Supporting Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs
The 30 regional finalists of the Chivas Venture social entrepreneurship competition are preparing for the global finale in LA this summer. Here are ten of those businesses – each with the potential to change the world.
http://www.esquireme.com/content/20031-10-ideas-that-could-change-the-world
Interview with Lizzie Merrill of Ignitia, conducted by Henry Tanjong on April 6th 2017.
Interview with Charlie Curtis of Clean Decisions, conducted by Fred Fundo. April 5, 2017.
INTERVIEW WITH MR MARK MEYTIN, CEO of 1000ECOFARMS. Conducted by Henry Tanjong April 4th, 2017 1000Ecofarms is an online community that connects sellers and consumers of organic, local natural fresh food. …
INTERVIEW WITH JOHN KIYARA C.E.O OF AFRICAN CHICKEN By Henry Tanjong, Mentor Capital Network, April 3rd, 2017 African Chicken is a Tanzanian business that fights unemployment, poverty, and hunger, with …
Entrepreneur Henri Nyakarundi created a “solar smart kiosk” out of frustration from his experiences struggling to find a place to charge his Blackberry in Rwanda. His solution was a stand-alone cart that runs on renewable energy and serves as a one-stop digital center for mobile phone users in semi-urban and rural areas.
https://www.devex.com/news/rwanda-s-solar-smart-kiosk-provides-digital-solutions-to-rural-mobile-phone-users-89956
Developed by IT social enterprise Koe Koe Tech, the app provides comprehensive information to pregnant women from pre-natal to post-natal care. It includes quizzes and daily alerts for the duration of pregnancy and the first three years of the infant’s life.The app helps users find doctors, hospitals, maternity and child supplies. It also provides a chat service where “pregnant women and parents can discuss their issues with peers,” said Koe Koe Tech’s Michael Lwin in an email.
https://blogs.voanews.com/techtonics/2017/03/24/mobile-tech-spans-health-gap-for-developing-worlds-pregnant-women/
CA-GTX Corp, an IoT platform and global provider of personal location GPS, BLE, cellular and RFID, tracking and monitoring wearable and wandering assistive technology and Energy Harvesters LLC, a Boston-based company announced today signing a Memorandum of Understanding to explore incorporating Energy Harvesters’ patented Walking Charger™ with the GPS SmartSole® and other wearable tech and IoT products within the GTX family of wearable footwear technology.
http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/gtx-corp-signs-collaboration-agreement-with-energy-harvesters-llc-pinksheets-gtxo-2204586.htm
When you were a kid, chances are, the days when you were allowed to pick out your own breakfast meant one thing: a heaping bowl of Lucky Charms or Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And if your mom stocked the house with “healthy cereal,” your only option was something very bland. Bleh.
https://www.wellandgood.com/good-food/back-to-the-roots-cereal-nyc-schools/
“What Airbnb did for the bedroom, we’re trying to do for land,” Lindsey Ricker, Alfrea’s customer engagement manager, told us during her “Around the Corner” interview
https://generocity.org/philly/2017/03/22/alfrea-around-the-corner-community-garden/
Please save the date(s) for the Mentor Capital Network’s spring USA tour.If you’re interested in the work of the Mentor Capital Network (formerly known as the William James Foundation), or …
Peacefully indomitable may sound like an oxymoron, but that is exactly how I would describe Aaron & Abigail Sebesta’s calm but determined attitude and presence. Immediately intrigued by their life stories they spoke about during our house hunting together, I wasn’t surprised when less than a year later they took a huge step in pursuing their dream of moving to South America to help farmers finance their operations. Now in Cusco, Peru, their business–Axios Impact Investments–is embarking on a true social enterprise mission to solve one of the world’s biggest problems.
https://thatsdurangoblog.wordpress.com/axios-impact-investment-interview/?fbclid=IwAR3UDc6cThCUAjx36oQJSRigsniHT1TuI-IW2LeNZr_fg86RCo5MpDlffJU
The New York City public school system has quietly replaced breakfast cereals made by the Kellogg Company, the titan whose name is virtually synonymous with cereal, with those from a small California upstart called Back to the Roots.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/dining/cereal-health-new-york-city-public-schools.html?_r=0
Back to the Roots was that something different. Though miniscule in comparison to food industry giants such as Kellogg, the California startup — which last summer got a $10-million funding boost from investors — offers a lineup of organic cereals with half as much sugar as conventional brands and no preservatives or added vitamins.
http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/startups/libby_maccarthy/back_roots_lands_major_deal_new_york_city_schools
Investors Seeking Dealflow Dear Ian, : Please help out our investors:The Mentor Capital Network (formerly known as the William James Foundation) is regularly asked by our investor partners for examples of …
Alfrea, a company based in Linwood, New Jersey, is trying to extend the sharing economy to garden spaces. The company was founded in 2016 as an online marketplace for renting land and finding farm hands for hire. Alfrea has since expanded to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Frederick, Maryland. The company has plans to expand nationwide. The website also has as a farmers’ market platform which allows farmers to sell produce at any time.
https://foodtank.com/news/2017/03/alfrea-plants-garden-spaces-sharing-economy/
Christian Mwijage decided he could tackle those problems in one go – by turning discarded plastic bottles into building materials that can be used instead of wood.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tanzania-waste-recycling-idUSKBN15W28P
Field Updates: First, I want to talk about Laureate Education. Unlike most of the companies we talk about, they’re not an MCN Alum. But last week, they became the first Public …
Bata Media Limited tells yet another story that is bound to speak to young, aspiring business leaders.
https://www.bellanaija.com/2017/02/our-focus-is-letting-people-know-that-waste-is-a-resource-bilikiss-adebiyi-abiola-speaks-with-mr-fab-on-under-40-ceos/
Learn more about how Fasiba connects smallholder farmers to inputs, finance and information
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Y2KaTl4vQ&feature=youtu.be
“When we were students first creating our technology in 2010, we designed it with the needs of disaster victims in mind. We wanted to provide comfort and safety after dark to those who had lost everything,” says LuminAID co-founder Anna Stork. “It’s 2017 now, and we live in an increasingly connected world — there are actually more more mobile phones than people on the planet!
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/02/prweb14044605.htm
A pilot program partnership with Boom Algae takes carbon dioxide and other waste byproducts of fermentation and feeds them to the algae. The algae is harvested and sold to Living Ink Technologies, which uses it to make a 100-percent biodegradable green ink. “It sounded wacky at first,” says Upslope’s founder Matt Cutter. “But we’re hoping this is successful and leads Boom Algae to the next step, where eventually it becomes something that can handle more or all of the CO2 from our brewery.”
http://draftmag.com/brewing-innovations-research-science/
Our supply chain is pretty eco-friendly. We use local businesses that are within six miles of us. If we order materials outside of Ohio we make sure to do ground shipping versus airfreight. We also seek to use materials that are eco-friendly and made in the U.S. Notably, we strive to lower our carbon footprint through the use of organic materials.
http://www.hivelocitymedia.com/founders/cethansmith092613.aspx
The commercial for the AquaFarm, a three-gallon fish bowl topped with a lid for growing potted plants that its inventors call “a self-cleaning fish tank that grows food,” pretty much sums up the way aquaponics works—even if the pitch, at times, sounds like some green-techie hipster satire straight out of a “Portlandia” skit.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/life/building-the-better-fishbowl-aquaponics-combines-fish-greens-to-create/article_cad5319e-e4e0-11e6-8d01-cf596ef1a536.html
Every morning before dawn, the Amazon-dwelling Kichwa tribe partake in a 2,000-year-old tea-drinking ritual. Guayusa (pronounced gwhy-yoo-sa) is their brew of choice, served in a hollowed-out gourd. Rather like many of us before our first caffeine hit, the Kichwa say they are not ‘Runa’, which translates as ‘fully alive human being’, before their first bowl.
http://www.billionaire.com/travel/2701/indigenous-brew-an-amazonian-superleaf
The main focus behind the venture was however the sheer unavailability of commercial sanitary pads to women, especially in rural India. “Only 16% of women in India use sanitary napkins. What are the other women using? Kristin asks.
https://www.scoopwhoop.com/This-New-Sanitary-Pad-Has-No-Plastic-Or-Chemicals-And-Dissolves-Naturally-In-6-Months/#.h0im96vah
Since 2008 Purasol has installed about 1000 projects in Costa Rica, under which the first on-grid, triphase, open-delta, and micro-grid systems in the country. Purasol has been on top of the game ever since.
http://www.purasol.co.cr/news/purasol-presenta-proyectos-entre-1-5kw-y-270kw-bajo-el-nuevo-reglamento/
Sara Polon, 39, founded Soupergirl, a vegan soup delivery/restaurant, with her mom in 2008. Soupergirl’s soups are on the shelves at health food stores and Costco. She lives in Cleveland Park.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/hungry-soupergirl-to-the-rescue/2017/01/17/08840f16-c21c-11e6-9578-0054287507db_story.html
In emerging markets and the developing world, access to banking, capital, and financial resources is far more difficult than here in the U.S., due to a less developed financial system, lack of credit tracking, and oftentimes and informal economy. Santa Monica-based Tala, backed by Google Ventures and Lowercase Capital, has developed a tool that allows anyone with a cell phone to build a financial track record, specially for people in emerging markets.
http://www.socaltech.com/interview_with_shivani_siroya_tala/s-0068771.html
In 2009, Alejandro Velez had overcome a lot of obstacles to get where he was. The then senior at UC Berkeley had survived being kidnapped by terrorists while growing up in Medellín, Colombia, had beaten cancer and was just a few months away from beginning a lucrative career on Wall Street.
http://people.com/human-interest/man-who-survived-a-terrorist-kidnapping-cancer-and-the-bachelorette-becomes-successful-mushroom-entrepreneur/
“Atayne was immediately attractive to us for a variety of reasons,” Maine Maritime Director of Athletics Steve Peed said in a news release. “Obviously we get to feel good about using 100 percent recycled products, but as a public institution, we have an opportunity to keep business in Maine through a Brunswick-based company that employs people in Maine and around New England.”
http://bangordailynews.com/2017/01/12/sports/maine-maritime-athletes-to-wear-100-percent-recycled-organic-uniforms/
Social enterprise Saathi, founded by three MIT graduates, aims to deliver one million biodegradable sanitary pads made from banana fibre to women in rural Jharkhand.
http://www.news18.com/news/lifestyle/sanitary-pads-made-from-banana-fibre-to-be-delivered-in-jharkhand-1335229.html
Globally, there are currently 1.5 billion people who have no access to the main grid, and who are predominantly located in poor rural areas in developing countries.
http://cleanleap.com/jiko-power-enhancing-rural-communication
After her first trip to India, she decided to return with a plan to address this problem. As a graduate student at MIT, Rajasingh traveled to India two more times to conduct research through MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) and her thesis focused on the gap between making technologies and getting them to Indian villages. A tip from her thesis reader, Media Lab lecturer Joost Bonsen, connected her to a Harvard student that was cross-registered in one of his classes, Jackie Stenson who shared her passion and they came up with the idea for their company over lunch at Mass. Avenue’s Flour Bakery.
https://alum.mit.edu/slice/confronting-last-mile-problem-developing-world
As a string-trimmer operator during high school and college, Zack Kline says he got tired of the trimmer’s noise, fumes and gas consumption. So, he sought an alternative. He’s been operating battery-powered equipment since 2011—using Stihl for about the past four years—and says it’s come a long way since then.
https://www.landscapemanagement.net/the-battery-debate/
Dr. Theresa Dankovich and her colleagues have developed an inexpensive water filter system – think of your standard drip coffee maker – where the paper is impregnated with silver nanoparticles that decontaminate the water passing through.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXfZlThPEg0
Saathi – – an Ahmedabad-based startup founded by three Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates — Amrita Saigal, Grace Kane and Kristin Kagetsu, has developed a biodegradable sanitary pad made from banana fibre for the Indian market. “Last year, we filed for a patent. The product has been developed in India and we started manufacturing in our own unit at Ahmedabad from October.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/saathi-healthcare-startup-makes-biodegradable-pads-from-banana-fibre/articleshow/56363299.cms
At the end of the winding driveway leading up to the lodge you’ll find Maya Mountain Cacao, or MMC. Owned by American entrepreneur Emily Stone, MMC (www.mayamountaincacao.com) sources premium cacao from local, mostly organic farmers. Once they drop off their bounty, the beans are graded for quality and then fermented, sun-dried on mats and packed in burlap bags for shipping to chocolate makers.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/travel/ct-belize-cacao-farms-travel-0115-20170105-story.html
In 2012, serial entrepreneur Alan Paul established Eco Fuels Kenya (EFK) to explore the potential of croton, following early research that suggested promise. His company is now the driving the movement to bring croton biofuel to the mainstream.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/28/africa/croton-nuts-biofuel-aes/
The Nobel Foundation’s ‘Your plate, our planet’ event featured talks by start-ups boasting the world changing power of new food technologies like ‘food computers’ and tropical weather forecasting.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science/The-next-generation-of-food-tech-Nobel-Laureates-discuss-future-of-food