Mission Driven Podcast

In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, I speak with Pinky Poe about Bringing Business Rigor to Social Enterprise — and why compassion and creativity alone are not enough to build lasting impact. After a successful global corporate career, Pinky returned home to the Philippines and was struck by the immense talent, resilience, and heart she saw in underserved communities. But she also recognized something missing: the discipline, structure, and operational rigor required to turn that energy into enterprises that could truly scale and sustain themselves. We explore what happens when mission-driven founders neglect the “enterprise” side of social enterprise, why so many ventures struggle in the messy middle, and what Pinky learned after launching 50 community enterprises in five years — only to realize that without systems and structure, impact fades. We also discuss her decision to build an outsourcing firm focused on accounting, compliance, and financial literacy — the overlooked foundations that allow founders to make better decisions, extend their runway, and build organizations that outlast their passion. This conversation is a candid look at what it really takes to move from compassion to capability — and why bringing business rigor to social enterprise may be the most mission-aligned decision a founder can make.

In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, I speak with Cheryl Jacob, Founder and Chief of Growth and Impact at Resonate & Co, about her work helping mission-driven entrepreneurs scale. We begin with a direct challenge to investors: their responsibility isn’t to personally deliver every layer of support, but to find and fund the people who know how to provide it—whether that’s operational expertise, systems support, coaching, or even mental wellbeing resources—based on what founders are actually struggling with. From there, we explore the realities facing social entrepreneurs today: navigating the "valley of death" between startup and scale, building hybrid nonprofit/for-profit models as global aid tightens, and ensuring founders themselves don’t burn out before their organizations mature. This is a candid conversation about ecosystems, responsibility, leadership growth, and designing organizations that can endure long enough to deliver lasting impact.

In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, I speak with Dr. Legena Henry, Founder and CEO of Rum and Sargassum about when an unexpected result sparked the innovation that lead to the development of a local biofuel. It was a moment that came during student-led summer research project in Barbados, and it was “lucky mistake” became the foundation for a venture working to transform a regional environmental crisis into a renewable transportation solution. It is a great conversation that also dives into the process for commercialization inside a university system, negotiating IP and royalties (as part of a spin-out), and navigating entrepreneurship as a family.

In this episode of Mission Driven, I’m joined by two members of Mayani's Mission Driven Dream Team, JT Solis and Oochie San Juan. Part of a seven-person founding team behind Mayani, a Philippines-based agritech working to rebuild smallholder value chains from the ground up, and through our conversation, we speak about how this incredible team think about “mission DNA” across a seven-founder team, how they make decisions, and how they approached fundraising during one of the toughest markets in recent years—while staying intentional about the kind of investors they bring to the table.

In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, Theresa Carrington, Founder of Ten by Three, shares her 20+ year journey building a model to end extreme poverty through entrepreneurship. She discusses the origins of the organization, the deep impact created through artisan partnerships across seven countries, and the importance of quality, data, and story in scaling sustainable change. Theresa also reflects on critical milestones, hard decisions, and what has kept her focused through betrayal, burnout, and global complexity. Her insights into resilience, founder transition, and influencing policy with humility and proof make this a powerful episode for anyone building mission-led work.

In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, I speak with Erika Sinner, who recently took over TinySuperheroes (TSH) from its founders, and is looking to take Tinysuperheoes mission forward to support 5 million beneficiaries. What began as a heartfelt initiative to empower children facing illness and disability is now undergoing a powerful transformation under Erika’s leadership. Erika shares how she stepped in at a moment of burnout for the founding team, acquiring the organization and reimagining its future. She walks through her bold plan to transition TSH from a for-profit to a nonprofit structure, her ambitious goal to reach 5 million children in five years, and how she's bringing a private-sector mindset to nonprofit operations. The conversation explores how Erika is building a lean, mission-driven team, reshaping the funding model, and turning a heartfelt community initiative into a scalable, sustainable movement. This is a powerful story of vision, execution, and leading with both heart and strategy.

In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, Tiffany Yeh maps out an early-stage founder’s roadmap to scale as she brings a novel, electricity-free cooling material from lab gel to real-world impact. It's an incredible discussion that speaks to how she has learned to lean into trust —of customers, teammates, and herself— to power fast learning: sees co-designing with early adopters as the key part of her iteration process, and is laser focused on build out a global supply chain and team to support her vision for scale.

In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, I speak with Max Nelen, founder and CEO of Agros, a climate-smart agritech startup scaling solar irrigation systems for smallholder farmers across Southeast Asia. While we explore Agros' origin story and pilot in Myanmar, the highlight of our conversation is Max’s deep dive into the real, gritty work of scaling. From adapting the product based on farmer feedback to building trust in new markets, deciding when to enter a new country, and navigating the cultural and operational challenges of a growing team, Max offers one of the most honest and insightful takes on what it really means to grow a mission-driven enterprise in emerging markets.

In this episode of the Mission Driven Podcast, I speak down with Ralph Becker, founder of Urban Greens, a Manila-based vertical farming startup about coming to accept that pivoting is part of the process. Through our conversation. Ralph opens up about launching one of the Philippines’ earliest urban farming businesses, the steep learning curve of building in an emerging market, and the difficult decision to shift away from production toward a service-based model. From typhoons wiping out early systems to navigating high electricity costs, Ralph shares the hard-won insights every founder needs to hear — especially those wrestling with whether it’s time to pivot.