How to lose 1/3 of your employees in 10 days
Small Steps Vol. 32 | A cautionary tale of avoiding social issues š£ blockchain to solve the climate crisis š³ and Giant Leap's newest partner š
āLife abounds in upside downsā
Lorin Morgan-Richards, Children's Author
Kick start
šāāļøĀ A remarkable exodus of topĀ talent at Basecamp has reaffirmed for us the power of companies baking purpose into their business and, crucially,Ā the peril of ignoring it.Ā
šļø Basecamp -- a Silicon Valley enterprise tech darling -- is not an impact company. However, its staff tried to install the business with impact values. They put in place measures to encourage hiring diversity, and address broader issues of racism and inequality in the US in the workplace.Ā
š£ That all endedĀ when the CEO told all employees via anĀ open blog postĀ they would no longer allowĀ discussion of social issues in theĀ Ā workplace. This was in conjunction with a number of other measures -- such as eliminating internal committees, one of the largestĀ of which wasĀ focussed on addressing diversity at the company.Ā
š That resulted in one third of employees -- including the Chief Marketing Officer and Heads of Design, Brand & Experience and Customer Support -- leaving the company with a buyout. The pain point for many is while the companyās staff were being silenced, the co-founders were free to express their views online and represent the company while doing so.Ā
š¬ Our take: With an increasingly mission-driven workforce wanting to champion causes like diversity and sustainability, you canāt just shut down the conversation. Businesses that claim amorality to avoid engaging with relevant social issues risk alienating and losing key talent.Ā
Read more aboutĀ Basecampās exodus here.Ā
What made us stop and think
š¤ On the topic of baking purpose into business, there was some great advice onĀ making ethical decisions featured in the AFR this week. CEO of Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership Vanessa Pigrum shared practical tips for making considered decisions, including 1) Ask yourself whether you would be OK to see the impact of your decision featured on the front of the newspaper, and 2) Be ready to argue your decision if the consequences affect others. Ā
š¾ While many worry about the environmental cost of Bitcoin, Christian Shearer believes blockchain will be key to solving climate change. Using a much more energy efficient blockchain, called Cosmos, Shearer isĀ building infrastructure for the verification and sale of carbon credits - called the Regen Network. The beauty of this infrastructure is that it allows even small-scale suppliers (like a regenerative farmer with just a few acres) to sequester carbon and sell credits toĀ huge buyers like Microsoft. Over time, Regen Network will reduce the cost to supply credits by offering green financing and remote carbon testing, which will enable the mass carbon sequestration worldwide. This could be a game-changer for tackling climate change.
ā°ļø The increasing demand for clean technologies like electric cars and wind turbines is set to put huge pressure on supplies of rare earth elements (i.e. those things you could only remember usingĀ songs). The International Energy Agency reports thatĀ mineral production will need to increase 30x by 2040Ā to meet our climate goals and lays out recommendations for governments to get there, including scaling up recycling of rare metals and developing technologies that arenāt so mineral dependent.Ā
Career pathways
ā¤ļø Like Family is looking for a commercially-orientedĀ Head of MarketingĀ to lead their Australian expansion.
š§ Mindset is seeking aĀ Business Operations LeadĀ
šĀ Work180 is on the hunt for aĀ Senior Software Engineer
šĀ Sendle is hiring 20 roles, including aĀ Head of Network OptimisationĀ for their US team and aĀ Senior Partnerships ManagerĀ in Sydney.
š„ As always, thereās 30+ more jobs on theĀ Giant Leap Fund jobs boardĀ and more jobs at ethical companies on theĀ global B-Work job board.
Giant leapsĀ
š Our Rachel Yang got promoted to Partner!! We couldn't be prouder. Get around theĀ excitement (and some AFR coverage) here.Ā
š¦Ā Eva Ross, CMO of Sendle, will be speaking at theĀ Slack Frontier APAC conferenceĀ next week.
š Great write-up for GlamCorner in Business Insider on itsĀ use of data to optimise its platform.Ā
š Will, Rach, and Charlie will be taking part in Startmateās Open House mentorship program between May 17 and May 28.Ā Sign up here.
ForĀ the road
šøĀ Andy Kuper shared theĀ inside story behind Temasekās record breaking investmentĀ of $500m into the LeapFrog, a global impact VC.Ā Ā
š„¤ The no-packaging movement continues its march, spurred byĀ commitments from the worldās largest FMCG brands and governments.
š Victoria has put forward a $100 million plan to power the rollout of EVs across the state, however industry experts say muchĀ more work will be needed to see EVs makeup half the cars on the stateās roads by 2030.
š Keeping in Victoria, the government is on theĀ hunt for a fund manager for its new $50 million fund. For those interested in applying once its launched, itās aimed at high-growth scaleups that are at least two years old, are growing at least 20 per cent per annum, generating at least $3 million in revenue and have a clear line to profitability.
š Some more good climate news fromĀ GreenPeaceās David Ritter.Ā
š¹ Pure talent and pure silly goes together like peanut butter and jelly. Marc Rebillet in a nutshell.Ā