For Good & Profit: Impact Entrepreneurship FTW

#sxsw #4Good

Over the past few years we've seen a tremendous rise in social good for-profit enterprises. This session, which includes leading social good entrepreneurs and impact investors, will examine why we're seeing this boom and what the future of social enterprise might look like. We'll look at advantages social good companies have over traditional businesses (recruitment advantages, retention, etc). We'll examine why some social issues are best solved in a for-profit structure, and talk about what problems might best be left to traditional nonprofits. Finally, we'll offer resources and advice for aspiring social good entrepreneurs, based on our own experience founding, running, and investing in social good startups.

Presenters

Rachael Chong

Founder & CEO

Catchafire

Rachael Chong is the Founder and CEO of Catchafire, the world’s leading skills-based volunteer platform. Rachael has been named one of Fast Company’s Most 100 Creative People in Business, received the NYC Venture Fellowship, the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award and has presented at two TEDx events. Catchafire has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Mashable, NPR, FOX Business, CNN Money, Forbes, Fast Company, TechCrunch, and facilitated two series in partnership with Fast Company on The Future of Service in America and The Most Generous People in Business.

Prior to Catchafire, Rachael helped to start up BRAC USA, the US affiliate of the BRAC, a poverty alleviation organization and the largest nonprofit in the world. To build her business chops, Rachael worked at UBS Investment Bank after graduating from Barnard College at Columbia University. She also has a Masters of Public Policy from Duke University.

Seth Bannon

Founder & CEO

Amicus

Seth is the founder & CEO of Amicus, a social good startup that helps nonprofits turn their supporters into fundraisers and advocates. Having graduated from Y Combinator, Amicus has raised nearly $4M from some the the world's most prestigious investors.
After Amicus was used to power the Human Rights Campaign's digital organizing efforts in the successful 2012 marriage equality fight, Seth was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Social Entrepreneurship. Since the age of twelve, Seth has been volunteering for, founding, and working for advocacy organizations, including the Obama campaign in 2008. After many years of frustration with the state of technology in the nonprofit world, he founded Amicus in an effort to fix it.
An avid chess player, Seth can often be found in Union Square Park attempting to hustle the chess hustlers.

Tabreez Verjee

Founder & Partner

Uprising

Tabreez Verjee is a three-time entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Uprising to invest in and relentlessly support mission driven technology entrepreneurs pursuing epic endeavors that matter.
Tabreez is also an active member of the board of directors at Kiva.org, the world's first crowdsourced lending platform dedicated to connecting people for the purpose of alleviating poverty, where he was also one of Kiva’s first financial backers.
Tabreez began his career at Bain & Company and left to co-found a boutique finance company that raised $150 million for innovative media financings. He then moved over to the tech and internet space where he helped lead the internet music company Sonique, which soon sold for $70M. After Sonique, Tabreez co-founded Global Asset Capital which grew over six years into a venture firm with $500M in committed capital and 40 portfolio companies.