To all of our customers & small business leaders:
We’ve reached a full year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., sparked by news of the first deaths in our country just a few miles from our corporate headquarters of Ripl. Subsequent months saw the rise of social justice and Black Lives Matter protests throughout the country and the world. Recently, we have paid close attention to research reports confirming what most of us already could see and feel — that the adverse economic impacts of the pandemic have fallen disproportionately on small business owners, and in particular on women and people of color.
As I wrote in a prior Open Letter last year, Ripl is committed to representing the full diversity of our own small business customer base—more than 60,000 strong—as well as the rich diversity of the hundreds of millions of U.S. and global customers who patronize their businesses and community organizations.
What does this mean in practical terms?
For one, it means we have and we will continue to intentionally feature a wide array of female, BIPOC, and immigrant-led small businesses in our Ripl marketing materials and advertisements. Not only does this actually represent the true picture of our—and the United States’—diversity of SMB owners and operators, but it’s also what we’ve chosen to do here at Ripl to help close the representation gap that studies show exists today in online ads and digital media. For another, it means that we have and we will continue to build themed Ripl Template Collections and sample Ripl Designs featuring a broadly diverse range of small business and non-profit owners, operators, and staff.
Especially now, when we are so ready to safely patronize and support all of the unique small businesses which make up the fabric of our communities, I wanted to be sure to re-affirm these commitments. Ripl is on the side of all small businesses—in all of your rich diversity, ambition, backgrounds, and passion. Please join us.
Thank you for listening.
Clay McDaniel
CEO
Ripl Inc.
