Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#101

Post by MathematicalArt » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

archibaldJ wrote: post #99

MathematicalArt wrote: post #92

I am Xavier, Mathematical Artist. And we are currently running a campaign called “Think OMNI” to introduce the entire US (for now) to a form of thinking that I call Omnidisciplinary Thinking. This form of thinking entails intuitively decomposing ideas into their root forms in order to efficiently use knowledge across, within, and between boundaries, disciplines, and industries. In essence, the boundaries that we put…

Just visited mathis.art. My apologies for the bluntness but the general impression it gives off is a project by an eco-centric person making bold claims about things. You speak a great sense of pragmatism but I don’t see anything pragmatic about the campaign, both in your HN post and on the website. Also I don’t see anything mathematical or remotely art. Please don’t get me wrong. What you are doing sounds interestin…

Thank you for the feedback. The post I made here is the focus for now. This was the site as it was a few years ago when I was experimenting with the idea and the question “Should an artist be egotistical?” After all, is such a site about exploring one’s self? Regardless, the site is now about how we all can think moving forward, so it is no longer an individual expression of myself.

I am currently working on a complete redesign as we speak. The only reason I even mentioned it here was the timeliness of the General Post. The site as it is needs to at least have the information I posted here, which it does not. Please consider it Under Construction. It currently is not related to the campaign at all.

Also, a thought experiment for you to ponder: Must art leave an artifact? Who made that restriction? If an artifact and a conversation have the same effects on the world, is one more artful than the other? Is the creator/instigator of a response more worthy when there is a tangible thing?

These sorts of questions are not what “Think OMNI” is about, though. Think OMNI is about eating, raising a family, engaging with neighbors. Pondering art is for after Breathing Room has been developed.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#102

Post by gramakri » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

I don't identify myself as a social entrepreneur but we built Cloudron around 2014 for personal reasons. When Google Reader shut down, we realized the importance of self-hosting and data ownership. Initially, we started writing our own apps but mid-way recognized that there is already a plethora of self-hostable (especially opensource) software out there. It's just that those apps are really hard to deploy. So, we now make a smart server platform that you can install on any cloud server or home server and you can easily install and maintain those apps.

Over time, we had to make many decisions around outside investment, salaries and target audience. We make choices based on whether it has social impact and whether our day to day work solves problems that we personally care about and for other privacy minded people like us. For example, we did not pursue outside investment (despite offers) and decided to retain 100% ownership of the company. We felt taking funding will make us focus on large enterprises and the product will take a different direction (k8s anyone?), quite far from any social impact. Investors, who we met, seemed to care more about 100x growth than our cause and some even laughed at the idea - "who wants to selfhost email?".

Same for salaries, we took a heavy pay cut for the initial 2-3 years just to to get product going along (and so many pivots). What kept us going is that we felt there is a social aspect to the product and if we don't do this nobody will. With a bit of luck, today we are profitable and can pay ourselves decent salary now (fwiw, I am based in bay area).

Just wanted to share our story, I don't know if it's relevant to what you are asking :) Ultimately, we want normal people and businesses to self-host and have complete control over their data (I wish we had the resources to make a hardware appliance that sits alongside the router). I understand I am not curing cancer or solving world hunger, but I want to do my bit moving the privacy needle :) !

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#103

Post by User23 » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 5:57 PM UTC

benrmatthews wrote: post #19

I’ve been working for, running and volunteering for social enterprises for 12 years now. I find that “social enterprise” as a term isn’t really known by anyone outside of the social enterprise bubble, e.g. those running, funding or volunteering for a social enterprise. The funding structures available to social enterprises seems to be an issue - you can be anything from a private limited company through to a register…

> I know a fully for-profit company who claims they are a social enterprise just because their main client base is registered charities.

Cynical me thinks that for-profit companies primarily work to benefit their executives and shareholders. Non-profit companies primary work to benefit their executives alone. How is this better? My source is overhead conversations in bars in Seattle where I heard Gates Foundation executives bragging about how they were getting paid $300,000 a year to do absolutely nothing.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#104

Post by seibelj » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

kfreds wrote: post #59

We started Mullvad VPN in 2009 for political reasons. My cofounder Daniel and I viewed it as direct political action through entrepreneurship. In particular we wanted to protest Swedish surveillance legislation (FRA), which is partly why we chose a Swedish name for the service. So far we have refused at least five serious offers of investment and acquisition, because we would rather retain control, even if that meant…

I see you take Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, any reason you don't take Monero? Monero is the most private cryptocurrency in existence, and if you want maximum privacy you could use this so customers don't need to mix their coins first.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#105

Post by htnsao » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

gramakri wrote: post #102

I don't identify myself as a social entrepreneur but we built Cloudron around 2014 for personal reasons. When Google Reader shut down, we realized the importance of self-hosting and data ownership. Initially, we started writing our own apps but mid-way recognized that there is already a plethora of self-hostable (especially opensource) software out there. It's just that those apps are really hard to deploy. So, we no…

Cloudron is awesome, thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#106

Post by gibolt » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 6:09 PM UTC

songzme wrote: post #98

2016 - While working as an engineer at Google, I decided to start a free coding bootcamp on the side. I believed I could teach anyone how to become a software engineer so I made a public post asking if anyone is interested in learning how to code and about 30 people showed up at my house. While I was at work in Mountain View, 30 people strangers used my house as a coding bootcamp. 2017 - 30 students were hard to mana…

How are you planning to keep this sustainable for the long term? Burning out one's personal finances doesn't sound like it furthers your mission/passion.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#107

Post by Nextgrid » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 6:10 PM UTC

songzme wrote: post #98

2016 - While working as an engineer at Google, I decided to start a free coding bootcamp on the side. I believed I could teach anyone how to become a software engineer so I made a public post asking if anyone is interested in learning how to code and about 30 people showed up at my house. While I was at work in Mountain View, 30 people strangers used my house as a coding bootcamp. 2017 - 30 students were hard to mana…

Just wondering, how do you vet the people that apply? I can imagine a lot of people would love to "earn" a free 2k a month and would happily play along doing the bare minimum amount of work required.

I contemplated doing something similar in London (not paying money per-se, but providing a location & good hardware for the students to use) but was kind of worried about ending up with an office full of freeloaders that just enjoy the amenities provided without caring about the curriculum itself.

I've experimented with a few people I know that are stuck in bullshit jobs and gave them hardware, software and any books/resources they'd need to learn programming, but while they are very grateful for it I haven't actually seen any progress or frankly even long-term motivation.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#108

Post by AtlanteanTec » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 6:16 PM UTC

gamerDude wrote: post #69

TimSchumann wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, care to share more?

Hey Tim! Feel free to reach out, my email is in my profile. But basically, its a fairly modular house, currently located in Colorado that uses solar for energy and a couple different hydroponic systems in an attached greenhouse. We've been looking at/building every step to understand where construction costs are coming from and what options are out there. For example, we were quoted early on for part of the house fou…

Hey gamerDude, I cant seem to find your email information in your profile either. Is there another way that we could connect? What you are describing is something I have been very passionate about but havent know where to start. I would love to help and be a part of this endeavor.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#109

Post by FriendlyNormie » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

songzme wrote: post #98

2016 - While working as an engineer at Google, I decided to start a free coding bootcamp on the side. I believed I could teach anyone how to become a software engineer so I made a public post asking if anyone is interested in learning how to code and about 30 people showed up at my house. While I was at work in Mountain View, 30 people strangers used my house as a coding bootcamp. 2017 - 30 students were hard to mana…

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#110

Post by monicatie » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 6:25 PM UTC

I'm working on a project called The People's Devs about doing pro bono dev work for social justice groups or organizations. Currently it's just me helping my art studio build an app to help artists and those struggling to get funding for housing and supplies. Haven't been sure how to scale and get more people, but I'm hoping it'll grow organically over time rather than chasing specific types of devs or organizations.