Powerful patterns
for positive impact
Practical methods
for doing good in the world,
using profit as an engine for impact.
I’m Scott Woods. I’ve spent more than 20 years building benefit corporations and nonprofits that are designed to create positive impact.
Along the way, I discovered a set of patterns that fit together elegantly: how to design our companies’ offerings for maximum public benefit, how to invest radically in our people, and how to build a great economic engine that powers the whole thing.
Positron is the vehicle for sharing the methods that I developed, and the lessons I learned from countless people.
Here are the benefit corporations that I’ve (co)founded:
West Arete has always been two things at once:
an engine for building software that solves challenging problems that are beneficial to society,
a grand experiment in radically investing in your people.
It turns out there’s practically no limit to the benefits of investing in your people. We went all in on sabbaticals, 100% paid health insurance for the entire family, top-notch coaching, and an incredibly flexible workplace.
The result? Everyone became more able and inspired to do the most meaningful and challenging work of their lives.
I still run West Arete, alongside Natalie Simonson and Shannyn Lee. 20 years and 40+ high-impact projects later, this company is still a world-class engine for doing good in the world.
The Living Wage Institute was co-founded with Sara Horowitz and Kavya Vaghul to dramatically expand the impact of the Living Wage Calculator, which West Arete had built and supported for 20 years with Dr. Amy Glasmeier.
The Living Wage Institute’s products help employers to make sure their workers’ basic needs are met, while also improving the performance of their business.
The model shows how well it works to be incredibly generous with your knowledge and information (the Living Wage Calculator is completely free and transparent), while simultaneously offering powerful and specialized products that can transform your clients’ businesses.
Sara and Kavya continue to lead the Living Wage Institute through dramatic growth. The positive impact from their products and the public data only continue to accelerate.
Landseed will transform the relationship between nature conservation and finance. Together with my co-founders Greg Curtis and Alex Roessner, we’re creating the first tradable “nature assets”, and establishing an international market for them.
This will change the financial relationship that society has with nature, from philanthropic giving to sustainable capital investment. In doing so, we intend to increase the amount of funding available for nature conservation by many fold. We also believe that literally being invested in nature will fundamentally change society’s relationship with it for the better.
We have found that stakeholders across the board are eager for a dramatic change—as long as it is done in a trustworthy and responsible way.
Our three co-founders each have backgrounds that will let us test the high-impact benefit corporation model at scale.
Why the name “Positron”?
It comes from particle physics. An electron is the fundamental particle of electricity—it's how we transmit energy, how we do work, how we communicate. It's what powers this website. It's what's lighting up your screen.
One of the identifying characteristics of the electron is that it has a negative charge. Well it turns out that there's an exotic antimatter equivalent to the electron. It's identical in every way, except it carries a positive charge. That particle is called a positron.
Along this journey of creating high-impact for-profit companies, I’ve been told many times that “that’s not how a business is usually run.”
Opposite spin, positively charged.
What’s in store for Positron?
Having been part of several benefit corporations now (and several nonprofit organizations), I can see a pattern for how to maximize impact, while being a financially successful business, and giving your team the best possible workplace.
The business world often treats these as opposing forces, but there is absolutely a way to have them amplify each other instead.
My mission with Positron is to share these patterns, methods, and stories as widely as possible. There are a lot of current and future founders and teams that would benefit from these materials, a community, and like-minded investors.
Follow me on LinkedIn, where I will begin to publish my methods, tools, and materials.