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.

Miranda Tate

If there’s one thing that I disagree with in the wedding industry, I disagree with how commercialized it has become. Don’t get me wrong– I love fancy, beautiful, elegant things, and I LOVE a good party. However, I truly believe that while all these things are lovely and should absolutely be incorporated into the most special and important day of your life, Read more>>

Candyce Abbott

Well let’s get straight to it. Corporate America does a lot of great things with the skin care industry but not thing that I have seen a continue issue is filling skincare products with chemicals. This is something that is just not necessary. Skincare Makers (myself included) pride ourselves in the fact that we are All- Natural. Our ingredients are easy to pronounce and understand and most of the time your skin is happier and brighter with handmade creations. Read more>>

MaKayla Wright

To me, a lot of problems within the health and wellness space stem from capitalism, lack of inclusion, and unequal access to resources. At the end of the day, the goal is to generate income within Corporate America. However, this often neglects the true needs of people across the board. For example, food deserts. It’s easy to tell someone to eat healthier & sell them a supplement but its not always easy to address the root cause of why they can not eat healthy in the first place from a systematic stand point. Read more>>

Andrew Ordway

I think in general businesses underestimate the power that branding plays in the success of their business. I think larger businesses get it, but smaller and new businesses that are perhaps making it work on a limited budget don’t plan enough of their startup costs towards their branding. I’m talking about the businesses that get their cousin’s daughter to design their logo (just a logo – no other branding elements) and they think that is good enough. Read more>>

Rebecca Caputo

Corporate America fails to provide women with adequate access to reproductive health care. I’m not referring to maternity leave or lack thereof; or the fact that chronic pain experienced from periods can keep us from heading to the office; or how some employer provided health insurance plans don’t even cover birth control. Read more>>

Kelly Lunney

One thing that corporate salons and barbershops do in my industry is that they overwork and underpay their barbers and stylists. They expect and push them into selling products and reach “ideal” sales for either commission based pay that is low balled or “incentives” that are minimal. The benefits that beauty industries receive are also cheap and full time workers are pushed to sacrifice quality for quantity. Read more>>

Caroline Fitzgerald

The stories are all too common: pay gaps on & off the field, exploitation, lower endorsements, poor facilities, lack of coverage; the list is endless. Women’s sports deserve more. More money. More sponsors. More opportunities. More support. More coverage. Much, much more. Read more>>

Bri Hart

“Consumers want to buy from mission-driven brands, but often have to work too hard or spend too much to find products that align with their values. For too long, they’ve faced the choice between shopping for convenience or with their conscience,” said Briana Hart, Founder and CEO of buyVerde. “Our framework is designed to not only make it Amazon-easy for consumers to shop their values, but also to ensure each dollar spent goes to the impact they choose, because we’ve done significant work to validate and verify our vendors’ impact.” Read more>>

Rebekah Abrahim

Managing a spa is unlike managing other businesses. No business degree can prepare a manager to understand the particulars of spa life. The first obstacle is that the spa industry is 100% dependent on human labor. If profit is put above an employee’s physical and mental health they will soon be faced with an injured or burned out worker. Read more>>

Tara Bre

I started my career in Corporate America, so I have experienced firsthand several things that do not work well for our industry. The main one is forcing employees to do roles or tasks they do not favor more than what they love to do. A great example is having a makeup artist or hairstylist focus on the sales more than doing their creative talents. Read more>>

John Libonati

Excess! There are billions of gallons of bulk wine produced every year that are just sitting in vats waiting for a commercial producer to buy and blend into some gimmicky label or waiting for some marketing person to come along and slap a fancy label on it and give it a fake story. The consumer has no idea what’s in these wines or exactly where they’ve been harvested. And to think about all the wine that doesn’t sell and how much water, time, pesticides and labor was used to farm all this excess wine is heartbreaking. We can and should do better. Read more>>

Rodney Walbecq

It’s amazing to see all the changes in the Cannabis Industry since Oregon Decriminalized cannabis in 1973. From 1973-1978 twelve states decriminalized cannabis. There was only a minor movement on legalization or decriminalization until 1996 when CA legalized medical cannabis. Since then, 27 years in the making, 41 states, 3 territories, and the District of Columbia have legalized medical use and I believe its 21 States have legalized adult use. In 20115 Cannabis Industry was 3.1 billion. Read more>>

Desiree Stevens

Corporate America largely rewards productivity based on numbers and income. However, the salon industry is a beautiful outlier in the scheme of important careers in our society. Hairstylists carry a level of creative skill, often based more on intuitive technique than learned objectives. Corporate America is not designed to understand and reward this level of creative and artistic production. Read more>>

Emma Barnhouse

It is easy to misunderstand nonprofits, especially those seeking to serve a broad audience. The DEC Network is a 501c3 nonprofit organization driving parity and economic impact by helping entrepreneurs start, build and grow their businesses. Since 2013, we have launched physical hubs, events, and education programs for startups, focusing on women and entrepreneurs of color. Born from a shared vision among small business and entrepreneurship advocates, The DEC Network believes investment in entrepreneurs is an investment in the community. Read more>>