S6.E7 | Beyond Play: The Business of Belonging

In this episode of What Does It Profit?, Dr. Dawn Carpenter explores what happens when a business begins with a simple question. Where do people go to belong?

More women are starting businesses than ever before. Yet ownership does not always mean access. Women still face barriers to capital, growth, and recognition. In spaces like game store ownership, those gaps are even more visible.

Whitney Wolfe did not set out to become an entrepreneur. She set out to create a place where people could gather, connect, and feel at ease. That idea became Last Place on Earth, a Brooklyn game store that opened just as the world shut down. Through uncertainty and reinvention, she built a thriving community. Then she did it again with Third Place from the Sun.

This is a story about more than games. It is about how connection creates value. It is about building spaces where people are invited in, not kept out.

Because the strongest businesses are not only places where people spend. They are places where people belong.