“The higher our product quality, the more customers we will have. And the more that we sell, the more opportunities we have to give, and the more people are hearing about the brand. But I do think it’s important to say, you must have a great product. Nobody cares about your mission until they see that you have a great product.”
At this point, history will likely look back on our era as the age of the water bottle. Yeti, Stanley, and a constellation of related tumblers fill hands and cupholders everywhere. Remember last year when Saturday Night Live managed to burn half the American population with its “Big Dumb Cup” sketch?
One of the big players in the Cup Game is Simple Modern, a retail company booming thanks to its drinkware and licensed collaborations. If you don’t know Simple Modern for its totally-not-dumb cups, you may know it for co-founder and former Cru minister Mike Beckham’s radical generosity. The company donates at least 10 percent of its annual profits to charities. And Beckham, who reportedly owns 45 percent of the company, has publicly committed to giving away 98 percent of his personal earnings.
Earlier this year, Beckham talked with Common Good editors about these commitments and how generosity interacts with a for-profit business model.
Why do you think there’s such a big market for drinkware right now? Anything you can point to?
I think there’s a major trend towards health and being good stewards of resources among consumers. People are more aware of single-use plastics, and they are more aware of the need to stay hydrated. Consumers are smarter, more health conscious, and more mobile than ever before, and they are concerned about waste reduction. We are so happy to be meeting a need and providing products that perfectly intersect what we’re seeing among consumers.
Will you share the short version of how you went from Cru to consumer goods?
I think I knew I wanted to leave full-time ministry and enter the business world because I saw the potential impact that I could have in business. There’s a lot of things in the world that have been changed in dramatic ways because of business, and a lot of examples of businesspeople using their companies and their influence to create tremendous change. I wanted to try to do that too. When I was in college ministry, I could impact a few hundred students. But, today, we have millions of customers helping us be an impact for good everywhere. Since we exist to give generously, we’re able to bring good to so many more people. I’ve found that business just multiplies the magnitude of potential for impact.
What’s the difference in your mind between campus ministry work and running a company?
They’re more similar than you would think. Running a business is about leading, motivating, developing people, and it’s about leading yourself. I’ve been surprised at how much overlap there is with the work I did in ministry. Plus, I’m the same person who led both organizations, so naturally I bring the same mindset into both worlds. The same values that I had, the same goals that I had, most of them find their way into the fabric of Simple Modern as well.
Most of the press about Simple Modern, as well as your public positioning, understandably, relates to your giving commitments. How does giving relate to the making of products?
No giving happens if people don’t buy Simple Modern products. And our whole thought toward products starts with looking at giving holistically. We are trying to be generous across every facet that we can. So, when you offer somebody a product where the quality makes them feel they are getting more than what they paid for, that’s a form of generosity. And when our customers feel valued and appreciated, that powers our economic flywheel, which powers our financial giving and our generosity with our employees. Quality is a form of generosity. And if we didn’t make great, quality products, we couldn’t be generous anywhere else.
What makes good drinkware, bags, etc.? What makes a Simple Modern product?
The three characteristics we pay closest attention to are quality, expression, and value. We ask questions like, “How does it hold up, and does it have the features that you feel like it has to have style?” “Do you feel like it expresses yourself,” and “Do you feel like you got great value for the money you spent? Do you feel like what you got is more than what you paid for?” And then we try and optimize across those three dimensions.
How do you balance quality and mission? Are they in competition at all?
I don’t think so. We try not to pit them against each other, but we view them as fueling each other. The higher our product quality, the more customers we will have. And the more that we sell, the more opportunities we have to give, and the more people are hearing about the brand. But I do think it’s important to say, you must have a great product. Nobody cares about your mission until they see that you have a great product. You lead with great product, and then they become very open to hearing about your mission.
Now, beyond the company’s giving strategy, you’ve committed to giving away 98 percent of your personal earnings. Why?
There’s a practical, an ethical, and a spiritual side. The practical side is that there’s just very little evidence that massive amounts of wealth accumulating in individuals or families’ hands is a net positive. There are plenty of counterfactuals to that, but there’s just not a lot of good examples. I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m just saying that the gravity works against you. I think the ethical side of it is that it’s very difficult to look at the world and income inequality and the vastly different circumstances that people find themselves in and not feel compelled to do something about it and not to feel some sense of responsibility. And then I think the spiritual side of it is that I believe God’s been extremely generous with me, and because of that, naturally, I’m motivated to reflect that kind of generosity to other people.
