The Modern Cap Table

IN JANUARY OF 2019, OUR CO-FOUNDERS AGREED TO A COLLECTIVE MISSION: TO BUILD A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR SPORTS.

We set off to take action by:

1. Improving athletes’ lives using nature’s best tools. In our case, this was done by creating a line of USA-made, all-natural, hemp-derived recovery products.
2. Leveling the playing field. By championing equality and inclusivity from the get-go in everything we do–from how we pay, who we hire, and the way we conduct ourselves each and every day.

A lot of our efforts have been focused on empowering athlete health and wellness, using our all-natural recovery game plan.

However, this is how we've explicitly defined what we mean by LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD.

INCLUSION

EVERY DECISION WE MAKE AS A TEAM IS THROUGH THE LENS OF INCLUSIVITY.

It's no secret we are dealing with many gender and social inequities and inequalities in our country.

As I’m sure most of you already know, women still only make $0.86 for every dollar made by white men, black women make $0.77, Latina women make $0.76, and Indigenous women make $0.69. Female-led start ups only receive 3% of VC funding, much less if you’re a woman of color and still only 10% if you are a female + male - founded company. Only 7% of CEOs identify as female, and only 3 Fortune 500 CEOs identify as women of color. It is not a secret that being a woman in the business world is an uphill battle.

Mendi is proud to be pioneering a way for more LGBTQ+, female and POC-founded companies to be successful in a very white-male dominated industry. We are committed not only creating an inclusive and equitable culture at Mendi, but the industry at large.

We are committed to learning, relearning and participating in the hard conversations as we charge forward.

FOCUSED VALUES

We're doing this because equity is essential to equality.

GET FEMALES, PEOPLE OF COLOR AND ATHLETES TO BELIEVE IN MENDI AND BUILD THIS COMPANY FROM THE GROUND UP, WITH US.

Today, we are proud to share some details of our diverse cap table with our community. As a start up, equity and equality are always top of mind. We feel there is a right way to raise money, if we want to ensure our actions sincerely reflect our commitment to see equity in this industry. Our investors are currently comprised of 19 men, 17 women, 2 funds (1LGBTQ+ led fund), 9 POC investors and 9 female professional athletes. These numbers are all still counting as we continue to close our current Seed raise.

It has been a difficult and slow process to raise capital, but totally worth it. Our cofounders, employees, advisors, athletes, partners and investors are all reflections of Mendi. This is the Modern Cap Table.

BE BETTER

We believed from the beginning building a diverse bench (females, males, people of color, athletes, etc) was going to be one of the keys to our success.

WE BELIEVE THIS SHOULD BE AN INHERENT MISSION FOR OTHER COMPANIES AS WELL.

We only have one year under our belt, we can already say the variety and quality of ideas that surface are way more interesting, powerful, resonant and simply more fun to work on. In order to live out our dreams to be the best versions of ourselves and constantly be learning on how to be better humans and business owners, what better environment than one with a rich set of ideas and backgrounds challenging our own implicit biases?

Continue to follow along as we share the stories behind our bold, courageous and daring brand.

XOXO,
RACHAEL & TEAM MENDI