Social Entrepreneurship

Meet the women who haven’t asked for permission from Silicon Valley to chase their dreams. Geek Girl Rising isn’t about the famous tech trailblazers you already know, like Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer. Instead, veteran journalists Heather Cabot and Samantha Walravens introduce listeners to the fearless female entrepreneurs and technologists fighting at the grassroots level for an ownership stake in the revolution that’s changing the way we live, work and connect to each other.

Each year, young people from around the world go to Silicon Valley to hatch an idea, start a company, strike it rich, and become powerful and famous. In The Valley of the Gods, Wolfe follows three of these upstarts who have "stopped out" of college and real life to live and work in Silicon Valley in the hopes of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk. No one has yet documented the battle for the brightest kids, kids whose goals are no less than making billions of dollars - and the fight they wage in turn to make it there.

One in three American workers is now a freelancer. This “gig economy” - one that provides neither the guarantee of steady hours nor benefits - emerged out of the digital era and has revolutionized the way we do business. High-profile tech start-ups such as Uber and Airbnb are constantly making headlines for the disruption they cause to the industries they overturn. But what are the effects of this disruption, from Wall Street down to Main Street? What challenges do employees and job seekers face at every level of professional experience?

Social media has democratized influence, forever changing the way businesses communicate with customers and the way customers affect the decisions of their peers. With platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, anyone can now find and connect with others who share similar interests, challenges, and beliefs - creating communities that shape and steer the perception of brands. Without engagement in these communities, we miss major opportunities to shape our marketing messages.

This audiobook is about learning to live the message of the Good Samaritan in the context of the globalized world of the 21st century. This means learning to love our global neighbor wisely by harnessing the resources at our disposal - our time, talents, opportunities, and money - on behalf of those who are victims of injustice, disease, violence, and poverty.

Conventional wisdom holds that Western economies are on the threshold of fast-and-furious technological development. Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel refute this idea, bringing together a vast array of data and case studies to tell a very different story. With expertise spanning academia and the business world, Erixon and Weigel illustrate how innovation is being hampered by existing government regulations and corporate practices.

Private foundations have been the dynamo of social change since their invention at the beginning of the last century. Yet just over 10 percent of the public knows they even exist; and for those who are aware of them, as well as even those who seek grants from them, their internal workings remain a complete mystery

What do Disney, Bollywood, and "the Batkid" teach us about how to create celebrity experiences for our audiences? How can a vending machine inspire world peace? Can being "imperfect" make your business more marketable? Can a selfie improve one's confidence? When can addiction be a good thing?

What if saving the Earth were a game? Not just any game, but the greatest game we’ve ever played. This workbook helps social and environmental change professionals learn how to implement powerful techniques from the fields of game design, behavioral psychology, design, data science, and storytelling, that are not only proven to have impact, but also can make your project fun. In a 10-step framework of exercises, tutorials, and case studies, How to Save the World will teach you the art of changing the world — and it’s often not what you think.

Journalist and Professor Susanne Althoff investigates the obstacles women and nonbinary entrepreneurs - especially those of color - face when launching, funding, and growing their companies, obstacles that persist because the current start-up world was engineered by and for White men. Through interviews with more than a hundred founders across the country and in all industries, Althoff paints a picture of an entrepreneurial system rife with bias and discrimination, where women receive less than three percent of this country's venture capital.

The often hilarious and sometimes poignant story behind Dal LaMagna's attempts to create a successful business. By the time LaMagna graduated from the Harvard Business School, his numerous entrepreneurial activities - including operating discotheques in drive-in movie theaters, working with the 1960s musical teen sensations the Cowsills, and opening an ice cream parlor on the Venice Beach boardwalk - had landed him $150,000 in debt. Raising Eyebrows tells the story of how he finally succeeded. After years of failures and living pennilessly, LaMagna finally succeed with tweezers. He started Tweezerman, one of the world's most respected, innovative and successful beauty tool manufacturers with only $500. Not only was Tweezerman a financial success but is became a model of how to operate a company responsibly.

The nearly three billion people living on two dollars a day are not just the world’s greatest challenge - they represent an extraordinary market opportunity. The key is what Paul Polak and Mal Warwick call Zero-Based Design: starting from scratch to create innovative products and services tailored for the very poor, armed with a thorough understanding of what they really want and need, and driven by what Polak and Warwick call "the ruthless pursuit of affordability". Polak has been doing this work for years, and Warwick has extensive experience in both business and philanthropy.

Thompson and Ware, nationally known consultants in the fields of management and leadership, offer a practical guide that focuses on the skills G.W. Bush has used throughout his career and in the White House. Each useful chapter highlights one of his leadership lessons. From identifying core values to getting results, this clearly written guide is filled with timeless and time-tested advice.

Your reputation defines how people see you and what they will do for you. It determines whether your bank will lend you money to buy a house or car; whether your landlord will accept you as a tenant; which employers will hire you and how much they will pay you. It can even affect your marriage prospects.

Facebook's founding is legend: In a Harvard dorm, wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg invented a new way to connect with friends...and the rest is history. But for the people who actually molded this great idea into a game-changing $300 billion company, the experience was far more tumultuous and uncertain than we might expect. Mike Hoefflinger was one of those Facebook insiders.

This critical account of the fair trade movement explores the vast gap between the rhetoric of fair trade and its practical results for poor countries, particularly those of Africa. In the Global North, fair trade often is described as a revolutionary tool for transforming the lives of millions across the globe. The growth in sales for fair trade products has been dramatic in recent years, but most of the benefit has accrued to the already wealthy merchandisers at the top of the value chain rather than to the poor producers at the bottom.

As recent events in Japan, the Middle East, and Haiti have shown, Twitter offers a unique platform to connect individuals and influence change in ways that were unthinkable only a short time ago. Twitter for Good is a groundbreaking book that contains the most effective tactics for tapping into the power of Twitter as a real-time information network.

More women are running major companies than ever before. While still far too few in number, these female heads of industry are the forerunners of a radical shift in power now underway. During the past few years, women's groups have been coalescing in every major American city. Formidable ladies across professions are convening at unprecedented rates, forming salons, dinner groups, and networking circles, and collaborating to achieve clout and success. A new girls' network is alive and set to hyperdrive.

Achieving the American Dream has become increasingly difficult for many Latinos, despite the huge opportunities, because there is a lack of mentorship and inspiration from Latino role models ... but it doesn't have to be that way. This audiobook will tell you how 50 of the most successful Latinos and Latinas in America turned their dreams into reality. These inspirational people share their stories, providing us insight into the mindset, actions, and habits that allowed them to overcome barriers and conquer fears, and to achieve what they once thought was impossible.

A provocative look at the remarkable contributions of high-skill immigrant entrepreneurs in America.