57 min listen
Could a startup solve homelessness? With Beam CEO Alex Stephany
Could a startup solve homelessness? With Beam CEO Alex Stephany
ratings:
Length:
55 minutes
Released:
Dec 22, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Wondering what to give as an unusual gift this year? How about donating in someone’s name to a social enterprise solving homelessness? Simply purchase a gift card for someone from Beam, and help a homeless person get back on their feet.
“There's billions of pounds being spent on homelessness. More than 1,000 organisations are tackling homelessness. There are millions of people in London who care about this issue. And yet still, despite all of this, people are literally dying outside of tube stations.”
But how does your donation help someone find a home? Well, it does more than that - through crowdfunding, you donate to people Beam are working with and the money goes directly towards training them in their chosen vocation so they can get back into employment. On the flip-side, Beam is giving scale-ups and corporates access to overlooked talent.
“The greatest economic opportunity you can give to people is a sense of self worth and an opportunity to contribute back to society because really, they don't want donations. They want the ability to be in control of their own destiny.”
Alex shares the story of the first homeless person he helped, Tony, and how he was the inspiration to scale up Beam.
“I thought, well, if we can do that for one person, then what if we can do that for 100,000, or millions of people? What if we can use technology and operational processes to create this same life-changing intervention for other people at scale?”
So, if you’re interested in learning how to solve huge societal problems with tech and new business models while making some money in the process, don’t miss this incredible episode.
We chat about:
Founding Beam and its business model
Tony’s story
Frustrations when running Beam
Making money while doing social good
Scaling up Beam with tech
How to support Beam
Links:
beam.org
Want to receive our podcast on a weekly basis? Subscribe to our newsletter!
“There's billions of pounds being spent on homelessness. More than 1,000 organisations are tackling homelessness. There are millions of people in London who care about this issue. And yet still, despite all of this, people are literally dying outside of tube stations.”
But how does your donation help someone find a home? Well, it does more than that - through crowdfunding, you donate to people Beam are working with and the money goes directly towards training them in their chosen vocation so they can get back into employment. On the flip-side, Beam is giving scale-ups and corporates access to overlooked talent.
“The greatest economic opportunity you can give to people is a sense of self worth and an opportunity to contribute back to society because really, they don't want donations. They want the ability to be in control of their own destiny.”
Alex shares the story of the first homeless person he helped, Tony, and how he was the inspiration to scale up Beam.
“I thought, well, if we can do that for one person, then what if we can do that for 100,000, or millions of people? What if we can use technology and operational processes to create this same life-changing intervention for other people at scale?”
So, if you’re interested in learning how to solve huge societal problems with tech and new business models while making some money in the process, don’t miss this incredible episode.
We chat about:
Founding Beam and its business model
Tony’s story
Frustrations when running Beam
Making money while doing social good
Scaling up Beam with tech
How to support Beam
Links:
beam.org
Want to receive our podcast on a weekly basis? Subscribe to our newsletter!
Released:
Dec 22, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Hassle.com: How Alex Depledge Co-Founded a Company that Sold for €32 Million: Our guest this week is a feisty, joyous force of nature. Alex Depledge shares some serious wisdom on how, together with her co-founders, she ambitiously built and grew hassle.com (+ we cover many more topics). Join us for a refreshing, feminist episode.Her journey from I-don’t-know-anything-about-startup-entrepreneurship to building the right product at the right timeWhat was raising money like in a period when there wasn’t a startup ecosystemFinding an executive coach and surviving BrexitFull show notes at http://secretleaders.com/ by Secret Leaders with Dan Murray-Serter