Brittany Underwood started her entrepreneurial story as a college student. Keen on doing something that was larger than herself, 10 years ago, she launched an organization that employed women in northern and eastern Uganda, a region affected by civil war and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to make jewelry.
“It was easy to ship and something the Ugandan women could make,” she says on her decision to sell jewelry specifically.
Simple enough. Now, she’s in Neiman Marcus, on the Home Shopping Network, and in 250 additional retailers. In the last five years, she’s seen significant growth as the company crossed million-dollar annual sales.
However, instead of going for-profit, Underwood kept Akola, her “startup” as a not-for-profit. In fact, it’s hard to say that Akola falls in the social sector. Rather, It resembles every ounce of a for-profit brand: they have a retail outlet in Dallas, Underwood is constantly pursuing new business opportunities, collaborations with designers and other brands, and a growing e-commerce business. Yet, the organization has and will continue to be registered as a non-profit, she says.
“We are committed to 100% transparency as a 501c3 nonprofit organization,” Underwood says. “We choose to lead Akola as a nonprofit to ensure that the women in our program are always our key stakeholders and that 100% of our profits are reinvested into our social mission year after year.”
In 2016, Underwood was asked to create a line for Neiman Marcus -- a partnership that resulted in $3.5 million worth of product. By the end of the year, Akola, which translates into “she works” in a Ugandan dialect, had more sales than donations, amounting to $1.5 million.
What started out as a venture for Ugandan women eventually grew American roots as well. In 2016, Akola launched a program in Dallas, TX, working with over 100 women who came from marginalized backgrounds. The Dallas Women’s Foundation asked them to build a similar concept to the Ugandan one-- employing women, often single mothers, to make necklaces and accessories--in their hometown.
“The idea translated perfectly and there are so many women in Dallas who are trapped in the cycle of urban poverty and the non-profit ecosystem is unable to find them dependable and dignifying work opportunity,” she explains.
The challenge, however, for Underwood was to find a market for a higher price point, she says; that would allow her to pay the Dallas women a living wage, defined as $15 an hour by the company. Neiman Marcus CEO Karen Katz loved the concept and provided that market, by giving Underwood access to Neiman Marcus stores across the country. As a result more than 100 women in Dallas have been employed by Akola.
Underwood recognizes that her approach may be a bit unconventional. But she has her reasons for it. “Yes, it was a difficult decision to give up any equity or ownership in the company from the start,” she admits. “But it was the right thing to do. Akola has always been about the women and it is still just about the women.”
In Dallas, that became apparent. Akola started with just two women who worked in the distribution unit. After 20 years of incarceration, addiction, and prostitution, this was their first real job. Now they were spending their days learning the ins and outs of Akola, from answering phones to running the company’s Quickbooks software. With the success of these two women, able to adapt to a new workplace and Akola’s needs, Underwood quickly started to scale the program.
Collectively, between Uganda and Dallas, Akola now serves 500 women and has 30 full-time employees.
“This is a new model and we are the first generation that has seriously thought about a hybrid model,” she says. “As a hybrid, Akola runs a profitable business through a nonprofit framework to create a sustainable pathway out of poverty for marginalized women. Our hybrid structure combines social mission with a viable economic model set’s us apart from earlier models of social development.”
However, could this be possible if she were dependent on high-growth investors focused primarily on the bottom line and a clear path to an exit? “No, this really would not have been possible without the dawn of the social finance movement and impacting investing, which has allowed us to find creative resources to create a model for growth as a nonprofit,” she says.
In fact, Underwood takes it one step further to argue that it’s this unique model that’s helped them get high-profile clients like Neiman Marcus and land a spot on HSN. She refers to it as the 100% impact model because 100 percent of revenues from sales of products are returned to the Akola women and development initiatives such as vocational training centers, clean water wells, educational programming, and healthcare.
So could the path to a “successful” venture defy a for-profit model altogether? It certainly depends on the entrepreneur’s definition of success.
