Page 29 - Entrepreneur-November 2018

MOST DARING
ENTREPRENEURS

Boots Riley
Director/ Sorry to Bother You
Bold move/ Tackling labor issues with laughs
oots Riley is the rapper turned award-winning auteur behind Sorry to Bother You, this year’s satire that Franco Brockelman
B hilariously (and horrifyingly) skewers corporate America. Riley’s directorial debut (at the age of 47) was
inspired by his past experience as a telemarketer and a union organizer. While he’s thrilled with the film’s critical Cofounder and CEO/ Releaf
and commercial reception, he hopes audiences see beyond its absurd laughs. “If you are a business owner— Bold move/ Measuring the
as most of the folks reading this magazine are—look at the reasons why you are creating your business,” he effects of marijuana
says. “Explore how labor adds value to the commodities that are sold versus who gets the lion’s share of the
ranco Brockelman’s mother
wealth. There’s an injustice there that is built into the economy. We all have a place in that.”
F wanted to use cannabis to ease
her arthritic pain, but she didn’t know
which strain would be best—and
neither did anyone else. Because
marijuana is still largely restricted, gov-
ernment-sanctioned research organiza-
tions face mountains of red tape when
trying to study its effects. Brockelman
decided to fill the void by building
Releaf, an app that collects real-time
data from opt-in users. His service then
finds patterns of who is helped by what
and how, ultimately identifying which
varieties of medical marijuana may be
best for an individual’s illness. “Our
big-picture goal is to have the largest
and most comprehensive cannabis
observational study and efficacy data
set in the world,” says Brockelman.

Tammy Sun P H O T O G R AP H B Y G E T T Y I M A G E S / R O B B Y KLE I N (R I L E Y ) ; P H O T O G R AP H C O U R TE S Y O F CAR R O T ( S U N ) ; P H O T O G R A P H B Y CAR O LY N MAR U T (B R O C K E L MAN)
Cofounder and CEO/ Carrot
Bold move/ Changing the
conversation on benefits
or decades, fertility treatment was a
Fluxury out of reach for most workers;
most companies simply didn’t include it
in their benefits packages. And although
Tammy Sun built Carrot’s software to
help companies include it, a very limited
range of businesses actually got on
board—mostly wealthy tech firms like
Foursquare and Coinbase. (Carrot helps
companies contribute what they can to
cover procedures like IVF and surrogacy,
and also serves soon-to-be-expectant
employees with clinic matching.) But in
the past year, she’s noticed a shift in
culture: Employees are demanding cov-
erage, and companies outside of tech,
such as financial services and retail, are
turning to Carrot for a solution. “The
future of work and of fertility are closely
aligned,” Sun says.

48 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / November 2018