May 22, 2025

1124: PRESERVING CULTURE through entrepreneurship (and a fully-funded Kickstarter campaign!) w/ Nadine Zaza

What if entrepreneurship could be a tool for preserving cultural heritage? That’s exactly what Nadine Zaza, founder of Culture Crate, is doing. With a background in architecture, human-centered design, and cultural strategy, Nadine has built a mission-driven business that brings intangible cultural heritage to life through experiential learning kits.

In this episode, Nadine shares her journey from working with refugee educators to building a business that safeguards cultural traditions—all while successfully launching a crowdfunded Kickstarter campaign. Whether you’re passionate about mission-driven business, crowdfunding, or education, you’ll walk away inspired by her insights on building a purpose-driven brand that makes a lasting impact.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

🔹 How to turn your passion for social impact into a business model
🔹 What it takes to run a successful Kickstarter campaign (and why it validates your idea)
🔹 The power of human-centered design in product creation and how to use it
🔹 Why storytelling is your most valuable marketing asset (and how Nadine leveraged it)
🔹 How to ethically source materials and build a values-aligned supply chain
🔹 The importance of co-designing with the communities you serve

📝 About Nadine Zaza

Nadine Zaza is a designer, entrepreneur, and cultural strategist dedicated to preserving and celebrating global heritage through experiential learning. She founded Culture Crate in 2021, drawing from her experiences working with refugees, using design as a tool for social and cultural engagement, and her time at MIT, where she earned a Master of Science in Engineering and Management with a focus on human-centered design, entrepreneurship, and cultural preservation. With a background in Architecture and Design from RISD, she merges design thinking, storytelling, and business strategy to create impactful ways for people to engage with intangible cultural heritage. As an MIT-trained entrepreneur, she has built a mission-driven business, secured funding, and navigated the complexities of launching a social enterprise. She has pitched Culture Crate at SXSW EDU and successfully reached her Kickstarter funding goal, further solidifying her vision of making cultural traditions more accessible, interactive, and sustainable for future generations.

🎯 Nadine’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"The greatest power and impact you can have is through listening. Put your product down, put your vision down, and just listen."

📢 Memorable Quotes

🗣️ “Mission-driven entrepreneurship isn’t just a buzzword—it’s about co-designing with the communities you serve.” – Nadine Zaza

🗣️ “Education and tradition can coexist—our role as entrepreneurs is to make that connection tangible and accessible.” – Nadine Zaza

🗣️ “We don’t want to wait until cultural traditions are extinct to start preserving them.” – Nadine Zaza

💡 Actionable Takeaways

✅ Thinking of launching a product? Crowdfunding is a powerful way to validate market demand
✅ Want to build a mission-driven brand? Co-create with the communities you serve
✅ Struggling with marketing? Use storytelling to make your mission resonate
✅ Looking to make an impact? Find ways to make tradition relevant and accessible for modern audiences

🔗 Links & Resources

 

 

00:16 - Introduction and Overview

04:33 - Meet Nadine Zaza

51:28 - The Roots of Culture Crate

01:51:46 - Kickstarter Success and Goals

04:35:58 - Final Advice and Call to Action

14:19:39 - The Entrepreneurial Journey

WEBVTT

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, brian LoFermento, and I know that we always talk about how entrepreneurship is such a force for good in the world, but today, I think it's safe to say, for the first time ever on the show, we're talking about how entrepreneurship can actually help preserve culture, and we are joined by an incredible entrepreneur that is so mission-driven in what she does that she is making a big difference in the world, and you're gonna hear how she has rallied the troops together for amazing people to come together and help make this mission possible through a crowdfunding campaign where people have said, yes, we support this, we want to be a part of your mission, and that is so aligned with the great work that today's guest, nadine Zaza, is doing.

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Let me introduce you to nadine.

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She is a designer, entrepreneur and cultural strategist dedicated to preserving and celebrating global heritage through experiential learning.

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She founded her company culture crate all the way back in 2021, drawing from her experiences working with refugees, using design as a tool for social and cultural engagement, and her time at MIT, where she earned a Master of Science in Engineering and Management, with a focus on human-centered design, entrepreneurship and cultural preservation.

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With a background in architecture and design from Rhode Island School of Design, she merges design thinking, storytelling and business strategy to create impactful ways for people to engage with intangible cultural heritage.

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If you think to yourself, that is a lofty goal.

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That is quite ambitious.

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Well, that's what's so cool about Nadine's story.

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She has taken so many of her experiences, her perspective, her stories, her talents, her skills and combined it in all of these ways.

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As an MIT-trained entrepreneur, she has built a mission-driven business, secured funding and navigated the complexities of launching a social enterprise.

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She has pitched Culture Crate at South by Southwest EDU and successfully reached her Kickstarter funding goal, further solidifying her vision of making cultural traditions more accessible, interactive and sustainable for future generations.

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I'm personally so excited to learn from Nadine today, so I'm not gonna say anything else.

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Let's dive straight into my interview with Nadine Zaza.

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All right, nadine, I am so very excited that you're here with us today.

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First things first, welcome to the show.

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Yeah, thank you for having me.

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I'm so excited to be here.

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And again, thank you for that phenomenal introduction.

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Sometimes I forget that I've done some of those things, so it's good to hear it back.

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Yes, I love that.

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Well, honestly, that's only the tip of the iceberg.

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I could have gone on for a long time, because obviously I've done quite a bit of research ahead of you and I getting together today, and I'm excited to hear the story directly from you.

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Who's Nadine?

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How'd you start doing all these cool things?

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Well, I mean, first and foremost, I'm a child of immigrants.

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I, my family, came from Jordan, from the Middle East, and you know we lived in California and I think in our time being here I found that much of the education I was trying to experience and hear didn't always reflect my background, background and oftentimes the background of many other minority students, and that's kind of evolved and it's found its way in other ways that I've kind of engaged in my own education.

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I ended up studying design and architecture at RISD, which you had mentioned in the introduction.

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But even after that I wanted to make an even bigger impact than just designing.

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I wanted to see how I could really introduce design thinking and some of my own experiences and my identity into education.

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So I ended up working for an MIT-founded company and design education startup where I actually ended up building design education studios.

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So it was design studios but really at the root of it was culturally responsive teaching and I hadn't known that at the time but I was developing content and curricula that was really reflective of different students' backgrounds.

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And during that time I built I think it was about three years I was there I had built design studios where students kind of, could engage in their own identity or in, you know, large and complex social and cultural issues in a way that felt tangible, in a hands-on way.

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And culturally responsive pedagogy in its entirety has proven time and time again to be a really phenomenal strategy in education.

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It leads to higher graduation rates, to improve self-esteem and stronger critical thinking skills, not just for minority and students or students of color, but also for all students in a classroom.

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And when you combine that with the design thinking and you know, it builds this really powerhouse of learning and of education in this really hands-on way where students can really engage, create and innovate rather than just kind of absorb and lose that knowledge over time.

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And when I was doing this, I ended up not just building curricula and teaching but also training educators on how to teach this kind of design thinking and culturally responsive pedagogy.

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And I worked with a lot of educators from refugee backgrounds who were from Syria and also from Palestine, both in Turkey and Jordan, and oftentimes we were asking ourselves questions of you know, what is the future of education and how can we ensure that students who are coming from these backgrounds, who are coming from displacement, from war, from a lot of uncertainty, and ensure that they have that certainty built into them.

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And really those are the questions that help guide the creation of CultureCrate and also making it an accessible learning experience, not just for students.

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But it ended up evolving into becoming a product, an educational product for people and through a B2C market.

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And those questions then kind of led into my fascination with UNESCO, which is the United Nations Educational, scientific and Cultural Organization.

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And UNESCO has this intangible cultural heritage list.

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And heritage is actually so much more than ancient ruins and the historical landmarks that maybe you and I might be familiar with, but it's also the living, breathing narratives of our collective story.

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It's shaped humanity, and UNESCO created that list as a global effort to protect the stories, the songs, the rituals and the craftsmanship that really define who we are.

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And that list didn't exist until 2003.

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And it was only until 2008 that they started to inscribe some of these cultural practices in.

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And you know, when I first was looking into this list three years, three or four years ago, it was at 580 intangible cultural practices and now it's at 721.

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So you know, what we're seeing here is that there's a real challenge in, you know, getting traditions recognized, um, but it's not fast and it's not easy and as, as this list is growing, which it certainly is traditions are disappearing faster than we can really protect them.

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Uh, and it's, and it's also really interlinked with language.

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So, um, and that's also what I was specializing in, and how do we teach design education in maybe other languages as well?

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And you know, I found myself really building curriculum, but then I ended up wanting to pursue building Culture Crate, and that's when I ended up at MIT in a human centered design program to really advance the development of Culture Crate and from there, you know, just continuing to work towards, you know, preserving culture, alongside the cultural practitioners that have been safeguarding these practices for generations.

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Gosh.

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Nadine, I love that overview.

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You managed to pack so much into that because it's so clear that your journey really is the intersection of all these things that are deeply meaningful and impactful to you and, as someone who comes from an immigrant family myself, listeners know how much that plays into the way that I see the world, being a first generation American.

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My mom's family came here from Albania and, nadine, I know that that means you and I both probably grew up hearing so many stories from our parents and from our grandparents about what the motherland was like, what the old country was like and what their cultures and traditions were like, and it's so cool to see that you and I grew up with that.

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But you are now bringing it to the masses.

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You are ensuring in a really scalable and impactful way that this is something that prolongs and withstands the test of time.

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I'd love for you to share with listeners about how entrepreneurship, how you identified that as a powerful vehicle for positive change, for that cultural preservation, because, nadine, you're not just talking about this stuff, you're doing it in a really impactful way.

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And, yeah, thank you so much and I hope that I'm actually doing that.

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But you know, I think we've we've done a lot of testing.

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So I think this is really rooted in my human centered design background is, you know, you are also need finding.

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So you know, much of the questions that I started off with with these educators and even with myself was rooted in this serious need around connecting with culture and like a deeply intentional and an authentic way, which I think is really wanted by consumers most of the most of the time.

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And with education, I think it's clear to some extent too that you know it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for and when diaspora communities are growing and with these cultural practices also potentially going extinct within our lifetime, it is really critical that we engage and I think we were finding that really clear connection that you know tradition and education can coexist and you know, one of the things we're also looking at through these UNESCO, this UNESCO list, was that one of the biggest threats isn't just modernization or displacement, it's also just the breakdown of that knowledge, of transfer, and where that sweet spot is in being able to preserve these practices is in education and, as education has evolved.

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Many of these practices has evolved and we're trying to work alongside the practitioners to be able to pass down these systems of knowledge and really just help in actively preserving them and transferring it and ensuring that they survive and transferring it and ensuring that they survive.

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So one of the first things that we've done is A make sure that we're listening to people and in communities.

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So we did a lot of interviews with people.

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We built personas and from those personas we were trying to consider what is the attempt in how we solve for this and we found that people were most interested in getting a hands-on kit, because there is a popularity around educational kits.

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But what we were finding as well when we were doing product market research was that some of these educational kits were conflating, you know, maybe intangible cultural heritage or knowledge with, maybe heritage sites, and that that knowledge wasn't always articulated in the clearest way and oftentimes, you know, culture or people were, you know, being represented as a monolith and we were really looking at these nuances within the practices themselves and oftentimes in some of these educational kits they weren't even showing who the people were behind the learning and I think that that was doing a disservice to folks who really wanted to engage intentionally.

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So you know, we created this system.

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We were building this almost like mini curricula within our kit and what we're doing is looking at some of these cultural practices and kitifying.

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So we're scaling down the cultural practice to be a truly accessible bilingual experience that can be used in a hands-on way.

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So our first crate actually looks at Palestinian soap making, which is a tradition that's been around for over a thousand years, that has been practiced by the indigenous cultural practitioners within not only the occupied West Bank but across Palestine for quite some time, and our Kickstarter campaign that you had mentioned in the introduction is actually looking at that practice.

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So our first offering of culture crate is our Sabun crate, which is the Palestinian soap making kit, and we've kind of scaled down that experience of soap making into this kit and built a lot of content around it in history, lessons and understandings of language and chemistry, and what we found was that it's a really cross-curricular experience and we've pitched this and also built it for communities that are kind of in their first or second generation experience, so student or sorry, for people that are around our age, so you know, millennials or Gen Z, but oftentimes those are the folks that have been wanting this kind of knowledge and wanting this kind of learning.

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Yeah, nadine gosh, there are so many things that I want to get into with you here on the air, and I know that time is going to fly by, but I do want to hone in directly onto the Kickstarter, because I feel like it's the culmination of so many of these incredible things that you're doing and that you're putting into the world.

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I've obviously seen it.

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So, listeners, just so that you're putting into the world.

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I've obviously seen it.

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So, listeners, just so that you're all aware of the context.

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Nadine and I are having this conversation with still 20 days to go in her Kickstarter, and she has already gone past her fundraising target, and so what's really cool is we're going to drop, at the end of this episode, some information on how you can get involved, even though the Kickstarter will have finished by the time the episode airs.

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But still, nadine, talking about that Kickstarter, it's beautiful from a design element.

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It is so clear how intentional you've been into how you create and present this to the world and how you preserve that cultural component.

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However, at the same time, what I really admire is you've also married all of that with incredible business practice.

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You have gotten it in front of people.

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You've made it in a crowdfunding fashion, a thing that people can rally behind and get behind together.

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There's so many things that you've intentionally and strategically done right.

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Walk us through that whole process, because I am so in admiration of what you've built and put into the world.

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Yeah, thank you so much.

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And I think part of the biggest advice we were getting from folks and you know we were designing this for people in mind and you know we were getting advice and we were getting feedback from so many people and we realized that some of the best ways to actually, you know, fund a project to validate if it actually makes sense in the market is to do crowdfunding, which is, you know, it's meant for the people, it could be funded for the people.

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And Kickstarter felt like that really healthy starting off point for us to really validate and really see if our value proposition really stuck with folks.

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And, you know, for a DIY kit like this, you know there are a lot out there, but I think where our value proposition really lied was in the authenticity we were really offering in the kit and that you were also getting a sense that the at least for our Palestinian soap making kit, getting a sense that the at least for our Palestinian soap making kit, which is our first one that you know people are getting a really experiential learning moment where you open this kit up, you see the people behind the soap practice, you see the soap makers and then the people who are cultivating the agricultural lands throughout the West Bank, you are getting Palestinian olive oil, you are getting the knowledge around it.

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So, and also part of our proceeds is going towards building up the soap making efforts of families in the West Bank because, you know, there used to be 40 or 50 families that had factories.

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Now there's only two, with actually one of the soap factories being a UNESCO heritage site and you know, as time progresses, some of these practices and the knowledge around it may be lost and we don't want to wait for that.

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And I think this it is a deep honor to be able to have our first crate really reflect Palestinian culture and a people who have oftentimes been misunderstood and misrepresented, not just in education but, you know, in their long arc of you know them being in the media.

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So I'm really proud of this being our first offering and we're really excited, you know, in our longer mission and vision of Culture Crate, to be able to expand and explore the many other cultural practices that are intangible and that people really want to learn about and engage with.

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Yeah, nadine, I so appreciate the way that you articulate these things and the way that you do justice to the things that are meaningful.

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Even hearing you talk about the actual families behind it I mean even just you and I talking about it here I'm getting chills up and down my body, and it's because this stuff is it's deeply meaningful, meaningful to you and and I feel like it's a term that we throw around a lot in entrepreneurship is mission driven.

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We always talk about our mission and our values.

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To me, it's clear that that's the lens through which you design your products.

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That's the lens through which you write your marketing copy and do your marketing and talk about your business.

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And here you are in this podcast episode talking to us about all of these things.

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What does mission driven mean to you?

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How do you?

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Obviously, you're very clear on what your mission is, and I think it comes from your childhood and your family and your upbringing and all of those and, of course, your experiences.

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But how do you ensure that that actually comes to life in what it is that you do?

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Oh, what a great question.

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I mean, I think for us, mission driven feels like it has gone beyond just even what we're doing.

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I mean, we've been able to put our Sabun Crate and our different culture crate offerings in front of other folks, and you know the stories that they share with us, that they had their grandmothers making this kind of soap growing up, that the last time that they smelled the soap was when they were, you know, young kids, maybe when they were in Palestine, and they haven't been able to go back and I can't explain to you how meaningful it is to be able to create a product and to create an opportunity for people to engage in this way.

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Having gone to MIT and it's a very tech centered space I often ask myself like, well, what does it mean to create a product or a startup or social enterprise that is again mission driven, like many other startups, but we don't have tech as, like, that initial component.

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It's not initially how we were advertising ourselves and promoting ourselves and I oftentimes was asking like, who is being left behind when we are talking about tech?

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And oftentimes it's the people behind these practices and I just can't bring myself to create something in the world that's that is, that doesn't have them in mind, that doesn't have these indigenous cultural practitioners in mind, and I think being mission driven in what we're doing as well is also co-designing, and I think that's where that humanity and human centered design component comes in is that we are so dedicated to developing this alongside people, and I think that's precisely what that mission is, is co-design, and I think that's something that I've really always really taught my own students.

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Is that, what does it look like when you're a user centered designer?

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Who are you engaged with?

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Are you asking the difficult questions?

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Are you really creating a solution that is addressing the needs and also the problem at hand?

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And I think that that's truly what we've done, and I think that that has presented itself really clearly in us being able to reach that initial goal and, um, it's exciting and it's scary, and I think that that's the point of being an entrepreneur and creating something like this that is so social and cultural and is rooted in the deepest form of empathy and respect you can have for indigenous cultural practitioners, especially Palestinian ones, I think is such a tribute to them.

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It's such a tribute to folks that have you know, have honored these traditions for centuries, and I'm just grateful to be in their presence and to work alongside them.

00:20:27.691 --> 00:20:32.286
Yeah, nadine, and I always remind listeners when we have amazing entrepreneurs on like you.

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I like to remind listeners that you're not just doing this work, you are simultaneously one of us.

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You're also growing your own business and obviously, you've been living in and around it within the world of academia for so long that I think it's really cool to think about the fact that you're doing this impactful and meaningful work.

00:20:49.546 --> 00:20:56.211
You're successfully fundraising to make it happen, but you're also doing all the business things that we all have to do as entrepreneurs.

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Talk to us about what that side of the coin has been like, because it's great to look at your Kickstarter and say, oh, nadine is an amazing storyteller, she's got great pictures.

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She has such a compelling way of, of course, designing all of this stuff and making it a reality.

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But, nadine, I know, having been an entrepreneur for 17 years up to this point, that there's all the mindset things that go into entrepreneurship.

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There's all the logistical things accounting and legal and compliance and all of that.

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What's Nadine the entrepreneur going through these days?

00:21:27.141 --> 00:21:28.163
I'm going through a lot.

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I'm finding myself being much more of a content creator and I think that that also resonates with folks.

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They want to feel like there's a story behind not just the product or but also the person behind the product, which I think oftentimes I end up being there, but I'm trying my best to also put the cultural practitioners you know in the spotlight as well, and I think it's been a phenomenal experience.

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I think there was one video that we created with someone in Palestine and it reached, I think, almost 2 million views and it was purely about the knowledge and practice of soap making in Palestine and I think just being able to share that knowledge is so critical and to be able to experience it through our crates is going to be another step in that kind of preservation effort and celebrating that knowledge.

00:22:19.910 --> 00:22:23.436
And I think, trying to build this business as well.

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It's been really it's been complex.

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I never say things are complicated, complicated.

00:22:34.192 --> 00:22:38.671
I think complex kind of carries it a little bit better, because it just means that it's like tangled up but you're able to kind of sift through it and eventually reach the end, hopefully.

00:22:38.671 --> 00:23:03.481
And I found myself having to really refine our business model so that we can ensure that there's an authenticity and that there's a willingness to pay for people to be able to purchase a crate like ours and then understand that the money they're putting into purchasing the crate, it's not just going into getting that experience, but part of their proceeds are going towards the preservation efforts as well.

00:23:03.481 --> 00:23:12.316
And I think for us, looking at preservation as an action that you can activate preservation through our crates, I think has been really critical.

00:23:12.415 --> 00:23:19.415
And obviously, looking at the COGS, so looking at how much does it cost to create the crates, when are we figuring out our supply chain?

00:23:20.490 --> 00:23:31.682
There's also just been difficulty in sourcing some things and I think this is true of trying to ethically source products in aspects of our crate from Palestine as well.

00:23:31.682 --> 00:23:40.854
People really wanna be able to purchase something where they understand that they're supporting multiple economies and that was something that was really important to us.

00:23:40.854 --> 00:23:47.076
So we found with our first crate, with Sabun crate, that we wanted to make sure that it was Palestinian olive oil.

00:23:47.076 --> 00:24:00.983
We wanted to make sure that the content, the knowledge in the crate was also being ethically sourced and that we're working alongside the practitioners so it's been a big mix and also working with artisans as well.

00:24:00.983 --> 00:24:07.050
So you know it's been a mix, it's been exciting and I think that this is the entrepreneur's journey.

00:24:07.050 --> 00:24:25.472
It's wearing multiple hats and being able to work alongside so many people to make that happen, and I think there have been so many people that have made it happen, and I'm again always so grateful that people have hopped on this journey to work on this project, but also in supporting us through the campaign as well.

00:24:26.154 --> 00:24:28.760
Yeah, nadine, those are the entrepreneurial realities.

00:24:28.760 --> 00:24:33.377
I'm so grateful for the way that you share that with listeners because it's easy to see these finished products.

00:24:33.377 --> 00:24:36.772
It's easy to go onto Kickstarter and see these projects that are getting off the ground.

00:24:36.772 --> 00:24:46.412
But, holy cow, even just hearing you talk about the supply chain, obviously there are real tangible business questions that you've had to answer and I'm sure there's been some dead ends at times.

00:24:46.412 --> 00:24:51.238
I'm sure there's been twists and turns and detours, but the fact that you navigate all of that you're absolutely spot on.

00:24:51.238 --> 00:24:52.460
It is the entrepreneur's journey.

00:24:52.460 --> 00:25:00.641
I've been putting guests a little bit on the spot here in 2025 with this line of questioning, but I really enjoy hearing the Ron unfiltered insights.

00:25:00.641 --> 00:25:03.496
And that is where's your mind go when you think about the future.

00:25:03.496 --> 00:25:06.031
Obviously there's so much good that you want to do in the world.

00:25:06.031 --> 00:25:09.799
I can see your face already reacting to the question, so Nadine.

00:25:10.141 --> 00:25:14.631
I want to get into that founder, in that CEO's mind of yours, when you think about the future.

00:25:14.631 --> 00:25:19.815
Obviously, you've got one very successful kickstarter under your belt already, and I know that that's the start.

00:25:19.815 --> 00:25:21.122
A lot of people think it's the finish.

00:25:21.122 --> 00:25:24.396
It's the start of a journey yeah.

00:25:24.396 --> 00:25:27.490
So, nadine, with all that in mind, where do you go when you think about the future?

00:25:28.392 --> 00:25:29.053
oh my gosh.

00:25:29.053 --> 00:25:30.375
You know it's so funny.

00:25:30.375 --> 00:25:31.799
Like we, we reached our goal.

00:25:31.799 --> 00:25:36.289
Like in Arabic, and like as a Muslim, I'll say Alhamdulillah.

00:25:36.289 --> 00:25:46.192
Like you know that we reached the 10,000 goal that we had for Kickstarter, but it's always well, we need more to be able to do this, and there's a stretch goal and there's you know.

00:25:46.192 --> 00:25:50.702
So I think the vision and mission we have is that.

00:25:50.702 --> 00:26:03.603
A it was amazing to validate Sabun Crate as our first offering now, but our mission and vision for Culture Crate in the future is that we're able to create many, many, many other crates.

00:26:04.631 --> 00:26:24.403
We've looked at also categorizing our crates into other Arab cultural practices, but also we've had conversations with other people who maybe are not from that cultural background, like indigenous people of Turtle Island, who are looking, look at our creation, like we can do this for this practice.

00:26:24.443 --> 00:26:35.498
I've talked to people from Latin American backgrounds and people who have experienced indigenous African cultural practices and they say we can do this for this practice and that practice.

00:26:35.678 --> 00:27:13.439
And that gets me excited because I think it's then resonated with other folks that this is something that can kind of expand out of it, and that's what our hope was, and I think it's been exciting to create something where it starts, in Palestine, but then we're able to explore many other cultural practices from around the world and work alongside other indigenous cultural practitioners to ensure that their knowledge is preserved and we're working alongside them to preserve it, and also proceeds also go to supporting their efforts, and I think that balance has always been the driving force and the power of what we've been doing.

00:27:13.439 --> 00:27:27.634
But, yeah, that's like the goal and it's kind of crazy that, like, we reached this Kickstarter goal, but there's so many other things we want to do and I've already been in conversation with other folks about like starting the next kit, and I'm getting people asking about what?

00:27:27.634 --> 00:27:28.737
About a Sudanese kit?

00:27:28.737 --> 00:27:30.461
I'm like, yes, absolutely, let's go.

00:27:30.461 --> 00:27:37.137
Let's go there and it's great because it means people believe in it.

00:27:37.198 --> 00:27:41.731
Yeah, nadine, I will tell you from the outside, looking in it is more than just believing it.

00:27:41.731 --> 00:27:52.675
Seeing it, seeing what you've built and designed and developed and launched, it truly is incredible, and that's why you and I talking about it on a podcast episode is one thing, but listeners, of course we're going to drop the links.

00:27:52.675 --> 00:27:54.240
They're going to be down below in the show notes as well.

00:27:54.240 --> 00:27:55.751
We'll talk about that in just a few minutes.

00:27:55.751 --> 00:28:01.172
But seeing the intentionality, I feel like I keep using that word within the context of what you do.

00:28:01.172 --> 00:28:11.220
Intentionality, it's because there's so much heart that goes into it, there's so much thinking, there's so much of everything that makes entrepreneurship a positive force for change in the world.

00:28:11.220 --> 00:28:13.964
And so, yeah, it's no surprise to me, nadine.

00:28:13.964 --> 00:28:20.979
And so, before we drop those links and before you share with listeners how they can get involved I always love asking this question at the end of every interview.

00:28:21.369 --> 00:28:22.414
It's super broad, nadine.

00:28:22.414 --> 00:28:28.670
I have no idea which direction you're going to take it in, but I'm excited to hear your advice, and that is, of course, what's your one best piece of advice.

00:28:28.670 --> 00:28:29.992
You're a fellow entrepreneur.

00:28:29.992 --> 00:28:35.584
We're being listened to by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in over 150 countries around the world.

00:28:35.584 --> 00:28:39.192
They're at all different stages of their own entrepreneurial growth journeys.

00:28:39.192 --> 00:28:41.840
So what's that one thing you want to leave them with today?

00:28:43.691 --> 00:28:46.959
Um, oh gosh, this is such a great question.

00:28:47.842 --> 00:29:09.344
I remember being uh, being told this in undergrad, but it was, um, listening is one of the most important things that we could be doing as an entrepreneur and as people in the world, and I found that when I was listening that I had the greatest power and the greatest impact that I could have.

00:29:09.344 --> 00:29:17.317
And, in fact, the quote I have is you know, you're in the presence of a good listener when you're surprised with what comes out of your own mouth.

00:29:17.317 --> 00:29:34.199
And I found that, if I use that to gauge every conversation I've had, whether it was with refugee students, with other educators and with Indigenous cultural practitioners themselves that I was surprised with what I was sharing.

00:29:34.199 --> 00:29:52.156
And I think taking the listening and empowering others and working alongside them to create something special and consistently listening throughout, I think is precisely what we can do, and I think every entrepreneur they should just put their product down, they should put their vision down and just listen.

00:29:52.156 --> 00:29:58.853
And that always excites me is when I'm able to listen to others and hear their stories, and I think that's always empowered me.

00:29:59.875 --> 00:30:00.896
Wow, nadine.

00:30:00.896 --> 00:30:02.421
Over 1100 episodes.

00:30:02.421 --> 00:30:07.638
It's rare that I hear original, new, unique advice here on the air for that question.

00:30:07.638 --> 00:30:14.011
I've asked that question in every episode and I so love the way that you articulated that and how you share that with our audience.

00:30:14.011 --> 00:30:15.415
Incredibly valuable advice.

00:30:15.415 --> 00:30:16.618
You beat me to the punch.

00:30:16.618 --> 00:30:23.013
You said it's not just about entrepreneurship, this is just about humanity, it's about being a person and being a positive contributor in the world.

00:30:23.013 --> 00:30:34.325
So, listeners, that's our invitation, nadine didn't just drop on you great life advice, great business advice, but apply it to your sales, apply it to your marketing, apply it to every single thing that you do, and you'll start to see your world changing.

00:30:34.325 --> 00:30:43.298
So, nadine, I so appreciate that there's a big onus on you today to share your links with listeners, because I want all of our listeners to go check out all the great work that you're doing.

00:30:43.298 --> 00:30:45.458
So, nadine, where the heck should they go from here?

00:30:46.830 --> 00:30:47.234
Yeah.

00:30:47.234 --> 00:30:53.182
So I wouldn't be an entrepreneur if there wasn't a call to action at the end of whatever pitch or conversation I had.

00:30:53.182 --> 00:31:00.954
So the call to action here is you know, our Kickstarter campaign is going to end in March, but we're going to have late pledges.

00:31:00.954 --> 00:31:09.882
So if you look up our Kickstarter campaign, which is Palestinian soap making preserving sabun, you can still get a sabun crate.

00:31:09.882 --> 00:31:10.963
You can pledge.

00:31:10.963 --> 00:31:22.996
You can also find us at culturecrateorg and our Instagram, culturecrateco, and you could learn more about what we're doing there and we're excited to hopefully be developing our next crate in the summer.

00:31:23.710 --> 00:31:29.015
Yes, and listeners, we wouldn't be a podcast if we didn't put all those links down below in the show notes for you.

00:31:29.015 --> 00:31:36.615
You don't have to remember any of these things, Wherever it is that you're tuning into today's episode.

00:31:36.615 --> 00:31:38.884
Scroll right on down to the show notes and you can click right on through to Nadine's Kickstarter.

00:31:38.884 --> 00:31:39.989
You can scroll down and find her website, her socials.

00:31:39.989 --> 00:31:42.097
All those good links are waiting for you all down below.

00:31:42.097 --> 00:31:47.511
So, Nadine, on behalf of myself and all the listeners worldwide, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

00:31:48.392 --> 00:31:48.652
Great.

00:31:48.652 --> 00:31:49.452
Thank you so much.

00:31:49.452 --> 00:31:56.857
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00:32:17.650 --> 00:32:21.686
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00:32:21.686 --> 00:32:23.732
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00:32:23.732 --> 00:32:25.317
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00:32:25.317 --> 00:32:28.810
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00:32:28.810 --> 00:32:39.771
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00:32:39.771 --> 00:32:48.279
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00:32:48.279 --> 00:32:49.611
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00:32:49.611 --> 00:32:54.221
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00:32:54.221 --> 00:32:55.623
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00:32:55.623 --> 00:33:05.065
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