When I first met the women who would change my life, I was 19 on a gap year from university. They were mothers, daughters, entrepreneurs — women who made the most of every opportunity to support their families.
What began as a field project grew into a global social enterprise, partnering with more than 2,000 artisans across East Africa and Latin America. Together we leveraged their artistic heritage to create beaded bracelets that would eventually make their way to North America. Over time we produced more than six million bracelets, sold in stores like Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Walgreens, and World Market.
The most exciting part was the sales because they fueled transformation. When a woman earns her own income, everything changes. In development circles we often say that for every dollar a woman earns, 90 cents go back into her family and community. Investing in women isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s smart economics. Our entire project aimed to empower women to use their earnings to invest in microbusinesses or their children’s education.
Then came the pandemic. People weren’t panic-buying beaded bracelets, and the artisans we worked with were mandated to stay home. The project had achieved its goals, but this was a hard stop. Like many others, I was forced to pause and ask myself: What now? What next?
In my next act, I wanted to be part of people’s daily habits — something that was a “need,” not a “want.” I wanted to build something that could scale quickly and create lasting impact. While a few people may argue this point, I know the first thing I think about every morning is my first cup of coffee — and I am not alone in that.
Coffee is one of the world’s most traded commodities, yet there are many women coffee farmers whose stories behind the bean remain untold. I saw an opportunity to bring the same model of empowerment and purpose to a new category, to bring more purpose and connection to something people do every day: drink coffee. This was the seed of &BACK COFFEE.
It was always important to me to source our coffee responsibly from women coffee farmers, ensuring that every step of the journey, from bean to cup and back, creates value for those who grow it, those who drink it, and the planet we share.
Our business model is intentionally B2B. We partner with companies seeking to infuse purpose into their everyday choices — helping them meet sustainability and employee engagement goals through something as simple and universal as serving coffee. Each cup tells a story of resilience, regeneration, and women whose work fuels more than caffeine — it fuels change.
After 25 years of building socially conscious ventures, I’ve learned that responsible commerce at scale can create profound, measurable, and lasting impact. It is possible to build businesses that deliver profit and purpose, and to do so in a way that uplifts rather than extracts.
At &BACK, our model is “bean to cup and back,” a closed-loop, regenerative circle of impact. It’s about returning value to where it began, ensuring every business decision reflects not just profit, but people’s futures — because when impact is built into the way we do business, everyone rises.
