Social Entrepreneur

In this interview leading to World Toilet Day on November 19, Isabel Medem talks about her work in hygienic sanitation in Lima, Peru. X-Runner Venture is a social enterprise that brings toilets to the residents of informal housing.

Lima is the second driest capitals on earth. In the informal housing, many people resort to pit latrines which spread disease. Because the pit latrines are dug near the houses, they can cause the ground on which the houses are built to become unstable...

November 19 is World Toilet Day. Why? Because globally, about 2.4 billion people, about one-third of the world’s population, do not have access to a basic toilet. Sanitation-related illnesses kill over a thousand children per day. This problem is compounded by the concentration of informal housing in urban setting.

This week we are bringing you two stories of hygienic sanitation, starting with David Auerbach and Sanergy. David’s mother was a psychologist and social worker...

As a Vice President for Philips Electronics, Rick Hooper was actively involved in Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR. While in Thailand, he and his wife supported a local school and charity. There, he began to see the difference that for-profit companies can make.

Today, Rick is the CEO of Barefoot Power, a for-profit social enterprise that assists people in developing countries to access affordable renewable energy while reducing poverty and creating new markets...

Du’Anyam works with local women’s wicker weaving cooperatives. Du’Anyam markets these woven products to high-end hotels. The funds allow women to care for themselves during pregnancy with healthier foods and savings programs.

As a graduate student at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, Azalea Ayuningtyas traveled to the slums of Mumbai to conduct research on sanitation...

At 37 years-old, Michael “Luni” Libes had just completed his fifth successful tech startup. Looking for a way to support his fellow entrepreneurs, Luni became a mentor-in-residence for Pinchot University’s MBA of Sustainable Business program. After watching graduates struggle to launch their mission-driven businesses, Luni founded Fledge, the Conscious Company accelerator. Each year Fledge runs a program with seven mission-driven, for-profit companies...

In this episode of the podcast Social Entrepreneur, we interview Nathan Chan, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Foundr Magazine. He is building a multifaceted platform for young entrepreneurs. Nathan takes us back to his roots and describes his journey from a middle-class suburbia life to crushing it on the internet.

In this episode, Nathan describes:

• How he rose from an unremarkable life in the middle of the pack to being a thriving entrepreneur...

For Yoav Lurie, an early experience with life and death created a sense of urgency to make an impact. Today, Yoav is the founder and CEO of Simple Energy. Simple Energy is a software as a service that is taking on climate change by changing how millions of people save energy. Their customers save enough energy on a daily basis to power a small city...

This is the “getting to know you” episode of the podcast Social Entrepreneur. In this initial episode, I tell the story of how a woman in Kenya, who simply wanted to get the best price for her chickens led to the founding of this podcast. I’ll describe what a social entrepreneur is and what they do. I’ll also go over the form, frequency and the topics of the podcast.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• The story of "Mrs...