Most people talk about changing the world. A few try to redesign it: system by system, person by person, story by story. Siddhartha Menon is one of those few.

As Head of Mission at Tiny Miracles, Siddhartha helps lead a social enterprise with a clear, ambitious goal: enable communities to get themselves out of poverty and stay out. Their model moves beyond short-term aid to tackle systemic change through five interconnected pillars: education, health, livelihood, social awareness, and happiness. At its core, it’s about dignity, agency, and designing systems that last.

In this conversation, we go deep into the realities of doing good: the trade-offs, the invisible walls, and the constant tension between business and social purpose. Siddhartha shares what poverty really is beyond income, how trust is built in communities that have been let down before, and why design can be as powerful as policy in creating change.

We also explore his work on the Tiny Cane Collective: an open experiment in radical transparency. From artisan wages to projected losses, nothing is hidden. The goal is simple but rare: keep a business truly social by showing the full, messy, handcrafted reality of balancing bottom lines with moral imperatives.

This episode covers:

• How Tiny Miracles’ “Get Out, Stay Out” model works in practice
• The role of design in breaking the poverty cycle
• Why transparency can be the strongest trust-building tool
• Navigating the “profit vs purpose” paradox in real time
• What it takes to keep purpose at the center as you scale

I stumbled upon Tiny Miracles by chance but with a conversation that left a deep, lasting impression. This is the story of what I found: a team making the world slightly more just, one system at a time.