DRAFT: Investment Proposal

Our Standards & AMPD Criteria:

At AMDP, it is imperative to maintain a consistent level of standards to ensure a profitable success for both parties. 

Triple Bottom Line:

People: How a company conducts its relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, and surrounding communities (Triple Bottom Line).

Planet: The actions that a company is taking to help improve environmental sustainability such as reducing waste and preserving natural resources (Triple Bottom Line).

Profit: The amount of revenue a company brings in after it reduces expenditures that is sustained for a significant time (Triple Bottom Line).

Corporate Social Responsibility:

This type of responsibility helps demonstrate how a company combines its financial goals with its social and environmental goals, in order to follow ethical standards (Corporate Social Responsibility).

Social Enterprise:

An organization that strives to help out its surrounding communities by improving human, social, and environmental well-being (Case for Social Enterprise).

Carbon Footprint:

The amount of greenhouse gases, measured in units of carbon dioxide, produced by human activities. A carbon footprint can be measured for an individual or an organization, and is typically given in tons of CO2-equivalent (CO2-eq) per year (Walser). It is important to reduce our carbon footprint because greenhouse gas emission prevents our ozone from discarding harmful radiation. The storage of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere is also the number one cause of climate temperature increase and global warming (ABC Science).

A Sweet Success Story 

Salt & Straw is an Oregon-based artisanal ice-cream brand with a cult following that was dreamed up by entrepreneur Kim Malek. It's no surprise that Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group  — the force behind Shake Shack — has just announced that it is investing in the company that Malek started with her cousin Tyler on their offbeat farm-to-cone flavors that vary from city to city and change on a monthly basis.1

Kim Malek went from hawking ice cream out of a simple cart on a street corner in Portland, to taking online order and further more disrupting the business of artisanal ice cream itself. She reveals the secret ingredients and some advice she gleaned along the way were from Danny Meyer and a couple other former bosses and rock stars: Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, and U2’s Bono. 

People by the pint load: As a former employee of Starbucks and a six figure making machine at the (RED) foundation it’s no doubt that investing in a company with that kind of experience and learning experience can deem success. The number one thing Kim recalls learning from sitting in store meetings as a barista and having Howard Schultz come in and talk to the team is that, “you can develop a business model based on people first. The respect that I was being given at my entry-level position made me feel like I was really being entrusted with the future of this company. I knew that this people-centered idea was important." Salt & Straw followed the example, offering all employees three months paid maternity and paternity leave, health insurance for even part-timers and an extensive leadership training school. The company also partners with local organizations and communities and is launching an artisan incubator. "We started out with a lot of these benefits, when we weren't even sure we were going to make it as a company. It can be kind of scary to do that, but I knew that it was central to our mission.”

Social Enterprise: Another thing that struck me about  Malek is that she learned the importance of Corporate social responsibility through Bono. She admired how he tapped into connections, asking people to come forth and help. BY doing so, investing in her company is putting our dollars down to helping these social and local organizations as well. Both Bono and Malek refused to accept the status quo- so why should we? It’s important to improve the lives of society now and for future generations.  "I remember Bono telling the story of how he started Red," says Malek. "He was volunteering in Africa and saw firsthand people dying from AIDS and went to Washington D.C. to talk to people in the Senate and the government about the fact that the medication was not very expensive. The people he was talking to said, 'This isn't a topic that is discussed at the kitchen table in the cities where I'm up for reelection So this isn't important to me.' And he said, 'Ah, ok, if that's the challenge, that's something we can do, we can make it a topic." The lesson, says Malek: "If there’s a problem out there that needs to be addressed, we have to go fix it. Nobody else is going to do it. We can make a difference.”

Carbon Foot Print: 

The brainchild of the contagiously affable Kim Malek, Salt & Straw is being branded as a "farm-to-cone" ice cream establishment. That's more than just a marketing angle. The cream that gets churned into Malek's frozen creations comes from the cows at Lochmead Dairy in Eugene, Oregon. Toss in some local, seasonal ingredients and the absorption into the Portland zeitgeist is complete. 

Recommendations:

I believe that we should take advantage of this great opportunity to invest in such a holistic yet rising company such as, Salt & Straw. It excels in every criterion that AMDP looks for in an investment. Not only do they follow AMDP’s investment criteria, but they also have set the standards for environmental and social sustainability within the retail industry. Salt & Straw is spear heading the artisanal ice cream market learning from great CEO’s, gives back to it’s communities and is a perfect time to invest a