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It's true that there are large underserved populations of lower economic status. But this isn't because they are "uninteresting" in my view; helping single moth

It's true that there are large underserved populations of lower economic status. But this isn't because they are "uninteresting" in my view; helping single mothers is much more interesting than coming up with a CRM for all but the most heartless. The rub in my view is people without means don't have the means to fund your startup over food and shelter, and those two segments have some pretty fierce competition. Perhaps universal basic income or other stimulus programs that will put dollars in the hands of those people, and then companies can compete for those dollars.

colmvp 10y ago
To add to your point, some projects are simply not going to be profitable, but will certainly have a benefit to society nonetheless. A lot of civic tech projects help increase awareness to certain issues or aim to empower disenfranchised groups, but don't have have a profitable revenue model. I'm lucky enough to be well-off in many regards that I can freely spend 20-30 hours a week to design/code projects that will hopefully have a meaningful impact to people in my city, specifically increasing awareness of mental health and injustice towards people of color. But I'm not being paid for it, nor is anyone here capable of giving me a salary/donation that comes even close to what I'd earn at a tech startup. The government is also pretty limited to how much they'd provide as a grant. I'm reminded of an organization here that created a platform to enable non-profits find and manage volunteers, which has clear efficiency benefits for organizations since the process can be very messy. But because organizations can't really pay them that much, they are limited as to how quickly they can expand the team and add new features. Given the limits of their market, no 'investor' is going to invest in them in the hopes of expecting a meaningful financial return. I'm not sure where I'm going with my train of thought. Maybe something like it'd be nice if there were a non-VC model that enabled groups to work on projects that had no clear profit model? I know the U.S. has organizations that give grants to transformative projects, like the Sunlight and Knight Foundation. Sadly, not every country is lucky enough to have something like that.

colmvp 10y ago

To add to your point, some projects are simply not going to be profitable, but will certainly have a benefit to society nonetheless. A lot of civic tech projects help increase awareness to certain issues or aim to empower disenfranchised groups, but don't have have a profitable revenue model. I'm lucky enough to be well-off in many regards that I can freely spend 20-30 hours a week to design/code projects that will hopefully have a meaningful impact to people in my city, specifically increasing awareness of mental health and injustice towards people of color. But I'm not being paid for it, nor is anyone here capable of giving me a salary/donation that comes even close to what I'd earn at a tech startup. The government is also pretty limited to how much they'd provide as a grant. I'm reminded of an organization here that created a platform to enable non-profits find and manage volunteers, which has clear efficiency benefits for organizations since the process can be very messy. But because organizations can't really pay them that much, they are limited as to how quickly they can expand the team and add new features. Given the limits of their market, no 'investor' is going to invest in them in the hopes of expecting a meaningful financial return. I'm not sure where I'm going with my train of thought. Maybe something like it'd be nice if there were a non-VC model that enabled groups to work on projects that had no clear profit model? I know the U.S. has organizations that give grants to transformative projects, like the Sunlight and Knight Foundation. Sadly, not every country is lucky enough to have something like that.