The second annual “Under 30 Summit” will bring together the brightest minds of the entrepreneurial world in tribute to their success and dedication, as
well as offer a large cash sum to the “winner.” Collected here are the finalists preparing to compete for first place, and $500,000 to further their cause. More than 2.500 social entrepreneurs from all over the world entered the Change the World competition, with 915 quarter-finalists moving on to complete an exhaustive essay and application process. Of those bold and brave enough to push through this process, six emerged to claim their spot in the finals.
• Paul Duan, Bayes Impact: Duan, age 23, founder of Bayes Impact, designed a solution for improving social services around the world. San Francisco-based Bayes Impact brings data science solutions to areas that have never had the access, either to facilities or the internet.
• Daniel Yu, Reliefwatch: At 22, Daniel founded Reliefwatch, which provides medicine inventory information for organizations in the developing world. The Chicago-based company uses mobile phones for inventory management, thus eliminating the need for computers or Internet access in the areas that typically have none. More than $4 billion dollars of medical aid each year is lost due to poor management and inventory. Reliefwatch’s platform lowered wasted medication by 90% while working with Global Brigades in Panama and Honduras..
• Heather Concannon and Elizabeth Nguyen, Unitarian Universalist Community Cooperatives: 27-year-old clergy members, these two co-founded the Unitarian Universalist Community Cooperatives. Offering cooperatively-owned affordable housing communities, this organization looks to provide space for those in need, while simultaneously finding socially-minded investors to assist in the construction of additional housing.
• Amara Humphry, Gooru: Humphry, age 27, co-founded Gooru to bridge the gap between a quality education and those unable to reach it. The California-based organization provides students with crowd-sourced courses, as well as course-specific analytics highlighting a student’s strengths, and where they may need more focused attention. Gooru is free, open to anyone, and planned to expand beyond California to the entire United States.
• Kiah Williams, SIRUM (Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine): Williams, age 29, co-founded SIRUM, an online platform to supply necessary medication to those in dire need. Based in Stanford, SIRUM utilizes unopened and surplus medications as a means to bring supply where there is the most demand. SIRUM uses inventory technology to identify surplus medications at institutions like pharmacies and nursing homes, matches their findings to a patient, and then ships the medications directly to clinics to deliver the medication.
• Govinda Upadhyay, LEDsafari: Upadhyay, age 27, founded LEDsafari, an organization which provides low-cost solar LED lamp kits for students in un-electrified areas of developing countries, enabling children to make and use their own lamps. LEDsafari’s instructions allow for the complete understanding of the lamps, turning a brilliant device into equal parts device and environmentally-friendly tool for learning. For more on this, click here.