By Founders Pledge
The podcast currently has 10 episodes available.
Robby Walker is a two-time technology startup founder. His first company, Zenter, created an online presentation editor acquired by Google in 2007. His second company, Cue, built a personal search / digital assistant product and was backed by Sequoia Capital and technology incubator Y Combinator. Robby led the Y Combinator nonprofit program from 2016 to 2018, advising and selecting nonprofits to be accelerated alongside technology startups, including New Incentives, which is now a GiveWell top charity. He also serves on the board of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), a holistic poverty alleviation NGO based in Kenya.
In the episode of How I Give, we chat with Robby about his fascinating personal journey, his entrepreneurial career, and why he decided to take the pledge.
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Site: founderspledge.com
Originally from the US, Daniel Yu is an entrepreneur and software developer who has worked and traveled across more than 65 countries. Currently based in Kenya, he is the Founder and Global CEO of Sokowatch, an amazing organisation transforming business for informal retail shops across sub-Saharan Africa, which sell over $600 billion in goods each year. Sokowatch supports these shops by allowing them to place orders at any time through SMS or mobile app, with free same-day delivery of goods to their shop along with customized lines of credit to enable them to grow. The company works with tens of thousands of merchants across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda while partnering with companies such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble.
In this episode of How I Give, we speak to Daniel about his unique entrepreneurial journey, his philanthropy and why he decided to take the pledge.
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Website: founderspledge.com
Andrew Skotzko is a product leader, podcaster, philanthropist and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. He co-founded Petabridge in 2014 and Afriji in 2016, and has previously worked at startups Chill and Pebble, which were acquired by Tinder and Fitbit respectively. In addition, he has taken on a number of venture roles, previously working as an Entrepreneur in Residence at PHD Ventures and Growth Hacker in Residence at 500 Startups. Passionate about all things Product, he is currently Group Product Manager at Applied Invention.
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Website: founderspledge.com
While the world’s attention is steadfastly focused on battling the coronavirus pandemic, we must not lose momentum as we work to tackle the immense climate challenge we face. At Founders Pledge, we encourage our climate-focused members to support some amazing high-impact organisations using audacious advocacy to help secure our planet’s future. One of these incredible climate-minded members is Ignaz Forstmeier, co-founder of Personio, a true Climate Champion. In this episode of How I Give, I talked to Ignaz about his own personal giving journey, his passion for saving the planet and why he has chosen to give through the Founders Pledge Climate Fund.
For more information on our Climate Fund contact us: [email protected]
For non-Founders Pledge members visit: every.org
Michael is the founder of GiveDirectly, a Founders Pledge-recommended high-impact organisation and the first and largest nonprofit to allow donors to send money directly to the world’s most vulnerable. Since 2009, GiveDirectly has raised over $450 million for delivery to the extreme poor and those affected by disasters. Michael also founded Taptap Send in 2018, a company providing a new way for immigrants to send money from Europe to mobile wallets in emerging markets.
In this conversation, Michael shares his story, first-hand observations of the impact of COVID-19 on his organisations, and insights into how founders and philanthropists can help tackle some of the world's greatest challenges.
This interview was recorded at the Treasury Summit in July 2020.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is showing us that preparing for – and proactively addressing – risks that perhaps seem far-fetched and unlikely is more crucial than ever. For all the devastating consequences of the current crisis, there are greater risks out there that threaten humanity’s long-term prospects. In this episode of How I Give, we talk to John Halstead, Head of Applied Research at Founders Pledge, about existential risk and why philanthropists should focus on safeguarding the welfare of future generations.
John joined Founders Pledge in 2017 from a background in policy think tanks and academia. He has a doctorate in political philosophy from Oxford and taught philosophy at the Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford. Following that, he moved to the Global Priorities Project, working as a researcher on global catastrophic risk.
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The International Rescue Committee estimates that without immediate action, fragile countries could see up to 1 billion COVID-19 infections and 3.2 million deaths. David Miliband, President of the IRC, joined us to discuss the imminent threat of COVID-19 to the world’s most vulnerable populations, including refugee and displaced communities. David shared his insights from the situation on the ground and helped us explore how we can best leverage technology and strategic philanthropy to mitigate the humanitarian, economic, and security impacts of the pandemic in fragile settings.
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Mark is the Co-Founder and Director of Action for Happiness, a movement of people taking action to promote mental wellbeing and create a happier society. Mark has a long-standing interest in happiness and well-being and is passionate about creating a more balanced, collaborative society that focuses less on consumption and material wealth and more on helping people and communities thrive.
Since creating and launching Action for Happiness in 2011, Mark has engaged with a vast range of organisations, projects and people on the topics of happiness, wellbeing and resilience - including leading academics, major multi-national corporations, public sector organisations, policy-makers, SMEs, schools, charities and community organisations.
Prior to his current role, Mark gained a diverse range of experience working in both private and non-profit sectors, from start-ups to large multinationals. His areas of expertise include wellbeing, positive psychology, strategy, leadership, business consulting, innovation, clean energy, IT, mobile telecoms and programme/project management. After more than a decade of corporate life, Mark decided to change direction and began using his energy and leadership skills to help build a better society.
In this episode of How I Give, Mark shares insights from the Action for Happiness model, which a recent RCT has shown to provide large, statistically significant improvements in life satisfaction and reductions in anxiety and depression.
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Taken from our COVID-19 webinar series recorded on April 1, 2020
Experts from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, including Dr. Tom Inglesby, share updates on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and help us navigate the data and understand how we can have the most impact in addressing this crisis and preparing for the next one.
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In this episode, Mike Nolet shares lessons from his own journey building AppNexus through the 2008 financial crisis, experiencing success and burn-out, and launching LiveBetter to promote positive behaviour change at scale.
Mike founded LiveBetter to help others incorporate well-being and mindfulness activities into their daily lives, just as he tries to do in his own life. He does a bit of everything at LiveBetter, from writing code to fundraising. Over the past five years, LiveBetter has reached thousands of people around the world through their interactive, conversational app experience paired with engaging, evidence-based activities. Their research has proven that the use of LiveBetter can decrease stress, boost confidence and support people through challenges including anxiety, stress and self-confidence issues. LiveBetter technology was acquired by Ginger in March 2020. Prior to LiveBetter, Mike was the co-founder and CTO at AppNexus. AppNexus is an American multinational technology company operating a cloud-based software platform that aims to enable and optimise programmatic online advertising. AppNexus was later acquired by AT&T for close to $2 billion.
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Transcript
The podcast currently has 10 episodes available.