Thought leadership. Inspiration. Impact.

Lessons from the Pandemic: The Value of Investing in Stakeholder Connections and a More Resilient Economy

Written by Tripp Baird

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted our connectivity, our interdependency, and the fundamental importance of early action to avert a crisis. As a Certified B Corporation investment firm seeking to use...

Investing in Solutions to the Climate Crisis and a Stakeholder-Focused Economy

Written by Tripp Baird

As severe weather, air and water pollution, and other effects of the climate crisis become more common and destructive, the window of opportunity to reverse them continues to narrow. Extractive...

Funding the Future of Food: Consumer Trends Signal a Shift Toward Healthier, More Sustainable Food

Written by Tripp Baird

Empty grocery shelves and refrigerator aisles as farmers dumped milk. People experimented with sourdough bread-baking when bread was hard to find, then yeast was in short supply. Restaurants closed, waitstaff...

Urban Remedy accelerates fresh, nutrient-dense foods mission with future move into dinner offerings

Written by Food Navigator USA

Fresh off of closing its $18m Series D funding round, California-based Urban remedy will use the funds to ramp up on marketing, innovation, technology, and new team hires to reach...

Following ‘Retooling’ and Expansion, Urban Remedy Raises $18M

Written by NOSH

Banking on increased trips out and about as COVID recedes, ultra-fresh meal, snack and beverage producer Urban Remedy is doubling down on a strategy to grow sales via its branded...

Entrepreneurs Building a Resilient, Caring Food System

Written by Tripp Baird of The Builders Fund and Gabe Kleinman of Obvious Ventures

Hippocrates is famously attributed with the maxim, “Let food be thy medicine.”

Yet for the majority of children and adults living in the United States, this adage is spun on...

Building Better Futures

Written by Katharine Hawthorne

When I joined the Builders Fund in fall 2020, we were mid-pandemic, facing a national racial reckoning, with wildfire smoke choking the air in San Francisco. While a bewildering time...

Achieving a Net Zero Economy: Turning Commitments into Action

Written by Katharine Hawthorne

Against the backdrop of a presidential administration and Congress that are more receptive to climate action, the United States’s re-entry into the Paris Climate Agreement, and rising activism (especially from...

A 2021 Investing Imperative: Measuring and Managing Impact Across Your Portfolio

Written by Tripp Baird

With greater visibility and more attention on the ways businesses impact the environment and society, stakeholders have been increasingly expecting and calling on businesses to uphold higher standards and values...

The Emerging Sustainability Economy Represents a Major Investment and Impact Opportunity

Written by Tripp Baird

In its first few weeks in the White House, the Biden Administration has gotten down to business tackling climate change. From executive actions rejoining the Paris Accord and establishing a...

Democratizing Solar: How Impact Investors Can Facilitate a Just Shift to Clean Energy

Written by Tripp Baird

As the preeminent threat to life on Earth, climate change has catalyzed many businesses and organizations to find ways to expand access to clean energy and to advance other regenerative...

PosiGen Completes Successful First Close of Series D Growth Equity Financing

Written by PosiGen

We could not be more excited to partner with Tom, the PosiGen team, and this syndicate of investors to help build a transformative, national, and purpose-driven organization that delivers on...

Builders Fund Backs Affordable Residential Solar Firm PosiGen

Written by ImpactAlpha

Tripp Baird of Builders Fund, a PosiGen investor, commented on PosiGen’s “unique model combining economic upside with carbon mitigation and economic empowerment.”

The Greatest Economic Opportunity of our Lifetimes: Investing to Solve Social and Environmental Challenges

Written by Tripp Baird

When times are stable and prosperous, calls for change are often harder to hear. While the struggles of 2020 are not by any means welcome, they have added more voices...

Just Better Business: ESG, Purpose, and Diversity as Competitive Advantages

Written by Tripp Baird

Purpose, and environmental/social/governance factors (“ESG”) shaped by purpose, are too often considered “squishy” subjects, despite the considerable hard data demonstrating real competitive advantage. Managing Partner Tripp Baird spoke with Kristin...

Investing in Solutions: Innovative Ways Impact Investors Can Support Businesses Addressing the Crises of 2020 and Beyond

Written by Tripp Baird

As 2020 has unfolded, it has brought with it an unprecedented combination of emergent crises and social turmoil. The COVID-19 pandemic has made masks and social distancing the norm while...

Essential Steps for Social Entrepreneurs to Plan for Growth and Access Investment Capital—Even During Times of Crisis

Written by Mike Dutton

Recent crises have further revealed the need for a long-term vision of systemic change—one that will require action from the investment community and business directors to be realized.

The Problem with America’s GDP Obsession — and 4 Ways We Can Fix It

Written by Tripp Baird

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the illusion that wealth accumulation is the primary definition of success in business and life, and that we all have equal access to the...

Businesses’ Role in Envisioning a Better Future

Written by By Tripp Baird

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to hold the world’s human population in its grip, the ecosystems around the world are experiencing their own new reality. Stay-at-home orders mean less urban...

Inspired Impact: Tripp Baird with Builders Fund

Written by By Inspired Impact

Managing partner Tripp Baird was interviewed by Inspired Impact, which features purpose-driven leaders and social entrepreneurs who are making a meaningful impact in their communities, industries, and around the world....

Disrupting Fast Food: What if Every Fast-Casual Restaurant Acted Like This One?

Written by By Tripp Baird

The time is ripe for a restaurant industry disruption—actually, one is already afoot. Fast-growth, incredibly popular chains with kale salads and fresh-pressed juices are popping up in cities across the...

Investors Play an Important Role in Businesses' Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Written by By Mike Dutton

Businesses—and the investors who fund and support them—have an important role to play in addressing global-scale issues, such as climate change and wealth disparity. We at Builders Fund have chosen...

Anytime Fitness’ Parent Company Acquires The Bar Method

Written by Club Industry Staff

Self Esteem Brands, the parent company of Anytime Fitness, Woodbury, Minnesota, has acquired The Bar Method for an undisclosed sum, according to a release from Self Esteem Brands. The Bar...

Traditional Medicinals weaves purpose into every corner of its business plan

Written by Bill Giebler

The work Traditional Medicinals does is multifaceted and has been since 1974 when Sadler and Rosemary Gladstar founded the company and pioneered the wellness tea category. The then-couple—he a social...

Real food. Irresistibly delicious.

Written by Leslie Silverglide | Co-founder & CEO

We’re proud to play a big role in creating lasting change for environmental sustainability in restaurants, but we believe we can push boundaries even further. This is the approach we...

Purpose At Work: How Traditional Medicinals Powerfully Combines Purpose And Profit

Written by Simon Mainwaring

Today’s leading brands are combining purpose and profit to earn consumer loyalty, goodwill and growth as conscious shoppers prefer to support companies that share their beliefs.

How Traditional Medicinals Found Aligned Investors With A Private Liquid Market

Written by B the Change

Throughout Traditional Medicinals’ more than 40-year history, the tea company had never taken an outside investment other than from friends and family. By 2016, most of the business was still...

Just Good Business: An Investor’s Guide to B Corps

Written by The Yale Center for Business and the Environment,Patagonia, Inc., and Caprock

Description: Two movements for conscientious business, impact investing and B Corps, both began just a dozen years ago—and have grown rapidly. From the start, both shared a commitment to long-term,...

Traditional Medicinals 2017 Sustainability Report

Written by Traditional Medicinals

Traditional Medicinals is not just in the business of tea; they are in the business of change—changing lives, changing standards and changing the quality of herbal remedies.

Here's how plant-based food business Urban Remedy is plotting its next growth spurt

Written by Katie Burke

The biggest source of growth for the plant-based brand has been its kiosks, which can be found in 30 Whole Foods Market locations across the state and have now been...

General Mills' VC Arm Leads $17M Investment in the Plant-Based Food Company Urban Remedy

Written by Jenna Broughton

Urban Remedy, a plant-based organic food and beverage company, has closed $17 million in Series B funding led by 301 INC, the investment arm of General Mills. This brings the...

Hear From 2 Funds Proving Their Impact Theses

Written by B the Change

The real impact achieved by investing in mission-aligned, purpose-first companies is seen most clearly in the work of those companies. But the fund manager’s strategy and values play a leading...

Debunking the myth that impact investing is all about "good people but bad deals"

Written by Tripp Baird

Since 2007 when the term “Impact Investing” was coined, the concept has risen in visibility and – fueled by the coming of age of the Millennial Generation, the retirement of...

Success Through Community: Traditional Medicinals Found Aligned Investor by Seeking Shared Values

Written by B the Change

The maturing ecosystem around mission-aligned capital is growing the connections between impact businesses and impact investors. That was the case for The Builders’ Fund investment in Traditional Medicinals earlier this...