Doug Galen is the Co-Founder and CEO of RippleWorks. Founded in 2015, RippleWorks connects leading expertise from Silicon Valley and the larger US tech sector with rapidly scaling ventures for short-term, high-impact projects that unlock the ventures' capacity for growth. To help social enterprises scale faster, Doug Galen works with CEOs to figure out their toughest challenges and connect them to leading Silicon Valley experts to gain startup and leadership skills.

In this episode, our guest discusses how entrepreneurs can make a difference in people's lives and the world as a whole.

Episode quotes:

On what prompted him to start RippleWorks

00:00:42] RippleWorks started seven years ago. I had one of those moments in life. I was having a conversation with my daughter, who was turning 13, and we talked about how to make the world a better place. And I was building a mobile shopping app, which didn't feel consistent with my purpose in life. So I made a big career change and started to explore how I might better use my time. And that's how I founded RippleWorks.

How do you help social entrepreneurs scale their companies?

[00:2:42] How we do it is that we at RippleWorks, vet for the best ventures in the world. We work with the CEO to figure out their top three challenges so we know whatever we do will have an impact on them. We staff all the project managers called Venture Growth Managers who will sweat all the details. Then we bring in a Silicon Valley expert who has solved that problem before that the CEO is facing, with scrappy resources in their career, who will volunteer two to five hours a week for the next month to four months, working on this problem. You, as the expert, get that amazing feeling of leveraging your skillset to give back. You, as a venture, have that problem solved and you probably formed a new friendship and advisor for life.

On why he decided to get an MBA

[00:08:07] I had a moment in the mirror when I was staring at myself and talking with my daughter. I did not like the path I was on. I didn't want to be a real estate broker. I didn't feel like I was adding value. So business school was a chance for me to reevaluate if I am on the right path? And that's a hundred percent why I went back. Didn't matter that I was building a career. I was heading down a path that was not gonna make me feel good. And either I subconsciously, or maybe a little consciously, knew that. And I don't believe in pursuing paths that aren't consistent with what gets you excited.

On how RippleWorks select social ventures to work with

[00:24:01] We look at the impact of a venture and there's three elements to the impact of a venture to pick who we're gonna work with. The first is the depth of impact on a human being. If we're helping a farmer in Northern Nigeria, how much are we increasing their income so they can move out of extreme poverty to poverty or poverty to lower middle class? So first is the depth of impact. The second is the breadth of impact. How many people are we impacting with that depth? And then the third is the target population. We are interested in helping people who are struggling with life. 

Show Links:

• Doug Galen on LinkedIn
• RippleWorks Official Website
• CNN Climate Change Quiz

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