“One of the biggest surprises I’ve encountered? People love entrepreneurs! When I tell people I launched my own business they all want to celebrate with me and hear about it.”
Meet Breanne White, WG22, founder and CEO of Mintaka, a matching marketplace for wilderness corporate retreats. Mintaka brings together wilderness venues, guides, and world-class outdoor experiential training experts to host retreats that help increase employee retention, engagement, and focus.
Breanne grew up with mountains in her backyard but didn’t really understand the transformative power of spending time in nature until she moved to the concrete jungle of Washington, DC. With so much time spent sitting in an office staring at a computer screen, she quickly became a “weekend warrior” and spent nearly every weekend escaping the city to the mountains and forests along the East Coast. Now she’s a passionate advocate for spending more time in nature and transforming individuals, communities, and society in the process. She’s lived and worked all over the world and speaks 5 languages.
Breanne started her MBA at Wharton in August of 2020. She was coming off a year-long sabbatical where she’d spent countless hours hiking and exploring the world. The sudden shift, during the pandemic, to 8–12 hours of zoom classes, calls and meetings was a shock. She was exhausted by all the screen time and realized others must be as well.
Breanne saw the need for companies to be able to gather their employees in-person in beautiful, invigorating outdoor spaces with curated experiential training provided to help teams improve leadership skills, change management, mindfulness, team dynamics, and even transform culture through play.
While Breanne was still in school, she launched Mintaka — with the goal for companies to bring their employees together in nature, to disconnect from technology and connect with themselves, their colleagues, and the vision and mission of their company.
Tell us a bit about your company
Mintaka is a matching marketplace for wilderness corporate retreats, with a social enterprise aspect of giving teens in foster care access to nature.
What inspired you to start your business — what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
I started my MBA at Wharton in the fall of 2020 and everything was online — and I hated it! Everything felt the same, just more squares on a zoom screen. But I saw that companies were moving to a remote first environment, and that we’d need new and better ways of connecting with our colleagues. That’s why I started Mintaka. It allows companies to bring their employees together in nature, to disconnect from technology and connect with themselves, their colleagues, and the vision and mission of their company.
What is it about your personal background, experience, or perspective that fuels your passion for this venture?
I grew up with mountains in my backyard but didn’t really understand the transformative power of spending time in nature until I moved to the concrete jungle of Washington, DC. With so much time spent sitting in an office staring at a computer screen, I quickly became a “weekend warrior” and spent nearly every weekend escaping the city to the mountains and forests along the East Coast. Now I’m a passionate advocate for spending more time in nature and transforming individuals, communities, and society in the process.
What are one or two of the biggest wins or most encouraging experiences you’ve had so far?
Honestly the most encouraging experience I’ve had is the helpfulness of Wharton and UPenn alumni! I’ve reached out to what feels like hundreds of people and everyone has been so willing to help me along the startup journey. I couldn’t have gotten this far without all of them.
What has been one or two of your biggest learnings so far?
Being a founder is hard! It’s hard to find success but it’s also hard mentally and emotionally. Taking care of yourself and your own mental health as a founder is more important than any other success you are chasing.
What is an obstacle that you are grappling with as you continue to build this venture?
Finding clients has been the most challenging part for me. Being a solo founder in an unfunded company means I have to do everything myself, but I’m learning how to do sales and marketing as I go!
What surprises have you encountered as an entrepreneur? Something out of left field?
People love entrepreneurs! When I tell people I launched my own business they all want to celebrate with me and hear about it. This was surprising to me as I didn’t know that many entrepreneurs before I launched my own company. So many people look at you like you’re living out your dreams (and often their dreams) by quitting the corporate scene and trying to do something on your own.
What has been the most rewarding thing about starting your own business?
A few years ago I took a look around and thought, “If this is living, what is life?” I was deeply unhappy with my corporate job and my career trajectory. I took a year off for a sabbatical and then started business school, and started working on my company a few months later. I no longer wonder what it would be like if I took a big risk and left the rat race of the corporate world. It’s extremely rewarding to know that I’m trying something big, something meaningful, and something really, really hard that could impact a lot of people in a big way. I truly believe in the mission of my company and watching it come into fruition has been very rewarding.
