Social entrepreneurs spend years building solutions that could transform communities, only to hear the same answer from venture capitalists: no.

The frustration is real. The question is constant. Why don't VCs invest in social enterprises?

Dr. Luis Martinez has a unique answer because he's lived on both sides. As director of Trinity University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, he helped launch 65+ student ventures that raised $60 million in external funding. Now, as Senior Venture Associate at Capital Factory, he works with one of Texas's most active early-stage investors managing 750+ portfolio companies including eight unicorns. In this episode, host John Kane Gonzales gets Luis to pull back the curtain on the hard realities of venture capital, why impact alone isn't enough, and what it actually takes to build a social enterprise that can scale.

"Being a startup founder is impossibly hard. Being a startup founder that is also driven by social impact? Congratulations, you're on advanced mode." - Dr. Luis Martinez

🚀 Key Takeaways:

VCs Aren't Giving You Money, They're Investing for Returns: Venture capitalists promise their investors superior returns (10-20x) in 7-10 years—impact alone isn't enough, it has to come with velocity and scale in a compressed timeline.

Social Impact VCs Exist, But They're Rare: There are funds with social enterprise as their thesis, but performance hasn't always matched traditional VC returns, and some investors handle impact through philanthropy instead of expecting investment returns.

The Three Levels of Fit: Problem-solution fit (does your solution work?), value proposition-customer fit (will someone pay for it?), and product-market fit (can it scale?)—most social entrepreneurs get stuck at level two.

You May Not Be the Founder Who Scales It: The team that takes a company from 0 to 10 is often not the team that takes it from 10 to 100—knowing whether you want to be king or rich is critical.

Stop Planning, Start Building: Go build a real business with real customers and real revenue before seeking VC funding—if you can't convince people you know to invest, you'll never convince institutional investors.

⏳ Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Luis and Capital Factory

01:40 Luis's journey from organic chemist to VC

05:09 How Trinity launched 65+ student ventures with $60 million raised

08:01 The four components of startup success: idea, capital, mentors, talent

13:01 Why social entrepreneurship flourished in the 2010s

15:07 The nonlinear path from science to entrepreneurship

18:31 English majors launching tech companies at Trinity

21:05 Creating value vs capturing value in entrepreneurship

23:36 The difference between Trinity and Capital Factory

28:44 Why VCs promise superior returns to their investors

32:26 What venture scale actually means: velocity matters

34:49 Why social impact VCs are less common

39:07 The competitive advantage question most founders miss

44:18 The three levels of fit every entrepreneur must master

46:21 What makes a business actually scalable

49:27 Do you want to be king or rich? You can't have both

52:16 Go build a real business first

54:04 What would flip VCs toward social enterprise investing

59:12 Five pieces of practical advice for social entrepreneurs

01:04:43 Where to find Luis

🔗 Connect with Luis Martinez

Website: https://capitalfactory.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drluismartinez/

X: https://x.com/DrLuisEMartinez

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Capital Factory Portfolio: 750+ companies, 8 of Texas's 20 unicorns

https://capitalfactory.com/portfolio/

🎙️ About SowGood to GrowGood: Hosted by John Kane Gonzales, entrepreneur and innovator. We explore how change-makers and innovators are building sustainable systems for a better future, turning ideas into scalable impact.

Chris Hewitt had a problem. Every time he tried to explain his local currency project, people's eyes would roll back in their heads. For six years, he watched potential members tune out the moment he started talking about money, economics, and alternative systems.

In this episode, host John Kane Gonzales sits down with Chris, co-founder and executive director of Hudson Valley Current, a 12-year-old nonprofit local currency that's exchanged over 2 million "currents" across 400+ members. You'll hear how a sales coach taught him to stop explaining money and start talking about benefits, why he built a restaurant and magazine to make the currency actually work, and how he transformed from being 95% grant-dependent to generating 60% of revenue through diversified streams.

"We don't really understand exchange. We know that the dollar works to buy us things, to earn us money for our jobs, but we don't as a society understand money in a complex and deep way and how powerful we are with every dollar." - Chris Hewitt

🚀 Key Takeaways:

Stop Explaining, Start Showing Benefits: A sales coach taught Chris to talk about four benefits—innovative, hyper-local, shifts narrative, saves money—instead of explaining economic theory.

Extractive vs Regenerative Economics: The dollar extracts wealth and centralizes it in corporate headquarters, while local currencies regenerate communities by keeping money circulating locally.

Build the Missing Infrastructure: When not enough businesses accepted currents, Chris built a restaurant and magazine that take 100% currents to prove the model works.

Revenue Diversification Takes Time: Hudson Valley Current went from 95% grant-dependent to 60% diversified revenue over 12 years through eight different streams.

Start With What You Have: You can start a local currency with a notebook tracking barters, then scale to software like Cyclos when ready.

⏳ Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Chris and Hudson Valley Current

01:49 The 2004 conference that sparked the idea

04:33 What is a local currency and how is it legal

06:05 Understanding exchange and how money really works

10:53 Why Chris built Tilda's Kitchen to fix the catch-22

13:52 Why supporting local economies matters

17:38 Regional specialization and the bio-regional economy vision

22:37 The triple bottom line: people, planet, profit

24:58 The sales coach who changed everything

27:09 Extractive economy vs regenerative economy

32:21 From revolutionary to evolutionary leadership

37:45 Revenue diversification: 95% grants to 60% earned income

41:54 Ratcheting your fundraising success

46:10 How mutual credit systems actually work

50:32 Building momentum with the first members

54:33 The marsh ecosystem metaphor for currency flow

59:40 Technology, people, and community building

01:05:29 Proving the model: 40% income in currents

01:12:27 Small gatherings drive currency movement

01:18:55 Why Chris is stepping down as executive director

01:21:22 Staying flexible while avoiding mission drift

01:25:55 It's just money—and it's justice money

🔗 Connect with Chris Hewitt

Website: https://hudsonvalleycurrent.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-hewitt-423a691b4/

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Tilda's Kitchen & Market: 630 Broadway, Kingston, NY | https://tildaskitchenandmarket.com

Midtown Lively (Publication): https://midtownlively.org

🎙️ About SowGood to GrowGood: Hosted by John Kane Gonzales, entrepreneur and innovator. We explore how change-makers and innovators are building sustainable systems for a better future, turning ideas into scalable impact.

Camille Tagle was living her dream—designing evening wear for luxury fashion brands, seeing her gowns on red carpets.

Then one day, her boss looked at hundreds of fabric samples they'd ordered and said, "I'm not feeling it anymore. Start from scratch." That moment changed everything.

In this episode, host John Kane Gonzales sits down with Camille, Co-Founder of FABSCRAP, to talk about what happens when you can't unsee the waste anymore. You'll hear how she walked away from fashion to build a solution that didn't exist, why thousands of volunteers showed up without her asking, and how she built a financially sustainable nonprofit where brands actually pay for the service.

"There was this need and I had these answers and I had these skills. And so it felt like, why would I not just jump right into this and try to do it sooner than later?" - Camille Tagle

🚀 Key Takeaways:

The Hidden Waste Problem: Fashion's biggest waste happens during design—samples and full rolls thrown out before reaching stores—and most people have no idea.

Community Powered, Not Grant Funded: FABSCRAP mobilized 11,000+ volunteers and generates 64% of revenue from brands paying for services, not donations.

Brands Found Them: All 800+ brand partnerships came inbound—when the solution works, you don't have to convince anyone.

The "Can't Unsee It" Moment: Watching her boss throw away hundreds of fabric samples became impossible to ignore and fuel to build something different.

Naivety as an Asset: Being "young and naive" helped Camille start—knowing the complexity ahead might have stopped her.

⏳ Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Camille and FABSCRAP

01:48 Camille's journey from fashion designer to textile waste pioneer

04:01 The moment she couldn't unsee the waste

05:14 Making the transition from luxury fashion to nonprofit

07:15 Meeting her co-founder Jessica

07:53 How family reacted to leaving fashion behind

09:07 Why she decided to start FABSCRAP now

12:05 Defining her purpose beyond design

14:43 What sample headers are in the fashion industry

15:34 The commercial textile waste problem no one sees

17:45 How FABSCRAP's fabric recycling service works

19:17 Why brands don't monetize their fabric waste

23:16 Getting fashion brands to sign up for recycling

25:44 The warehouse sorting and volunteer process

29:27 Building 11,000 volunteers without advertising

35:22 Scaling with just 15 employees

38:53 How 800+ brands found FABSCRAP organically

40:15 The revenue model: brands pay for services

44:12 Future plans for scaling FABSCRAP

46:38 What infrastructure FABSCRAP needs to grow

47:55 Challenges in the sustainability space

49:25 Advice for aspiring social entrepreneurs

🔗 Connect with Camille Tagle

Website: https://fabscrap.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camille-diane-tagle-017b00a/

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Volunteer or Shop Fabric: Visit http://fabscrap.org to get involved

FABSCRAP on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fabscrap

🎙️ About SowGood to GrowGood: Hosted by John Kane Gonzales, entrepreneur and innovator. We explore how change-makers and innovators are building sustainable systems for a better future, turning ideas into scalable impact.