The Purpose Pledge: Changing Capitalism As We Know it, with Dr Bronner’s Les Szabo

‘Dr. Bronner’s Has a Plan to Change Capitalism as We Know It.’ That’s the headline that Inc. Magazine ran with on the recent launch of the Purpose Pledge. Describing it as ‘a new gold standard of social entrepreneurship,’ the article led off with this: ‘The B Corp and the billionaires’ Giving Pledge are broken—so says the team at Dr. Bronner’s.’ Well, it might be a bit more nuanced than that, but Bronner’s has discontinued its B-Corp certification. 

I spoke with CEO, David Bronner, at the company’s HQ in California a couple of years ago, for episode 207, about the incredible story of this top-selling brand of natural soaps, body care and food products. Since David became CEO in 1998, the company has grown from $4 million in revenue to $250 million, and all while continuing to change so much about the systems and stories we live by.

Back then, this podcast happened to be the first to feature the breaking news that the Purpose Pledge was readying for launch. That launch happened earlier this year. And today, more breaking news, as another four companies have just signed on.

The key architect behind the Pledge, and its Executive Director, is Les Szabo. He’s the quietly spoken Chief Strategy and Impact Officer at Dr. Bronner's, described to me as having flown under the radar for a long time. Part of the family behind the family in a way, as his wife is also a senior long-term executive at the company. And how they met and came to be where they are at Bronner’s, and with Les now launching the Pledge (and related Fund), is one enormous, heart-rending, death-defying, instructive, hopeful and crazily serendipitous story, that in large parts I sense hasn’t been shared before. 

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 13 August 2026.

Les’s blog on the Dr Bronner’s site. 

My conversation with David Bronner back in episode 207, from May 2024. 

And with the couple behind Food Connect in Brisbane, who have used the term ‘careholder’ since their successful crowd-funded equity raise, which we first talked about for episode 28, Transforming Food, Finance & Society.

Episode 227 featured Joel Caldwell talking about his award-winning short film The Green Buffalo.

For a short story about the uncanny moment that took place after this conversation, that's in my latest Substack piece.  

Music: 

Honey Mustard, by Randy Sharp (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

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