Doing Business Differently - behind-the-scenes at August, thinking about how to reimagine capitalism

Capitalism is at the root of so many of our problems. American capitalism promotes fierce competition amongst both individuals and organizations, with the goal being to maximize profit — inherently incentivizing further exploitation as globalization continues to grow rampantly. This needs to change, and since we live in a society governed by capitalism, such a system needs to be disrupted from within.

Over the last year, as I’ve built my company August, I’ve tried to push myself and our team to be strongly rooted in our values and commit to doing business differently. I know it’s a lofty goal to say that I want to reimagine capitalism -- and I know many people reading might not think that is even possible. However, the debate around the ethics of American capitalism and its potential to be rehabilitated or reimagined, while an uncomfortable one, is both overdue and necessary.

I started my work in the nonprofit world at age 16 in 2014 when I founded the organization PERIOD. I was excited to build a nonprofit because I believed that I could make a large impact with the help of other like-minded individuals and organizations. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I just tried to learn and be okay with making mistakes in the process. In the end, I spent most of my time as an Executive Director fundraising to support programs and operational costs from private foundations, donors, and corporate sponsors. When I talk to friends and colleagues who work in the nonprofit space, the emotional exhaustion with their work comes from needing to rely on the exact systems and players who they are simultaneously trying to disrupt or inspire changed behavior of.

At Harvard, I majored in sociology with a focus on globalization and the harmful patterns facilitated by capitalism. After my sophomore year, and on a gap year to publish my book, was when I started to question how I could maximize impact in the fight for social justice.?I was learning about the foundations of capitalism at Harvard and critiquing it for its inherent tendency for fostering inequality and was trying to grapple with how this showed up in my own work. Being a student, self-sufficiency, and monetary resources for both the organization and for my own quality of life were at top of mind. The more I studied, the more I recognized how capitalism has the inherent and built-in downfall of leaning into exploitation and inequality. Yet at the same time, I became even more passionate about finding novel ways to create cultural change.?

We live in a system where capitalism almost seems impossible to not participate in as a young person if you’re going to be using social media and making any sort of purchases. In the year 2020, Gen Z made up 40% of all US consumers, and this number will only continue to grow. Furthermore, 85% of Gen Z use social media to learn about new products -- with Gen Z spending an average of 11 hours per week on their mobile devices and social media, these platforms are the central advertising spend for consumer brands. After spending time consulting with other brands on how to be the change I wanted to see, it finally felt like the time for me to step up -- thus August was born.?

I know that as a 23-year-old founder, I’m still learning more about the nuances of capitalism and will be continuing that learning journey for the rest of my life. Taking all my learnings, my co-founder, Nick Jain (who has an extensive background building a leading youth marketing agency), and I began our journey not with a product, but with our values. We wanted to create a brand that was impactful, sustainable, traceable, inclusive, and community centered.?

We created our community home base, the Inner Cycle, to meet with a diverse group of menstruators, and hear exactly what the consumer wanted to see changed about the period care market. Very early on, we felt the passion that Gen Z has for impact, sustainability, and social action. Moreover, our generation knows and understands the power of “voting with your wallet,” or only consuming from values aligned brands. Interestingly enough, while options like diva cups and period underwear are available, 98% of menstruators still care for their periods with a combination of tampons and pads. What we began to hear over, and over again was the desire to make the products people felt most comfortable using more sustainable. Thus, our mission was clear: to meet people where they are at and put a sustainable spin on the products they know and love.

And when we say that our products were created to be more environmentally conscious, we mean it, and we’ll be here to answer any questions about how they are – publicly. Because commodity activism is something we are seeing rampantly across various companies, with companies pretending to care about certain social issues to sell products. This is problematic and performative. We’ve seen terms like “greenwashing” and “woke-washing” be coined to describe how brands take the social issues and values that their customers hold dear and use them as a marketing tactic without making real changes. Greenwashing being used in relation to sustainability and woke washing to describe companies that speak up on social issues only when it is convenient or on trend to do so.

To combat this, we built our entire supply chain intentionally and committed to carbon neutrality. We are inspired by the wave of brands committing to traceability of their products. Generation Z cares about the ethics and values behind the brands that they are consuming. We are so confident in our supply chain that we display it for all to see on our website. As a result of our hard work, we were able to produce a line of chemical-free, 100% organic cotton, and biodegradable pads, liners, and tampons with recyclable applicators.

Our next mission was to show people that period care can do so much more than just caring for your period, and that their purchases could have impact initiatives embedded into them. Period care can be impactful. Furthermore, purchases can be impactful.

As a lifestyle period brand, we knew that we had to do our part to relieve period poverty -- the lack of access to period care, period health education, or facilities to adequately manage one’s period. In 2019, Thinx and PERIOD teamed up to release the first State of the Period report. What they found was that 1 in 5 teens have struggled to afford period care products and two-thirds of students have felt stress due to lack of access to period care. This strain has only been exacerbated by the stresses of COVID-19 and the persistence of the Tampon Tax.

The “tampon tax” is a sales tax placed on period care products, classifying them as non-essential goods. Meanwhile, products like Rogaine and Viagra are considered medical necessities and do not experience this sales tax. While eradicating this tax doesn’t solve period poverty, it does eliminate one more brick that currently legitimizes the societal assumption that menstrual hygiene is a luxury – which it is not. It was a no-brainer for us as a brand to absorb the “tampon tax” for all customers, even if they are currently in one of the thirty states that still has the tax. If we truly believed no one should have to pay that tax, then we needed to put our money where our mouth is as a brand.

Furthermore, in the fight to end period poverty, for every person that subscribes to August, we donate two units of product to menstruators in need, and 10% of our profits go directly to our nonprofit partner No More Secrets to support the nation's first ever menstrual hub: The Spot. If our subscribers want to do more, we also give them the option to donate directly. We are so lucky to have a community that values impact as much as we do, in the two short weeks since our launch we have seen over $200 donated at checkout. Overall, 20% of our customers have donated, and 60% of our community members who purchased have donated.

What this has shown us is that the fight to reimagine capitalism might not be as far-off as we originally thought. Both companies and individuals have acknowledged that it is time for changes to be made and I do think that companies are making progress to being more transparent in their goals and progress, which allows for there to be more accountability as well.

Over the last year, through my own mental health work, I’ve focused a lot on learning more about the vocabulary and details behind shifting from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance. The scarcity mindset programs us to feel like we are not enough and that we do not have enough -- and this prevents us from growing into our generosity and humility. The more I learn about capitalism, the more I get the sense that adopting an abundance mindset is an internal change that we all must make on an individual level to move towards further systemic change. As it is said, change starts from within.

So, do I think change is possible when it comes to dismantling harmful patterns of capitalism? Do I think that August can potentially become a barometer of what change can look like for a business? My answer to these questions probably changes depending on what time of day you ask me and whether I’m on a high or low of my mood swings. But I do have hope. We must have hope. That’s how we can keep building and stay motivated. I grasp onto ounces of hope and inspiration from our community, and re-commit constantly to the process of unlearning and learning, to affirm that we as a community especially of next generation entrepreneurs, can do business differently.