Zebras Unite is a founder-created and founder-led movement. We believe that everyone has an equal right to imagine and create the future. We invite you to join us and catalyze the community, capital, and culture for people building businesses that are better for the world.

In October 2015, Jennifer Brandel and Mara Zepeda  reunited at Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) in San Francisco. Friends for years, we shared a parallel path as former public radio reporters who went on to start technology companies not to get rich, but to solve a problem we could no longer ignore. We met up at a Fort Mason dock and started trading war stories about the challenge of funding our startups. Our companies existed in a financing purgatory: social impact investors didn't work in our space, and venture capitalists won't fund companies that can't promise 10x returns. We'd created for profit companies with purpose and then discovered this type of company is basically unfundable. 

In February 2016, we wrote "Sex & Startups," which made the case for alternative financing models for companies like ours. We heard from hundreds of supporters.

We spent a year socializing an alternative to unicorns: the zebra. "Zebras Fix what Unicorns Break," co-authored with Astrid Scholz (CEO & Founder, Sphaera, and a co-founder of XXcelerate Fund) and published in March 2017, lays the groundwork for bringing together similar companies and developing financing alternatives so they can thrive and succeed. We've since collaborated with Aniyia Williams of Tinsel and Black & Brown Founders to build this movement. 

The message is spreading across the world thanks to broad recognition and the leadership of our incredible team. Founders in Berlin are throwing zebra parties of their own. The zebra methodology is being taught in Melbourne and Mexico City. Employees are writing about the joy of building zebra companies. Law firms are beginning to recognize zebras as an area of law. And zebras are being referenced in pop culture. And what would a movement be without people stealing and plagiarizing our ideas!

Curious to read more? Check out “Where unicorns fear to tread — building businesses that are better for the world,” by Astrid, which presents a short history of the Zebra movement.