Afdhel Aziz

Fourteen years ago, Simon Griffiths launched Who Gives A Crap after a 50-hour toilet sit stunt, pledging half profits from eco-friendly toilet paper to water and sanitation projects. The company has since donated roughly $20 million AUD, becoming a global brand. Their success is attributed to a strategy of leading with a delightful, well-designed product, making sustainability joyful rather than dutiful. This genuine commitment to purpose, supported by a stable Crap Foundation for donations, allowed them to thrive. Initially focusing on direct-to-consumer sales, they now operate in major markets and teach students purpose-driven entrepreneurship, emphasizing that product quality is paramount for mission-driven businesses.

Kristy Drutman, Founder of the Green Jobs BoardGreen Jobs Board Picture an Instagram feed built not on outrage or aesthetics, but on job listings.

The Punjab, a fourth-generation Punjabi restaurant in Covent Garden, marks 80 years as a cherished London institution. Founded by Gurbachan Singh Maan, it pioneered North Indian cuisine in Britain. Today, Amrit Maan, an OBE recipient, solicitor, and magistrate, upholds the family's "profit with purpose" philosophy. The restaurant has demonstrated remarkable resilience through decades of crises. Notably, during COVID-19, it transformed into a community kitchen, delivering over 200,000 meals and continuing to feed 450 people weekly. Amrit also leverages the restaurant's success to fund legal aid and support for victims of abuse, chairing women's charities. This deep integration of business and philanthropy showcases a powerful commitment to community upliftment, serving diverse patrons and embodying a timeless creed of giving back.

Melissa Jun Rowley's new book, "Beyond the Mic Drop," argues that today's polarized public discourse, driven by algorithms and outrage, is fundamentally a storytelling problem. The former CNN journalist posits that narrative is not mere decoration but the mechanism of power, and individuals have inadvertently surrendered control over their own stories. Drawing from her extensive background reporting from conflict zones and advising social-impact founders, Rowley emphasizes reclaiming personal and systemic narratives to shift culture, power, and policy. The book provides strategies and case studies, urging readers to question inherited stories and view systems as negotiable narratives, not fixed laws. Rowley also spearheads initiatives like Climate Mic Drop, empowering those closest to crises to tell their authentic stories for meaningful change.

Kristy Drutman founded Green Jobs Board, an initiative born from her own post-graduation struggle to find climate careers. Starting as an Instagram feed curating job listings with engaging visuals, it quickly grew into a vital platform.

Aura Finance, founded by Courtney Cardin and Kelsey Willock, addresses the widespread financial shame and anxiety among working adults. They argue people struggle with money not from lack of information, but from fear, positioning Aura as a "couples therapist for you and your money." Offered as a workplace benefit alongside mental health support, Aura provides coaching and tools to improve financial confidence and reduce stress, rather than just tracking savings. The founders, who experienced their own financial struggles despite successful careers, target individuals with decent salaries who feel insecure, not the impoverished. Amidst stagnant wages and economic uncertainty, Aura's focus on mindset as a key metric for financial well-being is proving timely, with health insurers now showing interest in their behavioral approach.

Alia Whitney-Johnson founded Emerge after meeting an 11-year-old abuse survivor isolated in a Sri Lankan shelter. Realizing the power of relationships, she used jewelry-making to connect with girls, leading to the creation of Emerge around 2007. The organization now supports nearly 1,900 young survivors through court and beyond, emphasizing long-term care. Emerge's Centre for Reintegration helps young women transition to independence at 18, providing life skills and community. Despite a massive backlog of child abuse cases in Sri Lanka, Emerge focuses on fixing the punitive system's treatment of children first. Its "long game" approach is influencing national policy, aiming for a self-sustaining system to support future survivors.

Léonie Weerakoon, founder of Kinetic Ventures, champions the "Green Renaissance," a framework merging nature's ancient intelligence with modern technology and capital. She argues the $4 trillion global bioeconomy, projected to hit $30 trillion, is an overlooked economic powerhouse.

Jenna Nicholas, founder of LightPost Capital, has released "Enlightened Bottom Line," a book based on interviews with impact investing pioneers. It introduces her HEAL framework: Hope, Empathy, Abundance, and Legacy, which blends meaning and purpose into daily work. This framework is not merely theoretical; Nicholas uses HEAL as her firm's underwriting criteria for climate, healthcare, and education ventures. She argues purpose and profit are integrated, not opposing, elements of successful investing. Nicholas seeks to normalize spirituality in business, making it a core part of decision-making and fostering a new generation of impact-focused enterprises.

Insurance runs on an unspoken rule: whatever premium goes unclaimed becomes profit. Lemonade, the tech-driven insurer founded in 2015 by Daniel Schreiber and Shai Wininger, built its business on doing the opposite.