'Power With'
'Power Over'
We live in a world focused on control and top-down decision-making. Everywhere we see the dominance of ‘power over’ approaches: an economic system predicated on winner-take-all models, using debt as an instrument of disempowering borrowers, strict organizational hierarchies, large national military budgets, etc.
The only true power is power that is shared: 'power with' instead of 'power over'.
At Coralus we trust the intuition of thousands of women rather than a few experts in deciding which Ventures to fund. We use a democratized voting process that gives the same power to a teenager as to their mom, a former CFO of Canada’s biggest bank.
Our community shares all forms of capital with one another...
Coralus has been working closely with the Criterion Institute to explore how we are disrupting power in our approach to supporting transformational entrepreneurs and how we might do more with our power as a community.
Annabelle White and Wendy Cooper, Dragonfly Ventures
Annabelle White and Wendy Cooper, Activators at Coralus, share their approach to funding impact-oriented founders with their work at Dragonfly Ventures. As part of the Coralus community for years, they have been allocating their capital to several of our Ventures in increasingly innovative ways that prioritize founder health and wellness and community impact centred on right relationship.
Patrice Mousseau, Satya Organics
In 2022, Patrice Mousseau, founder of Satya found herself in a situation that was untenable as a founder having taken venture capital that was not aligned with her way of doing business. Dragonfly Ventures stepped in and loaned her the money to unwind the venture investment, a fund they were already invested in. They allowed Patrice to go back to 100% ownership so she could run the business at a pace and in a way that serves her values and capacities.
Nita Tandon, Dalcini Stainless
Nita Tandon, founder of Dalcini Stainless found herself in a situation where significant growth opportunities were coming her way, but she didn’t have the working capital to execute. Coralus had been working deeply with Export Development Canada, EDC, to identify Ventures who are export ready and need some support with lines of credit.
The Coralus team connected Nita with Activators in our community from TD and EDC to help her navigate the path and she finally received a line of credit that allowed her to expand to the US with a big box retailer. Getting into relationship with one another and having connections made can significantly shift the conditions for success for founders. Nita is one of those success stories.
Friend and partner of the Coralus community, Criterion Institute, wrote a blog about the ways in which Coralus Activators work with ventures to find ways to share and disrupt power in the investment process. These different approaches illuminate the traditional power dynamics within financial systems that have become deeply entrenched through years of repetition and assuming “that’s just how things are, they can’t be changed.” These specific examples in the Coralus approach, from re-evaluating due diligence to term sheets, shows they can.
Choosing to cooperate, instead of compete, builds coalitions of power — thousands of women globally who are better resourced, connected, and emboldened because of their desire to build agency together. When we wait for someone else (a government, the financial system, celebrities, philanthropists) to fix things, we abdicate our agency — thinking that power resides in positions or in accumulated wealth. Instead, we need to reclaim our individual and collective agency to usher in the new realities we desire.
In the natural world, the forest learned long ago that to sustain itself over millennia (with many trees far outlasting even multiple human generations) it needed to develop an interdependent system where resources, information, and nutrients were shared. Trees use underground networks of mycorrhizal fungus to aid their growth, known as mycelium.
Mycelium networks can measure hundreds of miles under a single footstep, sharing resources like carbon, and warning of insect or invader threats. These networks function in ways similar to the internet – they have nodes and links, and rapidly spread information among actors (trees). New evidence suggests mycelium is responsible for carbon sequestration, in some cases accounting for 50-70% of carbon sinks in boreal forests.
Similar to mycelium, Coralus is a network of women sharing resources, information, and the nutrients needed to grow individually and as an ecosystem. This is the definition of power with vs. power over.
REFLECT
When do I experience a feeling of strength and power?
In what situations, and with whom, do I lose power?
How can I use my power to give power to others?
We recorded a series of Power Podcasts with Joy Anderson to explore how we can all be better at understanding the power we have and using our power to support one another journeys and to create policies, frameworks and processes that disrupt traditional forms of power.
Coralus collectively practices different ways of doing things for a better now and a new inheritance. Members offer and access resources at their own pace, creating a self-regenerating, pay-it-forward pool of skills, connections, funds, and support then used to advance ventures and the collective doing world changing work.
Coralus has circulated nearly $19M to 190+ women- and non-binary-led ventures by distributing capital via collective decision-making. 45% of those founders are from chronically excluded racial and ethnic groups. The payback rate on its unsecured 0% interest loans is 95%. Founded in Canada in 2015, Coralus' current footprint includes the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.
© 2024 Coralus. All rights reserved.
Co-created with love ❤
