Future Optimist

Andrea Demichelis is the founder of Elliot for Water, a mission-driven enterprise to give access to water to millions of people.

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How does it work? Simple. Instead of setting your search engine to Google, set it to elliotforwater.com, and search as you normally would. The ad revenue and search revenue is diverted to organizations providing drinking water and building solar and other renewable energy sources.

In 2020, Elliot for Water hit the goal of donating 1 million liters of fresh water. It’s an approach to doing good I’d never considered, and that’s why I know you’ll be fascinated by Andrea Demichelis. 

Gary Oppenheimer is the founder of AmpleHarvest.org, an organization that links millions of amateur gardeners to local pantries.

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Have you ever had a few too many tomatoes in your garden? Know someone with an extra basket of zucchini? AmpleHarvest.org makes it incredibly easy to make sure that your excess food doesn’t go to waste. Food waste is one of THE defining problems of our era, and Gary Oppenheimer has made it his life’s work to solve it. His efforts have landed him on CNN, in the White House with 2 sitting presidents, on TEDx, and more. I support everything about this man’s journey.

William Santana Li is quite the remarkable individual. Through incredible grit and determination, he rose through the ranks of the Ford Motor Company to become the youngest senior executive at the company at the age of 28.

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He was given a $250 million budget to build a Ford subsidiary called Greenleaf, which led to him getting bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. He was recruited by SoftBank Venture Capital, made famous recently by WeWork & the show WeCrashed, and funded or worked on a series of startups before landing on his current start-up, Knightscope. Knightscope is a publicly traded company that’s raised millions and millions in funding and makes autonomous security robots in silicon valley, to assist with security and law enforcement around the country. Needless to say, in this episode, I’m about to get schooled. 

Daniel Tonkopi is a Ukrainian serial entrepreneur who has forged his own, eco-friendly and thoroughly unique path through life.

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He’s traveled extensively in his career, and now he has a business based in Los Angeles and Kyiv, Ukraine. A series of business ideas led him to founding his current company, Delfast bikes. But this isn’t your ordinary e-bike. Delfast has the Guinness World Record for the longest distance traveled on a single charge, with a range of 200+ miles. The bike also has a max speed of 50mph, making it far and away the most powerful in its class. In light of the current situation, they’re also donating 5% of all sales to support Ukraine. Daniel has such an inspiring story of triumphing over failure and staying true to his roots.

Edward Soffer calls himself an “intropreneur” at Interactive Brokers. Heavily involved in finance, Edward saw a few years back that he wasn’t focusing his attention on what really mattered to him: sustainability.

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With 20 years of experience in financial services, Eddy initiated the IMPACT app at Interactive Brokers, a publicly traded company with billions in capital. Eddy works in what’s called ESG, or Environmental, Social, and Governance. He has spearheaded technology that makes it easier for consumers to understand exactly what they’re investing in, so they can only support companies and missions they believe in. He’s proof that you can facilitate change within your company, and I think you’re going to really get a lot out of this conversation, I know I did. 

On this show, I’ve given you boatloads of examples of people who turned their unique passion into a career. Today we tap into the wide world of birding with my guest, Scott Whittle.

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Scott has turned his passion for birds into a start-up with far-reaching implications for conservation and human wellbeing. His company, Terra, allows you to listen to the birds outside your home and identify them, including migratory patterns and more. Through his device, you can enjoy the sounds of nature in your own home or learn a ton more about the world all around you. If I’m underselling this just wait until you find out the full scope of his idea.

Andres Avello grew up in Florida, where the water was a big part of everyday life. Discover how his life took a series of unexpected twists and turns, leading to him leaving a great and stable career to build a business.

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Andres knew he was meant to build a company, and he knew he was meant to do something with the water. Now he’s built a company called PADL that offers first-of-its-kind paddle board and kayak rentals all over Florida and soon the world. Just subscribe, and unlock the board at any location, take it out, return it, and lock it back up. It’s a novel twist on the model you might have seen for scooters around your city.

Skye Blackburn has made an enormous impact in her native Australia with a truly innovative idea: edible insects:

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She combined a lifelong passion for insects with a degree in food science to create a groundbreaking edible insect company. Today, she’s educated over a million people about the future of food and the importance of adding new sources like insects to our diets. Her products are already in grocery stores and her insect farms are a marvel of AI, solar power, and general awesomeness. She’s proof that the thing that makes you strange might just be your greatest asset.

Kyle Rand is the co-founder and CEO of Rendever. He grew up volunteering at a senior living community and later went on to study cognitive decline in the aging population at Duke University. He was recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30 and his company was just listed on Time’s list of 100 most influential companies in 2022, outstanding achievements both.

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When you meet him, you’ll understand why. His company has raised millions in funding pursuing a truly noble cause, empowering the elderly to form communities through virtual reality. In case you didn’t know, loneliness and isolation are two of the biggest problems facing us as we age, and he’s found a life and career of meaning solving that challenge.

Google's new chat bot LaMDA might have just crossed a threshold—the most major in our lifetimes. Whether AI is currently conscious isn't the question we should be asking.

Read the full transcript with LaMDA here: https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917