Wemimo Abbey, Co-founder and Co-CEO Esusu
Laureen Meroueh, Founder and CEO, Hertha Metals; Breakthrough Energy Innovator Fellow 
Vivek Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, InStride
In conversation with: Alyson Shontell, Editor-in-Chief, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune CEO Initiative

CEO Initiative 2022 - Creative Capitalism: Using Ingenuity To Make An Impact

Conferences

Wemimo Abbey, Co-founder and Co-CEO Esusu
Laureen Meroueh, Founder and CEO, Hertha Metals
Vivek Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, InStride

Creative Capitalism: Using Ingenuity To Make An Impact

Wemimo Abbey, Co-founder and Co-CEO Esusu
Laureen Meroueh, Founder and CEO, Hertha Metals
Vivek Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, InStride
In conversation with: Alyson Shontell, Editor-in-Chief, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune CEO Initiative

Wemimo Abbey, Co-founder and Co-CEO Esusu
Laureen Meroueh, Founder and CEO, Hertha Metals
Vivek Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, InStride
In conversation with: Alyson Shontell, EIC, FORTUNE

In our leadership roundtable discussions and mainstage conversations. We've been examining the themes and interlocking mechanisms that are helping create capitalism. 2.0, an essential driver of transformation across business sectors is innovations in this evening's program, we're going to hear from three business leaders about how innovation can catalyze and accelerate social impact. Please welcome to the C E O I stage Lauren merry way Ceo and founder of Hertha medals and breakthrough energy innovator fellow Vivek Sharma chief executive officer at in stride and joining us momentarily will be with me Mo Abbey co founder and co Ceo at Suzu joining the conversation is fortune editor in chief Allison Chantelle. All right, good evening everyone. Uh welcome to Fortune Ceo. I in our evening this we have incredible guests started the varying stages here with us who think that doing good is also good for doing business. And so um beck you started in stride a few years ago um, maybe could just open up with saying what your vision for inside is actually the walt Disney company to do this. You've been with corporate America for a long time. Why this vision by this company? So first of all, thanks for hosting us um in stride was launched with my basic belief that businesses have a social impact obligation as well. And around the time I was working at the walt Disney company, I was also the adjunct professor of data science at USC. So one thing I could see was look at corporations as a professor and universities as an executive and I found that, you know, it's hard to imagine two ecosystems that have moved to offer to each other than universities and corporations, but they don't work well at scale. And we looked around and we saw corporate America spend $28 billion on workforce education but not a single ceo C. H. R. O. Was happy. So we started in stride with like minded co founders, which is the TPG Rice fund and the Arizona State University with the goal of helping large organizations provide workforce education to their employees in a way that they also achieve business goals. And the central thesis here is by doing that they're achieving business and social impact and the manifestation of that is to think about learners and employees as the same thing. They are good fiduciaries, but also good citizens And they do well and do good. So we've been around for close to four years now. We serve over 42 large organizations about 20 Fortune 500 and I'm proud to say that as a result of a platform, the employees in our partners have avoided over $630 million of student debt. So that's what we do. Well done in a short time to just a few years Laurie and I want to jump to you, you're innovating in a very different space. You're in climate tech. This is actually your second climate tech startup and attracted the likes of Bill Gates as an investor. Um, you don't have a product yet because this kind of innovation takes time a few years out. So this is a long term play. Can you just tell everybody what you're doing in steel production, how that creates um CO two emissions and what you're doing to curb it. Yes, thank you and thank you all for the opportunity to be here. This is incredibly exciting to be in a room filled with the decision makers and the people with the power to have an impact that we're striving for. So at Hertha metals, we are d carbon izing iron and steel production at the core of what we do is driving impact. The global climate change worsens global inequities. And so if we can solve climate change, we can do our part and many don't know that steel is actually one of the biggest industrial emitters out their steel production. It results in more than 10% of global CO two emissions. And we're not getting rid of steel. Right? Steel is the backbone to modern industry, it's material we need that supports our infrastructure. Uh, so we're addressing this by being able to make our iron and steel thing we use every day everywhere, It will be the same product. But instead of using coal, which is how we make primary steel today, we use hydrogen and renewable electricity. So 95% less co two emissions than what we're used to and how have you found um raising money for a venture? That sounds game changing, but it's also takes time, a lot of effort. Um, I assume some tinkering, maybe some failures. Um, as long as success is to get to the product stage, not every investor would wait for that. Yes, it definitely takes patient capital. But our investors understand with high risk and long time periods come this enormous reward. Uh, and at Hertha metals, we truly believe that we have the game changing process to, to pay up that reward. So it takes a special kind of investor and you're seeing more of them in the climate tech space where this isn't a software uh, play right. This isn't a typical Silicon Valley startup. You need that 10 year plus. Uh, fund life and investors like Bill Gates who have founded breakthrough energy uh, understand that mindset and have proven it to be a successful mindset in how they invest as it has already resulted in returns, but patient capital needed. So this gets a little bit into the es de conversation in which that's become a little bit of a charged word. You told me I'm not allowed to ask you if woke, but here I am asking um, is it woke? Yeah, No. Yes, she's not work. So I'll go on record saying that the, the, I'll come back to the central thesis of why we started our company as also the principle behind how yes, she should be done. Well, see I run my company, I have a board, I have an obligation to my shareholders. I'm on a public board. I'm also in a private board. I expect the ceos to deliver on shareholder returns. The whole idea behind you know, in stride and the right way to do E. S. G. Is to recognize that this is not our this is ad you can achieve all that you are charged to do by your shareholders in a way that you also deliver on E. S. G. Right? So I'll give you a few examples from some of the customers we serve. We have retail customers who are really struggling with attrition in retail industry. A good year is when you have a tradition of 30% a bad year is 50%. Now, what would happen if you did not take that attrition as a given, you said, I will invest in your career aspirations, your re skilling your up, skilling and as a result of my investment in your career, I build an equity with you that you want to stay with the company longer. It helps the employee, it helps the learner as well. Um, so the right way to do it is to think about, as I said business and E. S. G. Goals not in contradiction with each other. It's when you think about this in the context of our, that's when you get the phrases like the one you said, but in and adding anything to and at the end of the company mission is really hard to do. Doing one thing. Well, it's hard enough been doing too. Is that really reasonable to expect executives? Actually, that's what C E O S do. We manage short term and long term goals. We serve the interests of customers, employees and shareholders. We we do a lot of ants across geography across different time frames. What this is saying is it is not as simple as picking up an E. S. G. Goal, figuring out KPI s and not linking with your business priorities once you do them. Well, this is just one more and you have to work with, but we have V. S. C E. O. S. I hope all CeoS will agree here have done that forever. And how do you both align um, your employees, your boards, um, your executive team with all the right KPI Well, the starting point for that if done the right way is you have to clearly articulate the purpose of the organization. So when I started in stride, uh, we were in a ford f, we work, I was all by myself, which was a bit of a transition from running a multi billion dollar business at Disney. And so the first thing I did was I wrote what I call as the founders memo and we said, what's the purpose? What's the vision? What are our values and what is it that I can articulate to customers to shareholders, investors to our partners in a way that it makes sense to them. I think that that definition is important. Uh and and every time I go to my customers, I recruit a new employee. I tell them very clearly, look, we are in stride is about helping organizations drive life changing benefits to their employees in a way that it also benefits the organization. I have not had anybody had any problem with that. And Lori and how about you? I would agree with what said, you definitely should be starting with the mission. What is the mission of your company and what do you do? And note that it's not too late for you to change your mission, right? You might be an established company and you're saying well for so long we've advertised ourselves in this way, times are changing and if you're successful, you should change with the times correct, Which means your mission should also transform accordingly. Uh and we also, um thankfully a lot of people believe in the same thing. We believe it hurt the metals, which is, you can drive profitability while also creating a better planet uh and securing the longevity of humanity, right? Um, so mission alignment and I believe that it doesn't need to be uh either profitability and some of our shareholders being um appeased versus the other of us doing what we want to do in terms of our impact, but there is alignment and you just need to really be thoughtful and considerate in thinking about how to align uh your stakeholders towards one vision and value and in fact you're a tech investor yourself um you sit on boards, you've obviously been a Disney um how are you seeing large companies um succeed in their E. S. G. Initiatives in doing good is also being good for business well. Uh So in addition to that, I also teach a course at USC called the Digital Foundation for Business Innovation. And I always tell my students that remember innovation in large organizations is idea meeting commercialization. You should not forget that and there's a little bit of that with PSG goals as well. Right, so once again I'm going to repeat my previous answer but basically it is figure out the purpose of the organization walk back from that and and design a mechanism in which we achieve both goals. Let's take a few examples. So imagine being in the conversation with the Ceo for health care system and articulating and a program to invest in their employees in a way that you can reduce their tradition of nurses. We, as a country are short of half a million nurses, every time a nurse leaves a leading healthcare system just to backfill cost is $60,000. Right, imagine you're in conversation with the financial services ceo or industrial ceo. All of them are worried about what it would mean when technology becomes the core of the business and the employees do not have basic digital literacy. So a conversation with them around upscaling the employees on basic digital literacy that gets frankly good resonance across the entire ecosystem. The challenges when we try to take the short path, when we don't do the hard consultative top down work and try to understand what business is trying to achieve and come up with KPI is that may or may not make sense. So it's basically working bachelor business goal and then designing the KPI and how do you get the employees to buy in The once again, it starts with an education like workplace education. A lot of companies offer that, but not everybody takes them up on it. Like how do you get them involved? So let's start with why it is not working in the way it is done today. So typically when corporate America spends $28 billion, why is it not successful? Well, the reason it's not successful is number one, it is not linked to the strategic goals. No two. As a result of that, there is not real support behind those programs, tuition reimbursement is more talked about than actually adopted. Less than 2% people adopted and those who adopt do not find this changes their career trajectory in a meaningful way. So what we try to do is to say, look number one, we will always position this investment in employee education with the goals of the organization. Two is we will provide education opportunities that drive real outcomes. The employees are not entrusted in enrollments. The employees are entrusted in changing their career trajectory outcomes are important. You have to really articulate how it will help. And in our case we also try to make sure that the platform, which in our case is a technology enabled platform, creates a seamless experience to the learners so that they don't have a problem. Um, welcome. We're so glad you're here. You're here depressed. Apologies. Been traveling since one PM today, but hopefully the dedication, we appreciate it. Now you're in sunny florida. Just relax and have some wine and ask you some questions. It's gonna be great. Um, so welcome. So for those of you who don't know a memo is the founder of a billion dollar startup called Isuzu. Um, he is trying to help correct the racial wealth gap here in this country And I was wondering if you could tell them a little bit about how you're doing that and also how your upbringing um led you to this mission. Absolutely. So it's just really stemmed from a personal experience. I grew up in the slums of Lagos Nigeria. I lost my father at the age of two and I was raised by my mother and to verify the sisters. One thing my mother fundamentally believed in was just the importance of education she afforded my school fees to one of the finest high schools in the land. And that's what led me to this magical place called America. I immigrated from 80 degree weather in Lagos to negative 22 degrees in Minnesota. It was, it was a really cast a building experience. And when I told my New York and L. A friends, I go deer huntin and ice fishing. Um, you know, they always confused. Um, but during that transition, something important happened, my mother and I did not have a credit score. We walked into one of the largest financial institutions to borrow money and were turned away and had to go borrow money from a predatory lender at over 400% interest rate. My mother upon my father's wedding ring. We borrowed money from church members and that's how we got started in the United States. So really inspired by that experience, We started Susan on three core premises no matter where you come from, the color of your skin and particularly your financial identity shouldn't determine where you end up in the wealthiest nation the world has ever seen And the way we make that up and it's really simple when you pay your mortgage today. That data is reflected in your credit profile when you pay your rent. Unfortunately it isn't reflected. So we are the plumbers that essentially created the technology that capture your rental payments data and reporting to the consumer rating agencies. We walk with 60% of the largest owners and operators of real estate in the United States, Uh, to capture this data across, you know, all 50 states in the Union. And what was seen is really simple. The biggest driver of wealth in this country, right is home ownership. And what we are doing now is helping people establish their credit score and then giving them access to other quality financial product. It's essentially unlock them getting a home one day, affordable credit card, the card notes to be able to go to a good school. Um, and you know, was a 30 person shop 18 months ago. Now, it's 200 people valued at a billion. And we're just getting started amazing. Um, and an incredible mission. Um, there's obviously a racial wealth gap in startups as well, which, you know, well, um, could you tell us, given that backdrop, how has your experience been scaling to this level and um, how would you see it changing? Is it getting better? Yeah. Just to level set on the statistic out there, less than 2% of capital go to black and minority and women founders for black women or women. That's .0002%. you know, we always talk about thinking outside the box, but the folks that get to play and manage capital are inside the box. If you're interested in solving the world's toughest challenges, we need to consider folks that outside, I'm an outsider, have nothing to lose. And I'm really, really incentivized to think about our folks from where I come from, I realize the true american potential and that's what I'm squarely focused on. So, you know, my own experience of capital, My co founder and I spoke to 326 investors have said, no, you know, I used to walk out Goldman Sachs Pricewaterhousecoopers. It was one of the cosponsors here. Um, and you know, before I left PWc done $32 billion in deal value. You know, m and a walking with the biggest institutions, but that resume and that pedigree didn't mean anything when I was raising capital. Um, and one of the funniest story was when we started a su su and we were, we just won a $20,000 contract, the first ever one. Um, my co founder, and because credit cards were maxed out at over $100,000. 1 of our favorite places was Dennis. So the idea was, you know, we couldn't afford a hotel room and we decided to go to a Dennis got the Grand Slam. Uh uh, it's that night. And unfortunately, um, you know, we're not perpetual motion machines, so we dozed off and we were kicked out of it, Dennis. Um, and I say that story, um, just make it very real that are sending from zero to a billion dollars isn't just this fad, right? It took a lot of hard work. And for those coming behind us, my job is to outperform um not with rhetoric, but the record um that when you invest in black and other minority founders, um your capital is going to be put to good use, but above all, change the narrative, which I think this forum is all about each and every one of you are here because I think your justice capitalist, you believe on the premise that you can do good and do well and there might know means mutually exclusive. And that's the narrative I want to tell. I'm sick and tired of the 2% of the .002%, I can care less about that. I want to create a narrative whereby when you invest in folks like me, you create $10,100 billion dollar firms and companies like there will be a force to reckon with while doing good and doing well alright. Um and that's where we will leave it. Thank you all for all the hard work you're doing and innovating in your field