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Jasmine Crowe of Goodr

Jasmine Crowe of Goodr

Profile Summary:

  • Entrepreneur Name: Jasmine Crowe
  • Venture Name: Goodr
  • Impact Focus Area(s): Sustainability, Waste Reduction, Hunger Prevention
  • Business Stage (Ideation, Startup, Early, Later, Mature): Early
  • Year Venture Established: 2017
  • Business Type: For-Profit Social Enterprise

The Issue

Social entrepreneurship is about solving problems. Tell us about the challenge you are focused on addressing and why it is critical that we make progress.

“For me it started with hunger.  I had been working to feed those in our community experiencing homelessness.  I was working hard each week to gather food, cook, and serve long lines of individuals on the street- I thought there had to be a better way and that led me to do research on food waste.  I was blown away by how much perfectly good food is going to waste, while I was struggling to feed people that were hungry.  I saw two problems that were solutions to one another. 

I could have been a nonprofit, but I chose to be a for-profit with a paid staff to better meet the needs and reporting expectations that companies have in terms of recovering food waste.  We track every item that we collect specific to each item picked up- which nonprofit it goes to, the weight, along with environmental statistics.  It is critical that we succeed because we can help business reduce their waste but also help communities in greater numbers.”      

Your Journey

Entrepreneurship is a journey that requires connections and support from a wide array of stakeholders across the ecosystem to help successfully identify, start, and grow a social enterprise.

“Through Goodie Nation’s pitch competition which I entered, we were able to be introduced and have formed a relationship with the Atlanta Airport.

We are just getting started with Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) as of July as part of the SPANX CCI Innovation Fellow program.  There helping me look at ways that we can better share our model to those in the social impact community. The program comes with an investment along with self-care stipends. 

I am a member of ATDC.  Jackie Chu, one of the Catalysts there has been very helpful as someone I can run ideas by.” 

Why Georgia’s Social Impact Ecosystem Matters

Being an entrepreneur is hard and it’s even more challenging when you are a social entrepreneur as your business model and / or structure doesn’t follow the same path as traditional start-ups. 

“Funding is obviously a big thing. A number of our customers can’t afford our services and we would like to serve them, but at the same time need to ensure we can pay our employees a good, living wage.  It would be great if there were more foundations focused on reducing food waste that would be willing to fund us to serve organizations that can’t afford services for example a hospital or university.

There have definitely been a number of supporters here in Atlanta particularly individuals.  We haven’t connected with a large number of big companies as of yet. UPS recently reached out and wanted to do a working ideation session in the first quarter of next year – so I am hopeful. 

Being an African American female founder is tough. It’s really tough in the South. If we are building a social impact ecosystem around entrepreneurs in Atlanta where the population is 55% black, there has to be a conversation about how we better support people of color. Had I been of a different race, I probably would have had a lot more success in Atlanta than I had. 

Lastly, I would like to see the government and city officials do more to support social entrepreneurs. I would like to see a social impact fund set up at the State or city level to help entrepreneurs attend trainings and do other things- I think that is a big opportunity.”     

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