We are celebrating three years of meaningful social impact through the creation of Technology for the Public Interest – Tech4PI. The creation of Tech4PI is uncharted territory, and back in 2017, most people thought it was a crazy idea to pursue that path. We opened a bank account with $100, rented a shared desk in a co-working space, had Jeff and Tricia Raikes as trusted advisors and partners, and started our journey, in our particular way. Today, our tech ventures are worth $25M, while delivering measurable social impact beyond our wildest dreams, thanks to a growing team of 20 change-makers who joined us.
On our third anniversary, we take a moment to pause, look back, and reflect on the accomplishments—a moment to connect the dots and feel proud of the impact we delivered.
Living our IKIGAI every day
We started our venture inspired by our journeys, our families, our mentors, and our hunger for climbing the second mountain in our life: to do well while doing good.
Impacting the lives of over 78,500 people per month.
And the Return on Social Impact is tangible and humbling. Giving us purpose in a company we run based on the concept of IKIGAI. Our IKIGAI is to create Tech4PI and address complex issues in society.
- We created 7 Technology Ventures with a Social Mission. Addressing urgent topics such as Immigration, Children’s Sexual Assault, Abuse and Neglect, Impact Philanthropy, and Better Human Connections through Sound Technologies. Our incubations include a successful Fellowship on AI for Good – AI4PI.org. They work on ethical applications of AI: Improve how we communicate, how we teach in K-12, or how we connect with individuals with ID. They also work on reinventing search as a public service thanks to powerful Domain-Specific Knowledge Graphs.
- 78,500 individuals, every month, use Technology created by one of our companies to address a social issue. This number includes over 1,500 agencies using VidaNyx to support the healing and the process of serving justice to 39,000 children survivors of sexual abuse and neglect.
- 7 other meaningful impacts: One Patent, Two Published Research papers, Two government proclamations sparked, and Two new legislation supported.
We feel proud of our steps to date.
But the reality is that we need thousands of Tech4PI labs all over the world. We started our fourth year, enabling others to create sister organizations that we envision will have a positive multiplier effect in the post-COVID-19 society!
Our next steps:
We start our fourth year with a new venture: X4impact. It is a free market intelligence platform for social innovation with insights to create and scale Technology for Public Interest.
We also started to work towards applying AI to address the root causes that result in systemic gaps in the economic mobility of Older Workers, Blacks, and Hispanics in the US.
So at this point in the journey, we look back and feel grateful for the opportunity to be of service. We look forward and feel excited about the many meaningful dots waiting for us in the unchartered journey of Tech4PI.
Check out some of the meaningful dots in our journey here: Our Story, Our Way.
Shelly Kurtz – Luis Salazar – Co-Founders