A Better Bike

Equal Exchange was built with a purpose beyond making money. Determined to start a company that changed the terms of trade, our founders decided to build a different kind of company. So what did they do? Let’s start with an analogy.

Back in the ’70s, almost every bicycle in the U.S. was a form of road bike, often a racing bike with curved down handlebars. For over a century this form of bike had evolved for one primary purpose: to travel down roads, usually fast. And that they did. Similarly, today’s corporations are built for one primary purpose: to make shareholders money fast. And that they do.

Then some wild-eyed folks in California noticed that most of the world didn’t consist of smoothly paved roads or roads at all. They wanted to cycle through forests, up hills, and across streams; to go places that road bikes couldn’t take them. While everyone else thought they knew what a good bike looked like, they set that aside and built a different kind of bike—one with fat tires for better grip, low gears for the long climb, and strong brakes for the hairy descent. The result was a more versatile, rugged, durable bike. You probably own one: it’s called a mountain bike.

The Cupertino Riders found a better way

Just as most of the land area in the world doesn’t consist of roads, so most of the good in the world isn’t just about money. Conventional corporations are designed to make money, but poorly suited to pursue a larger social mission. This takes an entirely different kind of business. So what are the gears and brakes, the tires and suspension of our new corporation? What makes Equal Exchange more versatile, rugged and durable? Fair Trade, Worker Ownership, Fixed Price Shares, Extreme Community, No Selling Out. These are the features that constitute the frame of our organization, built with the explicit purpose of pursuing social justice and fairness over profits. It only took a few years for the advances of the mountain bike to be embraced by the mainstream. Now more than half of all the new bikes sold in the U.S. are mountains bikes.

Perhaps 20 years from now, half of the new companies started in the U.S. will be purpose-built to pursue the greater good. If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re already part of one of them.