"Flight to Substance" is something I think a lot of us are interested in, but it isn't always obvious how to do it. My take on it is that you need to find niches which are underserved and where you can do something really meaningful. I think there are quite a lot of these.
We started a foundation that builds web and mobile services, on open source software, which are used to fix poverty. This area was essentially not considered a market when we started, so the threshold to get started and recognised for doing something useful was relatively low. As a non-profit foundation we could also take investments from those that wouldn't invest in your ordinary tech startup.
We aren't doing this work to get rich, but there are a lot of other benefits. We have very patient investors and we have a lot of freedom in implementing our vision as we see fit. It is also pretty amazing to be working on software and services which actually make a real difference for those that have it the worst.
One of our core services, a mobile phone field survey application, have been used recently to do baseline surveys for all public water points (wells etc) in both Sierra Leone and Liberia. Providing data that just didn't exist before. 30 people go out on motorbikes for 3 months to collect data and come back with tens of thousands of surveys. This data is then used to drive national policy on rural infrastructure improvement. This stuff makes a real difference. And we have agreements in the works which will make this type of data collection possible all across sub-Saharan Africa, with our tools that are used by governments, NGOs and multi-lateral organisations such as UNICEF.
It feels like working on stuff that matters. It is both technically interesting and there is a lot of work to be done. I am sure that in education, healthcare, government, public infrastructure and other areas there is a lot that you could think of that could be improved, which you could get unconventional funding for to do.
We started a foundation that builds web and mobile services, on open source software, which are used to fix poverty. This area was essentially not considered a market when we started, so the threshold to get started and recognised for doing something useful was relatively low. As a non-profit foundation we could also take investments from those that wouldn't invest in your ordinary tech startup.
We aren't doing this work to get rich, but there are a lot of other benefits. We have very patient investors and we have a lot of freedom in implementing our vision as we see fit. It is also pretty amazing to be working on software and services which actually make a real difference for those that have it the worst.
One of our core services, a mobile phone field survey application, have been used recently to do baseline surveys for all public water points (wells etc) in both Sierra Leone and Liberia. Providing data that just didn't exist before. 30 people go out on motorbikes for 3 months to collect data and come back with tens of thousands of surveys. This data is then used to drive national policy on rural infrastructure improvement. This stuff makes a real difference. And we have agreements in the works which will make this type of data collection possible all across sub-Saharan Africa, with our tools that are used by governments, NGOs and multi-lateral organisations such as UNICEF.
It feels like working on stuff that matters. It is both technically interesting and there is a lot of work to be done. I am sure that in education, healthcare, government, public infrastructure and other areas there is a lot that you could think of that could be improved, which you could get unconventional funding for to do.