🌄 Issue #38: Out of the Valley
A fresh perspective on philanthropy, a new social impact investing company on 6th Street, and an AI platform for public speaking
💬 Welcome to issue #38 of Between the Lines
This week we’re sharing a fun read we enjoyed this past week on the changing state of philanthropy and the role that tech culture may play in that change.
Make sure to also check out George Kailas’ company Prospero.Ai, vote Varun Puri for the GeekWire Awards, and explore all the other Claremont happenings.
~ Josh & Miles
📢 👥 Community Voices: Out of the Valley
Author: Nadia Eghbal
First, we learned how to coax the glass serpent out of its desert sands; then we made it dance for gold. Startups produced an immense amount of wealth in the 2010s, driven by technological advancements, strong public markets, and cheaper upstart costs. California (at least, pre-pandemic) is home to the most millionaires in the country, by a long shot, many of whom made their fortunes in Silicon Valley.
Tech is no longer an industry these days: it's a system of values, a way of interacting with the world. (If you don't believe me, try to define what "tech" actually means. It doesn't refer to software, or hardware, or fintech, or manufacturing, or...) Tech is a gushing oil well that buoys new, unproven ideas up and up, spraying them down to the masses.
And yet, with all the resources and all the best talent and all the ideas in the world, tech is notoriously navel-gazing. It took a pandemic to finally pry tech out of its hidden enclave in Silicon Valley, where it lay sprawled on the floor, face strapped and transfixed to a reality of its own making, eyes darting back and forth while the city decayed around it.
I've pondered tech's unassumed noblesse oblige for awhile now, though from a much more modest standing place. I originally fell into tech from the social sector. My first gig out of college was a research fellowship, funded by a family foundation, to explore how nonprofit endowments could be invested towards addressing climate change. Afterwards, I worked at an education nonprofit in San Francisco that also happened to be a technology company, which is how I found my way into tech. My open source research wouldn't have happened without an initial grant from a large philanthropic foundation. And I've even dabbled in grantmaking myself, with an experimental microgrants program that I ran for two years.
I migrated to tech for the same reason I was originally attracted to the social sector: because it seemed like the best way to make interesting things happen in the world. Years later, I've seen many friends succeed through their efforts in startups. But despite their financial success, very few are active philanthropists, despite having the resources, as well as an interest in shaping the world, that would otherwise make them perfectly suited for it.
To be wealthy in tech and participate in philanthropy is itself a subculture, rather than a default state. I find this asymmetry puzzling, and for years have tried to articulate a good answer to this question: Why are some of the world's most well-resourced, high-agency people utterly disinterested in philanthropy? 👇
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: George Kailas
George Kailas is a Claremont alumnus and after spending more than a decade in analyst, associate, and CEO roles at numerous companies and hedge funds, he founded Prospero.Ai. Prospero.Ai is a platform that distills thousands of data points into actionable predictions of the major drivers of a stock price. These free, AI-powered predictions reduce risk and enable novice retail investors to get real-time information, reducing information asymmetry between retail and institutional investors.
Kailas’ early career in hedge fund management made him acutely aware of the inequality in finances and he co-founded the company almost three years ago with the aim to level the playing field for retail investors by offering advanced stock signals in simplified ways for free. If you’re curious to learn more, read about George and Prospero.AI in this Forbes article. Want to connect with George? Let us know.
📣 Pardon the Announcement: 2022 GeekWire Awards
After processing hundreds of nominations and convening a community-based judging panel, GeekWire is excited to announce more than 50 finalists in the 2022 GeekWire Awards. The breadth of this year’s finalists showcases the amazing entrepreneurial spirit of the Pacific Northwest, with innovations ranging from cutting-edge robotics to life-altering medical therapies to practical software systems.
They’ve kicked off voting in a dozen categories — everything from Startup of the Year to Next Tech Titan to Workplace of the Year. And, Claremont’s very own, Varun Puri (co-founder of Yoodli) is one of the nominees for Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Go here to cast your ballot for Varun.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s top watch 🔥
Varun Puri (CMC), shares in a recent interview about his time growing up in India, his move to the US, time spent working in Alphabet, and his new adventure as the founder of Yoodli. Yoodli is an AI platform that helps people improve their public speaking skills, without needing to have an audience present — Grammarly for public speaking if you will.
Everything else you need to know….📖
Founder Maddie Hall (CMC) and Living Carbon have a bold idea on how to stall the climate crisis—by building better trees. Read more about their research below.
Congrats to Rose Portillo (PO) and Jasmine Reed (PO) who helped bring Encanto to life, the newly Oscar-awarded film!
Tune in to hear Erikan Obotetukudo (CMC), founder and managing partner of Audacity, chat about Web3 and Audacity’s plan to invest in Black/African-led crypto startups.
Can’t get enough of Between the Lines? Follow and connect with us on Twitter!
🍽️ BTL Snacks:
3️⃣ A Claremont Hat-Trick….. Bryn Edwards (CMC), marketing manager at Mooch, interviews CMC alumni Liam Burke and Nicole Alonso on how their company Paysail is leveraging stablecoins to revolutionize B2B payments.
🛡️Deep Discoveries….. Deep Discovery, founded by Jeffery Stein (CMC), is an AI system that assists banks, regulators, law enforcement, and journalists in addressing the Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (“UBO”) problem in anti-money laundering, counter-financial-terrorism, and other financial crime initiatives. They just finished raising a $4M Seed round to continue their mission.
💸 A New Kind of Equity Program….. Co-founder Daniel Kan (CMC) and Cruise recently rolled out a brand new program for their employees - the Recurring Liquidity Opportunity (RLO). This allows them to provide IPO-like liquidity and potential upside for employees but without all the distractions of being a public company.
〰️ The Importance of the Swerve….. Recent Claremont graduate and incoming Harvard Law student Ben McAnally (CMC) shares his take on the importance of a swerving career path full of spontaneity and uncertainty. He and Rebecca Offensend have a similar take from her recent piece on how to have a regret-free career! 😉
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