A more compassionate capitalism, with Cotopaxi’s Davis Smith
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Hey, listeners, it's Jeff Berman. We have some very exciting news. This October 7th through 9th, the Masters of Scale Summit is returning to the iconic Presidio Theater in San Francisco for three days of big, bold ideas. We're gathering the most visionary founders, world-changing executives, and impactful investors to

to build a brighter future together. The lineup is unmatched. The audience is handpicked for impact. And the energy is really anything but business as usual. Applications are officially open right now, and I wouldn't want you to miss your chance. So please apply now at mastersofscale.com slash apply25. When we launched the business and we had this 24-hour adventure race...

We actually needed to make backpacks for everyone during the race, and we needed to make it as quickly as possible. The only way for us to do it was actually to use remnants, leftovers. The clock was ticking for Davis Smith and his small team at Cotopaxi, so the new outdoor gear company got to work sewing bags out of salvaged fabric. They mixed bold colors. The wackier the combinations, the better. And in that moment, the signature look for the Cotopaxi brand was born.

And then we really doubled down on it. And it was like, hey, what if we started making one-of-a-kind bags? And so a huge amount of our product that we sell is one-of-a-kind product. Every single bag is unique. And you could start seeing the personality of the sewers and the different products. It was really a cool thing to see. Whatever they got, no matter how funky it was, they loved it. The return rate was like zero.

Just over a decade later, Cotopaxi has cemented a stellar reputation among outdoor enthusiasts and intrepid travelers with its gear and its apparel. This week, we hear from founder Davis Smith about the spark of inspiration that started it all, how he leveraged lessons from past struggles to build the Cotopaxi team, and why he stepped away from the CEO role in the midst of the company's meteoric rise.

We haven't made just how you do it.

This is Masters of Scale. I'm Jeff Berman, your host. David Smith subscribes to a philosophy that's simple enough to put on a t-shirt. And he does. He actually puts it on a t-shirt. The Cotopaxi slogan is two words. Do good.

For Davis, that means his social justice mission is at the core of the company. Cotopaxi is a B Corp, and it donates 1% of its revenue to not-for-profits that fight poverty. This conscious capitalism model is driven by Davis' faith-fueled passion for helping others.

That faith is also why he's taking a break from the business. Davis is currently serving his church in Brazil, and that's where he joined us for this conversation. We recorded this over video, and candidly, I sometimes struggle with our video interviews because it can be harder to create a personal connection. As I think you're going to experience here, that really wasn't the case with Davis. He's heart-led, he's self-aware, he's candid, and he is a heck of a storyteller.

Davis, welcome to Masters of Scale. Thanks, Jeff. This is so fun. I've been looking forward to this. Before we got into the Cotopaxi success story, I wanted to hear about the lessons Davis learned the hard way back when he moved to Brazil the first time as a recent MBA graduate and tried to make a go of it in e-commerce. I'd met along the way, along my journey, Mark Laurie, who had founded a business called Diapers.com.

And I kind of watched him scale that business pretty significantly before Amazon bought it.

And I had this interest in Brazil and I knew Mark. I kind of thought, hey, what about a baby business down in Brazil? The Internet's relatively nascent, not a ton of e-commerce businesses down in Brazil. And, you know, I had a couple of kids. And so I knew what the pains of buying things for kids. And I think like a lot of entrepreneurs, it's just naivete. You know, you just you you have no idea the challenges you're going to face. So, yeah, going to Brazil had all sorts of challenges. I'd never lived in Brazil, didn't speak Portuguese.

Brazil's very, very bureaucratic, very complicated to do business in. And there were some challenges that we didn't anticipate. And, you know, the story was good until it wasn't good. What skill did you reach with the baby business and then what ended up going wrong?

Over the next two, three years grew to maybe 20 million in revenue. So, you know, the business scaled, it grew. What we missed was there's a there's I think a focus that needs to happen on efficiency before you go hit the gas.

You need to make sure the business is actually making money. In that business, we didn't do that. We validated that there was a business and there was a need, but we actually didn't build the efficiency that we needed to be able to be profitable as we scaled. So as rapidly as we scaled, we accelerated losses, which meant go raise more money. And that's a painful process to be in. Yeah. I mean, there also are...

myriad stories of companies where, you know, I mean, this is Reid Hoffman and blitz scaling, and it is pour gas on the fire and grow, grow, grow. But what I hear you saying is that because you hadn't built the foundation exactly right, you know, when you're one degree off at the bottom, you can be 20 degrees off at the top very quickly. Is that the right way to think about the challenges that you all faced?

Absolutely. And you had a co-founder in the baby business. Yes, my cousin. And things went sideways between the two of you. Yeah, unfortunately. That relationship was really impacted as we worked together over 10 years. And honestly, it's one of the saddest things I think in my life is just that lost relationship.

I don't want to dwell on such a sad experience for you, but I'm curious if there are lessons from the falling out there that are useful for our audience or that you've applied as you've gone forward in your own journey. Yeah, you know, I think one of the lessons I think I learned was, you know, when you're starting a business, it's so fun sometimes to have a best friend or a family member that you can go brainstorm with.

But I think another approach that may be starting is saying, hey, instead of choosing my co-founder based on who I love and who's close to me right now, why don't I go first try to find a great idea? And then once I have the right idea, then I should go find a co-founder that really helps me solve the problem that I'm trying to solve. That best person is probably not going to be my brother or cousin or spouse.

I'm sorry that that happened. And I'm glad you also were able to learn the lessons from that and apply them going forward. So let's talk about Cotopaxi. Where did the idea come from? So, you know, I'm living in Brazil and I'm having this experience, you know, building that business that was painful, especially this relationship that was kind of unraveling before my eyes and pain.

My entire life, I had known I'd wanted to find a way to help people. When I was 19, 20, 21 years old, I actually was a missionary for my church in Bolivia for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And those two years were so transformational for me. And when I was living in Brazil, it was just in my face. I'm seeing every single day the poverty there. And I'm feeling so discouraged. I'm like, why am I—you know, I'm 34 at this point.

How come I haven't figured out how to use my life to help people? And I went into bed and I started just having some ideas come to my mind. I started writing them down. And pretty soon I was out on the couch and I spent the next 36 hours that entire night, the next day and the next night where the entire idea for Cotopaxi came to me. The colorful backpacks, using the business to do good, everything.

Did it feel at the time like an epiphany? Did it feel like divine intervention? How did it feel? I've never experienced anything like this in my life before. I don't know that I ever will again. I knew exactly what was happening. I wrote it all down. I have pages of journal from this 36 hours. And it was, for me, it was divine. I don't know how else to describe it, but

I knew that all of a sudden, all these years of experience I'd had that I felt discouraged and disappointed about, that I hadn't found a way to help, I realized I needed all these experiences to be able to go do what I needed to do next. No one wanted to believe that the world needed another outdoor brand. Every investor I talked to was kind of like, we already have Patagonia. We already have these other great brands. Why do we need another brand? But I had no doubt. I knew it would work. I knew it needed to exist.

And we had a few great investors that believed. Kirsten Green from 400 Ventures was the very first. And she stepped up in a big way and it made a big difference. And she's one of the very, very best on every level. Not only a great investor, but a great human.

Did you have a love for the outdoors? Had you grown up in the outdoors? Was it something that was a personal passion? Was that part of the origin here? Absolutely. I love the outdoors. My dad is an adventurer, and I grew up spending a lot of time in the outdoors, camping, backpacking. You know, these different countries that we lived in, we'd

We made our own raft and floated the Amazon River and fished for piranha. We'd go survive on little uninhabited islands and make our own spears and spearfish and eat coconuts to survive. I loved adventure. I loved the outdoors. I loved travel. So I kind of was able to merge this love for the outdoors and this passion and desire to go do good and

kind of blend these two things together. I want to understand what happens at the end of the 36 hours, but two questions before we get there. One, the name, how did that come to you? And then two, the llama. Where did the llama come from? Yeah. So the name came from my childhood. So when I lived in Ecuador as a kid and as a teenager, I

I went to a school called Academia Cotopaxi. And it was this American international school named after a volcano outside of Quito, Ecuador, this beautiful snow-capped volcano. I'd go camping and backpacking there with my dad and my brother all the time. My dad was our scoutmaster. We had this little international troop. And my dad is just obsessed with anything he does. He does it all in. So he was the best scoutmaster ever. And

We had so many cool adventures with these Boy Scouts, but I just loved that mountain. It meant so much to me. I loved that school experience that I had at Cotopaxi. So when I started thinking of names, it was the first name that popped in my head. And I just thought I wanted a name that connected to my life experience and to the outdoors. And so it felt like the perfect name. And then the llama.

The first place I saw llamas in the wild was actually at the base of Cotopaxi. We were camping, we had just moved to Ecuador from Puerto Rico where I'd spent some other years as a child and it was just magical. We woke up, we were out making breakfast on the campfire and these llamas just started walking through our campsite

And it was just, you know, I think I'm maybe 11 years old at this time. And it's like for an 11 year old, a llama. I mean, that's just one of those magical moments you just never forget. And, you know, they're mysterious. They're rugged. They're they're always in a herd. They're always together. They're never by themselves. And so I just thought, what a great mascot for a brand that's all about united together. Let's go make the world a better place. And so, yeah, it's I love the llama.

Still ahead, how Davis scaled Cotopaxi and its global impact on extreme poverty. The Lobatical is for any employees who have been with us for five years to take a vacation. They get a week of extra PTO. They get to pick anywhere in the world that they want to travel, and we allow that to happen for them.

That's Brooke Wright, Capital One business customer and chief people officer at Local, a change marketing company that works with huge corporations in order to facilitate meaningful communication between C-suites and their frontline. We wanted to celebrate them for the time they had invested with us. We liked the idea of a sabbatical, and so we made it us. It's the Lobatical. Local practices what they preach, caring for their employees with the same rigor they instruct their clients to enact.

My day-to-day is focused on making sure that we're living out the same principles that we're guiding our clients on inside of their large corporations. How you take care of your employees is a direct correlation to your customers' experience with your brand or product. The Lobatical is just one of the ways that local ensures their employees feel appreciated and cared for. And feeling appreciated is a principle that is shared by their partnership with Capital One Business.

We love our 2% cashback card. We can use the rewards to care for our employees. My favorite thing about Capital One, whenever I need to call, there's always a caring, helpful voice on the other end. You can't manufacture care, especially in a big company. And Capital One cares. To learn more, go to CapitalOne.com slash business cards.

I want to tell you about one of my favorite podcasts that isn't one that we make. It's from New York Magazine, and it's called Pivot. Pivot is hosted by tech journalist and dare I say friend, Kara Swisher, and NYU business professor, Scott Galloway. Every Tuesday and Friday, Kara and Scott break down the major stories of the week in tech and business and politics and more. I always get razor sharp insights, bold,

Bold, occasionally crazy predictions, and yes, lots of bickering and bantering with Scott occasionally throwing in the inappropriate remark. I encourage you to listen and follow Pivot wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to Masters of Scale. You can find this conversation and more on our YouTube channel. This is a new category for you. It's a crowded category. How do you go figure out your founding team? And then how do you go find the money? How did you get the funding?

Yeah. So I started looking online for the founding team and this is where I was like, I'm going to do it differently this time. And so I went on to LinkedIn and I just started looking for experts in the outdoor industry, people that had been award-winning designers of product. I reached out to a few of them on LinkedIn and they responded and somehow they believed. They believed in this vision of building a brand that could make the world better, where we'd use our profits to fight poverty alleviation and

So we built a small little team. I ended up resigning from my role there at my business in Brazil and moved back to the US and flew into Utah. I decided to build it there. I felt it was a great place to build a business in the outdoor space. And the small group of five of us, we met in a mountain cabin.

And I kind of laid out the vision for what I wanted to build. And those are just the most fun moments for any entrepreneur, that early visionary stage where nothing's been built, but like the world is yours, you know, to go do whatever you want to do. And, you know, it was just a magical moment, a magical time. And it took a few months, but we started making our first product and we ended up launching the business in a very, very unique way that blasted the business off in a way that I never could have imagined. Totally.

Tell us about that. You know, I love llamas. So we actually went and we bought a couple llamas on the online classifieds. As one does. As one does. And.

And we started going around college campuses in Salt Lake City with all these llamas. And we told everyone that we were launching this new outdoor brand, adventure brand, and that we were launching with this 24-hour amazing race-style event, this huge scavenger hunt type of event where you formed a team. Everyone that did the race would get one of these Cotopaxi backpacks.

And they had 24 hours to go get as many points as possible. And you got points from doing all sorts of different adventures in the outdoors or service in the community. They were all living the brand for 24 hours. And we had 30,000 social media posts in that first 24 hours of our launch.

And people were out living the brand, wearing our product, taking pictures of it and sharing it on social media. And the winning teams got some trips and some gear. And that night when we were celebrating on stage with 5,000 people, all wearing the product, all like waving these little do good flags, like it was just...

It was surreal. I couldn't believe it was actually happening. At the same time, it felt divine, like it was divinely inspired. And so I felt like, yeah, of course this is working. That's beautiful. How did you fund the business to get it started?

Yeah, so that's where I think having some experience raising some venture capital really made a difference for me. And so I was able to go to Silicon Valley and I actually met with a hundred, I have a list of every investor I've ever met with. And at this point I have around a thousand people. And trust me, I've been rejected a lot. I've gotten really very good at rejection. My mission experience as a 19 year old kid really prepared me for a lot of the rejection that I dealt with as an entrepreneur. Just to be clear for those who don't know,

As a missionary, you're literally knocking on doors and having doors slammed in your face multiple times a day, right? Absolutely. If you're not resilient, it can really beat you down. But I think what keeps you going is a belief, a deep belief that what you have

And it's worth sharing. And so I felt the same thing about Cotopaxi. It was like, this matters. I don't care how many people reject me. This needs to exist. And so we ended up with a handful of investors that invested, like I mentioned, Kirsten Green from Foreigner Ventures and a handful of other amazing people that stepped up. And some of my friends from business school, like the Warby Parker founders, the founders of Harry's and a few other good friends, and

Andy Dunn from Bonobos and some other founders that put a little bit of money as well. And it was enough to kind of get the business started. But they gave us money before I'd sold a single backpack. So it was really a belief in me and a belief in this vision that we had. And can you talk a little bit about the mission of the company beyond? I mean, because this 36-hour sprint in which the vision for the company owns spools is inspired by this personal mission.

this need to do good in the world, to fulfill your own potential, to change other people's lives. So will you talk a little bit about the mission of the company and how that fits with running it as a business?

So the mission that we have is to eradicate, I believe that it's possible to eradicate extreme poverty in my lifetime. In 1820, 200 years ago, 94% of the world was living in extreme poverty. And when I was born, it was around 40%. Now

Now it's under 10%. So we are eradicating extreme poverty, and I want to be a part in this movement of showing that business can be a force for good. Capitalism can be done better than it has been. It's this amazing tool that's lifted so many out of poverty, but it's a little broken. You know, there's things that aren't quite right about it. And so what can we do better?

And I really believe there's a way to help take capitalism in this better direction. And so that was the vision for this brand. And so we donate 1% of all of our revenues, which to be clear, a lot of times is many years that was actually more than we made. We maybe weren't even making money, but we were still giving money away.

You know, as we all know, I think people that don't understand business think, oh, that's like nothing, you know, 1%, that's nothing. But if Amazon did that, I think that's like all, that'd be all their profit or something, you know? So it was a big commitment and investors really had to buy into it, but we've done it every year and it's core to who we are. It's why we exist. We are not an outdoor brand or a backpack brand. We are a brand that does good. We are a brand that shows that capitalism can be done better. And we happen to make really amazing and great outdoor and adventure gear to do it. And you're set up as a B Corp, is that right?

Yeah. This was another thing that like I reached out to our attorney before we started the business. I said, hey, I'm thinking about this new business. And I know that the Warby Parker team just converted to a benefit corporation. What do you think about me starting as a benefit corporation? And he actually said, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't recommend it necessarily.

I'm not aware of any business that started as a benefit corporation, this is in 2014, and that has raised venture capital. Investors might not be very interested. Warby Parker, they already have a brand, their people are excited about them, they can kind of do what they want, but he's like, "I wouldn't recommend it." I just felt so strongly about it. It's like, if I'm not going to do this for the right reason, or if there's investors that don't want to invest in us because of that, that's not the right investor for me anyways. And so we incorporated from inception as a benefit corporation, became a certified B Corp a year later.

And that was almost 10 years ago. And then how do you decide where the 1% of profits go? What's your process for figuring out how to make sure that that money is being spent as optimally as possible? Well, there was a learning curve. You know, when we started the business, I was the one that oversaw our impact work because I was so passionate about it. And I'd been involved in some nonprofits around the world and in Latin America specifically that I was really excited about. For example, there was an orphanage that I visited recently.

and would frequently visit when I was in Bolivia as a missionary. I went there on Christmas Day. It was my first Christmas away from my family. I was incredibly lonely and sad and kind of honestly probably a little self-absorbed, thinking about myself and how much I miss my home. And that afternoon, a couple of the other missionaries had organized for us to go over to this orphanage. And after going there, it was like, how could I possibly feel

sorry for myself. Like what a gift to be here. So that orphanage meant a lot to me. And so that was one of the first places we started helping. And we had a few other places that I was really passionate about, but a year into the business, we, I hired a chief impact officer and she came in, she'd worked for Salesforce and she basically said, okay, tell me about how you're doing this. And I said, oh, I was so proud to tell her this orphanage. And she's like,

That's horrible. She's like, so wait, you just send the money? Like, you just send the money? Like, how do you know what they're doing with it? It's like, well, they're nuns. Like, the nuns aren't going to, you know, do anything wrong with the money. She's like, you have no idea. You don't know. How are you measuring the impact? And she was right. You know, I had no idea what I was doing. And so she helped us build. And, you know, we invested. We had a chief impact officer before we had a chief marketing officer.

Our board was like, Davis, why are we spending money on someone telling you how to give away the money? Let's focus on making more money and selling more stuff. But I just felt so strongly, if we don't get this right, nothing else matters in this brand. We've got to do the impact right. We've got to be best in class. We've got to do this better than anyone has ever done it. And if we can do that, then this brand matters and people will buy the product. Yeah. I want to just...

go back for a minute because we're in an era the last let's call it 40 years or so it's relatively new in the scope of American capitalism where almost every company is optimizing just for shareholder value

right? The job is shareholder value, that is it. And there is not a consideration or there is diminished consideration of stakeholders, whether that is members of the team or that is the local community or that is the environment or that is eradicating extreme poverty in our lifetime. You noted, and I think it's impossible to argue the counterpoint,

that while capitalism is undoubtedly, in my view, the best and most impactful economic system we've ever created, it's also deeply flawed. And we're suffering from a lot of the consequences of capitalism now. So how do you think about it when you're talking with other founders, other CEOs, when you're engaged in these conversations? How do you engage the conversation around a more conscious capitalism

Beyond leading by example and building a world-class company that is doing so much good in the world, how do you talk about it in a way that opens people's eyes to what they and their companies can also be doing? Yeah, I think what you said is actually the most powerful way to do it, though. It's actually being that visionary leader.

I've been on a lot of stages speaking about Cotopaxi. I rarely talk about our product. I almost never. I almost never talk about our product. I just talk about what we represent and what we stand for. And I'll tell you, people care. It touches people. People want. Humans are good.

Humans are good by nature. People want to do good. They want to make the world a better place. Sometimes they're just not sure how. And so when they hear an example of someone that's doing their best to do it, and look, we're not going to be perfect. And honestly, I can't wait for this next generation of entrepreneurs that are going to do it way better than we're doing it. And they're going to hopefully learn from all the things that we're doing okay and the things that maybe we could have done better. But I think that's the most powerful way to affect change is to be inspiring, to be visionary.

I think that's mainly the way that I've approached helping other entrepreneurs do good. And I can say there's been a lot of CEOs, friends, people that have become friends that have approached me and said, "Hey, we're thinking a lot about how we can do good. Help me think through this." And I'm not maybe the world's best expert, but I love this topic. And so I love to talk about it. And if entrepreneurs can find something they're really passionate about and find a way to weave it into their business and to how they're building the business, it becomes very, very powerful.

And to your point too, Jeff, we have a responsibility to shareholders and also to stakeholders. But even to shareholders, yes, I want to give them a great return. I want them to have a great return. And I don't think we have to compromise. What I believe is that when you do business the right way, when you do it better, it saves so many other costs. You can attract and retain talent in a way that no one else can. Our marketing costs are less than what other brands are because

There's word of mouth doing it for us. Our product, we've sold 5 million backpacks made of

remnant, leftover, repurposed material from other outdoor brands. It's their leftover scraps. Guess what? That material costs less than if we were making it from scratch, and it has a much lighter impact on the world. And so there's all these benefits from doing things the right way. And I really believe that if you're doing things right, it'll end up coming back and you'll end up having a more profitable business in the end as well.

You stepped aside from day-to-day leadership of the company. Can you tell us why and what you're doing right now? Yeah. Honestly, one of the hardest things I've ever done because of how much I love Cotopaxi. It wasn't just a job for me. It was a calling. And I felt a deep stewardship over this brand. And

At the same time, I think there was a combination of factors. One being that I may not be the best CEO forever. I think I did a good job taking a business from zero to around $150 million in revenue. And there's probably better leaders that can take it to the next level. There was that element. But a big part of it was my church came to me and they asked if my wife and my family and I would consider leading a mission in Brazil for three years and putting aside...

our life, our business. And it took about one second for my wife and I to say yes. It's not that it was so easy to do. It was very hard, but it was an easy decision because

it was so aligned with our values and aligned with what we knew mattered most. And so we sold our house and we moved here and I had a daughter do her senior year in high school here. She's the only American in the school and our two little boys here, they're picking up the language and just loving Brazil. But it wasn't an easy move. And I miss my work at Cotopaxi every day.

And at the same time, I love what I'm doing here. It is so fulfilling. I find so much joy in being here, even though it hasn't been easy. It's been, I think, one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done with my life.

Davis, when you accepted the call to go back to Brazil and lead a mission, you had to replace yourself as CEO of the company. How did you go about doing that? You know, so when I remember when I started Cotopaxi, you know, met with a small group of people in this little cabin in Utah and told them, you know, my vision. I remember telling them, I think we need to build something that's bigger than any of us because I'm not going to be the right CEO forever. And so I'd always kind of known that in the back of my head, even though I wanted to be. I really did want to be the CEO for it because I loved it so much.

But what I looked for in my replacement was someone that, first of all, was aligned with our values, that really understood why we were building this and what mattered most. I wanted someone that would stay true to that. And then, of course, someone that had much more experience than me, that had taken something from our scale and had built something much bigger. And the way that I went through that process was I actually shared it on social media that I was

looking for somebody and went through a process of finding some really amazing people. And so it's not easy to replace yourself as a founder because you're so deeply connected to what you built.

And at the same time, it wasn't hard to see that there were other people much more qualified than me. I think what I maybe had that no one else could really replace was just the deep passion for why we were building it. And so I think no matter what, as a founder, it's important to stay connected. And even though I'm very far away, I've tried to do that. I've remained on the board. I talk.

you know, frequently to our team members, especially the CEO. And so I think that's a really important part of it is like not just totally walking away. And how could I? How could I want to feel so passionately about what we've built? But, you know, it's not always perfect. And you learn lessons in that transition as well. Davis, what happens after your mission? Do you go back to Cotopaxi? Do you go do something new? Do you know yet?

You know, I don't know yet. I'm halfway through, so I've got another year and a half. But I'm at that point where the first year and a half, I didn't have time to even breathe, it felt like. So I didn't really think about it much. But starting to get to the point where it's like, okay, I maybe need to think about what's next. And, you know, I suspect I'll probably go back to Cotopaxi and not as a CEO. I think I've given that role up and I'm okay with that now. Maybe play an executive chairman kind of role where I can still be very involved in our mission and our purpose and the culture. I love culture and

And so I think that's what I'll do. I think there's certainly work I'm going to do on the impact side. I love working with young people. Like I'm here overseeing all these, a few hundred young missionaries. I'm helping scale the next generation of world-changing leaders. And I am so excited to see what all they're going to do. So I think I'm going to be doing a lot of mentoring for the rest of my life of these young kids that are just changing the world down here.

Davis, it's a real pleasure and honor to get to speak with you and thank you for all you're doing in the world. Grateful for your leading by example and the impact that you're having on people's lives. Jeff, thank you. Thank you for inviting me and thank you for telling people's stories so beautifully. It is impossible to come away from a conversation with Davis Smith and not feel at least a little bit inspired.

He went from introducing his brand by wandering college campuses with llamas to making hundreds of millions in revenue all in the span of one decade. His story is a tremendous example of what's possible when you lead with creativity and compassion. I'm Jeff Berman. Thank you for listening.

We've grown exponentially since we opened 10 years ago. We initially started with, I think there were 10 of us, maybe, total, which is just completely ridiculous. That's Jillian Field, Capital One business customer and co-founder of Union Market, a popular neighborhood market and cafe in Richmond, Virginia. With her growing success, now with 45 team members, Jillian has always kept sight of what really matters.

We felt since we opened that having some sort of employee appreciation event was really important to us. Every year, Jillian holds a company-wide celebration to show her staff how vital they are to the success of Union Market. Recently, she used points from her Capital One business card to host her employees at Busch Gardens Theme Park for a day of fun with family and friends.

We buy all of their tickets as well as their plus ones. It's a lot of fun and definitely a great team bonding experience. Capital One really has been great over the years. It's so easy. We could apply these points to supplies, masking tape and Sharpies and ticket receipt paper, but we like to retain them for our employees. That's been really important. To learn more, go to CapitalOne.com slash business cards.

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