Please welcome Kindred, an events brand supercharging corporate social responsibility
Meet Kindred, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.
HQ: New York
Cofounders: Ian Schafer and Anil Aggarwal
The problem: The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been around for years. Everyone knows that giving back is good for business, as well as for morale, community engagement, reputation, and more. But recent headlines suggest an increasing urgency, or at least a growing momentum, around CSR when it comes to the biggest players in many industries. Microsoft, for example, recently vowed to become “carbon negative” by 2030; asset manager BlackRock announced a commitment to put “sustainability at the center” of its investment approach. As companies of different sizes and sectors determine how to best implement their own social good initiatives and scale their impact, so emerges an opportunity to create a support system and mission-driven community to aid their efforts.
Kindred’s solution: Centered on its inaugural, flagship event Kindred 2020, Kindred is a new events startup focused on kick-starting business transformation through community, events, tools, and resources that empower stakeholders to work together and build more responsible and accountable companies. Kindred 2020 will gather together 2,000 business, nonprofit, and cultural leaders for four days of programming in May, featuring speakers from companies including TOMS, UNICEF, HBO, as well as Chance the Rapper.
Origin story: Kindred was cofounded by a pair of operators with deep expertise in the community, events, and marketing space. Ian Schafer launched and led breakout advertising agency Deep Focus for years, working as a communicator and marketer with an eye on how businesses can be a force for good. Anil Aggarwal founded industry-leading events including Money2020, Shoptalk, Groceryshop, and others. With Kindred, they hope to create the most comprehensive community and platform for business leaders to connect on key issues and themes like gender equality, representation, sustainability, and more.
Why we’re betting on it: More than ever, consumers, employees, and investors are voting with their dollars and deciding to support businesses that prioritize purpose and impact. Yet few companies know how to operate in that new paradigm. Kindred is well-positioned and perfectly timed to help educate businesses and brands about how to meet that new bar for consumer expectations. Anil has repeatedly brought business communities together through conferences that build lasting networks and create real trends, including Money2020 and ShopTalk. Ian, for his part, understands the power of brand and messaging, which is key to adding fuel to this movement.
Our take: Throughout our portfolio, we’ve seen that customers are increasingly holding companies accountable for their impact. Sixty-four percent of Americans believe that “making a world better” should be a company’s primary purpose, and, as a consequence, 41% of CEOs believe that solving social problems should be a part of their “core business strategy.” Even so, few businesses have the support to do that effectively. We believe that Kindred 2020 will be the foundation on which a network and a shared understanding are built to support such developments.
Further reading: “Kindred Events Aims to Help Companies Build ‘Purpose-Led’ Practices” via the WSJ
