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John Sage
Co-founder, Pura Vida

How Do You Take Your Coffee?
Stanford Discussions
29 minutes, 13.3mb, recorded 2006-11-08
Image caption: John Sage
John Sage

Sugar, sweetener, or straight. Non-fat, two-percent, whole, soy, or black. Filter or press. Caffeinated or decaffeinated. Organic or conventional.

Thanks to John Sage, coffee drinkers now have another java option: purchased at a fair price or not. As co-founder and CEO of Pura Vida, Sage has helped Fair Trade coffee become a regular at U.S. breakfast tables and coffee houses. At the same time, the company has helped better the lives of people in coffee-growing regions.

Pura Vida, whose name means "pure life" in Spanish and is used as a greeting in Costa Rica, is more than a charity-minded corporation or a nonprofit organization with earned-income strategies. Instead, Pura Vida uses every aspect of its products, processes, and profits for social good. With the financial support of customers and partners, the company works to give better health, educational opportunities, and strength of spirit to children and families in coffee-growing countries. The company also seeks to challenge the prevailing mindset that business and philanthropy are at opposite ends of a spectrum, guided by different motivations and destined to remain apart. Cofounders John Sage and Chris Dearnly believe that a new generation of organizations like Pura Vida can produce meaningful, sustainable, and lasting improvements to our world.


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John Sage spent more than 10 years managing marketing teams and new product initiatives for such leading companies as Microsoft, Disney, and Starbucks. He is a popular public speaker and recognized leader in the growing field of social entrepreneurship. Sage cofounded Pura Vida Coffee in 1998 with the goal of building a for-profit funding engine that would sustain a wide range of charitable programs. He holds a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard.

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This program is from our Stanford Discussions series.

For The Conversations Network:

  • Post-production audio engineer: Robb Lepper
  • Website editor: Bernadette Clavier
  • Series producer: Bernadette Clavier