Common Future

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Oakland, CA
Common Future

As a think and do tank, Common Future incubates, co-creates, and funds the work of the community leaders developing promising economic innovations.

In America today, our economy is out of balance. Significant wage gaps between men and women persist, particularly for women of color. Wealth is unequally distributed across the country, with Black households holding a fraction of the wealth of white households. And the percentage of venture capital dollars going to women-founded companies has barely budged in the last decade—the numbers are even

worse for Black and Latinx founders. The persistence of these economic inequities is not by accident, but rather the result of centuries of federal and state policies that have systematically tilted the playing field, enabling those with power and wealth to remain on top. When our economy favors some more than others, it holds us all back, so here at Uncharted we’re working toward a future where everyone in America has equitable access to the resources, tools, and opportunities they need to thrive. We back early-stage ventures with proof of concept, or a scrappy pilot in place, and a readiness to grow. Then we provide the clarity, capital, and connections they need to make it to their next stage. At every juncture, we reject the prescriptive expectations that most early-stage ventures are forced to measure up to, including perfectionism, urgency, and provable outcomes. Instead, we give them time, space, and encouragement to think audaciously. In the current landscape, there are a number of programs designed for growth-stage ventures, and many of them trade ventures back and forth, but there is a gap in the market for seed- and early-stage ventures—that’s where we come in. We’ve been working with early-stage ventures for over 10 years. Equipping them to challenge the status quo is what we do best. Our programs are open to social ventures, nonprofits, movement builders, advocacy organizations, coalitions, and hybrid models. While this might fly in the face of traditional accelerators that only serve one type of venture, we know that wicked problems require cross-sector collaboration. Addressing the root causes of economic inequality is nuanced and complicated work, and we refuse to let legal status limit solutions. Too often, the biggest influence of organizational design is the type of capital it seeks, which means that business models end up at the mercy of funders and market trends. We push past these limits by nurturing ventures that think about the complexities of the problem first, before choosing the best organizational vehicle or capital structure to tackle it. In fact, sometimes we support our ventures in successfully pivoting their organizational models during, or after, a program. We back early-stage ventures who are committed to transformational, durable change. We make big bets early on, and in many cases some of those bets don’t pay off for a few years, sometimes more, but when the ventures we support do eventually succeed they create deep and lasting impact. There are plenty of programs and funders that already support less risky ventures with more moderate ambitions, but we believe that the most promising ventures are born out of contrarian insights and ideas that have yet to reach the mainstream. For many of our ventures, we are the first one in their corner. We believe in them and cheer them on when others can’t yet grasp their vision. We are drawn to innovators who are tackling complex challenges, and who have unique insights on both how they should do it and why they should do it now. We look for thinkers and builders who deeply understand the problems they’re trying to solve—many of whom with firsthand experience. We recognize that founders who have lived the failures of our economic systems are better positioned to build an economy that works for all of us, so we seek out proximate leaders who can connect people and activate their communities in ways that are often overlooked when viewed only through the dominant culture lens. In the last decade, 38% of our ventures have had at least one BIPOC co-founder and 53% of our ventures have had at least one female co-founder. Our approach is rooted in empathy. We have deep respect for the founder journey, and we are committed to equipping our ventures with the tools they need to succeed, namely clarity, capital, and connections. We offer the training and mentorship entrepreneurs need to validate their assumptions and refine their organizational models. Many of our founders don’t have lucrative family and friends networks to tap into for capital, so we help them strengthen their funding requests and then we introduce them to some of the leading funders and investors in the space. The results are exponential—for every $1 in funding we receive, our ventures generate $8.12 within two years, funding that they attribute directly to Uncharted’s support. The early stages of building a venture can be lonely and uncertain, so we give our founders a place to find community, both in-person and online. We surround them with industry experts, including individuals with unique insights into the less visible forces that perpetuate economic inequities, like racial, gender, and class biases. From these connections, they build lifetime networks to turn to for professional and personal support.

05/31/2022

LAST CHANCE TO FOLLOW ! We'll be deleting this account tomorrow, so head on over for all our latest updates, as we fight to create a future where everyone in the U.S. has equitable access to the resources, tools & opportunities they need to thrive!

05/17/2022

ICYMI we've merged with . We'll be shutting down this account soon, so head on over for all the latest updates, as we fight to create a future where everyone in the U.S. has equitable access to the resources, tools & opportunities they need to thrive!

05/05/2022

Big news! Uncharted had merged with Common Future—blending our teams and work, to help create a future where everyone in the U.S. has equitable access to the resources, tools, and opportunities they need to thrive. Learn about this exciting development: https://bit.ly/3sbJ1ii

05/05/2022

03/29/2022

Today’s takeover is brought to you by The Redress Movement! We are a new organization that seeks to redress racial segregation in residential communities.

The Redress Movement organizes multi-racial community efforts to document the history of segregation, to engage and educate about that history and its long lasting, multi-generational harm, to change the popular narrative and build popular will to enact reforms that redress segregation. Check the stories, and other Uncharted platforms today to learn more about our journey and movement!

03/25/2022

Child care is an economic justice issue. Pie for Providers is a technology nonprofit helping child care providers and mothers access child care subsidy funding so they can increase their incomes and build generational wealth.

02/22/2022

We’re so excited to welcome our largest cohort of entrepreneurs yet! We hope you’ll follow along and support Uncharted the participants over the next six weeks!

02/16/2022

Identity is a vehicle for driving radical change and bringing transformative solutions. Where we’re going is mapped by where we’ve been. Asking each of us to be “in this together” requires us to make room for authenticity, every day, in every moment.

02/14/2022

Making lasting change for the good of all isn’t always about scale, systems change, or cutting edge innovation. A better future can only be built on a foundation of authentic human connection, understanding, and empathy.

Practice verbal validation. Show up for someone (or yourself) today. Like says, “Justice is what love looks like in public.”

Equity is our love language. Share these and join us in building a braver community.

02/09/2022

Inequality is expensive and the systems that allow it to perpetuate hold all of us back.

If non-white workers earned as much as their white counterparts it would add $660 billion to the economy and elevate labor income by 10 percent.

This is why we invest in social entrepreneurs who are using their lived experiences as a tool for innovation.

02/08/2022

Black founders have been shattering glass ceilings for centuries.

We can honor Black History by protecting Black Futures.

In the comments, tag Black entrepreneurs you support, believe in, and are inspired by!

We’ll go first! (We’ve tagged some incredible founders shaking up the social impact space!)

02/07/2022

Last week we shared ways to support entrepreneurs in the social impact space through a lens of equity and belonging. This week we are asking entrepreneurs: What do you wish funders knew?

If you wish to maintain anonymity on social media, head to our story to answer our poll! Your answers will be shared anonymously on our platforms that reach approximately 250+ partners.

02/04/2022

Real change is the work of many over long periods of time.

Claudette Colvin was joined by Rosa Parks, who was joined by Martin Luther King Jr., who was joined by Whitney Young, Philip Randolph, John Lewis and thousands of others who played pivotal roles in the Civil Rights Movement.

The bravery and legacy of Rosa Parks and so many others in the fight for civil rights is astounding, remarkable, and legendary. But let’s remember that social justice is a collective responsibility. Good intentions are not enough.

Here at Uncharted, we value bravery over brilliance. We lean on our collective strength. We believe in taking the long view when it comes to radical transformation not only because it works, but because lasting and transformative social change has never happened overnight.

Social justice is a collective responsibility. Economic justice is a collective responsibility. Gender equality is a collective responsibility. LGBTQ equity & justice is a collective responsibility. Racial justice is a collective responsibility.

01/17/2022

Martin Luther King Jr. is the face of civil rights in the United States, celebrated for leading nonviolent protests for desegregation, labor, and voting rights. He’s less celebrated for his calls for economic justice and questioning the distribution of wealth in the United States.

Nearly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Black families still lag behind their white counterparts in terms of wealth: In 2020, white households held 84 percent of the total household wealth in the United States, while Black households held just 4 percent.

On this MLK Day, we hope you’ll join us in taking action toward a vision of a more equitable world.

11/30/2021

Economic inequality is one of the most urgent problems that we face in America today. We see its effects in so many aspects of society:

• There are still significant wage gaps between men and women, particularly women of color.

• Wealth is vastly unequally distributed across the United States.

• The percentage of venture capital dollars going to women-founded companies has barely budged in the last decade, and the numbers are even worse for Black and Latinx founders.

• Centuries of discriminatory federal and state policies have tilted the playing field, and those with power and wealth remain on top.

We believe that an economy that favors some more than others holds us all back. That's why we're focused on accelerating transformational solutions to economic inequality in the U.S.

With your support this , we can accelerate a second cohort of ventures tackling economic inequality in early 2022. All donations go directly to providing early-stage ventures with unrestricted capital, connections to world-class mentors, mental health resources, and other curated supports.

Join us using the link in our bio.

09/21/2021

Did you know that microbusinesses (organizations with fewer than five employees) account for 92% of all U.S. businesses and employ nearly half of the nation's workforce? Yet traditional employer benefits like health insurance and retirement savings accounts aren't affordable for many companies of this size, leaving behind millions of low-wage workers and workers of color.

Liddy Romero, the founder of Empleo Benefits, is creating an equitable and low-cost way for microbusinesses to offer their workers medical, child care, and financial benefits. Empleo is a win-win for employers and employees: a happy and healthy staff improves productivity, boosts morale, and reduces turnover.

Over the next six months, we'll work alongside Liddy and the team at Empleo Benefits on honing their earned revenue strategy and locking down early customers.

09/15/2021

We're thrilled to introduce our 2021 cohort!

These ten early-stage ventures are tackling economic inequality throughout the U.S. with transformational solutions in education, policy, small business assistance, and housing.

https://www.uncharted.org/post/announcing-eii-2021

Participants will receive $25k in funding, introductions to subject-matter experts, access to a peer support community, and mental health resources.

07/30/2021

Meet the final venture in our cohort, Vence! They're lowering the price and increase the availability of sustainable animal protein using technology. Read their founding story and explore their technology:

Create virtual fences anywhere on your property using the Vence smartphone or web app. Employ static or dynamic boundaries to dictate grazing behavior or specify protected areas / waterways.

07/29/2021

Did you know that bees pollinate 1 out of every 3 bites of food that we eat? Ubees is working to reduce bee mortality rates and help to sustain pollination at the industrial scale with innovative science and technology. Learn more:

They pollinate 1 out of every 3 bites of food that we eat, and are essential to the survival and well-being of a healthy and prosperous ecosystem.

07/28/2021

We're excited to welcome Symbrosia, a social venture using seaweed to reduce livestock methane emissions by 90%, to the Chipotle Project! Visit their site to learn how they're using science and technology to combat global climate change:

Symbrosia is a CleanTech startup reducing methane emissions with the world’s mightiest seaweed.

07/27/2021

There are many barriers that make access to markets, even local markets, difficult for small-scale farmers. Foodshed.io, a member of our 2021 cohort, is connecting sustainable producers to local wholesale markets because they believe that local food is good food and a good economy is a local economy. Check out Foodshed.io's site to learn more!

07/26/2021

The East Denver Food Hub, another member of our 2021 cohort, is building a food system that benefits BIPOC farmers and distributes food to under-resourced communities. They came onto the scene in 2020 and have already built new distribution and education models in the community.

Join their movement:

The East Denver Food Hub, co-founded in 2020 by David Demerling and Roberto Meza, is a social enterprise working to develop a resilient, equitable, and compassionate local food (eco)system based on equity and inclusion, environmental stewardship, sustainable technologies, and private/public partners...

07/24/2021

Black Farmers Market was founded in 2015 to inspire a self-sufficient community that supports and protects Black farmers and entrepreneurs. To-date, they've paid over $150,000 to Black farmers, created a $7,000 Black farmers fund to help support their trade union, and have provided healthy food access in food deserts.

Join us in welcoming them to the 2021 cohort!

07/23/2021

Babylon Micro-Farms, the second member of the 2021 Aluminaries cohort, is building the world's largest fully-distributed vertical farm (!!!). They make it easy to grow food in-house with technology and remote monitoring features. Visit their website to learn more:

Babylon provides an intelligent platform that makes indoor farming simple and accessible, enabling anyone to grow fresh food.

07/22/2021

Over the next several days, we're going to introduce you to each member of the 2021 Chipotle cohort, starting with Advocates for Urban Agriculture!

Formed in 2002, AUA provides resources and technical support to the land stewards who foster thriving communities through sustainable agriculture and equitable food systems. They currently serve more than 2,300 members in the Chicago area and beyond.

Visit AUA's website to learn more:

Support AUA’s capacity to continue compensating our program’s participants who fuel the vibrancy of more than 200 neighborhoods in Chicago. Donate by June 30th to support the movement towards a food system that values and compensates farmer labor. Donate To AUA Continue To Site

07/21/2021

From distributed vertical farms to food distribution systems that benefit BIPOC farmers, the eight growth-stage ventures in our 2021 Chipotle Mexican Grill cohort use innovative approaches to creating a sustainable, equitable, and efficient food system.

Meet the ventures:

The third installment of the Chipotle Aluminaries Project supports innovative growth-stage ventures in the U.S. with hands-on support, peer-to-peer collaboration, and connections to trajectory-altering relationships in our network.

06/16/2021

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This Is Uncharted

We want to change the way the world addresses problems through an entrepreneurial and experimental approach.

We founded the Unreasonable Institute in 2009 to pursue that vision. We spent the next eight years helping ventures scale. We found the best social ventures—no matter where they were located or what problem they were tackling—and gave them everything they needed to grow. It was rewarding and transformational work, and we operated alongside many peer organizations and accelerators who continue to empower the next generation of changemakers, helping social ventures scale their impact.

Over time, we realized we didn’t want to only be in the business of growing ventures. We understood that accelerating fast-growing ventures wasn’t enough to solve problems. This learning marked the beginning of an arduous, important journey to rebrand with a new focus on not just accelerating ventures, but tackling problems. We wanted to put social problems—like urban poverty, food deserts, and kindergarten readiness—at the center of our work.

In 2017, we rebranded to Uncharted to scale and connect organizations to tackle social problems. We do this in three ways:

1. Accelerate

We help scale social ventures vertically by resourcing each entrepreneur and their team with mentors, funders, and customized training to help them scale their impact and secure additional funding

For example: Future Cities Accelerator brought together ten ventures that are combating urban poverty from different angles. We invested $100K of philanthropic capital in each of them and surrounded them with a mentorship team, fractional CFO support, and a network of investors (plus a whole lot more).

2. Connect

We bring organizations together horizontally to work together to tackle an issue. Unlike other accelerators that focus only on growing ventures vertically, we focus on bringing together ventures and partners who are all invested in tackling the same problem—to build coordinated plans, access collective pools of capital, and be accountable to shared impact metrics.

For example: Uncharted Food Access is a program with The City of Denver where we are not only accelerating organizations all working to increase access to healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods across the city, but also helping them co-locate into one neighborhood with the collective goal of reducing food insecurity.

3. Empower

We can’t solve problems alone. That’s why we also give power away and equip others to change the world with resources and tools.

For example: We have built out an accelerator-in-a-box that we license all over the world to teams that want to run accelerator programs in their local communities. To date, we have supported over 400 entrepreneurs with programs in 27 countries.