A recent graduate from the University of Minnesota is helping LGBTQ entrepreneurs at home and abroad through Mossier, a nonprofit social consultancy that works with major corporations to recruit LGBTQ talent.
Mossier Co-Founder and Executive Director Nick Alm estimates that around half of those that identify as LGBTQ are not out in their workplace. Mossier aims to help these employees by consulting with companies in order to create LGBTQ-affirming workspaces.
This covers things like inclusion training, providing gender-neutral bathrooms and helping those who are transitioning with workplace needs.
"The next generation of talent expects and demands these things," Alm said. "They need support that goes beyond external commitment sponsoring the pride parade. They want to see an internal commitment to supporting employees."
Mossier has brought in at least $40,000 in revenue from around 12 companies through corporate sponsorships over the last two years.
Alm was inspired to start Mossier while interning with Conlego, a Minneapolis consulting firm with a social impact focus. During this time, Alm began working with Charlie Rounds, a retired business executive and LGBT rights activist. Alm, Rounds and others worked together to get Mossier off the ground.
The company's name is a tribute to Kevin Mossier, a Grand Rapids, Minn. native who established one of the first openly LGBT travel agencies in 1985. Based on his own personal experience of facing discrimination while traveling with his boyfriend, safety for gay travelers became an important issue for Mossier. By founding RSVP Vacations, he provided a safe travel experience for LGBT people and their friends and family.
Alm's business carries on the legacy of its namesake by supporting LGBT entrepreneurs across the globe. Mossier works with NGOs to reinvest its profits from consulting gigs back into international LGBT-owned companies.
Its current projects include a pig farm in Uganda that will house and employ transgender individuals and a chicken farm in a Kenyan refugee camp that helps LGBT parents.
Mossier has funded a total of eight businesses in Uganda, Kenya and the Dominican Republic. All told, the company has delivered thousands in seed funding to growing businesses in these countries.
"It's virtually impossible to be an openly gay person and get a job at an existing company," Alm said. "Traditional employment isn't an option for many. Following an entrepreneurial path allows them to be in control of their lives and be out if they choose to be."
He added that helping international entrepreneurs establish stable employment leads to a higher quality of life.
"We have a responsibility to make sure what's happening translates to a national and global footprint," Alm said.
Mossier was one of five businesses in the inaugural cohort of Finnovation Lab, a program powered by local brewery Finnegans that provides social impact entrepreneurs with funding and resources to grow their businesses.
"It completely transformed us for the better. Before this, it was just a bunch of puzzle pieces," Alm said. "And I learned so much from sharing and discussing goals with the other entrepreneurs. So many of our day-to-day struggles are so similar. I learned so much from watching them overcome their hurdles."
