Babson Built

Shiva is an engineer, turned product manager, turned entrepreneur. She started Green Piñata over three years ago and it continues to grow today. Green Piñata delivers toys that grow with your kid: sign up, create a profile for you kid, and boom, you get safe, educational, fun toys at your door every month. Keep what you want and return the rest. In this episode, toss out your assumptions of the entrepreneur college drop-out or the “ah-ha” moment idea.  Shiva’s path to entrepreneurship is nothing like the stereotypical entrepreneur most of us think of.  Listen to this episode and hear all about how Shiva manages to work, start a business, and a new family all at the same time!

Hear the story of SoloCoco, a social impact business based in the Dominican Republic that creates virgin coconut oil products, handmade by single mothers who have become experts at their craft. The company distributes to 10 countries and is especially popular among Whole Foods shoppers because of its natural properties and fair trade certification. In this episode we hear from SoloCoco co-founders Daniel Dalet (Babson '03) and Abel Gonzalez about the obstacles they faced in creating the venture, and how they stumbled across an avenue for social impact almost accidentally. SoloCoco is the winner of the 2016 Lewis Institute Changemaker Award as well as the Babson 2018 B.E.T.A. Challenge. 

Cabletron Systems began in the early 1980’s to manufacture networking computer equipment that dramatically reduced the cost of Ethernet networking equipment. This technology led the way to the more modern computer technology. In this episode Jake Maude interviews founder Craig Benson, to explore how he started this company out of his garage and how it grew into a billion dollar business. 

Waku is an herbal infusion beverage made from herbs and flowers sourced from the Andes mountains. Based on a traditional recipe found in Ecuador, Waku started as just a concept a little over a year ago and is now projected to do six figures in sales this year. Our guest is Babson second-year MBA candidate Juan Giraldo, co-founder of Waku. In our conversation, Juan shares his entrepreneurial journey and what it means to have a sustainable business that is helping rural farmers in Ecuador and exploding in popularity here in Boston.