When I first met Sarah Endline at a Michigan alumni event, she had the kind of job lots of MBA students envy, working at Yahoo as the major search engines were really coming into power.
When she told me she was leaving the corporate world to start a premium chocolate company, I was surprised. She didn’t have a background in packaged foods, or distribution, or honestly anything that seemed related.
What she did have was passion. That obviously matters because she’s now built SweetRiot into a company that distributes at Whole Foods, Zabar’s, Zingerman’s and many other premium food shops.
I like her chocolate but even more so, I love her passion for running a business with a conscience. The Sweetriot Web site says:
A sweetriot is a joyful celebration of culture, diversity, and understanding — it is the opposite of a civil riot, which is dangerous, violent, and oppressing.
We strive to weave social responsibility through out our company, and no, we’re not perfect, but we try our best.
Sarah has a new interview out with PushingBeyond.com. It’s about 14 minutes and covers the start of the company, Sarah’s business philosophy and her advice for budding entrepreneurs.
From the farms of small town Michigan, to the hustle of New York City, Sarah’s journey has taken her on a entrepreneurial roller coaster, and equipped her with the tools and know-how to be the Founder and Chief Rioter at Sweetriot.
What’s most amazing to me about Sarah’s journey, is that in addition to her passions for business and entrepreneurship (as seen through her studies at Harvard Business school, and then with work AIESEC, Yahoo!, Microsoft, the World Bank, and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship), she has successfully pursued her passion for social rights. So many of us want to create a company that not only generates revenue, but actually makes the world a better place, and Sweetriot is just that. It’s a movement for social change that’s centered around Chocolate. Not only is the chocolate gluten and dairy free, but it’s put in reusable, recyclable packaging!
Sarah says something in her interview that’s so important, so I’m going to repeat it here. She states, “sometimes we make things more difficult than they really are.”
More about Sarah and Sweetriot: