By Natalie Burg
In 2013, two college students sat in a library at the University of California, Los Angeles between classes, and used Skype to close a deal with a community development organization in Guatemala. The agreement allowed the students to sell handmade Guatemalan goods on their new website.
The classmates were childhood friends Jessica Willison, a communications student with an interest in fashion, and Ann Wang, an international development student, and the transaction was the first of what would become Enrou, an e-commerce site unlike almost any other.
Three years later, the carefully curated fashion and home goods site has helped to provide work for 1,702 people in 57 communities around the world. Although Enrou is a for-profit business, it strives to help both the artisan and its community with every sale.
“We were seeing this consumer world that was so passionate and so creative and so connected, wanting to find meaning in their everyday lives,” Willison said. “And there’s this other world of all these amazing artisans, and there wasn’t yet a connection point.”
With Enrou, Wang and Willison decided to build that connection.
Building A Conscientious Business
From her time studying international development and working with nonprofits, Wang already knew of a number of artisan-based community development organizations throughout the world. She and Willison added to that list with some deep Google research. Once they identified about 20 organizations, they simply started sending emails.
The Skype call to Guatemala followed soon after. Then, they won the $400,000 Pressure Cooker pitch competition during the Forbes Under 30 Summit in 2014. That’s when the co-founders really felt Enrou’s momentum shift.
“It was great to see so many people believe in the idea, and being able to have investment to go out and chase what we wanted to build,” Wang said.
Unique Impact For Unique Communities
Key to Enrou’s business model is the strategic way it approaches community impact. Rather than partner with individual makers, the company teams up with community development organizations, which then partner with makers in their communities.
Each organization is vetted to ensure it provides dignified, ethical, safe and fair employment. Enrou doesn’t take a straight percentage from each deal, but customizes each agreement to the needs of the particular community and organization.
“We believe very specific models work best for different communities around the world,” Wang said.
Buying jewelry made in Laos, for instance, will benefit both the maker and an organization dedicated to removing unexploded mines from local fields. A backpack purchase will return a fair wage to the artisan and help fund education scholarships.
Meanwhile, Enrou uses a different metric to measure its collective impact. Each product description on the site includes how many hours of fair, dignified work the purchase generates.
“We asked, ‘How do we build this experience for a consumer where they actually see the ripple effect from purchasing a wine holder they love?’” Wang said. “[The hours] give more depth and richness to the story, and for us, it allows us to track our impact.”
It also helps Enrou generate excitement for special campaigns — such as a successful 2015 holiday program that generated 5,000 hours of fair labor work in six days. Overall, Enrou’s sales have supported more than 32,500 hours of fair labor.
For Profit, For Good
Willison and Wang believe there’s a strong market for companies with a conscience. Millennials shop with an eye on the origins of their purchases, Wang said, and pairing an engaging, meaningful story with each purchase is a way to meet that demand.
“To us, the DNA of every piece is in the living, breathing story of the maker who created it,” she said. “But on a business level, it gives us an edge.”
Willison and Wang don’t post just any artisan-made items on their site. They curate the goods for quality and beauty as carefully as they vet their vendors for fair labor standards.
“We need to have a great product for our buyers in order to make an impact,” Willison said. “The quality standard is ‘What would we like? What would we love to have and buy and be proud of?’”
This eye for quality has taken these two college students from the library to a company of four full-time employees, assisted by some 20 interns, who are keeping the Enrou vision — and those hours of fair labor generated — growing.
“We believe creative and passionate people have the ability to radically change the world for the better,” Wang said.
A former downtown development professional, Natalie Burg is a freelancer who writes about growth, entrepreneurialism and innovation.
In 2013, two college students sat in a library at the University of California, Los Angeles between classes, and used Skype to close a deal with a community development organization in Guatemala. The agreement allowed the students to sell handmade Guatemalan goods on their new website.
The classmates were childhood friends Jessica Willison, a communications student with an interest in fashion, and Ann Wang, an international development student, and the transaction was the first of what would become Enrou, an e-commerce site unlike almost any other.
Three years later, the carefully curated fashion and home goods site has helped to provide work for 1,702 people in 57 communities around the world. Although Enrou is a for-profit business, it strives to help both the artisan and its community with every sale.
“We were seeing this consumer world that was so passionate and so creative and so connected, wanting to find meaning in their everyday lives,” Willison said. “And there’s this other world of all these amazing artisans, and there wasn’t yet a connection point.”
With Enrou, Wang and Willison decided to build that connection.
Building A Conscientious Business
From her time studying international development and working with nonprofits, Wang already knew of a number of artisan-based community development organizations throughout the world. She and Willison added to that list with some deep Google research. Once they identified about 20 organizations, they simply started sending emails.
The Skype call to Guatemala followed soon after. Then, they won the $400,000 Pressure Cooker pitch competition during the Forbes Under 30 Summit in 2014. That’s when the co-founders really felt Enrou’s momentum shift.
“It was great to see so many people believe in the idea, and being able to have investment to go out and chase what we wanted to build,” Wang said.
Unique Impact For Unique Communities
Key to Enrou’s business model is the strategic way it approaches community impact. Rather than partner with individual makers, the company teams up with community development organizations, which then partner with makers in their communities.
Each organization is vetted to ensure it provides dignified, ethical, safe and fair employment. Enrou doesn’t take a straight percentage from each deal, but customizes each agreement to the needs of the particular community and organization.
“We believe very specific models work best for different communities around the world,” Wang said.
Buying jewelry made in Laos, for instance, will benefit both the maker and an organization dedicated to removing unexploded mines from local fields. A backpack purchase will return a fair wage to the artisan and help fund education scholarships.
Meanwhile, Enrou uses a different metric to measure its collective impact. Each product description on the site includes how many hours of fair, dignified work the purchase generates.
“We asked, ‘How do we build this experience for a consumer where they actually see the ripple effect from purchasing a wine holder they love?’” Wang said. “[The hours] give more depth and richness to the story, and for us, it allows us to track our impact.”
It also helps Enrou generate excitement for special campaigns — such as a successful 2015 holiday program that generated 5,000 hours of fair labor work in six days. Overall, Enrou’s sales have supported more than 32,500 hours of fair labor.
For Profit, For Good
Willison and Wang believe there’s a strong market for companies with a conscience. Millennials shop with an eye on the origins of their purchases, Wang said, and pairing an engaging, meaningful story with each purchase is a way to meet that demand.
“To us, the DNA of every piece is in the living, breathing story of the maker who created it,” she said. “But on a business level, it gives us an edge.”
Willison and Wang don’t post just any artisan-made items on their site. They curate the goods for quality and beauty as carefully as they vet their vendors for fair labor standards.
“We need to have a great product for our buyers in order to make an impact,” Willison said. “The quality standard is ‘What would we like? What would we love to have and buy and be proud of?’”
This eye for quality has taken these two college students from the library to a company of four full-time employees, assisted by some 20 interns, who are keeping the Enrou vision — and those hours of fair labor generated — growing.
“We believe creative and passionate people have the ability to radically change the world for the better,” Wang said.
A former downtown development professional, Natalie Burg is a freelancer who writes about growth, entrepreneurialism and innovation.
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