Feeding Hope

Chapter 7The Goodr Model

Building the Model

When I started Goodr, I knew I wanted to build something that challenged every assumption about what it meant to “do good.” I'd spent years in corporate offices—law schools, Fortune 500 hallways, boardrooms where people talked endlessly about impact but rarely practiced humility. Those experiences taught me what I didn't want. I didn't want hierarchy that silenced people. I didn't want ego disguised as leadership. And I didn't want a business model that measured generosity by the size of a check instead of the change it created.

So when I founded Goodr, I decided it would look nothing like the places I'd come from. Everyone—from driver to developer to CEO—would be on the same team. Our core value became what I called a will to win: the belief that we could fight hunger and waste and actually move the needle. I knew the problem was enormous—one in eight people on the planet face hunger—but I wanted to prove that a company grounded in purpose could also compete on performance.

The first test of that idea came when we signed our first major corporate client after Turner Broadcasting. It was a sustainability‐minded tech company with an office just outside of Philadelphia. I remember the call confirming the contract. It wasn't a donation or a grant; it was a service agreement—our first true proof that a for‐profit social enterprise could thrive. When I hung up, I sat in silence for a moment, letting it sink in: someone was actually paying ...