What does it really cost a founder to keep mission at the heart of the company, and what does it give back?

Recorded on location at the Stanford Seed Transformation Network Kenya retreat in Naivasha, this special episode of Sex, Soap & Alcohol takes the podcast into the wild. Professor Myriam Sidibé sits down with two fellow podcast hosts who spend their working lives around founders. Darius Teter is Executive Director of Stanford Seed and host of Grit & Growth. Mike Macharia is the founder of Seven Seas Technologies, a serial entrepreneur and host of Founders Battlefield.

Mike sets out the external and internal pressures that test a founder’s commitments, from investors chasing numbers to the star employee who quietly works against the mission. Darius explains why Stanford Seed cares more about the problem a company solves than the label it carries, why some founders need to fire their biggest customers, and why the clearest return on a real mission shows up in the people who stay. Myriam reflects on becoming a “chief mission officer” and on refusing to say things that are not true.

They close with two tests every founder can apply. If your company grew 100X, would anyone other than you and your co-owners care? And when you hand it on, are you leaving the next generation a business or a liability?

Sex, Soap & Alcohol is brought to you by Brands on a Mission, helping organisations and brands achieve social impact and business growth through purpose. Find out more at brandsonamission.com

What happens when storytelling moves beyond awareness and actually changes behaviour?

For 15 years, Shuga has helped young people navigate conversations around sex, HIV, gender-based violence, stigma, shame and choice through stories designed to entertain first, and educate without preaching.

But its impact is not only cultural.

A World Bank evaluation of Shuga found that young people exposed to the programme were more likely to test for HIV, less likely to contract chlamydia and reported reductions in gender-based violence. A subsequent cost-benefit analysis estimated that every $1 invested could generate as much as $150 in benefits.

In this episode of Sex, Soap & Alcohol, Professor Myriam Sidibé speaks with Wame Jallow, Executive Director of Shuga Global, and Victor Orozco, Senior Economist at the World Bank, about what Shuga can teach us about trust, behaviour change and the value of storytelling.

Together, they explore why seeing yourself in a story can influence behaviour, why health services and commodities still need demand generation, why storytelling remains vulnerable when development budgets are cut, and what new partnerships between governments, donors, researchers, media and the private sector could make possible.

At the centre of the conversation is a bigger question:

If a story can earn enough trust to change what people do, why are we still treating storytelling as the soft option?

In this episode

• How Shuga became a trusted youth brand
• Why character identification and immersion matter
• What randomized controlled trials can tell us about entertainment and behaviour change
• How the estimated $150 return for every $1 invested was calculated
• Why awareness is not enough without action
• Why services and commodities still depend on trust and demand
• What funding cuts mean for social and behaviour change
• How public, philanthropic and private-sector partners could finance this work differently
• Why authentic storytelling requires creative risk
• Why sometimes you have to let the writers have their “sex and rock and roll”

Sex, Soap & Alcohol is brought to you by Brands on a Mission, helping organisations and brands achieve social impact and business growth through purpose

In this episode of the 'Sex Soap and Alcohol' podcast, host Professor Myriam Sidibé sits down with Shivam Punjya, Founder of the ethical luxury brand Behno. They discuss the transformative journey Shivam undertook to create a sustainable and ethical fashion supply chain in response to the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse. By focusing on values like worker dignity, transparency, and women's rights, Behno has successfully merged purpose with profit. Shivam shares insights from his work in India, including initiatives in worker health and women's empowerment, and delves into the unique challenges and successes of revolutionizing an industry steeped in exploitation. The conversation provides a masterclass in ethical leadership and sustainable business practices.