In 2017, a group of seasoned business professionals that now make up Torrey Project explored ways to make a positive difference at the executive leadership level of businesses in the U.S. We questioned how to create and support socially conscious companies to solve the critical environmental and societal challenges underperforming government policy. We determined it was possible for the power of business to bring desperately needed changes to our world. Thus, in 2019 we formed the Torrey Project, a registered nonprofit in San Diego, California.

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The Torrey Project Start-Up Bootcamp was the first program offered to educate a new breed of Stakeholder-Focused entrepreneurs. We educate entrepreneurs in areas of conscious thinking, conscious leadership, and conscious capitalism, while also imparting insights and management tools developed by the founding Torrey Project
team. We assist entrepreneurs in preparing their business plans for capital attraction and then support them with mentorship as they navigate their way toward conscious investors.

 

As a start-up organization, Torrey Project had very little time to build its resilience before COVID eliminated our in-person educational programs for entrepreneurs, funding dried up, we lost our paid staff, and we contemplated disbanding. And then...it happened: we had offers of unpaid assistance coming from the most unexpected places. The government helped us with a small loan. Board members wrote checks to keep us alive. Former graduates came back and pitched in. Service providers kept working without pay. Speakers offered to waive their speaking fees. New partners appeared. Colleges and universities around the country have locked arms with us, and the momentum has been steadily building.

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Perhaps more people now see the error in building brittle businesses for the benefit of
shareholders without due consideration for the impact on its stakeholders. Businesses that are built with a focus on robust and respectful Stakeholder relationships have the ability to recover from difficult conditions. In other words, they are more resilient. The new normal in the world of business must now be one centered around Resilience and Regeneration.

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We call on the global capital markets to embrace Stakeholder Capitalism and we ask that they finally see that regenerative companies are resilient - they are built to last in the face of unexpected trauma and are, therefore, less risky. Business leaders, over the past six months, have seen the difference that employees can make when the going gets tough. The world must finally be ready for a better version of Capitalism. Torrey Project is here and stands ready to help make that transition happen.

 

Join us in re-imagining capitalism, together.