Community
Since 2019, I have interviewed more than 80 Social Venturers to talk about how they're supporting (social) entrepreneurs in their community, what challenges they encounter, and how they move forward despite the obstacles they face. These are their stories.
Mildred Franco
“When school started last August (2020), 70% of the kids in Pine Bluff opted for remote learning instead of in-person. By mid-October 68% had not even logged into the system.” Our community does not have adequate broadband, our city is what they called underserved. In the U.S. in the 21st century, inadequate broadband is leaving […]
Dell Gines
I first learned about Dell Gines when he took the stage at the 2019 ESHIP Summit. As part of this Firestarter talk, he walked us through the shift from economic development to entrepreneurship ecosystems and once he entered my orbit, he never really left: . I have gone back repeatedly to study his talk and listened […]
David Ponraj
“Startup Space arose out of a need that I myself had as an entrepreneur. In short, it helps small businesses find local resources. The secret sauce in this is that we don’t have to create these resources because often there already is a lot of infrastructure in place to support these businesses. It’s the connectivity […]
Nic Gunkel
Nicolas Gunkel is the Senior Vice President at Forward Cities, a nonprofit that works with communities to strengthen their support structures for all their entrepreneurs. Nic has shaped the organization’s research and evaluation agenda, leads the nascent government/policy work stream and holds financial and accounting oversight in partnership with Fay Horwitt, the President and CEO. […]
Catherine Griffin
As founder and CEO of ImpactableX Analytics, Catherine helps social entrepreneurs and their investors to leverage data that can drive impact at scale. Her cutting-edge approach to impact modeling democratizes impact data and analytics by delivering a seamless and dynamic UX and generating analytics that uniquely engage investors, driving capital to the innovations with the […]
Matt Dunne
The state of rural America “Springfield, Vermont, was a community that grew based on innovation of its time. It had the highest per capita income in the state of Vermont for forty years based on Machine Tool, a machine tool specialist. It had the intellectual property to create the tools that would create manufacturing devices. […]
Carina Boston Pinales
Nestled halfway between San Antonio and Austin, Texas, Carina Boston Pinales has uncovered what her entrepreneurial community needs and in doing so created a safe space for these “orphaned entrepreneurs” to excel in their work while living their purpose in life. Celebrated as Unsung Hero of Ecosystem Building, Carina and I sat down in late […]
Philipp von der Wippel
Philipp von der Wippel started ProjectTogether when he was 16 years old. Before and during his studies at Oxford University, he worked for the BMW Foundation, the German Federal Ministry of Finance and PwC Public Sector Consulting. With meanwhile 8 years of experience in the field of Social Innovation. I caught up with Philipp as […]