In the ever-changing world of sustainable travel, few people have been as influential as Sarah Dusek. With a career marked by innovation and commitment to social impact in tourism, Dusek has redefined what it means to travel sustainably and responsibly, and in the process become a simple advocate for female entrepreneurs.
Dusek’s first company, Under Canvas, which she co-founded with her husband, Jacob Dusek, revolutionized the concept of glamping by bringing sumptuous camping briefs to some of America’s most iconic national parks. She also established a new popularity for eco-friendly travel. attracting the attention of celebrity clients, including Madonna, Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and Hilary Swank.
The company was recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, and in 2018, Dusek and her husband sold the business for over $100 million, underscoring the value of their innovative approach to tourism.
For Dusek, this success was merely a stepping stone to her next venture: Enygma Ventures. Founded in 2019, Enygma Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investing in women-led businesses in Africa. Dusek’s motivation for this new direction was clear.
Dusek’s approach goes beyond mere financial investment—she is deeply involved in mentoring these women, helping them navigate the challenges of scaling businesses in often difficult economic environments. Over the last three years, Enygma Ventures, has provided $10 million in critical funding and support to 14 female-led African businesses over the last three years in sectors including consumer goods, branded products, education, tech, and e-commerce. “What we’ve seen is what an extraordinary community can be born amongst the female entrepreneurs who’ve been invested in, which is so exciting to see because they’ve become their own sort of cheerleading squad for each other,” Dusek says.
Earlier this year, the company was identified as a high-impact company through Real Leaders, and Dusek was announced as one of the Top 100 Leaders in Meaningful Business 2023, which celebrates outstanding business leaders helping achieve goals. global goals of the United Nations. .
Dusek’s paintings with Enygma Ventures reflect a broader commitment to sustainable travel. Previously, it was more about minimizing damage by opting for eco-friendly accommodations or reducing the carbon footprint. Today, Dusek notes, the industry has evolved beyond that: in those days, it was all about renewal and regeneration.
That’s the core concept of Dusek’s new venture with her husband, Few & Far, a company that aims to bring the sustainable safari experience to life with immersive, carbon-neutral and eco-friendly accommodation. environment in remote areas of the world. adding the Peruvian Amazon, the Botswana jungle and the Italian Dolomites, as well as some North American destinations.
While Under Canvas focuses on sustainable travel, Few
At the center of Few’s philosophy
To this end, Dusek collaborates with women-led sustainable agencies across Africa, which are pioneering nature restoration projects. These projects allow people to get directly involved in conservation efforts, from planting trees to helping reintroduce endangered species. The opening is scheduled for the first quarter of 2025. Few
Beyond his business and environmental endeavors, Dusek is also an influential voice in the global business and sustainability debate. Her new book, Thinking Bigger A Pitch-Deck Formula for Women Who Want to Change the World, is ultimately available for pre-order ahead of its official release on September 2 of this year. As the global industry continues to evolve, his paintings serve as a showcase of how corporations can become a force for good.
Far and far from Luvhongo in South Africa.
Read more of our with Dusek below.
Sarah, you went on an amazing adventure to locate Under Canvas and now you’re going to Few.
Well, how about few?
Few
Finally, from an environmental sustainability perspective, I no longer think only about building a sustainable business. I don’t want a company that doesn’t use single-use plastic, creates minimal impact, or doesn’t use low-flow devices to consume less. water, etc. This is the absolute minimum we all think about when it comes to how we build and create the kind of businesses we need.
Now I’m thinking about how we build a regenerative business. For me, regenerating means giving back, it means investing, it means building and removing things. So within Under Canvas, we were looking to do less: that is, less resources, less energy, less footprint, etc. Now I’m thinking about how we can do more. How can we invest in the planet? How do we create answers to environmental problems? For us, that means focusing on carbon and creating a carbon-negative building approach.
In fact, there’s an exclusive hotel in Denver that was just named the first carbon-negative hotel in the United States. They did this by planting a total of trees to offset the carbon footprint. We need to build projects that create hospitality reports along the same lines, restoring pristine wilderness areas, and moving degraded wilderness areas to restored wilderness areas. For us, this means replanting and focusing on making an investment in carbon sequestration by rebuilding and replanting an area.
With Under Canvas, we learned early on how vital our project was to us and it helped us build a very strong and focused team. I think it will be the same now with Few
Some destination camps
Few
The Soutpansberg mountain diversity covers approximately 100,000 acres in Limpopo, South Africa. We hope to create just one absolutely exclusive hotel experience, but the first of its kind in South Africa. We also hope to repair and recover degraded areas of the mountain through replanting.
We’re in the middle of a carbon allocation, which means we have an active carbon allocation registered with Verra, one of the registry bodies for carbon allocations and carbon allocations. We will actively measure our carbon sequestration from where we are now until we wait. Achieve it year after year, year after year, year after year. It will be a 50-year task. It’s not a five-minute wonder, but a five- to seven-year implementation phase, and then 43 years of tree development, biosphere development, and protecting the biodiversity of this region for generations to come.
This is above all an environmental task. I think one of the unique things about this position is that it’s out of the ordinary. It is absolutely, incredibly varied mountain diversity. It has more biodiversity than Europe as a whole, with around 400 species of trees, another 189 species of insects and a similar number of other butterflies. This is normal and has not been protected until now. This allocation will be a significant and concerted effort to protect all of this mountain diversity and will be the subject of a monitoring initiative that will redress it.
To that end, we learned that there are many options for going on safari in South Africa. We are doing several things to put this experience on the map: one of them is reinventing the safari experience. It is what it has been for many years. We try to push the limits; We are going out to reimagine something, reinvent something.
For us, this means a heavy dependence on solar energy and we need our consumers to stay away from the use of fossil fuels as much as possible. My husband Jacob Dusek has designed a cable car experience, which we call ‘Solfari’, that will transport our visitors through the bush on a very magical cable car that will allow them to see the wildlife and mountains and cross in a different way.
You can also be very active, because in the mountains there will be a lot of hiking and cycling. Although we still have leopards and buffalo, one of the benefits of not having lions is that you can physically get out of the car. Being able to put your feet on the ground and experience the pleasure of being in the middle of nature without having to be in a vehicle all the time will be truly exclusive and magical. You will be able to get closer to the bush and delight in it in a much more practical way.
Some Lodge destinations
The eco-lodge promises to be a “biophilic masterpiece. “What does this mean? Can you tell us more about the architectural and design principles of this commission and how they reflect Few’s philosophy?
Well, for me biophilic means, in a way, connecting other people with nature and establishing a direct connection with nature. The entire camp has been designed with nature in mind. All the fabrics we build with have been produced sustainably and at our own expense. workers in our own production facilities, and there is a history closely linked to the structure and design of the lodge.
His company is at the forefront of redefining the sustainable safari experience. How few?
I’ve talked a lot about carbon neutrality and in Few
For me, zero waste is an absolute imperative and we do not need to generate more waste than is surely necessary. The entire philosophy of the hostel will be about circular use, reuse and sustainable production. We grow as much of our food as possible on our own vegetable lawns or take advantage of the local farmers around us. We need our food miles to be minimal. All assets will run on solar energy, adding the cable car.
The concept is: can we protect this exclusive domain while creating jobs?Can we provide for the livelihood of many of the many families who live in this domain?Can we create opportunities not only for employment, but also for participation with a wider network?By purchasing your products from local manufacturers and suppliers to bring them closer to our customers and create a cultural exchange?
There are a lot of tactics where this lodge is going to be very important for the whole region, that is, for the Johannesburg region, in terms of its effect, and I think one of the things that I’ve realized, even over the more than five years since I’ve been living primarily in South Africa has shown how closely social impact and environmental impact are linked. We try to do our best to maintain the environment of an area, but if we can do that while uplifting the local community, then we are on the right track.
That’s the concept behind it: can we bring other local people together, can we create a total tourism industry for this domain that elevates not only our assets but also dozens and dozens of other properties, other people and communities around us?Few
On safari near a hostel with few destinations
Can you detail the projects you have implemented to local suppliers and create employment opportunities in the communities where your shelters are located?
Supporting our local communities is undoubtedly fundamental for us. We want to create jobs and empower local people to work for us and keep their livelihoods out of the mountains. We want local suppliers.
Can we engage with indigenous communities to allow them to showcase their cultural art? Can we allow you to offer your dances and songs to our guests?
I recently decided to go on a vacation where I took a women’s organization to Rwanda and we all had porters to go through and walk up the mountain to see the pasillas. Obviously, none of us needed porters; We are all relatively fit, but they said that if you don’t hire a porter, they will lose their source of income for the day. In fact, having someone walking next to us to hold our hands, bring a bag, and drag you up The Mountain when you needed help was actually very beneficial, and the social effect of that is amazing.
I would love to see us reflect something like this concept in Rwanda, that, you know, creating doorman jobs and the opportunity to interact with visitors while building an entire network would be something very normal and exciting to see.
Local Activities in Few
Can you find out what active reconstruction entails and share some examples of projects you’ve been undertaking lately to repair and regenerate land?
Rebuilding is simple. This means replanting. For our Mountain Carbon allocation, we limited ourselves to planting another six or seven types of trees, then in specific domains, making sure to replant in a domain designated as degraded, because it has almost no trees or grass.
We are contemplating the planting of trees, the planting of grasslands, the management of shrubs, the elimination of invasive species and the cleaning of scrubs; It’s all of those concepts that we’re communicating about when we talk about rebuilding because, basically, we’re looking to repair a domain to what it would have been originally, to bring the land back to what it looked like and to repair it. its herbal status.
Of course, if the land is not managed well, invasive species take over. We lose habitats, biodiversity and key species that deserve to be in an area.
Empowering women marketers across Africa is a vital component of her project with Enygma Ventures. Can you share some good luck stories from the corporations you’ve supported?
Which encouraged me to be a woman entrepreneur, having started my career in Africa more than 25 years ago. I started as an AIDS officer in Zimbabwe, leading physical education and AIDS education projects in the early 2000s. What I’ve learned from going through the difference between running a nonprofit and starting and running my own business is that, in reality, corporations have the strength to get to the root of a challenge and solve a deep challenge.
I’m convinced that business can simply be a way to do good, drive change, and potentially create a far more significant impact than a nonprofit could ever achieve. We started Enygma Ventures because we believe that business is the backbone of any economy and that if emerging countries need to be reshaped and help them catch up, the most productive way to do so is to invest in other people and allow them to catch up. Create businesses, businesses that generate an effect, businesses that solve problems, businesses that generate profits that build an economy.
I’m an entrepreneur and I know how difficult it is for women marketers to get funding and how little investment they receive. And I know how much women care. When you invest in a woman, she invests in her network, she invests in her family, she invests in the world she lives in, and everything changes around her. Investing in women is not only a smart monetary bet, but also a smart grid bet in terms of the ripple effects that women’s access to capital and the source of income generation has on any network.
And then this idea came up: can we help empower women marketers? Can we give them the means to become promoters of their cities and their nations? And can we simply contribute to building a continent by investing in our citizens and encouraging them to build wonderful businesses? So we’ve invested in 14 corporations in the last 3 years and deployed about $10 million. And we have invested in all kinds of sectors, from customer goods to branded products, education, technology, artificial intelligence, financial technology, some e-commerce platforms, I mean, many other thingsArray And what we have noticed is that an ordinary network You can stand out among the female marketers we’ve invested in, which is so exciting to see because you’ve become your own team of cheerleaders for each other. for others. But some genuine disorders are also being overcome.
Even in the last few years, I’ve noticed a huge benefit in supporting women and I’m starting to see that women have an impact on their environment and society – the world around them is starting to change. It makes me realize that my philosophy of investing in women to build a continent is surely not wrong. I can see it with my own eyes; We just want to invest more money in incredibly talented and ordinary marketers to help them grow and grow their businesses. And if we can do that, we will actually replace a continent in my lifetime.
The latest from Few
I’d love to hear more about Few & Far’s upcoming “The Unknown Experience,” a new take on the mystery ride concept. What was the inspiration for this experience and what role do you personally play in designing the itinerary?
I am very personally concerned about the design of all our itineraries. All of the itineraries you can see on our online page were encouraged because I’ve taken every single one of those trips.
With our mysterious journeys, I’m very, very excited to do something that I don’t think has ever been done before. There is a word in the hotel industry called wonder and pleasure; We talk about how we amaze and delight our visitors by creating an incredible experience. We need to go through the unexpected even more and, in fact, delight it. And I think there are very few wonders left in life.
All of our trips, for me, are about having very magical and very exclusive outdoor reports. I need you to give us a glass of wine, to have dinner and to be surprised by the places and information that we can have in nature. I don’t think there are any more reports than when you’re outdoors. I know that being outdoors is incredibly inspiring.
It’s so uplifting, its power is resetting, it’s lucid to think that it’s so many things to me. And we simply seek to create other opportunities for other people to experience. And with the unknown experience, we must take it to some other level; We need to marvel and delight you and create ordinary magic for you in a way you may not have even imagined.
Part of the concept of unknown reports is also to get rid of all the difficult paintings for an amazing vacation and accept as certain that with us we will get you into a position that we think you will love and that we think will surely excite and surprise you. Strive. We know where you have to go and what you have to do, and you go blindly. I’ve been doing this for my friends and family for five years, and now we have to do it for others and keep elevating the bar. I think what participants can expect from such an unpredictable holiday is to feel that awe, mystery and sense of childlike excitement every day that many of us rarely feel.
Some stay and leave.
How does the concept of mystery align with your philosophy of adventure and liberation through?I’d also like to hear your mind on the psychology of a mysterious journey: what does it mean to relinquish control that we, as being and humans, find so tempting?
This goes back to what I just said about childlike wonder, the ability to surrender your life to others, to release control, to release the tension and burden of having to keep up and having to make your own sign and allow. someone else to arrange this for you.
Today, most of us live with a very high standard of above all. Part of being a child is the wonder of not having to organize, not having to lead, not having to be responsible, and allowing play, magic, and laughter to be your maximum productive place.
That’s what it’s all about: you can relieve the stress of having to be the one who controls everything, later and especially for women, right? Aren’t women basically the ones who make almost all the decisions for their families? Can we just take a break? The duty of all this and allowing someone else to take on the duty of making magic an operation for you? I know that’s what I’m looking for when I go on a trip.
In few and far in Rwanda.
The commitment of few
For me, the only explanation for why to start a business is to pioneer, lead, define, redefine, resolve disruption, and drive change. That’s why you have to be in business. For me there is no other explanation for being in the business. As far as I’m concerned, making money is just a byproduct.
So I think you can expect to see us have a conversation, I think you can expect us to set a new standard and we hope other people rise to the challenge. And in fact, I think That Festival is smart for us in the sense that when someone does something better, it’s up to others to keep up and do something better.
I need us to be part of an adventure that affirms that being sustainable through sustainable tourism is no longer what it is. Now we seek to be regenerative. Now we are looking to invest in the long term, build the long term with cash and promote the replacement we need. And for any business, I think if we all really focused on driving the replacement we need, our overall strategy would be infinitely better. Therefore, my center and my soul have to use Few
I hope it brings others along with us on this adventure and sets new standards, new expectations for what normal is. In itself, it will be a small revolution. That’s my hope.
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