♪ -next, a "kqed newsroom" special on local business leaders changing the way we live, work, and connect with our commuties. -we sent out to build a resource that connected neighbors to the information that wasost relevant to them. -a co-founder talks about helping neighbors tear down walls online. also, an executive at reddit talks about the challenges facing the popular online forum. -what n have tried to focus, what is the core that makes reddit powerful? and it's that conversation. -plus, we hear how one startup is wning over consumers by ditching brand labels. -millennials don't want to buy the products they grew up with, because those brands were "trust marks," and they lt trust. -and a ceo's mission to make the food industry more green. -it's very personal, and it's very high-impact. we need to do something about our broken food system. -hello. i'm thuy vu. welcome to a special edition of "kqed newsroom."

on this program, we're re-visiting interviews from our archives with game-changing business leaders who are using the web to create and strengthen communities or pioneering new alternatives to staples who are using the web to create in our fridge and pantry.s we also ask them about the difficulties silicon valley has had with diversity, our first conversation is with prakash janakiraman, the co-founder and chief architect of nextdoor. the san francisco company allows neighbors to create private networks online to share resources and information about their communities.pa according to the c,nline more than 180,000 neighborhoods from the us to europe are using nextdoor to share hyperlocal content. and we want to disose that kqed is a media partner of nextdoor, using its service to deliver content to four bay area cities. welcom t -thanks for having my. -so, how did the idet? for nextdoor come ab -so, aboutwhen we firstago,ar d the company, we noticed a trend of social networks becoming more ubiquitous and mainstream.

facebook for your friends. twitter to connect with people with whom you shared interests. and of course linkedin for your professional network. twitter to connect with people with whom you shared interests. but we found it sort of strange that there was not a network where you could connect with the people right outside your front door -- your neighbors, the people that were most important to yo in your local community -- and so we set out to build a resource n that connectghbors to the information that was most relevant to them, and thatut now nextdoor came a -so, what are some of the most interesting interactions you've seen among neighbors on nextdoor? because, you know, i've used it. i've used it to ask for moving boxes when i was moving, and then gave it back to other people when i wasn'to i posted them. and there are certainly a lot of posts i see about missing dogs -- and found dogs. but there was also someone who found an organ donor. -yeah, that's inght. we've seen every from day-to-day kinds of recommendations that neighbors exchange with one another for babysitters, plumbers, auto mechanics. but we've also seen more critical use cases, for example, in hurrharvey especor the napa wildfiress.an or the ventura county wildfires,

we've seen neighbors banding together when the public infrastructurn especially 911 or first responders. and in the case of the liver donor, we did see that a neighbor put out a message saying, "hey, one of our neighbors is in the hoital and looking for someone to donate an organ," and we actually found a liver donor wiin the neighborhood community, if you can imagine that. -earraordinary. -so a widety of different use cases. -yeah. but, you know, there are ts of other entities that offer similar services, right? you could do facebook groups. craigslist has a function where you could form a group.o there argrown forums. why should people use nextdoor? what sets you apart? -so, i think there are two things that really set us apart. the first is, when you look at networks like fac or twitter or some of these other social networks, these are largely platform for self-expression. they're a place for you to share photos, status updates, and really reveal a little bit more about yourself. nextdoor is purely utility-driven. people are coming n nextdoor to use theghbors as a resource to help them solve problems. and the ses nd thing that i thinkique

about nextdoor is, everyone that you' interacting with is a verified member of the neighborhood community. each neighborhood is a geographically-bounded entity on nextdoor. -how do you verify thaey a? -we have a number of different ways that we verify. we can do mobile-phone verification. we can do verification via postcard, through the mail, where you redeem an invitation token that proves that you actuallyo and take it out. we have a number of different and once people are verified, that increases the level of trusthe thatre interacting with people who are actually in their neighborhood, and facilitates a wide variety of more intimate types of exchanges than on these other platforms. -and in this world where the internet is sobiquitous, as you say, there's a concern that people aren't interacting face-to-face more. sociwhy is a neighborhood network necessary? why can't neighbors just go out and say, "hey. -yeah, i think we combatid let's chat face-to-face.e that has been happening in the united states especially over the past 50 years of a decline in community. in fact, onetif the inspiring stat that we saw

when we started the company was that 29% of americansno claim to very few of their neighbors, and 28% of americans claim to know not single neighbor by name. so you're talking about over half the population with very muak ties into their cty. and so, as strange as it may seem in our kind of modern, technological world, to use an appe to facilitese in-person interactions in the community, it actually is happening. we feel like our job is best performed when an online interaction on nextdoor leads to an offline interaction. when you needed boxes, for ultimately, you had to go interact with someone to exchange the boxe and now you know a new neighbor in your community. and we see that all the me. -you've also had some growing pains, like many tech companies. there have been some problems wi racial profiling. residents were posting urgent alerts, for example, about people of color in their neighborhoods. -yeah. -what have you done to address this? teeah, first, we were defi shocked to see

our platform being used in this way. d especially as a bay area native, hearing about communities in oakland, where we first became aware of ts happening, was a real shock to the system. but weseorked together with tommunities to re-design our product in a way that i think is almost unprecedente in technology, where we changed the product. -how did you re-design? -so, a few things that were really important to us were, number one, to make people aware of the fact that they were using descriptive text without the context around what actually was suspicious about the activity. so we introduced friction into the posting processor to people to be more specific about the circumstances under whicthey were posting, not to be purely describing peoplera on the ceristics of their race without some additional context as to what was suspicious. you know, a person of color riding a bike in a neighborhood is not in and of itself worthy of putting out an urgent alert to all of your neighbors. but if they're casing the neighborhood or breaking into cars,

now, that's the descriptive text that accompanies it. -so, then, what kinds of posts -- how do you regulate something like this? because what about other kinds of postss -- that other people may find offensive, maybe concerning gender or religion.ra where do youthe line? -well, we expect, through our community guidelines, that neighborhed leads are responsi for sort of mandating the social decorum of theommunities in which we land this product., derstanding that we are in 180,000 different neighborhoods across the country, the product takes on a lot of the identity of the communities in which you land it. and so there are, in some cases, local, specific issues that need to be discussed, but neediso be done with civilurse in mind. and so our community guidelines, our neighborhood leads, and then we have a support team back at hq that helps when those neighborhood lea feel like they're a little bit beyond their capabilit. but we try and self-moderate. -and, in 10 seconds, are you making any moneyet?

-we are starting to earn revenue through sponsored posts, native advertising in the feed and in our e-mails, and now with realtors, as well. -nextdoor co-founder prash janakiraman. thank you so much. -thank you. -turning now from connecting neighborhoo to bringing together millions of people online. imagine a free website ere you can find more than 100,000 discussion forums on pretty much any topic imaginable. welcome to reddit. since its launch in 2005, reddit has become the fourth most popular website in the us. each month, hundreds of millns of visitors comment on and post links to various topics, known as subreddits. but with that growth comes challenges. like facebook, twitter, and other social media, reddit irograppling with how to ptect free speechgh while fiting hate speech and online bullying. here now to talk about all of this is the general counsel and vice president of reddit, melissa tidwell. melissa, nice to have you here. -thanks for having me. -so, reddit is one of the most popular websites, not only in the us, but in the world. yet it doesn't have the same name recogtion as,

why do you think thabook.is -you know, i think it's a couple of things. when i started at the company in 2015, we were about 60 people, and now we're about 400. -that's hypergrowth. -it's a lot of growth. but, you know, in comparison to, sort of, our user growth, we're an incredibl small company. and so, in terms of users sort of being out there,an the brand perception, some users are doing interesting things for the world, m and some users want ntain their privacy and have that. -how do you balance reddit uss' right to free speech -yeah, i mean, i think we're having while monitoring and even shutting down hate speech? a great conversation today those questions. i think for reddit, we are focusing on a couple of things. as i said, part of our growth is growing the company, and growing the functions that we need to have for the company to be successful. we so for us, that meanave an actual policy team now that thinks about these things from a big-picture perspective. we have a trust and safety team, which are the enforcers, and that ensure that, as we have policies,

they can enforce at scale. we have the anti-evil engineering team. -that's what they're called? anti-evil engineering team? -our current name. and so they help us build the tools.o u think that social-media sites have an obligationha to curful content, including conspiracy theories? -you know, it's a great question.us i think foas a company, what we are focused on is ensuring that the conversation is healthy. i think 's're at a time where mportant to have hard conversations, and it's important tt, as a platform, we recognize that and facilitate it. it's not okay to allow a small number ovoices to short of over-shout what's happening, and that's a hard thing to manage. what we have tried to focus on is,re what is the that makes? and it's that conversation. if there's an article postat about the washingtonnals is it people shoutoover er they made the playoffs --g and yelling about the players, or is it people talking about what was awful about them not making it, and what they should do about it.

we are trying to encourage ose types of behaviors, and we try and do that in different ways.at sometimes with our community management team, to reach out to the moderators to say,ey your conversation has gone off the rails. get your users back on track. focus on what the topic of your community is." -or else what? -or else we'll take action. -and how do reddit users differ from users of cebook, twitter, or other social media? -i would say, one of the big lessons for me was the importance of thinking about the reddit community. come from google to reddit, we do postser on aconsistent basis where we engage with our users. and they're very honest. they give really -- we're almost like politicians. they give us real-time feedback on what they think we're doing right and what they think we're doing wrong. -and they're anonymous, too. -they're pseudo-anonymous, so it's just a user name and password that's required to create an account and take action. -so, on the one hand, that could be good, lk because if you were g about sensitive topics, like maybe an eating disorder or something, you don't want your identity know. but does staying anonymous also make it easier

to bully someone, or trolling? -you know, perhaps it does.but s people to sort of stand up.re i think on other-name platforms, there's a risk of, how are your friends gonna react to what you're saying, right? he and i think part ofeauty -- we have a community called ask a trump supporter, which isc i think, a gremunity of people who are saying, "listen, i don't agree with everything he says, but i'm here to be a rational voice as to, from a policy perspective, what's actually happening." -what about fake accounts? facebook has come under re for allowing fake accounts -wto influence electionss? or to fan political tensions. are fake accounts a problem for you as well, and what do you do about it? -that's a great question.a for us ampany, we have voting on our platform, upvoting and downvoting. one of our rules is that there is not allowed to be vote manipulation. so, from our very early days,o we havsed on the integrity of the vote. and that means, for us, looking whether the users are bots or actual real users, ensuring that we're fighting spam and dealing with those issues. at the same time, there are good bots.

at the beginning of posting,ave the rules of the community. you, so politics, as a community, will say, "we require civil discussion." that is an automated bot, something that reminds the users. i so i this important for us to remember that there are good bots and things that can be helpful to users, valley's diversity gap, as well. prior to reddit, you spent eight years as an attorney at google. so you've been able to sort of break through the ranks. but you're a rarity. -mm-hmm. -studies show, government figures show that, in tech companie 8 the executive level white. it's nrly 70% men. what can you d mto change that and moe women ansipeople of color into ons of tech leadership? -it's definitely a problem in tech, and i think tech is starting to realize that. -it's definitely a problem in tech, as a black female executive, one of the very few,

k i thcouple of things are really important., number o's important that you have the conversation at the executive level. so, i started at the company. steve huffman, who's our ceo, came probably a month or two after i did. and we've had a very open and honest conversation about diversity and the importance of it. -what do you do about it? a -you have tonowledge the issue, and you take steps to address it. i think, for us, as an executive team, our executive team reflects diversity, and therefore our reports reflect diversity. it's not shocking that, as a minority executive, i then have three out of fouwomen who are my leads. it's not shocking that the diversity of my own team is much more intuitive, because i'm looking for different things. i am looking for different perspectives. and we try and talk about that as a company, as to how other teams can sort of think differently. you can't just search on linkedin. you can't just look for, "i need someone who has exactly done thisat this ty. you have to think outside the box and do it in different ways.

and so i think it's a problem that's never-ending, and something that you just have to continually work at. and so i think it's a problem -one step at a time. melissa tidwell, general counsel at reddit. uthank you for being wi -thank you. -moving on now from the way we connect to the way we shop. uthank you for being wi brandless is an e-commerce startup based in san francisco. the so-called anti-brand goits start in 2017 with a mission to offer quality products at a very low cost. their inventory includes a broad range of everyday necessities, from food to beauty products to office supplies, each with a price tag of $3. kqed's marisa lagos sat down with the c of brandless, tina sharkey. -tina, thanks for coming in. -thank you so much for having me. -so, every wing at brandless is $3,ch is very low. tell me what kind of products we're talking about. the whole idea of brandless was zeto create a simple, orga edited assortment of thehings that you love, from chips to crackers to cooes, you name it.

and then in the essentials -- so, organic spices or organic all-purpose flours and ba png mixes -- as well sonal care -- so fluoride-free toothpaste, essential-oil mouthwash. -was there a particular moment that sort of drove you to create this brand? b you've been iness for a while and done a lot of other things that are pretty differentfr. -yeah. i would say what's interesting is, it all started with my co-fouer. ido leffler and i decided that we actually wantedd it all started with my co-fouer. to change the wogether in our own small, humble way. and we were both doing lots of other things at the time, but we said, "let's carve out the timeac and the to actually figure out what's broken and what we want to fix." i came from building communities.bu i came froding commerce and media and direct consumer experiences, creating consumerd he cm packaged-goods products. so i said, "what if we were to, like, fuse it and build a community that's based on something that's bigger than anything that we sell?" -- this whole idea thacewe could democratize

to better things at fair prices for everyone. so we set off to do that. -so, how are millennial customers different from, maybe, their parents? -it's so interalting about the millenonsumer, because think of them as first time head-of-household, right? either they're setting up their llege dorm room or they are setting up their first apartment or they're having babies.en mial moms are gonna be the largest segment of moms. they probably already are.he and ifre not, they will be in two seconds. 78% of millennials have said they don't want to buy the product that they grew up with or that their parents used. -that's so interesting to me, because i feel like produc branding is so ingrained in us. -i know, but it's changing. because today, the brands of yesterday don't represent the value system. and i think it's like 67% of americans say -- not just millennials --p they want to som a company that represents their values. and so millennials don't want to buy the products they grew up with because those brands were "trust marks," and they lost trust.

so people are turning over their taste. it's millennials, but it's also pennials -- people who are changing their habits, changing t,ir consumption patter and changing the brands that they want to reach for. -you call yourself a social capitalist. i mean, how important is it, from a business perspective, too,y to have a compat's sort of aimed at the broader good? i know you guys give money to programs for feeding folkwhen yo. -yeah, so, we partner with feeding america. there's 41 million people in this country that go hungry every day, and feeding erica is the largest hunger-relief organization in this country, with the broadest networ of food banks. when you check out at brandless, we will purchase a meal through feeding america in your honor, because we believe that the doing in life is wt matters, and we don't wait for giving tuesday. every time you can do a tangible act of kindness is just kind of how brandless rolls. so ourg ommunity is always doings. and, in fact, as we celebrated our first anniversary, we'd already gonen away over 1.6 mileals. -wow. so you have a lot of experience

as an entrepreneur, an executive. you co-founded ivillage which, at the time,t was the largline community for women. you were president of babycenter. how's the business landscape changed as a woman in tech, and business broadly? i -you knos funny, but i never really identified as a woman or a man in terms of who i was as a leader. i'm tina. and i have my experience. i have my passions. i'm also a mom. i'm also a friend. i'm also a sister. i'm lots of things. but when i show up at work,er i'm a leho's there to build an extraordinary business, and i don't think of it as "it's a female-run business." it's a business that fully expresses the commitment and passion of the people that come to work for use and vement that we're building. and so i think the landscape has changed in that having that real seat at the table is something that's very, very important, because i represent not only my own business experience,al but also my persxperience.

and 89% of the purchasing in this count is done by women, so the idea that women wouldn't have a seat at the tabley for nsumer business -- let alone any business to begi. with -- is kind of cra but i don't think about it as, "oh, i'm a woman, therefore..." i think "i'm tina, and this is my experience." and i don't want to be "labeled" or given an advantage other than my skills, my passion, and what i'm building and executing. -so, what would be your biggest for aspiring entrers?iceen -i would say always be your authentic self, because authenticitycales. bring smarter people around you that complement your skill set and complement what you can bring to the table. always make room. in divor race or ethnicity.it'sr it might be about style.ab it might bt approach. and so not everybody has the same approach to things. -right. -but as an entrepreneur, part of your job is to sort of convene a diverse set of voices,

a diverse set of experiences, and a diverse set of opions, and then surround yourself with people who actually want to stay with you and your movement ul for the long game. -fs. well, tina sharkey, thank you so much for coming in. -thank you for having me. -our next ceo created method, a line of environment-friendly cleaning products. adam lowry sold method in 2012 and embarked on a new mission to reduce the planet's carbon footprint. his new company is ripple foods, located in emeryville. its flagship product is a non-dairy milk made from peas. that's right, peas. all right, so, milk made from peas. why peas? -yeah, that's right. pea milk, eh? -yeah. -you know, peas are high in protein. w and the situation right , most alternatives to dairy products are actualrn pretty bad dairy alives. they don't have any protein in them, or have very little, and most people agree that they're kind of thin and watery. so by making milk out of pease anwe were able to omething they'rreally high in proteinery.

and at the end of the day, but that's the way we're gonnas. get more people to eat healthier, more nutritious, anmore sustainable foods. -you're a chemical engineer by training. you were a climate scientist at one point. where did the inspiration for this company comfrom? does your environmental training come into it? -yeah, partially. i think a big part of this story, also, is my co-founder, neil renninger, who's a phd biochemist. he's the real scientist between the two of us. and he created a way to get totally pure protein out of any plant source. and when you do that, it's tasteless. ma p people don't know thteins have no flavor. so if you get really pure protein from plants, you can make foods out of it that are really delicious. and then they are foods that a lot more people will buy and enjoy. -and i think you wphe also inspired by thiosophy of trying to cut down on the carbon footprint, right? -mm-hmm. -tell us about that. -yeah. i mean, you mentioned that i do have a background as a climate scientist. that was a lg time ago. and that was a big part of the inspiration for my first business, method, trying to use a business

to create social and environmental impact. now, fortunately, that's become a much more mainstream idea nowe to create social food is even moronal, impact. and has even more impas on our environment and on our health, of course, than cleaning products, and so that was why i really wanted to get into food, because it's very personal, and it's very high-impact. we need to do something about our broken food system, that are really delicious that people enjoy. -and that don't cause a lot of carbon output, for example, beca pe dairy products and meducts contribute to the carbon footprint. -yeah, exactly. so, dairy is about a quarter of our food carbon footprint,% -yeah, exactly. and food's about of our hu. that means dairy is about 8% of humanity's carbon footprint. and most of the alternatives are not much better. m you know, almok, for example, takes a lot of water. -mm-hmm. and i know that thisnas also the inspirat behind your method cleaning products, st your prior company, yoted it with your college buddy,

eric ryan, and in the beginning, you were actually making different method formulas in your bathtub. -that is correct. yeah, it wic sort of the most irlace you could think of a cleaning-products company being born, which is the b ihelor pad of five gutheir mid-20s. -a probably not-so-clean bachelor pad. -it was exactly as clean as you would think it would be. and, yeah, we made the product there. actually used beer pitchers and things like that initially, and we were selling it door-to-door to ocery stores. but now method is actuallyn the largest gr cleanin. -is it really? -mm-hmm. n -that's a great sililley story, isn't it? but silicon valley has come a long way. it makes amazing productsli that bs of people use around the world. but there's also been criticism that silicon valley companies don't do enough to be good corporate citizens. for examplon things lik. what are your thoughts on that? -well, i think in today'sik. environment, you have to have a civic identity that has a sense of purpose as a company.

it's no longer appropriate for a company to just sit on the sidelines. now, what i don't mean is at a company has to b overtly political. thern is a difference betwlitics and policy. and i think that businesses have a responsibility to put forward ideasou how they can make the world a better place, whether that be environmental or whether that be social, whatever the issue may be. and i think that it's -- -do you think silicon valley has done enough on that front? -well, clearly there are some places where silicon valley s some ways to go. i mean, it's the hotbed of innovation. there's a spirit of creativity here that's absolutely fantastic. and i think we've seen some examples where we need to do better as an overall business community in this area. so i think that's where examining the impacts that a business can have socially and environmentally is really critical, and then being conscious and deliberate about trying to do better in those areas. -yeah.

and just real quickly, since we're on the topic this week we saw a number of companies step forward on the gun-control debate,it and delta cutting their discounts for nra members, for example, walmart and dick's sporting goods changing their gun-sales policies. how do you feel taout companies takings on controversial issues? -yeah, i think it's important for companies to have a point of view, and to sre that point of view. and as i said, it can be a little bit of a tricky line when it starts to toe the line into politics, and the sausage-making politics. but i don't think it's appropriate anymore and the sausage-making to not be involved. i think that trust in societal institutions,tr t in business is really at an all-time low,d need to rebuild that by saying, "hey, this is what we stand for. this is what we think is right and wrong." and live that. -okay.-f adam lowry, nder and ceo of ripple foods. thanks for being here. -yeah. thanks for having me. -and that will do it for us. for more of our coverage, go to kqed.org/newsroom.

i'm thuy vu. ♪ thank you for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivas: on this edition for sunday, february 24: the political crisis in venezuela continues while blocked humanitarian aid amasses at the borders.an in our signature segment, a treasure trove of jazz great louis armstrong artifacts and gathe effort to carry his forward. next on pbs newshour weend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. the cheryl and philip milsteina ly. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vage the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. icorporate fundinrovided by mutual of america--