Ownership, Governance and Culture: building Zebras, not Unicorns — with Mara Zepeda

Podcast Notes

In this episode, systempreneur Mara Zepeda joins us to talk about how Zebras Unite is creating the capital, culture, and community for the next economy.

Mara Zepeda is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Zebras Unite. Being an international and intersectional hybrid cooperative, Zebra Unite’s members include founders, investors, allies and ecosystem builders of a different stripe from around the world and has over 25 chapters on six continents. Prior, Mara was the founder of a venture backed software company, Switchboard (now Hearken). Mara is a systempreneur and serial social entrepreneur.

We explore how the Zebra movement evolved from a manifesto they created dissecting the difference between what they call Zebra companies and Unicorns. We also explore how ultimately every business can be seen as a vector for social change, and the complexities and challenges involved with cooperative decision making, what it means to practice mutualism and interdependence, and the effects of having a seasonal approach to energy management.

Key highlights from the conversation

We discussed:

• The Zebra movement and the qualities of a zebra company
• Why we need to view business as a human rights issue
• The qualities of ownership, governance and culture among Zebras
• Founders’ role in money, finances and budget decisions
• Some case studies of ‘Zebras in the wild’

Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast/

Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://boundaryless.io/podcast-music

Recorded on 20 January 2022.

🌐 Boundaryless Conversations Podcast is about exploring the future of organizing at scale by leveraging on technology, network effects, and shaping narratives. We explore how platforms can help us play with a world in turmoil, change, and transformation: a world that is at the same time more interconnected and interdependent than ever but also more conflictual and rivalrous.