Social entrepreneurs spend years building solutions that could transform communities, only to hear the same answer from venture capitalists: no.

The frustration is real. The question is constant. Why don't VCs invest in social enterprises?

Dr. Luis Martinez has a unique answer because he's lived on both sides. As director of Trinity University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, he helped launch 65+ student ventures that raised $60 million in external funding. Now, as Senior Venture Associate at Capital Factory, he works with one of Texas's most active early-stage investors managing 750+ portfolio companies including eight unicorns. In this episode, host John Kane Gonzales gets Luis to pull back the curtain on the hard realities of venture capital, why impact alone isn't enough, and what it actually takes to build a social enterprise that can scale.

"Being a startup founder is impossibly hard. Being a startup founder that is also driven by social impact? Congratulations, you're on advanced mode." - Dr. Luis Martinez

🚀 Key Takeaways:

VCs Aren't Giving You Money, They're Investing for Returns: Venture capitalists promise their investors superior returns (10-20x) in 7-10 years—impact alone isn't enough, it has to come with velocity and scale in a compressed timeline.

Social Impact VCs Exist, But They're Rare: There are funds with social enterprise as their thesis, but performance hasn't always matched traditional VC returns, and some investors handle impact through philanthropy instead of expecting investment returns.

The Three Levels of Fit: Problem-solution fit (does your solution work?), value proposition-customer fit (will someone pay for it?), and product-market fit (can it scale?)—most social entrepreneurs get stuck at level two.

You May Not Be the Founder Who Scales It: The team that takes a company from 0 to 10 is often not the team that takes it from 10 to 100—knowing whether you want to be king or rich is critical.

Stop Planning, Start Building: Go build a real business with real customers and real revenue before seeking VC funding—if you can't convince people you know to invest, you'll never convince institutional investors.

⏳ Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Luis and Capital Factory
01:40 Luis's journey from organic chemist to VC
05:09 How Trinity launched 65+ student ventures with $60 million raised
08:01 The four components of startup success: idea, capital, mentors, talent
13:01 Why social entrepreneurship flourished in the 2010s
15:07 The nonlinear path from science to entrepreneurship
18:31 English majors launching tech companies at Trinity
21:05 Creating value vs capturing value in entrepreneurship
23:36 The difference between Trinity and Capital Factory
28:44 Why VCs promise superior returns to their investors
32:26 What venture scale actually means: velocity matters
34:49 Why social impact VCs are less common
39:07 The competitive advantage question most founders miss
44:18 The three levels of fit every entrepreneur must master
46:21 What makes a business actually scalable
49:27 Do you want to be king or rich? You can't have both
52:16 Go build a real business first
54:04 What would flip VCs toward social enterprise investing
59:12 Five pieces of practical advice for social entrepreneurs
01:04:43 Where to find Luis

🔗 Connect with Luis Martinez

Website: https://capitalfactory.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drluismartinez/

X: https://x.com/DrLuisEMartinez

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Capital Factory Portfolio: 750+ companies, 8 of Texas's 20 unicorns

https://capitalfactory.com/portfolio/

🎙️ About SowGood to GrowGood: Hosted by John Kane Gonzales, entrepreneur and innovator. We explore how change-makers and innovators are building sustainable systems for a better future, turning ideas into scalable impact.

Chris Hewitt had a problem. Every time he tried to explain his local currency project, people's eyes would roll back in their heads. For six years, he watched potential members tune out the moment he started talking about money, economics, and alternative systems.

In this episode, host John Kane Gonzales sits down with Chris, co-founder and executive director of Hudson Valley Current, a 12-year-old nonprofit local currency that's exchanged over 2 million "currents" across 400+ members. You'll hear how a sales coach taught him to stop explaining money and start talking about benefits, why he built a restaurant and magazine to make the currency actually work, and how he transformed from being 95% grant-dependent to generating 60% of revenue through diversified streams.

"We don't really understand exchange. We know that the dollar works to buy us things, to earn us money for our jobs, but we don't as a society understand money in a complex and deep way and how powerful we are with every dollar." - Chris Hewitt

🚀 Key Takeaways:

Stop Explaining, Start Showing Benefits: A sales coach taught Chris to talk about four benefits—innovative, hyper-local, shifts narrative, saves money—instead of explaining economic theory.

Extractive vs Regenerative Economics: The dollar extracts wealth and centralizes it in corporate headquarters, while local currencies regenerate communities by keeping money circulating locally.

Build the Missing Infrastructure: When not enough businesses accepted currents, Chris built a restaurant and magazine that take 100% currents to prove the model works.

Revenue Diversification Takes Time: Hudson Valley Current went from 95% grant-dependent to 60% diversified revenue over 12 years through eight different streams.

Start With What You Have: You can start a local currency with a notebook tracking barters, then scale to software like Cyclos when ready.

⏳ Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Chris and Hudson Valley Current
01:49 The 2004 conference that sparked the idea
04:33 What is a local currency and how is it legal
06:05 Understanding exchange and how money really works
10:53 Why Chris built Tilda's Kitchen to fix the catch-22
13:52 Why supporting local economies matters
17:38 Regional specialization and the bio-regional economy vision
22:37 The triple bottom line: people, planet, profit
24:58 The sales coach who changed everything
27:09 Extractive economy vs regenerative economy
32:21 From revolutionary to evolutionary leadership
37:45 Revenue diversification: 95% grants to 60% earned income
41:54 Ratcheting your fundraising success
46:10 How mutual credit systems actually work
50:32 Building momentum with the first members
54:33 The marsh ecosystem metaphor for currency flow
59:40 Technology, people, and community building
01:05:29 Proving the model: 40% income in currents
01:12:27 Small gatherings drive currency movement
01:18:55 Why Chris is stepping down as executive director
01:21:22 Staying flexible while avoiding mission drift
01:25:55 It's just money—and it's justice money

🔗 Connect with Chris Hewitt

Website: https://hudsonvalleycurrent.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-hewitt-423a691b4/

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Tilda's Kitchen & Market: 630 Broadway, Kingston, NY | https://tildaskitchenandmarket.com

Midtown Lively (Publication): https://midtownlively.org

🎙️ About SowGood to GrowGood: Hosted by John Kane Gonzales, entrepreneur and innovator. We explore how change-makers and innovators are building sustainable systems for a better future, turning ideas into scalable impact.

Camille Tagle was living her dream—designing evening wear for luxury fashion brands, seeing her gowns on red carpets.

Then one day, her boss looked at hundreds of fabric samples they'd ordered and said, "I'm not feeling it anymore. Start from scratch." That moment changed everything.

In this episode, host John Kane Gonzales sits down with Camille, Co-Founder of FABSCRAP, to talk about what happens when you can't unsee the waste anymore. You'll hear how she walked away from fashion to build a solution that didn't exist, why thousands of volunteers showed up without her asking, and how she built a financially sustainable nonprofit where brands actually pay for the service.

"There was this need and I had these answers and I had these skills. And so it felt like, why would I not just jump right into this and try to do it sooner than later?" - Camille Tagle

🚀 Key Takeaways:

The Hidden Waste Problem: Fashion's biggest waste happens during design—samples and full rolls thrown out before reaching stores—and most people have no idea.

Community Powered, Not Grant Funded: FABSCRAP mobilized 11,000+ volunteers and generates 64% of revenue from brands paying for services, not donations.

Brands Found Them: All 800+ brand partnerships came inbound—when the solution works, you don't have to convince anyone.

The "Can't Unsee It" Moment: Watching her boss throw away hundreds of fabric samples became impossible to ignore and fuel to build something different.

Naivety as an Asset: Being "young and naive" helped Camille start—knowing the complexity ahead might have stopped her.

⏳ Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Camille and FABSCRAP

01:48 Camille's journey from fashion designer to textile waste pioneer

04:01 The moment she couldn't unsee the waste

05:14 Making the transition from luxury fashion to nonprofit

07:15 Meeting her co-founder Jessica

07:53 How family reacted to leaving fashion behind

09:07 Why she decided to start FABSCRAP now

12:05 Defining her purpose beyond design

14:43 What sample headers are in the fashion industry

15:34 The commercial textile waste problem no one sees

17:45 How FABSCRAP's fabric recycling service works

19:17 Why brands don't monetize their fabric waste

23:16 Getting fashion brands to sign up for recycling

25:44 The warehouse sorting and volunteer process

29:27 Building 11,000 volunteers without advertising

35:22 Scaling with just 15 employees

38:53 How 800+ brands found FABSCRAP organically

40:15 The revenue model: brands pay for services

44:12 Future plans for scaling FABSCRAP

46:38 What infrastructure FABSCRAP needs to grow

47:55 Challenges in the sustainability space

49:25 Advice for aspiring social entrepreneurs

🔗 Connect with Camille Tagle

Website: https://fabscrap.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camille-diane-tagle-017b00a/

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Volunteer or Shop Fabric: Visit http://fabscrap.org to get involved

FABSCRAP on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fabscrap

🎙️ About SowGood to GrowGood: Hosted by John Kane Gonzales, entrepreneur and innovator. We explore how change-makers and innovators are building sustainable systems for a better future, turning ideas into scalable impact.

SowGood to GrowGood spotlights solutions that already work—but most people don't know they exist.

Hosted by John "Kane" Gonzales, this show features founders and operators building alternatives to systems that don't want to change. From water recycling tech to waste-to-energy systems to circular fashion models, we talk to the builders actively rewiring how things work.

Building for impact is hard. You're not just filling a gap—you're introducing better patterns into systems running on old habits, old incentives, and old stories. When people don't see real alternatives, they keep doing what they've always done. This show makes those alternatives visible so they can become the new normal.

Each episode unpacks how founders make it work in the real world: what inspired their work, how they built sustainable operations, and the practical lessons they've learned along the way.

Whether you're scaling a social enterprise, launching a climate company, or seeking inspiration from fellow changemakers, this show is for builders who want to see how others are actually doing it.

New episodes drop twice a month, every Tuesday.

Connect with us:

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