“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”
Margaret Mead
Associate Director, Societal Engagement at Imperial College Business School
Parminder Vir OBE
Avinash Mishra
Investment Director at Global Innovation Fund
Jane Thomason
Senior Global Advisor at ABT Associates
Eze Vidra
Managing Partner, Remagine Ventures
Farrukh H. Khan
Chief Business Development Officer at Acumen
Today I was delighted to speak at the Imperial College London Social Impact Day on the role of technology in social impact. It was great to see so many students from interdisciplinary faculties, engaged in social impact, and later in the day pitching their ideas for tech and impact, from phone-enabled diagnostics to AI generated patients to train doctors remotely…
Before me, spoke Nobel Peace Prize Winner Prof. Muhammad Yunus, pioneer of the concept of micro finance. What a treat. His point is that poverty belongs in the museum at this day and age… I completely agree. In our panel we discussed how despite being vilified today (think Cambridge Analytica), Technology can play a big role in driving social change.
That said, it’s easy to ignore this and go about your day. Don’t be fooled to think that social impact is the work of billionaires like MacKensie Bezos or Bill Gates only. You don’t have to wait to be old and rich to make a change. You can do something today in your community/company/university/etc. You can think big and start small. Sign up. Show up. Learn about a cause and help support it. I guarantee you’ll make a difference (however small) and I promise it will make you feel great. For companies, it will help you keep and attract talent. More on the business ramifications of social impact is in John Wood’s book Purpose, Incorporated.
In less than two months I’ll be embarking on my 8th Techbikers Paris to London ride (sign up!). A bunch of entrepreneurs, VCs and tech execs cycle 320km and build a stronger community. But what kind of change can you expect with that? Well, last year alone, we were able to build 4 libraries in India, 9 in Vietnam in addition to 16 years of education scholarships for girls. Since inception in 2012 together with Room to Read we’ve built 9 schools and 36 libraries in India, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Tanzania and South Africa, impacting over 45,000 children.
Today we sent a newsletter to 1,500 people with information about the upcoming rides and our 2018 impact report. If you’re not already on the ride, I’d love to see you there. If you can’t make it and still want to support – please consider making a donation to Room to Read. All proceeds go directly to charity to build schools and libraries in the developing world. We share Room to Read’s belief that world change starts with educated children. I hope you can join us in our mission to make a difference in these kids lives.
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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