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Ask HN: Any well funded tech companies tackling big, meaningful problems?

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Ask HN: Any well funded tech companies tackling big, meaningful problems?

#1

Post by digitalmaster »

Are there any well funded tech startups / companies tackling major societal problems? Any of these fair game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_global_issues

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I don't see or hear of any and want to know if this is just my bias or if there really is a shortage of resources in tech being allocated to solving the worlds most important problems. I'm sure I'm not the only engineer that's looking out for companies like this.

Ran into this previous Ask HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24168902) that asked a similar question. However, here I wanna focus on the better funded efforts (not side projects, philanthropy etc).

One example I've heard so far is Tesla. Any others?

Re: Ask HN: Any well funded tech companies tackling big, meaningful problems?

#4

Post by giantg2 »

I don't know that I would use Telsa as an example. Sure, they are replacing fossil fuels with renewables, but I see this as trading one dirty commodity for another. Lithium mining is environmentally damaging and the impact will likely get worse as demand increases. So maybe a step in the right direction, but definitely not a true solution.

Re: Ask HN: Any well funded tech companies tackling big, meaningful problems?

#8

Post by hprotagonist »

chrisseaton wrote: post #6

> Are there any well funded tech startups / companies tackling major societal problems? Why would you look to tech companies to do this? Isn't this what charities do?

isn't this what governments ought to exist to do? "promote the General Welfare" is within the first 30 words of the Preamble.

Re: Ask HN: Any well funded tech companies tackling big, meaningful problems?

#9

Post by TYPE_FASTER »

Check out the startups working at incubators like Greentown Labs: https://greentownlabs.com/.

Not all these companies will make it. There's a risk associated with working on these problems that is not always countered by the rapid revenue growth associated with a well-funded tech company. Having worked at a company that was briefly situated at Greentown, I will say there is an energy associated with working there. It made my optimistic that people are actually working hard on these problems, and we have a chance at solving some of them within my lifetime.

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