One of the biggest opportunities for folks who want to make an impact through entrepreneurship is to tackle things that Corporate America has gotten wrong and so we’ve asked some of the best and brightest in the community to share examples of what Corporate America is getting wrong in their industries.

Rebecca Elias

In the media industry, PAs, grips, and other positions that aren’t as high profile as actors and directors get used and abused. A lot of time there is no paid overtime, no time for bathroom breaks, no time to eat, and by the time you get home at night and have to get back to set the next day, you barely have time to sleep. These people, don’t get paid much. The saying “starving artist” exists for a reason. The thing is…without these core members of a production team, the job can’t get done. The directors won’t get their wishes, the actors won’t have everything prepared for them when they arrive, and things won’t look good for the directors of photography…production is a team sport, and members should be treated equally. Read more>>

Hannah Oliver Depp

I am not sure it is Corporate America as much as it is media, but the narrative is that people are not interested in reading or bookstores anymore and that BIPOC and young people are not readers. By the numbers and by experience that is entirely and ridiculously false. Library usage is very high in millennials and Gen Z, bookstores are often a part of weekend plans and touted on real-estate sites as ideal neighborhood value additions, and BIPOC consumers, especially Black Women, are the highest spenders on physical books. What causes bookstores to close is a lack of supply or low printing numbers on the kinds of books we specialize in due to Amazon eating up the inventory, the lack of small business protections or tax breaks in federal and local government, expensive fees and hidden charges, unfair rents and little comercial retail protections for renters, an inability due to the fact that we’re competitors for Indie Bookstores to advocate for our sales channel and for professionalizing ours industry and increase our margins and wages… Indie Booksellers do not set the prices of the books and we get smaller discounts than other retailers. Amazon sells books at a loss in order to capture customers and abuses their workers to keep their costs down and do not pay their share of taxes, but the problem isn’t even Amazon it is a system that allows this to happen. It is so often put upon the individual consumer as a scapegoat for a system that creates non-competetive conditions for retailers and asks small businesses to innovate and create their way out of starting in the negative. The community and readership are there and support indie bookstores in a beautiful and consistent way. People are smart enough to want their neighborhood to have shops and spaces by and for their community, but it becomes more difficult systemically for those businesses to exist on razor margins and any inconveniences or delays etc push customers away making the cost even higher. Read more>>

Alex Bell

I think in the Bath, Body and Cosmetic industry, the big brands really miss out on creativity and empowerment. When I started my brand it really was a space of creativity at first and I started to see the impact and the opportunities available to educate not just my customers, but customers everywhere. Giving them the tools and the knowledge to not only know what products they are consuming, but how those products impact communities on a global scale. Read more>>

Brittany Canaski

One of my biggest pet peeves about Corporate America is that organizations tend to promote individual contributors into management roles without providing any management or leadership training. Just because an individual contributor is excelling in their role does not mean they will automatically excel in a management position. There are very different skills and responsibilities required. In reality, you’re setting the leader and team up to fail. Read more>>