In Good Company is a new app - launching in the not-too-distant future - which short-cuts the searching and shows you ethical, sustainable, for-good businesses around you, helping you with more sustainable living.

Alex's journey discovering social enterprises

My first real experiences with social enterprises - businesses who exist first and foremost to do good in the world - were all physical. IRL. Bricks and mortar. With human people. In the age of e-commerce and the metaverse that feels like such a throwback. It’s actually quite telling that I feel the need to explicitly say ‘physical’, so dominant has the internet become. 

The social enterprises that have stuck with me as my first encounter were ones I discovered mostly by accident whilst on a millennial gap year, back-packing around Asia nearly three years ago. Seeing Hands massages which provided employment for the blind. A number of coffee shops and cafes which donated proceeds back into the local community, often paying for children’s education and the associated wares.

Once I spotted one, I saw them everywhere. On a weekend trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia, and even more excitingly for me, in my own backyard of London. 

The challenges of finding ethical businesses

But despite the frequency illusion - that common occurrence where it feels like something you’ve just discovered is suddenly everywhere - it still felt like pretty hard work to actually uncover them. I realised that it wasn’t just formal social enterprises who were doing good (to be a social enterprise you have to, amongst other things, reinvest over 50% of your profits back into your social mission) but others like redemption roasters who train ex-offenders and refer to themselves as a ‘profit for purpose’ business, or more recently the growing number of zero-waste stores and restaurants who are focused on helping the planet. 

In Good Company was born

That was where the idea for In Good Company came from.

There are an increasing number of companies helping us to find more ethical, sustainable options when we need or want to buy something online, but it felt like there was a gap for how we find them when we’re out and about in ‘the real world’. You might discover them in an article or on Insta or through a friend, but it’s haphazard and hard work. 

In Good Company is a new app - launching in the not-too-distant future - which short-cuts the searching and shows you ethical, sustainable, for-good businesses around you. We’re starting in London but will then be moving out to other parts of the UK and cities around the world.

You’ll be able to search by type of business - from coffee shops, cafes and restaurants, to experiences, hotels and hair salons - location and mission.

We’re partnering with established accreditation providers in this space to demonstrate why businesses have been listed, with an element of curation to make sure that we’re promoting genuinely good, local businesses.

And best of all, you’ll be able to rate and review them yourself and share pictures with other like-minded users.

Our mission is to help champion and grow companies who are doing good so that they in turn can have an even bigger positive impact on the world. 

Stay tuned

Whilst we continue working away on bringing the app to life, we’ll be starting to share our favourites on socials, our blog and via our newsletter, as well as more about what makes a business good, who we’re working with and why.

We’ll also be on the lookout for our first users to road-test the app when it’s ready. So if this sounds like your cup of tea, please follow us, sign up to the newsletter and get involved. We can’t wait to get going with you.

Read co-founder Sarah's blog on why she decided to co-founded In Good Company with Alex.