Pictured: Dave Spandorfer

Now in its 8^th year, the Emerging Leaders Summit is a dynamic conference designed to unite professionals with 6-15 years of experience in secured finance, providing an unparalleled opportunity to gain insights from titans who have navigated the intricacies of the field.

This year’s Emerging Leaders Summit offers a blend of social activities, networking with bank CEOs and several panels. The Summit will kick off with a one-mile Freedom Walking Trail Tour exploring 11 historic sites that showcase Boston's pivotal role in the American Revolution. Returning this year will be Functional Roundtables facilitated by bank CEOs, allowing dynamic small-group discussions that offer the opportunity to share experiences and gain insights on what drives success. This year’s panels include Business Development – Winning the Deal, sponsored by SLR Business Credit, Credit/Portfolio Management – Distress in the Market and AI in the ABL Industry – Opportunities and Barriers. There will be plenty of time for networking with breaks throughout the program, an opening reception, sponsored by Rouse Services, and four reserved restaurants for dine-arounds in Boston.

This year’s keynote speaker is Dave Spandorfer, CEO & Co-Founder of Janji, a start-up apparel organization that links runners with exploring and giving back. Meaning “promise,” in Malay and Indonesian, Janji is the first sports apparel brand of its kind. Through the sale of globally inspired and globally designed running apparel, Janji raises awareness and funds solutions for a crisis that affects over 700 million people worldwide, access to clean water. Janji gives 2% of proceeds from every Janji purchase to support clean water projects in the countries that inspire its seasonal collections. Water partners have included the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Global Water Partnership Caribbean and Fundación Amulén.

We sat down to speak with Spandorfer to discuss the history of the brand, the role funding from Assembled Brands played in its growth, and its commitment to social impact.  

TSL Express: I’ve read that Janji stemmed from an extremely hot day during an NCAA DIII Track and Field Championship meet. Can you explain more?

Dave Spandorfer:  We came up with Janji on the bus ride to a track meet in college. This track meet was the hottest recorded day in Cleveland, Ohio history. We were running the 10K, which is 25 laps around the track and it’st's the longest event by far. We were lucky enough to have water on both sides of the track to get us through the race.

My co-founder, Mike Burnstein, and I both ran together at Washington University in St. Louis, and we wanted to build a running brand that stood for something a lot bigger than trying to run fast and win races. We wanted to use running as a way to explore, connect, and create change in the world. A lot has changed since then. We went through a business plan competition and a class that gave us the funding and confidence to get started on creating what is now a social enterprise designed to produce the best gear to help runners explore the world around them.

What inspired you to connect performance wear with clean water initiatives?

Through my studies and volunteer work at Washington University in St. Louis, I really got to understand the impact of water on people's lives. You realize the impact of water when you're running a very far race on a very hot day. It was through that combination of passing back this love of running and the idea of seeing the world through running that we came up with this idea. We wanted to have a mission connected with running, but also with some of our passions, which is really at the center of Janji.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in scaling Janji from an idea to a brand?

Certainly, a great capital provider is important. We're an inventory-based business, and as of this conversation in April 2025, you realize that being an inventory-based business is neither easy nor cheap. It requires great capital partners. We initially bootstrapped this company with money from business plan competitions and found some early believers in the business. It took us a while to get started, and it was only once we found a great lending solution that we were able to cycle our cash flow in a more advantageous way, build up inventory, and sell a lot of our running shorts.

Can you explain the role that Assembled Brands played in growing Janji?

We found Assembled Brands six and a half years ago and signed with them in 2019. We've grown the business significantly since then, heavily because of that partnership. We had a series of loan products that were more crowdfunded loan solutions, which were fine, but having an asset-based loan was critical to our type of business. It allowed us to ship to retailers, sell to direct customers, and pay down the loan.

Throughout that whole process, we had a lender who wasn't looking to put pressure on the operator, but instead tried to work with the operator and ensure that the business was in the best possible position. That's why I loved our journey with Assembled Brands. Even now, through all of the recent tariff issues, Assembled Brands asked what they can do to help. There's such a difference when it comes to great partnerships that are built through great communication and helping each other out rather than people trying to push for every dollar and cent on the bottom line in both directions. Our relationship is one built on trust, care and loyalty through good times and bad.

How has Janji's commitment to social impact influenced the company's growth and brand identity?

Enormously. We believe in the power of using running to see the world. Running is universal, whether you live in Boston or Botswana. We think the best way to see the world is on two feet. When you see the world on two feet, you realize we are much more alike than different. This comes into play with water, which is core to what we do, and when we design long-lasting products sustainably. Using certified and recycled materials costs more, but we believe in treating our world better every time we go for a run. This social mission has been instrumental to any success we've had.

Where do you see the athletic apparel industry evolving over the next few years, and where does Janji fit into that?

We have definitely been beneficiaries of people becoming more active, not less active, in the last few years, especially since COVID. I think that at its core it is a global trend, not just a domestic trend. There's plenty of science to back this up, but when people run, they feel happier, healthier and more productive. I think in a world where we are so interconnected, where anxiety is so high, because we're always searching for the next thing or keeping up with the news or trying to see what everyone else is doing, that escapism from the glowing rectangle that lives inside our pocket, is more powerful than ever before. Going for a run, whether it's around your block or in the mountains, is something powerful to have that escapism from your phone. I don’t think that is going away. Running has seen a significant higher participation rate over last year's, whether it's race participation at a long-distance level or a local running group.

What is one leadership lesson you learned that you wish you had known earlier in your career?

Every decision should keep the long term in mind. In the early days, it was easy to think we needed to get more things done now, move fast, and break things. But in our space, every decision needs to consider its impact a year, two years, or even 20 years from now. We try to think about how every step, every mile that we run will help us and the impact we're making on the earth.

Is there anything I didn't ask that you would like to mention?

With so much chaos in the markets and within supply chains, we need great operator-lender relationships more than ever. It's important on a small businesses level and on a global economic basis to have relationships built on mutual trust. I feel very lucky to have worked with a lender who has built that trust, and I hope everyone can have relationships with their operators, where there's a sense that we're very much in this together and a belief that we can grow together in good times and bad. If we had more trust-based relationships, I think the overall global economic picture would be in a better spot.

For more information about SFNet's Emerging Leaders Summit and to register, please click here.