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?

#181

Post by ssss11 » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 10:40 PM UTC

The top level replies here are interesting, I think, for the HN crowd.

There’s some great examples of social good - helping homelessness, poor countries, the starving, the environment etc.

I don’t see anything though related to digital human rights and fixing the surveillence marketing & surveilance state activites that have overcome the web. As a tech crowd i find that very intriguing.

If anyone has examples of what they’re doing in this space I’d like to hear it?

I’m thinking of things like Solid, Matrix, Sovrin, and so on... this area seems to be growing rapidly and it interests me alot

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

#182

Post by slickdork » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 10:41 PM UTC

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…

This seems like a great idea for a niche group of people. My initial recommendation is making the time limited option free. Currently the end user has to donate 1 dollar no matter what, right? For every individual password?

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

#183

Post by nabeards » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 10:50 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…

As mentioned, your email isn’t in your profile but would love more info on this as I am in a country where this would be a perfect fit.

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

#184

Post by vmception » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 10:54 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…

This was one of my dreams, using my excess wealth to do some form of subsidized education with my twist on it, as an alternative to hoarding it all and ignoring requests for handouts, providing no opportunity to earn the money.

Thanks for spelling out the financial disaster that is, pass.

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

#185

Post by songzme » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 11:03 PM UTC

sizzle wrote: post #157

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?

Thanks, but I've come to realize that I'm not altruistic so I want to clarify so you don't leave with the wrong message.

I'm using my wealth to build a learning environment and remove obstacles so I can observe what the true barriers to learning are. I essentially created my own lab because it was too much work to convince others to create it for me.

So, I'm not the good person that my story seems to convey, just curious.

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

#186

Post by songzme » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 11:06 PM UTC

kome wrote: post #138

songzme wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it, I'm paying to study how people learn and how people's standing in society affects their learning. It is very interesting and definitely opened my eyes and helped change my philosophy in life. I haven't learned enough to confidently strategize a way to keep this sustainable, because I noticed a pattern between people who don't do well and their personality (but I can't quite put my finger on it). I'm…

> because I noticed a pattern between people who don't do well and their personality (but I can't quite put my finger on it) can you talk about this?

I'm not really comfortable talking about this because is just speculation and I don't have enough time / data to defend my position. If you have specific questions though please contact me.

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

#187

Post by amartshah » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 11:13 PM UTC

Hi! I'm a co-founder of Change [1]. CHANGE connects our network of today's most resonant nonprofits with brands to power donation rewards.

With consumer activism on the rise, our rewards system allows brands to be at the forefront of social responsibility while actively engaging the most coveted demographic. 59% of Change users consistently share branded content with their online following after redeeming their rewards. On average, every $6.67 in donated rewards results in one unique user sharing branded content on their Instagram story - $36 less than the average payment for nano influencers.

We quit our jobs 6 months ago during COVID-19 to start this. Check out our mobile app [2]. Change is looking to grow its network! If there are any nonprofits or brands you would like to see on Change, let us know! We would love to reach out or be introduced! Let me know if you are interested in learning more

[1] www.getchange.io [2] Mobile app: www.link.getchange.io/app

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

#188

Post by hn_cunts » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 11:23 PM UTC

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

#189

Post by songzme » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 11:26 PM UTC

mkolodny wrote: post #139

songzme wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...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…

> I really don't want to set a precedence of charging students for something I don't think they should be paying for. What do you think students shouldn't be paying for? Education? Some people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for learning materials and a certificate of completion. Up front. With no guarantee of future income. And no refund if you don't finish. Offering learning materials that only cost money if y…

I don't think students should pay for education, correct. I would enjoy life more if education was free and I'm free to pursue whatever I wanted to learn.

It would be even cooler if I was paid to learn so teachers get to experiment with all different ways to teach and they are fully vested into my growth.

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

#190

Post by minerjoe » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 11:34 PM UTC

sizzle wrote: post #155

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?

I have an old mentor that tought me. I've been staying with him thought the years helping out on his orchard. I'm sorry but I haven't researched any online tutorials. It's not hard though. Really not hard. You can go into all the root-stocks and such, but if your in for old-school and easy and importantly, to me at least, free, get a small fenced garden plot to make your starting place, collect apple seeds, plant them and you'll have the beginnings of an orchard next spring. Apple pressing parties are the best. Collect the remains from a few pressings and just plant them. Boom, as many apple trees as you want. The fruit will be variable but, you never know, you might discover an amazing variety. These are then your rootstocks in a year or so. Collect scions from trees you like in the late winter and whip-and-tongue graft them onto your stock in the spring either as bench-grafting or top-grafting. Orchards without needing to spend a dollar. They'll be full-size trees that will long outlive you.