Inspiring Social Entrepreneurs Podcast

Stephen Dawson is a pioneer in the field of venture philanthropy in the UK. A former venture capitalist, he was involved for 25 years with ECI, where he was until recently non-executive chairman.   Stephen was a co-founder of Impetus Trust- now Impetus-PEF- the first British venture philanthropy organisation, investing in charities and social enterprises that...

Nithya is the President and Co-Founder of Nexleaf Analytics, a nonprofit based in Los Angeles, California. Nexleaf’s mission is to build, scale, and support wireless technologies and data analytics tools to measure the impact of public health and environmental interventions in the field. Nexleaf’s is current focussing on key projects in supporting vaccine delivery in...

Ned is the cofounder of d.light, a for-profit social enterprise that designs, manufactures and distributes solar lights and power products to the developing world; the company provides high quality light and cost savings to households, farms and small businesses. d.light has developed a wide range of solar lighting products at different prices, from desk lights...

Alasdair is Executive Director and cofounder of Blue Ventures, an innovative social enterprise that works with coastal communities to rebuild tropical fisheries. Blue Ventures work with some of the the world’s poorest coastal communities, developing transformational approaches to marine protection by creating incentives for small-scale fishing communities to support fisheries management and marine conservation efforts. Among...

Marc Koska has been on an amazing 30 year mission to eliminate dirty syringes responsible for more than a million deaths a year. Marc invented the non-reusable K1 syringe – thus preventing the medical transmission of blood-borne diseases. Since the first K1 syringe was sold, more than five billon K1 syringes have been sold worldwide....

The BOMA Project is a U.S. nonprofit and Kenyan NGO committed to building resiliency and ending extreme poverty in the drylands of Africa by focusing on enrolling ultra-poor women in a two-year poverty graduation program. BOMA’s Rural Entrepreneur Access Project helps women to “graduate” from extreme poverty through a sequence of interventions that include a...

Xavier is the Co-Founder and CEO of Off.Grid:Electric, a distributed renewable energy company operating in Arusha, Tanzania. Off.Grid:Electric radically reduces the cost and risk of adopting solar energy for off-grid households worldwide, allowing them to replace kerosene with solar for as little as $2.50 per month. Xavier is a serial social entrepreneur. Prior to setting...

Pascal is a technology enthusiast with a wide ranging career which includes setting up a couple of technology companies, working at eBay,  Mozilla Labs, as well as a stint at Google.org investing into social impact organizations around the world. Pascal now heads up the startup initiatives at Singularity University- whose aim is to grow startups...

Sharath Jeevan is Founder and CEO of STIR Education, a social entreprise that is building a teacher-led movement in India and Uganda. to address the learning crisis in developing countries. STIR aims to build a movement of teachers, motivated to improve their teaching quality and influence the system. The aim is to reignite the spark...

Jagdeesh Rao is the Chief Executive of the Foundation for Ecological Security, India (FES). FES is working towards the ecological restoration and conservation of land and water resources in ecologically fragile, degraded and marginalised regions of India, primarily through the concentrated and collective efforts of village communities. FES works with almost 9,000 village communities across...

Kate Otto is founder and CEO of Everyday Ambassador, an organisation helping schools and organizations create lasting, positive social change. She is also author of “Everyday Ambassador: Make a Difference by Connecting in a Disconnected World.” Kate is also health consultant and has worked for The World Bank, USAID, and various grassroots organizations. She is...

Paul Polak is the co-founder and CEO of Windhorse International, a for-profit social venture that designs radically affordable, life-saving or income-generating technology to serve the poorest people in the world. In 2008, Polak founded D-Rev, a non-profit with the aim of designing and delivering medical products to people living on less than $4 a day...

Paul Matteucci is founder of Feeding 10 Billion, a non-profit resource centre for food system entrepreneurs-its mission is to help food and agriculture entrepreneurs build sustainable companies that make an impact, create jobs and generate returns for investors. Paul is also a general partner of U.S. Venture Partners. In this interview, Paul discusses:  The three...

Eric Ries is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author known for pioneering the lean startup movement. He is the author of the 2011 New York Times bestseller, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Business. Eric serves on the advisory board of a number of technology start-ups, is currently...

Pamela is the Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Pamela’s work at Skoll is focused on advancing social entrepreneurship byleveraging top academic research, developing leadership talent and engaging with social innovators around the world to drive large scale impact on the world’s most pressing problems. Pamela...

Suzi is cofounder and CEO at Verb., a social enterprise that produces, innovative competitions for social entrepreneurs who are working toward bringing bring disruptive innovation to the world’s most wicked problems. Suzi started Verb  to serve foundations, Fortune 500 companies, and governments. Verb’s clients include Dell Inc., The Livestrong Foundation, IBM, and MetLife Foundation. Sosa...

Alex Osterwalder is an entrepreneur, speaker and business model innovator known for his work on the Business Model Canvas, a tool to visualize, challenge and (re-) invent business models. The Canvas is used by many large organizations around the world, like GE, P&G, Ericsson, and 3M. Together with Professor Yves Pigneur, Alex co-authored Business Model...

Farmland LP acquires conventional farmland and converts it to organic, sustainable farmland, in a structure similar to a private farmland REIT Jason leads farmland management for Farmland LP, including crop rotation planning, organic certification, sustainability planning, operations management, and working with farmer tenant/partners. He is a highly-regarded scientist and expert in sustainability who applied his...

Jonah Sachs is an internationally recognized storyteller, author, and designer. He is the co-founder and chief storytelling officer of Free Range Studios, an advertising and marketing firm that specializes in nonprofits and socially responsible businesses Jonah has helped hundreds of social brands and causes break through the media din with campaigns built on sound storytelling...

Chris Ategeka, is an engineer, inventor, and founder CEO of Rides for Lives. Motivated by his experience growing up in rural Uganda, Chris Ategeka started Rides for Lives an innovative, award winning social enterprise that addresses the lack of healthcare access and youth employment opportunities for populations in Uganda/East Africa. Rides for Lives has developed...