With our Green Tech editorial series in full swing this week, what better time to shine some light on our 50 on Fire Winners in Social Impact?
Nowadays, social entrepreneurship has gone mainstream. Combining a social mission with a business opportunity is increasingly appealing for younger generations, with VCs now eager to fund a profitable cause.
Locally, we see many examples of social entrepreneurship. Between 2008 and 2017, several Boston-based companies met the requirements to become Certified B Corporations, showing their commitment to enforce rigorous environmental and social standards. Over the past months, we profiled Boston startups trying either to reduce plastic containers for household cleaning products, or to decrease carbon emissions through a consumer app.
This year, the missions of our 50 on Fire Winners in Social Impact range from spreading code literacy to bringing solar power and Internet access to lower-income families.
If you want to discover which of the five companies or individuals below will take home the prestigious 'Inno Blazer,' make sure you snag a ticket to our 50 on Fire celebration in November. You can also check out the winners in other categories, or learn more about our inaugural 'Alumni Blazers.'
The 2018 BostInno's 50 on Fire winners in Social Impact are:
Wafaa Arbash: Arbash is the co-founder and CEO of WorkAround, an impact sourcing provider helping companies get more done for less while giving jobs to refugees. WorkAround is working around the barriers to employment for refugees by providing them with an online microwork platform that helps AI and machine learning companies with human intelligence tasks. Arbaash started WorkAround while working on her master’s thesis in Sustainable International Development and Conflict Resolution from Brandeis University. Prior to WorkAround, Wafaa served as a program manager for Startup Institute and refugee education in Jordan. She worked in Syria for more than five years in social development programs where she spearheaded several projects to empower local citizens, increase their leadership skills.
Resilient Coders: A 50 on Fire alumnus, Resilient Coders is on a mission to spread code literacy to young people from traditionally underserved communities. Resilient Coders offers several bootcamps and courses full-time, 14-week Javascript coding bootcamp In addition to technical skills, industry professionals also teach students communication techniques, speaking tips, and best practices for accountability and time management. Participants are also expected to procure, service, and invoice their own freelance clients to learn what it takes to become self-employed. The organization has won several awards in the past including MassTLC Distinguished Leader Award and been a MassChallenge Finalist.
Upstream: Upstream is a public benefit corporation and a Greentown Labs member with the mission “to create economic forces that drive environmental good.” Its platform creates customizable and scalable machine learning platform that utilizes remotely sensed data to empower public, corporate and non-profit sector actors to make more informed water use, management and conservation decisions. The platform analyzes 100,000s of satellite imagery tiles on a weekly basis.
Starry: Starry Internet is a fixed wireless broadband Internet service provider. Starry offers its customers a $50 per month for 200 mbps download/upload speeds. Starry has also launched its service in Los Angeles and Washington, DC and will begin delivering its service in New York City this fall. Its program, Starry Connect will roll out in affordable housing developments managed by Related Companies, a developer that, in addition to a range of market-rate properties, owns around 45,000 units of affordable housing across the country.
Resonant Energy: Resonant Energy is a startup that brings solar power access to nonprofits and lower-income single-family homes. What started with a community project to solar power a church in Dorchester five years ago is now a company that’s eight-member strong and looking onto a million dollar funding round next year. The company brought solar power to churches in Dorchester, Medford, and Arlington, Smith College in Northampton, Epiphany School, which is an independent school for children of economically disadvantaged families and Commonwealth Kitchen, a nonprofit community kitchen based in Quincy. The company has also serviced close to 40 projects in the last six months in Massachusetts and Long Island City in New York.
