This week we’re talking about non-profits. And no, I don’t mean Box. The word non-profit
has two meanings in Silicon Valley. Companies that don’t profit and companies that are
simply uninterested in amassing cash like Apple. Is it controversial in SV to not profit?
Well, yes and no Non-profit foundations and tech shops are not unknown. But when Y Combinator,
a well-known incubator and accelerator funded its first non profit, it was a new concept.
People were confused: Why would a for-profit entity invest in something designed not to?
Well, as it turns out, and I had forgotten this living in SF, but there is actually,
a bit more to living than money. But when it comes to money, we have an interesting
mix. Some groups that are working to reinvent money, don’t want to make any. Confused?
Don’t worry. To explain why that just might make sense, we have Joyce Kim, right here
in the studio. Serial entrepreneur and former VC, Joyce Kim is the executive director of
Stellar, a non-profit organization that, in its own words, provides a “decentralized
protocol for sending and receiving money.”
Similar in some ways to bitcoin, Stellar wants anyone to be able to transfer money anywhere,
in whatever currency they find the easiest. It’s a big goal in an increasingly connected
world.
Please welcome to the show, Joyce Kim.