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With July underway, Breaking Good is back with our latest roundup of stories spotlighting people and ideas driving positive change. In this month’s edition, we explore:
🚀 The legacy of an inspiring astronaut
🧓 Age-lens investing
🤝 Employee ownership
🧑🦽 Entrepreneurs improving accessibility
🏀 The business opportunity many see in women’s sports
🏃 Innovating to reduce race-day waste
No matter the season, we’re here to celebrate the entrepreneurs, investors, and everyday changemakers working to build a more inclusive and sustainable future. We hope you enjoy!
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Blasting Through Barriers
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Once you’ve accomplished your dream of going to space, what comes next? For Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel to space, the answer to that question includes inspiring countless girls to reach their own dreams.
Ride rocketed out of the atmosphere in June 1983, shattering a gender barrier and paving the way for future women astronauts, as explored in a new National Geographic documentary about her private life and legacy. Once she retired from NASA after nine years of service, she went on to teach at the University of California, San Diego, and to found her own company.
Through Sally Ride Science, the inspiring astronaut motivated girls and young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). After Ride’s death, the organization became a nonprofit and has continued to fulfill its mission of building STEM literacy, reaching over six million students through books, workshops and festivals.
We hope Ride’s legacy continues to inspire girls to reach for the stars for years to come. |
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| Investing in an Aging Population |
| Older adults have not traditionally been a major area of focus for impact investors, but the needs of this fast-growing demographic group will shape the economy in the coming years, particularly in areas such as healthcare, housing, financial services, and caregiving. Recent articles in Impact Alpha and New Private Markets highlight the opportunity for impact investors to back solutions for an aging society. |
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Building Opportunity Through Employee Ownership
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| Given that more than half of the owners of U.S. small businesses with employees are over the age of 55, many companies are looking at new ways to ensure their businesses succeed for the long-term. Some are considering various forms of employee ownership. Broad-based employee ownership gives workers of all levels the opportunity to own a stake in their company — offering employees a way to build wealth while building business resilience. The model has seen significant momentum in recent years, but access to capital remains a barrier for many businesses. It will be interesting to see if investors who value impact will play a role in helping companies fund transitions to employee ownership over the next ten to twenty years. |
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Innovating for Accessibility
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| Making the world more accessible isn’t just about doing the right thing — increasingly, businesses see it as essential to reach the 16% of the global population living with disabilities, a largely untapped market for many companies. Forbes’ new ranking, the Accessibility 100, spotlights people making an impact in the field of accessibility. The list includes several innovative entrepreneurs, like Obi Co-Founder and CEO Jon Dekar, who developed a feeding device to help people with disabilities eat with dignity, and Pierre Paul, who launched We Hear You to create a sign language translator. |
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Racing for Sustainable Solutions
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| If you’ve ever participated in a 5k, marathon, or other race, you’re familiar with the piles of discarded cups that accumulate around water stations. Bothered by the waste, one runner decided to take action, inventing a solution to keep people hydrated while reducing trash. |
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