Meet Asher Jay | CEO and Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Asher Jay and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Asher, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When there is a real problem in need of a hybrid solution that dawns upon you, it becomes an inescapable duty to see it (the insight) through from inchoate inception to tangible execution. I began my business because it is in my wheelhouse which made its necessity self evident. It emerged from perceiving specific inadequacies, gaps and systemic deficits in the ESG and CSR space, particularly as it pertained to how brands, nonprofits, and government agencies achieved and communicated their impact outcomes to the general public and engaged stakeholders. Presently there is no interactive infrastructure that offers: 1. real time transparency and accountability into how philanthropic allocations are deployed, 2. market comps for impact deliverables, 3. comparable metrics that impart credibility to a mission’s success and failure states 4. insights into partnership opportunities between players within the same industry sector or impact silo, 5. no way to enlist stakeholders and/or consumers in direct actions that tantamount to palpable change. Our application fosters the era of unity, Henoscene, by prioritising stakeholdership and human stewardship of the natural world with a landscape of objective trust powered by Blockchain. Starting a business is not a whim, or an egoic desire, it is a choiceless path you walk because the privilege to act falls upon you as someone in the know. A truly sustainable and critically needed enterprise is one that benefits humanity and the planet, not one that operates at the cost of both for myopic profit. Such a purpose driven undertaking is only ever born from inclusive, mindful, intersectional, systems thinking. I obsessed over the pain points because I felt them dearly and daily in my line of work with the brands, nonprofits and government agencies I was consulting with. People who fail to see the forest for the trees end up being mercenaries, not missionaries. I did not begin this effort to be a mercenary, I am in this to bookend the Age of Man, the Anthropocene, and usher in an era of collectivist, collaborative coexistence, known as Henoscene, which also happens to be the name of our effort. It does not matter if the story I am building is remembered, or whether any one of us leaves behind an egoic legacy, what truly matters is that we are all able to come together to change the narrative for generations to come. Our website: www.henoscene.com

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Brands have no way to prove to customers how their actions result in positive social and environmental outcomes. There are no standards, analytics, or real time access. Henoscene, my startup, standardises the way brands create and deliver impact initiatives, capture and convey impact data, insights, and outcomes.

Henoscene is rooted in stakeholder capitalism and its architecture is oriented toward being transparent, distributive and accountable in real time. An enterprise’s differentiator can be superficial like its branding, user interface and features, but those are transient and can be rotated out or imitated, or it can be the “why” that brought it into existence, how it delivers on and champions its purpose-centric mission, and what it behaves like when it is between a rock and a hard place. A startup’s integrity is most influenced by who comprise it and compromise its integrity of expression and execution- i.e. employees, board of directors, investors/shareholders, and clients. I have been very careful in curating the right people into our corporate mix, we are still early stage but I care who is on my team, who advices us, and who invests in us. It is easy to say yes to the wrong investors, who either operate out of myopic ignorance, unchecked hubris or a combination of both, because as an enterprise capital is indispensable, however ensuring values don’t get diluted along with the common shares at every fundraising stage is critical to an entity’s longterm success. Same with talent, bringing on takers who are in it for fame, money, power and other such external validation will not ensure sustainable evolution. My current team is capable, humble, enthusiastic, conscientious and self aware. Those who were in it for the wrong reasons, and/or were incompetent, driven by insecurity, fear and greed, were let go off. As a Founder you don’t win popularity contests, by making the tough calls, especially if you are a woman, but it is your moral duty to ensure the integrity of the effort is retained. I am deeply conscious of building this out for the right reasons. I truly do care and want to bring clarity and credibility to the corporate philanthropy, corporate social responsibility sphere, and to impact initiatives worldwide. Why? The ravaged, and looted planet earth will cost us our health and well-being. The marginalised peoples who least contribute to environmental catastrophes worldwide, yet reap the gravest consequences of such ecological fallout deserve greater consideration and respect. It is my hope they get empowered through the infrastructure we have built, because it proves whether the money being spent on an impact is having a relevant, tangible result or not. It offers clear insights into the OKRs and KPIs, quantitative and qualitative metrics, and gives you insight into where we are falling short as a collective. None of this has been easy.

I am a female founder, the odds are stacked against me, no one expects me to succeed, I am undermined daily by the toxic bro culture of the tech world, even those who claim to support women are either not available to fund me because they are reinvesting into their existing portfolio or because they are currently fundraising. The number of funds prioritising female founders is low and competitive. The funding available is far less than what any white man in a hoodie with a line of code is receiving, and most of the small business grants, competitive prizes available to support “female entrepreneurs” are for 5K, 10K, 25K. That won’t even begin to help me do what I am doing at present. I personally find the funding ecosystem for women to be nefarious, hollow, sexually demeaning, rife in jargon and PR, duplicitous, dilutive, and demoralising. If you are a woman and a first time founder, it is reprehensibly disillusioning to be in tech. It is not equitable. It is not supportive. It is skewed to ensure your failure. So yes it is impossible, daily, but all these injustices make me feel so incensed that I have no choice but to torch my way through. I will pave the way, and place a light in this hellish darkness, because this oppressive paradigm is unbelievably offensive and unacceptable to me.

I am a National Geographic Explorer, and an impact “systems-thinking” consultant with 12 years of domain expertise in the ESG, CSR space. I worked extensively on uniquely innovative, highly disruptive mass media communications outreach, purpose marketing strategies and the development of stakeholder modules for microeconomic impact initiatives. I have always cared most for wild, because i would much rather be hiking in nature, climbing a rock wall on a mountain or diving in the ocean than be at galas or events networking. I am an introvert who enjoys the wilderness, this is why I strive to preserve its magic, dynamic tranquility and wonder. We are our best selves when we have none of our material crap burdening us and we are just present in nature. I find billionaire philanthropists obnoxious and I find the current financial paradigm fundamentally corrosive and deliberately negligent. This cannot continue being the way as it will never take into stock the wellbeing of the collective. Also VCs are incredibly parochial in how they sustain social and ecological efforts that promote a more resilient economy in the long term. It’s almost as though they do not comprehend that their wealth is a part of the living world and dependent on its sustained resilience and integrity.

I want the world to sign up for the movement that is Henoscene, the age of unity, where we care about one another and the world at large and will not continue to operate in exclusionary constructs that deplete the planet further. I enlist everyone to raise their voices and wallets against systems that concentrate wealth upward in the hands of the few to the detriment of the many, and to change how we invest back into people and planet. Let’s transform the status quo. Our global biomass of wildlife has declined by 85% and is completely eclipsed by humans, our livestock, crops, pets, pests, waste and artifice. Is this empty, consumptive reality riddled with ruins and remains worth the inflated fiction of money being in the tight grasp of few oblivious individuals? What will it take for us to share better? Do better? It’s time for a change. It’s time for the dawn of a new way, a new age. It’s time for Henoscene.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would take them diving in Cuba. The underwater landscape is inimitably magical, and keeps you unbelievably present, lucid and connected to the larger context of life. You stop being small minded and selfish, and start feeling substantive with a deep sense of belonging. I am a foodie, so in Cuba I would take my mate to O’Reilly 304, and to have a glass of dark rum at La Terraza de Cojímar. My favorite thing about Havana is walking at night and seeing the clusters of people sitting around areas where Wifi is freely available. It was such a privilege to be online, and that is something we forget or take for granted in the North and the West. The most interesting places are barebones, without distractions, wild and off grid. I would also take my best friend to the Amazon. It is vast, and makes one feel insignificant. I love it. It is so humbling. I honestly hate being in a city and on the grid. If I could live in the wild places after this company gets off the ground and delivers, I’d be grateful to not be where the people are, or part of their world. Unlike Little Mermaid, I want to develop gills and be underwater or develop fur and be in the African Savannah, honestly anywhere but a polluted, pointlessly anthropocentric city.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It takes every member of a village to voice the change that will make a difference to that village. We cannot have one speak for the many, but we can have the many arrive at consensus to be one. Also nothing extraordinary comes about in isolation. I owe how far my startup, Henoscene, has come, and every instant of my life to those who made my waking moments an absolute nightmare, as much as I owe it to those who nurtured me every step of the way. It takes the good, bad and ugly to catalyse holistic growth, and I have had an abundance of all three influences to make me the intrepid, tenacious, forthcoming and impatiently optimistic woman I am today. The incorporation of my current effort would not be possible without the support of my incredibly competent team, my trustworthy advisors, my enthusiastic investors, and my bold and conscious brand clients like ABInBev. I owe my elasticity of spirit and resilience to the following books: Eckhart Tolle’s The New Earth, Boundaries by Henry Cloud & John Townsend, Mother Hunger by Kelly McDaniel and most powerfully Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criando-Perez. I owe my curiosity and compassion which are continually fuelled by the indomitable community of explorers (particularly Paula Kahumbu and Lee Berger) at National Geographic Society and the yellow rectangle family as a whole who have always kept pace with me, ever since they made me an explorer in 2014. I would not be on my current path at all had it not been for National Geographic Explorer in Residence, Sylvia Earle, her deepness, who single handedly made me quit all other paths and begin the journey I have been on since I first met her. I owe my sense of presence, joy and gratitude to this inimitable planet and all the magical ecosystems and wildlife she harbours. I owe my daily sanity to my two dogs, Onyx and Granite. I owe my maturity, sensitivity and acumen to my incredible network of friends, well wishers and mentors. I cannot underscore the loyalty and reverence I harbor for the following individuals who have stood by me through thick and thin, both personally and professionally over the years when I have needed support most: Ann Luskey, Sadeq Ali, Heather White, Ruth Baumgartner, Ivett Cser, and Bonnie Wyper. There are so many thoughtful conversations with so many perceptive souls that has come to evolve my engagement with self and others. I could exhaust a book giving shout outs. I most recently got to climb with renowned climber Conrad Anker, and his patience and grace were so humbling to experience. The people who touch my core the most are the ones who are grounded, earnest, honest, loyal and vulnerable. Three friends I met more recently, relative to those I have mentioned above, who make me aspire to be a better person by virtue of relating to them are: Carolina Garcia (AbInBev), Anna Roubos (founder of Firma) and Meena Sankaran (founder of Ketos). My greatest mentor has been nature. Nothing is a greater teacher than wild. It is honest. Present. Inescapable. I revel in the insignificance I feel in its mighty grasp. My conviction is born of deep love for the wild. I am passionate to protect this biosphere and the communities on the frontlines who stand to be affected by the imbalances triggered within her finite expression of oneness by the avaricious one percent. Yes, I am a huge fan of Vandana Shiva, as her sentiments resonate enormously with me, another outspoken female thinker of our times I am thankful for. Women rock. I will tirelessly advocate for other women. 

Website: www.henoscene.com, www.asherjay.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/earthheiress

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asherjay/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/earthheiress

Facebook: www.facebook.com/earthheiress

Youtube: Henoscene

Other: https://www.insidehook.com/article/action/asher-jay-national-geographic-explorer And wanted to add the following question and my response: What piece of advice would you give to aspiring creative minds who share your passion for environmental conservation? Don’t be held back by what has been done or daunted by what remains to be done. Don’t feel haunted by that which has been lost, because that which remains is still worth rallying for. Show up for yourself first and that will help you show up proactively for countless others from abundance and awareness instead of reactively for a few from deficit and unhealed wounds. There is no other you, and you are a unique amalgam of life experiences, insights, emotions, healing, intellectual prowess, and awareness. No one else can be the exact combination and permutation of aspects that compose your canvas of expression. Do not waste another moment dialling yourself back or dimming your shine. It also helps to always thrive outside the expectation curve of others, if you keep mixing things up, and taking a chance on an unconventional life, people either give up on you and leave you alone or align with you and support your unique path. You are unique. So don’t be afraid to be who you are, all of who you are. Fight for you, reclaim you, don’t play a part in a whole, be your whole self instead. When you are whole, your efforts will automatically account for the whole, so whether it’s environmental conservation or social justice, or launching a tech company, it too will be whole in its expression and not fragmented. I once read and fell in love with the Purna Upanishad from a yoga session in New York, which has since stayed with me and become a daily practice. The Upanishad says, “Purnam adah: that origin of all things is Whole; purnam idam: this entire creation that has come from that origin of all things is also Whole; purnat purnam udachyate: from that Whole this whole has come; purnasya purnam adaya: having taken away this Whole from that Whole; purnam evavasisyate: the Whole still remains unaffected.” I honestly think everyone should meditate and stay with their breath until this becomes self-evident. Nothing you do from this inclusive awareness could destroy the world ignorantly.

Image Credits
Images were taken by friends or as selfies. Will send the images by email as they do not seem to be sending here. Dolphin images were shot by Bruce Watkins.