378 | The Growth Benefits of Second Chances Hiring with Scott Gates

What if the key to scaling your business—and solving pressing social challenges like recidivism—was as simple as reimagining who gets a second chance?

This is just one of the provocative questions we explored with Scott Gates on the latest Awarepreneurs podcast episode, hosted by our very own Paul Zelizer.

BIO: Scott Gates is the Co-Founder and CEO of Awake Window & Door Co., a luxury window and door manufacturer specializing in building windows and door at massive sizes, with minimal frames, to maximize views in luxury custom homes. But even more important, the business focuses on its mission to reduce recidivism by providing meaningful second chance employment to those formerly incarcerated.

This episode is sponsored by the coaching company of the host, Paul Zelizer. Consider a Strategy Session if you can use support growing your impact business.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

Transcript of Second Chance Hiring Interview with Scott Gates of Awake Window and Door Company

NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcript and the below summaries by Castmagic for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.

Read the transcript of this episode here.

Key Takeaways in Second Chance Hiring Interview with Scott Gates

Here are the 3 key takeaways from the Awarepreneurs episode featuring Scott Gates of Awake Window and Door Company with quotes that illustrate each point.

1. Mission-Led Business Models Drive Growth and Impact:

Building Awake Window and Door Co. around a social mission—specifically, providing meaningful employment to those with justice-involved backgrounds—was foundational to its rapid growth and its ability to attract both customers and top talent. The social impact was intentionally woven into the company’s DNA from the very beginning, not added as an afterthought.

"We had kind of made a commitment that the second we start to take orders and start, you know, processing and building up our manufacturing and shipping and receiving teams, that this is how we're going to hire. And we had kind of set an internal benchmark for ourselves of as we grow, we want at least 40% of our staff to be formerly incarcerated or have Sanit justice involved backgrounds."

2. Second Chance Hiring Unlocks Untapped Talent and Organizational Loyalty:

By directly hiring, supporting, and promoting individuals who were formerly incarcerated—and doing so company-wide—Awake not only addressed recidivism but discovered tremendous, previously overlooked talent. This approach led to exceptionally high retention, a sense of pride and ownership among employees, and the rare situation of a business having a waiting list of job applicants.

"As you make a company culture where people like that can be successful, no surprise they are successful. ... A vast majority of that staff are still here. ... And they've transitioned from being vulnerable, maybe just out of prison, to stable, stable home life. ... They are the company veterans that are training and developing our newly developed staff."

3. Integrating Social Mission Enhances Brand Value and Customer Engagement:

Blending a strong social mission with a high-quality product offering increases differentiation and customer loyalty, even in a luxury market. Awake wove their social mission into every facet—from website copy to the very product numbering system—creating both awareness and emotional buy-in from customers and partners.

"The same customer or architect that gets energy by doing something different and creative, typically there's something in their psyche that also gets energy from like the dual purpose of Awake ... That ability to connect the dots between those two things, they seem to be the same type of person."

Paul Zelizer