South Asians in sustainable business venture!
Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Valez are two young entrepreneurs in San Francisco that came up with one interesting business idea. In a business ethics course, Arora and Valez learned of the use of coffee grounds in the production of mushrooms. The two teamed up with Berkeley’s ecology department and received a $5000 social innovation grant. They quickly achieved their goal and began taste testing their home grown mushrooms. Arora and Valez eventually established BTTR Ventures (pronounced “better” ventures and stands for “back to the roots”). BTTR Ventures reuses coffee grounds from Pete’s Coffee and is a no-waste business that donates left over coffee grounds to local parks in San Francisco. For more information, check out this article in South Asian Journal Association Forum.
What do you all think about business ventures with social good dimensions? Can we call these new models “philanthropy” or are they something different?
