Spencer Williams, the founder and CEO of Bozeman, Montana-based company West Paw, grew up on a working ranch where the dogs slept outside, worked hard, and, when they played, they did so with sticks. And... they were happy! Some twenty-odd years ago, he decided he wanted to help modern non-working dogs be that happy too, and wanted to do so in a way that wouldn't just improve doggie lives: It'd also improve the community and the earth. Those weren't small goals! Annie talks about the origins of this interesting company, whose guaranteed-for-life, recyclable, made-in-the-USA products have been sold at School For The Dogs in Manhattan and at storeforthedogs.com for nearly a decade. Learn how they became a "B-Corp" and what that means, in addition to finding out about some of their innovative products, materials, and practices.  Find West Paw products in our online shop: https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/west-paw-designs Like this podcast? Tell your friends! And leave us a review on iTunes! http://schoolforthedogs.com/listen

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat. I'm really excited to get to know you a little bit. I feel like I know you through your business. But maybe we could just start out, you could just say your name and your title, and we'll go from there.

Spencer Williams:

I'm Spencer Williams and I'm the CEO and owner of West Paw

Annie:

And West Paw, as School For The Dogs fans might know, makes some of the most fabulous dog toys on the market. We have been selling them at storeforthedogs.com since 2014. And I'm excited to talk to you, because as I've spent these years buying West Paw products, both for my own dogs and for our shop, I've learned a little bit about the company that has intrigued me. So first of all, tell me about being a B Corp. Is that what it's called?

Spencer:

Yeah, I mean, that's great. Well, and thanks for all the years of experience you have buying and using and selling our products. I'm looking forward to the conversation. And B Corp's a great place to start because it is a movement that matters a lot to West Paw.

This whole concept started just about a dozen years ago. And what people realized is that when they were leading a business that was impact driven, if that business had a change in leadership or a change in ownership, sometimes those impacts the business was able to drive would be lost in those transitions.

And the idea around the B Corp was how do you create more opportunity for those impacts to be long lasting? And how do you measure the impact? So the idea here, Annie is how, how do you differentiate from really good marketing to fact-based information on a company's impact.

And so that's where the B Corp movement came from. And in a nutshell today, what it means is that a company can choose to become a certified B Corp, and the B stands for benefit. That's a good way to think of it. Like you're benefiting primarily four areas in a business: the employees who work in the business, the community that that business is located in or impacts; it's also around the environment and how the business impacts the environment; and then finally the customer piece.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

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