EOS International empowers rural families in Central America by providing simple, inexpensive solutions that improve health, generate income, and provide access to appropriate technology. Wes Meir studied mechanical engineering at Iowa State University. In his junior year, he took a course with an international focus. He and his fellow students were challenged with creating a…
Experimenting within an Ecosystem, with Eric Sannerud, Mighty Axe Hops
Mighty Axe Hops is using experimentation to create an ecosystem within an ecosystem. Eric Sannerud approaches life like a scientific experiment. He tries small experiments, gathers feedback and then adjusts. For example, in 2013, he was graduating from the University of Minnesota. At the same time, he had several irons in the fire. He was…
077, A 4-Step Process for Finding Your Big Social Venture Idea
Where does the idea for a social venture come from? Despite what you might think, social venture ideas are not delivered from a mountain side written on stone tablets. With perhaps rare exception, social venture ideas do not appear in a vision. Arriving at a social venture idea is not magic, however you can accelerate the process by…
053, Katy Ashe and Edith Elliott, Noora Health | Design Thinking to Improve Health Outcomes
The founders of Noora Health utilized design thinking to iterate their way to dramatically improved patient outcomes. It started at Stanford University’s d.School. When Katy Ashe was an engineering student at Stanford University, she was anxious to find ways to apply her skills. She signed up the d.School’s “Design for Extreme Affordability” class. There she…
020, Fred Rose, Acara | Helping Solve Hard and Complicated Problems Across Boundaries
Fred Rose grew up on a family farm a few miles from the Canadian border. It was there that Fred learned several life lessons that make him a good entrepreneur: self-sufficiency, a lack of need for permission, perseverance. He was also a bit of an odd man out. Imagine the audacity of a kid in…
013, Jim Smith, MadiDrop | From Academic Researcher to Founder
When I say “early stage entrepreneur,” whom do you picture? A hungry young person in a hoodie, eating Raman noodles and cranking out code? While this might be the prototype, more and more social entrepreneurs are looking more like Jim Smith. Jim is an academic and a scientist. He spends most days in deep research…
011, Gayatri Datar, EarthEnable | Improving Health and Creating Jobs Through Flooring
When 19-year-old student Gayatri Datar went to bed on Christmas, in 2004, she did not know that the earth was going to shift, and with it, her plans for the rest of her life. Early in the morning, an underwater earthquake sent a massive tsunami along the countries bordering the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people…