Book Review: Fully Alive

‘Fully Alive’ by Tyler Gage

‘Fully Alive’ tells the story of Tyler Gage’s journey to create Runa, a socially conscious beverage company that uses guayusa, a leaf grown by Indigenous people in Ecuador, as its key ingredient.

The story starts with Gage’s early years growing up near San Francisco and follows his somewhat bumpy ride to Brown University where, after a couple of false starts and a plant dieta in the Amazon, he studied Literary Arts.

Almost by accident, he stumbled across social entrepreneurship through a business course in Entrepreneurship and New Ventures at Brown. Gage and some friends used the idea of producing an energy drink made from guayusa as their assignment in that class. Their final exam was to pitch their idea to a venture capitalist who, to their surprise, gave them encouraging feedback, rather than shooting them down, Shark Tank-style.

After graduating, Gage and his business partner Dan MacCombie - neither of whom had any business experience whatsoever - took the plunge and decided to take on the ultra-competitive beverage industry, but with ethical principles at the heart of their company.

The two moved to Quito and began building their network, including establishing connections with Indigenous communities in the Amazon. Kichwa families introduced them to guayusa, a plant grown traditionally in chakras, which is a cultivation method similar to agroforestry. They took part in ancient brewing ceremonies and learned how fundamental guayusa is to Kichwa culture and identity.

Structuring a purpose-driven company

Right from the beginning, they structured Runa around a deeply ethical supply chain by ensuring fair conditions, including sharing fiscal and other benefits with the Indigenous producers supply guayusa. For example, later they designed a system to pay a 15% social premium on top of the core price for all the guayusa they purchased.

Their early deliberations on how to integrate collaboration into the structure of their business and how to lock in Runa’s social mission so as to protect the company’s purpose no matter what might transpire down the track, were genuine and strategic. Ultimately, they landed on a hybrid model comprised of both for-profit and non-profit entities. They intentionally designed the set-up so as to “purposely create the potential for friction between the two sides”. For example, if the non-profit side was doing its job well, then farmers would be empowered to negotiate higher prices, which would potentially reduce the bottom line of the for-profit side. In a way, this is reminiscent of the ultimate objective a charity might have to put itself out of business when it has helped its beneficiaries to the point where its services are no longer required - a utopian (albeit noble) aim, in many cases.

The Runa Foundation was given the aim of helping develop and strengthen farmer cooperatives to better negotiate and organise as a collective, develop community savings, design sustainable land management plans and start other sustainable value chains to benefit farming families. Gage and MacCombie also decided that less than 5% of Runa Foundation’s budget would come from the for-profit beverage company, so creating the incentive for non-profit to seek funding from other sources.

“Most companies would brag about how much they funded their foundations, but we wanted to do the opposite. We wanted the foundation to be autonomous and not beholden to the business, so that it could empower the farmers to push back against the company when necessary and uphold the highest standards always.”

Gage provides a strong sense of the deep thought that went into the company’s core philosophy and the best enabling structure to bring that vision to life. In my opinion, this puts him in a class above many leaders who may attempt this at a superficial level, or who soon abandon the pursuit of purpose by putting it in the too-hard-basket once things become thorny.

Securing investment

Before long, Runa had to secure investors to stay afloat. As Gage points out, no matter how beautiful your mission, without a sustainable and profitable business to deliver it, the mission is pointless. With the company’s headquarters now in New York, Gage and MacCombie had a crash course in raising venture capital and equity financing. Using a convertible debt structure, the pair managed to cobble together enough money to survive, time and time again. For fledgling social entrepreneurs who need venture capital to build or grow their company, ‘Fully Alive’ provides some valuable tips and anecdotes about what it’s really like in the trenches and the personal resilience required to hustle effectively over an extended period.

“We [also] decided to be honest about where we were struggling. To be vulnerable is to be real, to build trust and create confidence in what matters most. Everyone fully expects that there will be problems with a start-up and I’ve heard investors say that they’re often turned off by entrepreneurs who can’t exit the ‘Everything is AMAZING! We are KILLING IT!’ loop.”

When sales, marketing and capital raising started to take over, Gage lets down his guard even more by sharing some of the mistakes he’s made. Again, some wonderful stories for entrepreneurs to learn from. It’s always refreshing to see the human side of someone who so clearly has ‘made it’.

Wrap-Up

While in some sections, the book delves into shamanism and spiritual philosophy, which are not necessarily my cup of tea (excuse the pun), ‘Fully Alive’ is a superbly accessible book on the trials and tribulations of building and growing a complex social enterprise in a fiercely competitive industry.

I learned tonnes about the beverage industry and about FMCG supply chains and retail markets more broadly. I also appreciated the author sharing his own personal journey, including his vulnerability when challenged by his board to either ‘shape up or ship out’ where he almost lost control of the company he and MacCombie had built from the ground up. His transition from the ‘hero hustler’ mentality of a start-up entrepreneur to a gentler, more collaborative style as CEO to guide Runa into the next phase of operations was an unexpected surprise and provided another valuable lesson.

Enjoyable, instructive read. Highly recommended.

Reviewer: Emma Pethybridge