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

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

#151

Post by slfnflctd »

gamerDude wrote: post #14

I'm working on a company to create a universal basic income utilizing technology instead of financial instruments. Doing that through building homes that run on renewable energy, grow their own food and are cheap to make. The first prototype house should be done this year!

I started looking into doing something similar about 7 years ago. My primary advice is to nail down and narrowly define what you're doing with food early on, it's a huge distraction full of pitfalls.

Hopefully you're already aware that it's not really feasible for a household to grow enough food to live on-- better to be clear up front with everyone that it's to supplement groceries, not replace them. Focus on a few core crops you can gradually become more efficient at growing, and don't get too caught up on automation unless someone on your team has extensive experience with using it in agriculture. [Edit: I saw further below that you're already doing this, I guess all I can say is be aware of the limitations and try to have realistic expectations.]

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

#152

Post by User23 »

slfnflctd wrote: post #143
User23 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 exe…

> bragging about how they were getting paid $300,000 a year to do absolutely nothing If I was doing this, I would feel guilty as hell and wouldn't tell a single soul. I'd probably also be looking for something else to do. The messed-up stuff some people boast about, it's sickening.

In vino veritas. You can learn a lot in bars if you drink soda water and lime and pay attention. Especially in hubs like Seattle or Mountain View.

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

#153

Post by obmelvin »

O_H_E wrote: post #149
User23 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 exe…

> where I heard Gates Foundation... Oh, come on, that was one of the few places I semi-idealize as ethical and "clean". Humans will be humans I guess...

I don't think this necessarily says anything to the contrary of that. If you are someone at Gates overseeing research grants etc, you probably have a PhD and I'm sure the Gates job is less stressful than doing your own research. I could very easily see how friends of mine would say such a position is "easy" compared to publishing yourself, being scooped, research failing, etc. Instead, you get paid well to help other people do the same. Nothing wrong with that - it's just perspective.

Granted, I didn't talk to this executive, but I feel somewhat comfortable hypothesizing this due to what I know of this area.

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

#154

Post by O_H_E »

jwally wrote: post #124

I built a site (addictionlocker.com) which is a password manager that makes you donate to charity to get your passwords back. I built it because everytime I try to lock myself out of twitter, et al, I just unlock whatever I set up because I know the password. Originally, I was going to take a percentage of the profit; but now want to see all of it go to charity. What sucks is I think its a really solid idea; benefits…

I does seem like a great idea!

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

#155

Post by sizzle »

minerjoe wrote: post #150

I gave up using Federal Reserve Notes, on principal, and have dedicated my life to improving a small ranching community. By limiting my use of money to less than $100 a month (hopefully soon $0), I've had to build connections with human beings that would have not been possible otherwise. It was really eye opening to realize that the universe wants to play and it will help me in the strangest ways. I've set up a commu…

This is simply amazing, thank you for your impactful work. Any tutorials for grafting fruit trees you can recommend to a complete beginner?

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

#156

Post by seibelj »

novok wrote: post #147
seibelj wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's a false security, and it can induce you to break opsec when they break monero privacy again.

Monero has never been compromised, despite hypothetical attacks from researchers, which have since been patched. No evidence of their use has ever been established, unlike many traces used as evidence in court from Bitcoin transactions.

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

#157

Post by sizzle »

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…

I sincerely hope the students that went on to become full time developers paid you back handsomely to pay it forward to future students, otherwise you have nothing to retire with if you sacrificed your life savings. I hope your altruism is rewarded because you are such a good person for doing this. Maybe take donations and create a fund from wealthy tech enthusiasts?

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

#158

Post by Fiahil »

songzme wrote: post #130
Nextgrid wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wondering, how do you vet the people that apply? No vetting process, it was first come first served. As long as a student kept showing up, I will do everything I can to help. I don't advertise paying students, I offer it after I've seen them make some progress. > 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. Thi…

> The way I plan to solve this (next year) could be very controversial, but I believe it based on my experiences so far: No internet until you finish the curriculum, no alcohol, no drugs. Maybe also no meat but that's still up in the air.

Sounds like today’s version of a 17th century monastery. Maybe, you should push it further

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

#159

Post by searchableguy »

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…

Thanks for doing this. This is really awesome of you but you need to find some way to subsidize the cost in the long term.

Have you got any ideas?

I am thinking for-profit divisions such as a hiring agency (you will be able to fix the hiring processes) and training services for interns and juniors of companies, etc. You can sell enterprise subscriptions that companies can pay to give their employees access to training material whilst still providing an open source version via GPL.

Maybe crowd funding. Some kind of lambda school agreement or help spin off companies from projects and take a cut.

I would love to talk more about this. I am starting a similar endeavour as a hobby. Email is in the profile.

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

#160

Post by emilsedgh »

songzme wrote: post #136
gibolt wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably should add a 5-20% take of atttendees first 6 month or year pay. You could argue that is 'expensive', but the value add for the students is probably more than they made otherwise with no upfront cost. Your incentives are aligned, and this could help you enroll even more students. The alternative of you no longer providing the service is worse.

> ...but the value add for the students is probably more than they made otherwise with no upfront cost. I really don't want to set a precedence of charging students for something I don't think they should be paying for. I'd rather have them keep their money so they can help improve the world in their own way. > The alternative of you no longer providing the service is worse. Worse for who? Society? I don't believe it…

Give them the chance to participate and give back to their society as well!
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