Transforming the Economy Requires a Transformed Culture

by Nina Sol Robinson

RUNWAY envisions a world where Black entrepreneurs thrive in a reimagined economy rooted in equity and justice. For us to truly reimagine the economy, we must reimagine how we work and engage with one another.

At RUNWAY our culture centers healing, an entrepreneurial spirit of experimentation, and collective leadership...all done with a spirit of joy and liberation. 

We are reimagining capital as a tool that can heal, repair and connect us. From our credit underwriting practices with our entrepreneurs, to our partnerships with the funders and investors that are disrupting the power structures and norms, together we can rewrite the rules to favor justice.

We center healing in our daily communications, mindfulness and heart-centered check-ins with our entrepreneur community, plus GIFS and delicious snacks at our quarterly retreats. Our meetings start with real check-in’s that might include reminiscing on our childhood memories, dreaming about our world in the year 2090, or pontificating on art, political and cultural moments. We nourish our souls with “For the Good” report backs, and when needed, we hold space to collectively mourn and fully acknowledge the suffering in our communities. We embody the care we want to see in the world by practicing with one another. 

As a financial innovation firm, we have shifted our perspectives from solely building individual wealth to building community wealth. To make this shift we need to start practicing collective economics on a daily basis. Inspired by our friends at Sustainable Economies Law Center, this led to modeling the practices of a co-operative business, in the form of a self-directed non-profit. We traded hierarchical structures for circular ones and have embraced transparency and collaboration in all aspects of our work. Our staff are organized in circles designated for expansion, programs, marketing, finance, operations, etc. that are responsible for collectively managing the different aspects of our business. The structure is not without its challenges, but in the spirit of our sister, Adrienne Marie Brown’s Emergent Strategy, small is all, and by practicing living our values and breathing into the discomfort we will wrestle with the contradictions that are unavoidable while trying to hospice an old dying capitalistic system and breathe life into a completely new paradigm.

Finally, as a team of entrepreneurs, creatives, and Blerds (budgets are part of our love language), we needed a container that gave us the ability to learn, experiment, and test the financial practices that center our values. We recently launched RUNWAY Labs, a space that allows us to do just that. When RUNWAY Founder, Jessica Norwood, delighted in the new chapters opening up on both coasts of the country, she also questioned: what would be required for a thriving black business ecosystem to exist in remote parts of the U.S. South? From there the Future of Black Capital was born. 

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we asked ourselves, how can we think beyond additional debt and short-term relief for our businesses, and instead create the runway necessary to evolve their business models with care and intention? In collaboration and conversation with our entrepreneur community, that is how our Universal Basic Income Pilot was created. Having a laboratory to question, dream, fail, learn and act create the conditions for a more just and sustainable economy.

As a BIPOC-led organization, we recognize that we do not exist outside of the racial wealth gap, we strive to compensate ourselves with a spirit of abundance and balance, and build a liberated work environment that allows us to bring our entire selves to the work.

I love working at RUNWAY because I can bring my entire self into this work, as the grand daughter of Lupita and Ethel, born of Mexican & Native American and Black parents, as an activist DJ and Artist, my heritage, culture, and life experiences,  are not too different from the communities we serve, and that lived experience is a huge asset to our work.

Sound good? We are always seeking entrepreneurial, energetic folks that enjoy dreaming and collaborating to build a more just economy. Feel free to drop us a note with your resume if you think you would be a good fit for our team. Email us using [info at runway dot family] or simply say hi using our contact form.

Nina Sol Robinson is RUNWAY’s Fund Director. Learn more about Nina and our amazing team here.

(Image by Gabrielle Henderson)