Dare To Startup

David Denis grew up in a small village in Tanzania, where he was given a small piece of land to farm and discovered a passion for agriculture. After qualifying for a full scholarship to attend school, he studied chemistry, physics and biology. His education paired with his curiosity led him to start Cutoff Recycle, a company that reuses human hair to produce fertilizers, pesticides and concrete. Although his family and community viewed the use of human hair as a form of witchcraft, David persisted and found success, placing second in the 2021 GSEA Global Finals. David speaks about the importance of taking advantage of opportunities, giving back to your community and inspiring younger people to make the most of their abundance of tomorrows.

After pursuing and failing at a variety of companies, from selling doughnuts on the black market at her elementary school to opening a pizzeria, 2021 GSEA Global Champion Roberta Elizondo realized failure is a part of entrepreneurship. And that’s okay. She soon found a love and respect for social entrepreneurship, so much that she wanted to create her own program, Travelers With Cause, a social company that pairs young tourists with volunteer work in rural communities. Roberta discusses the complexities of volunteer work, normalizing failure and finding peace with your current success. “Anything we desire in life we desire it because of what we think we are going to feel when we get it … Bring that feeling to now, and that will make you a successful person each day of your life.”

Using his engineering background, Bilal Shabandri helped scale and sell his father’s business by transitioning to an e-commerce space. From there, he continued with his own entrepreneurial endeavors. With his colleague, Bilal competed in a variety of hack-a-thons and pitching competitions, while also interning at different startup companies. They both suffered major transportation difficulties, whether it was an over-crowded subway station, or a transportation desert. Five minutes before pitching a business idea, Bilal and his colleague decided to change courses and pitch an idea to solve transportation problems in UAE. The two co-founders won third place and decided to start arcab, a transportation service to bridge the gap between expensive private transit and cheap but crowded public transit through the utilization of premium vans. In 2020, Bilal piched arcab at the 2020 GSEA Finals and became a GSEA Global Finalist. Bilal speaks about shifting his strategy during the Covid-19 Pandemic, navigating startup business learning curves, creating a consistent outreach plan and the power of working with a team.

Observing his parents navigate through financial hardships in a poor Malaysian community allowed Shy Kit Wong to discover the importance of hard work, grit and passion to survive and succeed. As an engineering student and a social entrepreneur, Shy Kit started his entrepreneurial journey with Luminary, a company to help supply clean water and electricity to marginalized communities in Malaysia. In 2020, Shy Kit became a GSEA Global Finalist after pitching Luminary. Once the Covid-19 Pandemic started, Shy Kit shifted away from Luminary and refocused his social impact to Serum, a company he started to create hygiene kits for people who did not have access. Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Shy Kit experienced pivotal moments when he reevaluated his internal and external situations, found the middle ground between “for-profit” and “for-impact” endeavors and increased opportunities for more social impacts. Shy Kit discusses tapping into your own interests, overcoming fears and choosing the motivating mindset.

Born and raised in a small farm town in Nepal, 2019 GSEA Global Finalist Santosh Pandey was always involved in non-profit organizations to boost his social skills and get more involved. He soon realized he had little creative outlets with these organizations, and he was ready to make real change. When he thought about the one in six Nepalese citizens leaving the country in search of better opportunities, Santosh considered the emotional gap Nepalese families face. In order to bridge this gap sustainably, Santosh started Offering Happiness, a gifting and surprise planning business. Santosh discusses reaching rock bottom with his company, rebuilding and being more open to learning. He speaks about finding resources in GSEA and his unique experience of being one of five GSEA competitors featured on the Disney+ documentary “Own the Room.”

Growing up in a small town in Kenya, 2019 GSEA Global Finalist and Roometo Co-Founder Henry Onyango imagined a straightforward life for himself—go to school, get a good job, get married, etc. But in high school, Henry had a “serendipity moment” and started a technology consulting company with his classmate, the start of his entrepreneurial career. Henry doesn’t consider himself an entrepreneur, rather someone who loves problem-solving when he sees an opportunity. He shares his thoughts and experiences about creating a joke-telling chat bot, navigating team dynamics and finding peace with letting go of ideas. Finally, Henry discusses his view of money as a tool to create positive impacts on peoples’ lives and how implementing a universal basic income can lead to solving poverty.

Camilo Salinas learned to code by playing Minecraft and sparked his interest in pursuing computer science. These skills led him to build his company, Residia, a community management platform for residential complexes. Camilo speaks about the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur, family support and a unique take on imposter syndrome. Website: https://residia.co Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/residiaoficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/residiaoficial/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/residia Twitter: https://twitter.com/residiaoficial

Alondra Toledo has served as a tireless advocate for the deaf community in Puerto Rico from an early age. Her willingness to hustle after opportunities led her to win the 2019 GSEA Innovation Award in Macau, China, where she was also a featured student in National Geographic’s Own the Room documentary on Disney+. Alondra shares about the challenges of growing a groundbreaking idea, how GPA is not the most important aspect of being a student and how the desire to make an impact inspires her to persevere. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alondra-toledo-369103104/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/understhand/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/understhandapp/

The day after Berat Kjamili, Co-Founder of Migport, found himself on the brink of giving up his entrepreneurial dreams, he received a phone call that spurred him on to continue his efforts in assisting the refugee population in Turkey. He has since gone on to impact 20 million people through his work bridging refugee and local populations and offering immigration solutions to governments around the world. Berat shares about how his personal story led him into social entrepreneurship and the value of vulnerability as a business owner. Website - http://www.migport.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beratkjamili/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/migrationport Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/migrationport/

Setting out to “strategically lose” her first business competition, Daniela Blanco of Sunthetics has since been listed in Forbes 30 Under 30, MIT’s Top Innovators Under 35 in Latin America and was featured in the National Geographic documentary Own the Room on Disney+. Daniela discusses the importance of listening to feedback and shares her perspective on the unique gift that entrepreneurs enjoy by being able to shape their company according to their personal vision and values. Website: https://sunthetics.io/pages/team Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunthetics_nyc/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sunthetics/