both our point of entry into the market are the high schools at the high school based organizations and i say high school based organizations because a lot of our partners are in high school so they'll like as an after school programs are scholarship organization and but yeah so our point of entry are those institutions we call them pre collegiate organizations and then adds in their alumni solid the kids that they're serving that they're signing off to college and then by extension that colleges and universities where they're sending critical masses of their cats so that's how the equation works it's found by a school based programs for their kids to the colleges and universities were there standing critical masses of that alex who pays for all of this we are a non profit but we are a revenue generating non profit which means that we get about forty percent of our revenue right now comes from the fees the annual subscription fee and the per student fee that our

partners pay credit at high schools or after school organizations our college loans and so they're paying for the service isn't for the subscription and then the other piece sixty percent right now comes from philanthropies so institutional funders foundations individual donors we wanted to create a sustainable non profit you know we wanted it to be not non profit because we wanted to always be driven and guided by our nation but we also wanted to be sustainable so our goal is to get it eighty five percent earned income so eighty five percent of our income will come from these fees that i'm our partners are paying us in only rely on philanthropy for dr indeed a special projects in the technology and for us not to have to rely on philanthropy in perpetuity and to really build a sustainable scalable model armed that demonstrates that feels that a nonprofit can actually be sustainable and scalable and doesn't have to rely on philanthropy in perpetuity is that kind of a groundbreaking new approach to the

nonprofit model it definitely is i mean i think there is something now there are some models out there on the salvation army is one right in terms of what a nonprofit that the revenue generating but they're not there are a lot of organizations i'm with that model and certainly not many in education and so it as we wanted to do this in a groundbreaking way partly because i don't like to fundraise but partly because yeah we do feel like this is the next step in terms of models organizations have to demonstrate that they are sustainable you know i often say that your tax status is not a business model made into it or not out of your pocket that's not a business model you actually have to have a business model that demonstrates how you're going to sustain yourself and how you're going to grow the business and for us we really wanted to be able to create that example of an edge aviation organization that blends technology and service but that also plans are in revenue with philanthropy to release the l on the model and the ad revenue is really a

proof of concept because clearly these institutions are finding value and what you're bringing light absolutely so after you realize that this was an opportunity that you could pursue and you knew that it was and he wanted to make into something bigger was going to stanford the thing that said that helped you feel like he was mean you could actually go and create i mean it was that do you feel like it's really you could've done without attending business school so i actually did go to business school actually wants to be education schools like a policy degree and so yes and no you know i knew that i had this idea i knew that i needed to even if not they are very specific skills that that graduate degree wait i'm provide an offer but the networks my aid and so i knew that i needed that and quite frankly as a woman i felt like i needed the credentials and i can be the exact same person that i am today with the exact same idea but the fact that i can say oh yeah i have a graduate degree from stanford add some legitimacy even though it shouldn't they sued the process in an added legitimacy when i

was approaching funders when i was you know approaching organizations initial clients and so for me i had a very sort of strong understanding about before going to stanford and i felt like i needed the networks and the credentials so that was definitely it but i do think that the more pivotal he says the story in terms of stirring the aunts well was that experience i had working a new school center and so right after i decided that i wanted to launch beyond twelve i officially laughed but they came back and said hey this is something that's really important to us to the realization of our portfolio or predisposition called an entrepreneur in residence and we will provide you with the supports olivia mentors who can help you think through this a ready group of organizations are going to be fought partners and potentially early adopters and funding you know which is not something that a lot of entrepreneurs have the opportunity to do so through that residence ziad ten months of support in all the ways that i talk to a financial and also beyond that the dollars that allowed me to really focus in

on this idea create the business plan that it by a bunch of different people in the field and in the industry but i had that support and i do think that that was critical in launching the un's twelve because i think a lot of entrepreneurs don't have that opportunity so well recently obstacles that you ran into as you're putting me on trial together oh my god so many in the breeze is now a fear that the night my fingers and suddenly created on lots of different articles i think for me there are two things in i don't often like to focus on this but i think we need to be real about who i am and where i come from i am a woman and i'm a woman of color so it did not have those networks i couldn't go to mom and dad and anbar money i didn't have a rich uncle somewhere who is ready to find this adventure for me and so i need access to capital and i needed access to mentor is you know folks who have done this work before and you would be able to guide me and provide me with the insights that they had

learned and they were trying to start organizations which is why the cir opportunity was critical because he gave me a box so lots of the challenge as it was you know i mean again trying to finds the capitol trying to find funders who were willing to sort of believe in this idea when i was just an addict finding talented access to talent in trying to find folks who were willing to jump on board and in the early days before you know again they knew were the idea that this is actually going to take off guard chai and to change our education system you know i'm that systemic change pieces really really tough it's an intractable institution with lots of very entrenched interests and so trying to say no i'm going to create something that has changes that in the paradigm in and changes the system's was incredibly difficult and getting by and you know credibility legitimacy so all of those things were were really difficult and another piece of it i wanted to have a family so i was starting beyond twelve and at the same time it gave birth to assign you know i think that simultaneously and i

like they can gradually myself for not killing either made it and the guy that i mean which is great but there was a moment there that i was like oh my god i made it into the us and i think a very difficult challenge of trying to fundraise baldino eight months pregnant and then having vendors like it means they are you actually going to come back why don't i hold off a little bit and see what happens and you know a few months and whether you are actually committed to this which was you know an interesting challenge in and in and of itself so was that the feedback that you that you're getting when you opt in iran fully pregnant so for those who gave me feedback yes right and there is a lot of feedback that i did not get and a lot of you know opportunities that i felt were really sort of crying and right you know but i mean for whatever reason they didn't work out but i did have a few people were very honest with me and he said you know it's like this is a new new organization and this all race on your shoulders you know as the founder and i'm family to be honest and i don't know if you're even a comeback at a meeting that it's amazingly dedicated to this

how much i mean it was fun and that's why i appreciate the honesty it left me thinking about the other end of the equation right if if i were a male ob i didn't have is very visual invisibles signal of that i was starting a family on what i ever see the same questions and what i have experienced the same kind of downturn or parties so how did you deal with that i guess the only way we know how he kind of keep trucking and keep moving on areas like there's nothing else to do but to keep going back to it i'm excited and i was happy that i'm hearing good group of committed early investors why can go back to when you were like ok i'm committed to you and committed to your vision but it was hard it was very difficult and trying to sort of you know be conte and the stress free you know because i'm not i'm carrying this child in america does that environment but also worrying about i'll pay roll it out my in rio to my employees that what's happened to the realization as is going to be sustainable am i going to be able to sort of

pastors how much maternity leave july taken it was grade i was in a position to write my maternity leave policy but i also had to match that against what the expectations were extra million when i felt like i could afford to do is a founder and then i i dealt with it the only other way that i could i called mom and out of that hole can move in with the very air about me and they care about you've now created this organization and you are the leader of this organization do you feel like you our natural leader or d is assuming you had to learn how to do and i think it was a little bit of both if i go back and i think about his childhood and aunts and all of those experiences i felt like i a in many ways a march to the beat of my own drums i felt like i also grew up just because of the environment in which i grew up my parents were immigrants and so the daughter of immigrants ii often as one in haiti so i'm an immigrant

i guess for all intents and purposes you often find yourself in a lot of roles having to translate for parents having to sort of help them navigate the system and so i think you develop a certain amount of maturity and leadership that is probably far ahead of your peers in terms of just the kinds of situations that you have to help navigating you have to translate great enter into world so i do feel like that there was a certain amount of that that i think there is also just the environment in which i grew up and probably some genetic smith i come from a very strong line of powerful women and my grandmother is a very powerful figure in my parents moved to the us and i was three months old and lonely left me in her chair and so i knew her as my mom you know from the very beginning and and she's played a very pivotal role in my life i do think that i have the models not was probably one thing that was unique to me but there's lots of other things about my leadership style that i had to learn like what kind of leader do i want to be what's my style how do i

inspire and encourage arm and i think those are very deliberate decisions in terms of running an organization and in terms of their dna and the culture that you want to set an organization's i think it's a little bit of little bit of that that dna and others that on other qualities and characteristics that you have to learn to me that you have to be deliberate about learning so worried you looked to figure out what kind of style you wanted to have was it about finding someone who you want to emulate or a boss that you might've had earlier in your career i think it was probably more about the folks that i didn't want to be right up there the combination of both i wanted to emulate that i think i had a lot of experiences that folks that i didn't you know i didn't want to be a screamer inadvertent people who just sort of communicate in the way that they communicate it was just by yelling and i just felt like the english language is so rich you know why do we need that water that need to be there the way that you encourage and inspire folks to act so a lot of bad examples and odd but i also had lots of great examples an end and good role model so it was really just a matter of

picking and choosing but then also being authentic right authentic to me and knowing like what is what is it that i i i bring to the table and how to live an arm come buy some of those quality is the skills that i had seen and an amazing people and an amazing leaders and i read a lot you know you read all of those management books about leadership to the point now i'm just so inundated i don't remember any of the key points of the oh listen to her so i got a way of building the buzz a mild the boat or whatever it is that i did a lot of reading as well a lot of research a lot of just sort of a cessna gray an internal assessment of of my strengths and what are the things that i that i bring to people we're talking to alexander bernadette founder and ceo of beyond twelve i'm aaron schiller this inflection point we'll be back right after this you're listening to inflection point i'm lauren shuler my guest is alexander brand a

diet founder and ceo of beyond twelve or so alex printed out with the un twelve you are in a position to help girls focus and fields that they might traditionally shy away from and you talked earlier about science and math you know not being an area where everyone could probably learn a little bit more before they get to college is that something that you do know is something that we do without necessarily being as deliberate ray and without necessarily talking about it and i think we can probably do a better job of talking about it so our focus and we think of the students that moms are titanic population we say traditionally underrepresented groups and students were first in their families are students who come from low income backgrounds in low income communities but we do our member balances usually skewed towards women and so we probably were tracking the progress of about forty three thousand college students right now and i would say probably sixty five percent are and so it is something that we deal with actually just started a partnership with

the california woman spanish and where we are coaching students to increase the number of underserved students who are interested in health professions for and stands on the when we look at the numbers very heavily skewed towards women the majority of our churches are female so it is something that we're doing but we're not necessarily capturing it in the way that we probably should to be able to answer that question and we probably should be a lot more deliberate about it but it is definitely an impact that were having or having an impact on women and we definitely having an impact for coaching on the women who were interested in the stem fields says insisting that sixty five percent of the students here helping her feet now is that because more girls are going to college and then boys are going to college yeah so yes it is when we look at the demographics of the suits that were serving there are definitely more women are an underserved female students were going to college than men were also working with arms in a lot of organizations that are you know either after school programs or his issues at work that are working outside of school and so they also tend to have more female

participants and their programs than men on and this issue of you know under certain and none of color and anti are stagnant and college graduation is a huge one so much so that the white house has created an initiative my brother's keeper under this is so that it is i mean we see worry we are a reflection of this greater education challenge particularly as is because it relates to underserved students are students from low income homes across are coming from they added challenge of an under served community and who had the added challenge of having skin of color and you are confronting biases on multiple friends as they face the world but then also as they try and make their way through the college experience howell does beyond twelve addressed that litany of cases it's an interesting thing and i i go back to the center and the focus for us is really around college graduation i'm not just running the degree but being able to provide them with a degree that allows them to change their

economic interests the prospects and that for many other cities that we serve allow them to break the cycle of generational poverty so that is really our focus and that's where we go and it does i mean our students where multiple hats raid and so our students from front racial and ethnic backgrounds that haven't traditionally gone to college are students are the first in their families to go to college in our students are underserved communities and under resourced communities we have students with disabilities students who are english language learners soon store and documented right and so there are lots of different layers of challenges and for us i'm not sure we unpack all of those really the best way that we know how to address some of these issues is by hiring coaches who represent the demographics of the student that we're serving so that they are on a very personal level level able to provide guidance that comes from a place of authenticity and that comes from a place out oh yeah

i've been there i understand the challenges and let's figure out how to address them so that you're in a college degree and it's really interesting because even as i think about my own background i don't know if i'm really able to unpack how much i feel into it with my female side writers is how much i feel in tune with the fact that i am a black woman or how much i feel in tune with the fact that i'm from the caribbean and you know on a caribbean american i think it just all goes together right and i think it's that holistic it's who i am as a person and i don't think i ever unpack those and deal with that challenge is individually and so for us it's a holistic approach and it's about ultimately how do we help you earn in this milestone that we know is going to change your life trajectory and has challenges come up we're just going to provide you with a guy you know with an guidance to address that and knowledgeable guy who also has been to it and you can therefore offer personal insights and guidance about navigating so alex white faced you have for women who would like to start

their own business there are non profit where should they began well this is my guys that for all entrepreneur is not just women find a problem and solve the problem rather than being a solution in search of a problem rail and so i think we often say oh i had this great idea for an app i have this great idea for a tool i have this great idea for an organization and often it's not solving a problem it's just a great idea so advice number one is fine a problem and build a solution for the problem or for that challenge rather than the other way around i think the second line is really think about the value of of networks it's very difficult to do this alone so figure out what you're going to need in order to be able to get that done and for me it was you know being educated and so there are lots of incubators out there of great ideas were willing to provide the mentorship and the support so see if you can align yourself particularly as a woman as an as if you know entrepreneur with those incubators so that you don't have to do

the difficult work of trying to build something out of your garage you know i'm trying to build something piecemeal and then the third one somebody gave me this piece of advice which is prove to be very very helpful before you get to the moment when you want to start an organization to build this kitchen cabinet advisors right folks who you go to who can provide you which is very siege advice but also the other way around and folks that you're going to potentially be able to help in many ways i had built this kitchen cabinet and they became my first board of directors right and so they weren't on it was an encore as annoying to people and asking them to support me because they had already been in those roles and it was very easy to track fish on but i felt like i had identified my mentors identified these folks who were incredibly supportive and who were willing to open their networks funnier and i tapped into those resource says you know as i was trying to launch beyond twelve and the last thing is really do your homework this is really difficult but it's inspiring an incredible work to be able to run your organization to be able to take an idea from

inception you know through for where shannon implementation is amazing but it's hard you know it's really difficult work and so i would just suggest that women in particular do the homework understand what's going to be required to understand what kind of skills you have and where might you fall short and how might you bring those other skills whether through a cofounder through your first hires to help you round out all of the experiences that you need to have in order to successfully launch an organization very sad and today i ask you to ring at the written word to share with us that inspires you when did you bring with you and i so i am going to go with a personal inspiration for a hand one poem that i often go back is a poem that allow some he shared with me when i was very very young but it's phenomenal woman by maya angelou and it's so interesting i feel like whenever i'm having these moments of doubt you know whenever i'm having these moments where i feel like the world is just kicking me and i can't get a break and i need

to somehow regained my you know my power i go back and i read this poem and it does the trick every single time ok let's hear a pretty women who wonder where my secret lies an nih cute or built to suit a fashion model size but when i start to tell them they think i'm telling lies i say it's in the reach of my arms the span of my hips the stride of my step the curl of my lips i'm a woman phenomenally phenomenal woman that's me it's a fire in my eyes and the flash of my teeth the swing in my waist and enjoyed my feet i'm a woman phenomenally phenomenal woman that's me now you understand just why my head's not bowed i don't shelter jump about or have to talk real loud when you see me passing it ought to make you proud i say it's in the click of my heels that the bend of my hair the palm of my hand and the need for my care because i'm a woman phenomenally phenomenal woman

that's me our experiment i thank you for joining us he was simply having oh thank you for having me this was fine this is an inflection point i learned show where we'll be back right after this the pain how are you

you're listening to inflection point i'm lauren schiller we've all heard the expression you are what you eat well turns out you are as childhood obesity rates continue to rise in the united states and its connections are drawn between feud and academic performance by guest kristen richmond and pearson toby cofounded revolution feeds with the idea that they could get kids to actually eat food that's nutritious they now serve one point five million healthy school meals a week christian rich and interest and toby thank you for joining us today think you're having an excited to be here because youthful revolution themes from an idea to an enterprising just under eight years that's right and you know staring at over a million and a half of meals a week in schools could you talk about the mission culture and values that you started the company with i understand it was a truly a hands on the effort from the beginning it it has been a hands on offer and actually care and i've been working

together for a full decade now on and business planning and i'm getting this vision watched that are then jen and our goal from the beginning was to dramatically increase access to healthy affordable delicious food for all kids on and not really to tears of that that vision quality food and then access for all the underlying belief that behind all of that and so we believe that all kids deserve access to high quality healthy fit and what we were seeing in schools is that not all kids have access to high quality of the fish in either in their schools or in their neighborhoods and so we knew no one had said what set out to change that by making healthy food accessible firsts are schools and our working on the broader community a neighborhood as well so the prison i've heard you talk about an industry that's churning out junk because that's how kids like to eat so how do you address that in taste of the frightening you can create healthy fear that had you actually get kids to like it when their marked his ballot in summer well so kids will only eat food if they like the taste of that and so we have really

focused on the coronary side of the helping and producing our food so we and we have a team of chefs who are working day in and out talking to kids working with kids having kids taste our food give feedback on the food is just as important that our food be your meter high quality ingredients and health standards as that it tastes good because it's only going to be you know have the impact that we want to have the kids and so it's really really put a huge amount of effort behind our artist profiles and people clothesline the beginning that kids you will never eat healthy food because they they just like junk food they preferred the taste of junk food in and what we realize is that if you make high quality food to kids you like the taste of that they will he get and michigan kids and credit that they actually love fresh fruit and love many fresh vegetables and a lot of kids aspire to be chefs and we love the fact that her for his prepared by chefs in a really thoughtful way so could you lay out a set of core values this is our mission this is this is what what what how we wanna be different if you could you talk a little bit about what what that sounded like an abandoned

maybe now you know our mission has always been around not just making healthy food accessible but also building lifelong healthy eater so enabling kids through our programs to build up build healthy eating habits so that they're set up for success in the long term and we've always at a fundamental belief in the link between you know building up eating habits and eating healthy food and have success in the long term in terms of both health but also in the academics and you know we see there's a lot of really important connections to be made between kids eating something healthy when they go to school or before the school when they're at school and how much they're able to focus and concentrate and do well in school and so i think that belief in forming that eating for unhealthy eating habits was always a really important part of what we were doing and also believe in respecting kids are part of a process you know it's always been a part of our of our dna as you know was listen to kids and let's not just said something other's throats but lets you make them a part of the process in and

respect them in the process the other big part of our values system has been about a round building our team so we e n from day one have had a philosophy that you have to have a healthy team to produce a hopi product and that means that we hire folks from the communities we serve many of them are parents and family members of the students we serve in schools we've tried to provide a sustainable wages we've tried to provide health benefits all along the way medical vision and dental and you know something very unique about revolution foods is that we have always offered equity an ownership to everyone on our team so from our production chefs to our drivers to our school commenters to our dishwashers to our ceo and see io we all have to share an ar skin in the game if you well in terms of building this company in and really be a part of something bigger than just a

paycheck which is very important we all need to pay the rent but we want to make sure that everyone on our team feels ownership and what they're building every day so have you have you ever been in a position as you've ground either whether iraq they're seeking funding or you're trying to sell your meals into schools or even on the retail shelves where you've been asked to compromise those values what's happened in terms of building a quality brand that stands for not just access to healthy food for for our kids and families but also trust around ingredients food quality k designed food is that that's become our brand so when we think as a company about where do we looked at cost save where do we look to invest in every company thinks about those things we fundamentally and i speak for us as well as all of our investors and supporters from foundations to fund to our investors believe that keeping those ingredients standard secret it is part of our trust and our our brand promise with the families and

communities that we serve and so if we were to make a decision that compromise that trust we would ultimately be only compromising the health of our kids and families but also compromising the ultimate value and brand promise of a company so that's why we say are our values have become our value in many ways i mean that's that's very important and to stick by what we stand for for multiple reasons and i think that's reflected in our team also where we've created a you know it with a growing company there are a lot of them would create a lot of opportunities for people to to grow so even if somebody starts as a part time employee they have an opportunity to grow and learn and you know become a part of a management team if they want to win and we had so many success stories of that happening and i think that's another area where i think we've we've seen that to the overall impact to the value of the company and having people grow and grow internally not as always having to hire supervisors are managers from the outside i think there's a real value and that includes creation of job pathways for folks to kristen there are lots of

companies right now who have played diversity on their to do list it's it's one of the initiatives they've created for their company but from a gender and every simply where does revolution could shake out from that standpoint so i think from a diverse he simply adds it's interesting in where we're actually very proud to say that over fifty percent of our team out the manager and above level are women or people of color and my advice to those companies as is higher the face and the composition of the team that you want because what happens when you're obviously a company you founded by and in our case women and moms and you tend to you you know i tracked a lot of folks who feel like that's a fantastic environment for them to be an armed and we have really focused on hiring people to reflect the communities we serve and so we've done that from day one which in turn has created a large and robust talent pipeline of folks who are a diverse profiles so i think the best advice

that we found on this front and an end granted it's happened a little more organically for us because of who we are and because the communities we serve but its design the face of the composition of the team that you want on bring the men and then you know they use their networks and attract folks you create a diverse workforce and that worked for us and it's actually not just great to say it's diverse but we feel like it really contributes to the quality of the offering the quality of support the quality of of everything we're doing and the communities we serve and how how does that contribute to that well i think when we were working with the students we work with across our communities to have folks to our parents and families and those communities i mean i'll just say what i'm producing a meal for my child every day which happens quite often i am i'm always thinking harder about the quality of home when i'm serving my students and i think we've always or might my kids and i think we've always thought that you know for employing families as part of our workforce we're going to

have just better attention to the quality of the product in our case the meal that things are and every day so let's not getting funding and your company is it so privately held ye righty of funding sources the statistics show that there is from what i've read that the sea's venture capitalists are more likely to fund startups with now founders then with the now i've read it's the ratio ten to one the numbers tend to vary but it seems like the odds are definitely not in a woman's favor as you went out for funding what kinds of reactions did you get initially we have good reactions and we've had a lot of success with our our funding base and have been fortunate to attract just fantastic investors to the mix who helped us build our company every step of the way and one of the reasons and gerson i do spend time talking about how to put together a plan when youre an entrepreneur how to get a plan funded how to maintain great relationships with your investors and you're bored

accent and as because we want more female entrepreneurs to go for it and make that asked and i think they're a couple fundamentals that have to be in place whether you're a man or a woman and that is you know you have to have had a great vision and a great plan to be passionate about it you have to be addressing a large our markets and market opportunity which we certainly have to have to have your financials and shape you gotta be able to talk about what the business model looks like and why it will be financially successful on but we definitely want to encourage i'm more more entrepreneurs and and specifically more women entrepreneurs to to go for it because there's a lot of opportunity and a lot of great founders out there do you do you think that it was just coincidence that one of your first members was you know well our first thunder homs deep yell at the time they're actually find it on it was very focused on funding companies that created

great job opportunities and economic development in low income areas so from a mission perspective on nancy and mike dorsey at the time were just a perfect match for us and i'm sure i think there probably was you know a great connection there in terms of being jealous firing women entrepreneurs and mom took the same time so as a woman founded and led company do you think that this has led to decisions are innovations in the company that would not otherwise happen i think that we have always built the company with serve good leadership practices in mind and i think that you know it's a treat your employees well respect them expecting a very high expectations i think of our team but in return we you know value our employees a lot and that goes from top management call a way to come to that folks delivering their meals every day and i'm making the food every day so i think i think for us it's just been about building a really respectful environment with their work force and you know creating policies that work for

everyone and sick i don't think there's anything necessarily that were doing that's unique to us being women but i think what i think were trying to sort of put in place the best serve leaders are practices that we know how the other either one innovation i would speak to you outside of employment practices is just the way we designed our food so i think it's been a real journey are becoming parents whether you're adding in our case work when you become a parent and as a man as well and i think the yeah the journey of becoming moms and being in the business of designing healthy delicious food for kids i think has certainly led to you know a lot of innovative thinking in terms of how we we work with kids listen to kids in and build that into our design process where you got it you got a really emotional core around this topic is your living breathing entities the challenges to it and we we get the challenges of more realist were pragmatic were relentless learners we've made many mistakes we've it or read it again and again when we make mistakes and i think more than anything karen i embrace

being just a relentless lerner not being afraid certain to fail not being afraid to have to have it reflect try a new approach that's something that i think has helped us succeed as entrepreneurs cause it's not an easy a journey for sure but it's a fun when we're talking to kristen rich and interesting to the co founders of revolution feuds i learned schiller this is inflection point will be right back right after this it's changed says you're listening to inflection point i learned show where my guests are christian rich

and interest until the co founders of revolution things pearson toby increased enrichment you met pat and got your auntie is alice and i'm hearing you talk about your management style and that the things that you needed to learn how to do an order in your business successfully did you feel like that cause you had good role models for this well i would say that on the management skills on the team building side of the business this is something that i firmly believe you you learn by doing and you learned he learned to ways you learn by building a fantastic love great managers and leaders and working with them learning from them really practicing in and reflecting on your skills day in and day out and then you learn by doing and this is something that is hard to learn in business school or from a text book and you learned through mentorship you learned through great partners on your team that's how we've learned anything that question isis can add that i think that there's a foundation that we built that the

house was incredible we built an incredible network of people have gone back to move to the us with funding sources who've helped us with some strategic decisions and you know we go back there all the time still tip you mean we'd be a big groups of mba students view projects with us i think that there that serve now working foundation that we built there i don't think rose includes would be where it is today without that but i think i totally agree with kristin then some of that just hard core skills of building a company are not brought into the score once and in can be tucked into the skill they have to learn new trial by fire and hit and has given their invaded the mistakes and nyu it was very funny and are and second year business school i can never going through my schedule with cure stand and we looked at are new business finance class widmaier is it in our social entrepreneurship class with low rosenzweig and kellie mcelhaney and our and private developments why our class with sarah back then and sylvia's foundational skills around putting the business plan

together absolutely came from you know working together and with our mentors a pass on the job management is the part that comes through building a team so you punch and is still going strong clearly look for cures and how do you keep your relationship with each other healthy i wouldn't here requires a lot of work for us like we just i think we are very complementary to each other in that in a lot of ways in terms of our skill sets we have a lot of respect for each other's skill set and opinions and i think that where we both have a very a very similar set of underlying fundamental values that at all and at the end of the day all comes down to fundamental values when year mia making decisions when you're you know making big strategic choices all of those kinds of things i think we are we're very aligned in in our values although are different in personality and skill set and we we've have a lot of respect for each other's abilities and skills and i think that we've crafted roles of leadership in the company that speak really well to each of our individual still sets in some ways it's like a marriage where you do

have to make sure you're communicating openly and not harboring resentment and you know all of those things i think were pretty darn good at that as far as i mean so for seven percent and how does the partition worked for you know what would what makes it come i mean i really think you're covered it this is where ten years of working together we just can almost finish each other sentences to be honest i'm not a little spooky that he in a good way you know i mean we just respect that packet of each other and it just i've i just feel lucky every day of the week to be partners with kia and i think we have also just had each other's back when it comes to you know building the company when it comes to you know having become moms in and trying to be really good family members as well as founders and then c level executives i feel like we respect each other we trust each other and that's really the foundation and our team knows that as well i wouldn't you feel a special responsibility for helping other women succeed so

you know you've you've had a lot of opportunities to grow your business up at i mean you are not a position where you can impact another person's life so do you feel a special responsibility for helping other women succeed actually i think for me i am very drawn to hoping entrepreneur isn't and definitely and you know especial astrid some women entrepreneurs for shirt on be set up to meet the scene and ask him the same elitist on the same foundation that we've laid in anything to an inspired that confidence inspiring the actual technical planning of what that speaks is something that i and i'm extremely committed to in and spend a lot of time both working with folks on specific planning as well as teaching and leading lectures and contributing in in any way possible and obviously time for disease and is always a question that i absolutely feel drawn to that capsule we fish where you dressed in i

can see a lot of difference between you know if they need to inspire social entrepreneurs in the omission based entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs i think you know we've we wanted to make sure that you know we've we're setting an example that there that it's possible to start a business that balances that includes both a positive sign of social mission impact as well as a you know a positive financial return for investors and and being women in the process of doing that his eyes i think great and yet at those days to hear stories of you know if women have been inspired by our story are or that sort of thing i do think that that area that's very specific to women is sort of when is the right time to have kids we get asked about this a lot and you know i think one of the thing this prison had her first baby before a year before i had my first baby and the advice that we were given at that time which i think is really good advice is there's no good time to have kids and so don't wait until you think it's the right time because there is a biological window in your head your body is mostly already unable to have kids but also don't take the whole burden on yourself if you're doing it with a

partner expect your partner to be bearing a good year of the zipper the burden of raising those kids and so i don't think that that i think that's the vice areas gives other women who are like when is you know how do you start a business and have kids at the same time and my answer is always don't take the burden on just yourself you know enter into a parent it is a partnership and we should be asking the same question are meant to be asking the same question as women are asking rowan's the right time to have kids in and i think we should enable and empower men to be able to have those conversations about work and life in balance and kids in the same way that we should expect women to have those conversations what would you say to male managers have how can then be better managers for women i think there's sort of a fundamental set of good management skills they would like to see all managers and body and that's you know understanding and knowing your team it's you know managing to high expectations and communicating clearly like i think those three things make for a good management relationship

between whether your man when it meant managing a woman or woman and the man are more you know are any of the other companies and they think that i think that tess good solid communication i expect a sermon and you know knowing your team members not to serve blindly you know asking for things without getting to know it could be that something as conflicting with something on a personal level of very young being a parent or could be that it's you know you're asking them to do something and it's their birthday and they have plans like there's been all kinds of things that just building a strong relationship between manager and person being managed that cross gender lines cross you know all all the different kinds of survivors in lines if you can imagine but i think open to make a cnn and building stronger relationships are probably the year some of them the most important management leadership skills medicine gender chris enrichment pearson toby co founders of revolution faced thank you so much for coming in today thank you so much for having i think you are

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