“Entrepreneurs are problem solvers by nature. Whether out of personal experience or through professional passion, they seek to create solutions for themselves and their customers.”
By Matt Zwiebel
Director, Pledge 1% Colorado
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers by nature. Whether out of personal experience or through professional passion, they seek to create solutions for themselves and their customers.
A few months back, I was invited to take part in planning an event focused on homelessness – a bit of a departure from the normal curriculum of Denver Startup Week, the nation’s largest free entrepreneurial event.
Homelessness is a multi-faceted issue that can’t be solved by any single solution; rather, it requires support and innovation from local governments and nonprofits, as well as for-profits. As such, we chose homelessness as our focus, given how pervasive – yet often misunderstood – this issue has become in Denver, Boulder County, and beyond.
Design thinking – or, as my colleague puts it, “the scientific method for everything else” – is rooted in building empathy for the end-user, and the lens through which we chose to view homelessness. Thanks to some help from several community leaders, we engaged six experts to share their personal experiences in working with people experiencing homelessness – from two experts who had experienced homelessness themselves, to a champion for tiny home communities, and a leader on the issue, Don Burnes: head of the Burnes Center on Poverty and Homelessness, and author of the new book, Ending Homelessness.
More than 100 attendees listened and learned from the experts’ opening statements on the growing concern of homelessness, and then split into groups to brainstorm solutions that ranged from pie-in-the-sky ideas to some well-thought out solutions using readily available resources. The participating subject matter experts were impressed by the level of engagement of the startup community.
Flash forward to last week when I was invited to a follow-up meeting: several of our experts and attendees had come together of their own accord to continue discussing how we might manifest some of the solutions that surfaced at the event. They call themselves the “Invisibles Task Force” – a nod to the notion that many of those facing homelessness aren’t obviously so – and they’re already making great progress on pairing local resources and organizations with solutions that came from the event.
Part of our mission at Pledge 1% Colorado is to elevate opportunities to ignite social change locally by building great businesses: whether it’s through a pledge of time, profit, or equity, founders and employees alike are increasingly attuned to the needs of the communities they live in. We’re proud of our growing network of 170 companies that have given back nearly $7M to Colorado nonprofits since our inception, and the impact of each local business that genuinely wants to make a difference.
More information:
Get informed about homelessness in Boulder County in our new TRENDS Report.
