- For me personally the reason I was put in this world
is to build bridges and to try to make my small contribution
to make this a better world.
So every venture that I've started including Kind
is about more than just making money.
I'm Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of Kind.
(light music)
In the early years of Kind we didn't even talk
about our social mission, we focused just on
the deliciousness and healthful attributes of the product.
Only in the last few years have we started leaning in
and talking more about what we used to do behind the scenes.
Partly because now our scale allows us
to have an even greater impact.
Though I do feel that what we're doing with Empatico,
which is a platform we created through the Kind Foundation
has the most potential for transformative impact.
We now are in 27,000 classrooms, connecting children
ages six to 11 to discover each other's humanity
and impact millions of children in helping them realize
that while we can be very proud of our backgrounds,
we also should be very proud of our shared humanity.
I think companies have a responsibility to be authentic
and transparent and if it truly speaks to them
to do something with social purpose then I definitely
believe that the private sector has a great role to play
because market forces are scalable
and sustainable so they are one of the best tools we have
to try to improve the world.
But it has to be authentic, it has to be transparent.
I much prefer an authentic company that just focuses
on generating jobs than a company that claims
to have a social mission but it's just a gimmick.
But if there's authenticity and you're actually able
to cook your social impact into your business model,
it's hard to compete with that.
And I do think there's an increased consciousness
that if we're gonna be able to tackle the challenges
of climate change, of resource scarcity,
of extremism, inequality, in our society,
the private sector needs to play a leading role.
It's not just what you want to achieve
but how you achieve it.
And it's interesting to me to notice
that sometimes people think the ends justify the means.
In my experience has been that in every single decision,
at every single moment, the way you react
to every single human being and
just every single occasion is going in the aggregate,
define who you are, what your brand is,
what you are as a company.
We live in a day and age where businesses
have not sufficiently stood up for truth and integrity
and democracy and a lot of these values
that we've taken for granted are under threat
in America and in the world.
As a father of four, as a son of a Holocaust survivor,
for me you cannot avoid standing up,
even if there are consequences
that somebody doesn't like what you are saying.
You know, as an immigrant to the United States
I do not take for granted all these incredible things
that have made America what it is today
and so I'm very committed to invest in them
and speak up for them.