Gargantuan data stores, megawatt compute power, artificial intelligence, affordable cloud infrastructure — it’s all a perfect storm for online shopping recommendation engines, right? Jests aside, the public is starting to notice Silicon Valley’s relative slacking in the social sphere as compared to commerce. But a cohort of philanthropists and investors are now combining resources to nurture tech savvy entrepreneurs who would like to change the world a spot.

“I think people genuinely are frustrated that this amazing pace of change and ‘internet of things’ and all of this stuff still hasn’t solved some of these big problems,” said Kate Goodall (pictured), co-founder and chief executive officer of Halcyon House.

Those problems would be nightly news standards like the opiate epidemic, sex abuse and trafficking, melting ice caps, etc. They are the types of issues that occupy the minds of Halcyon House’s fellows. The nonprofit organization is situated in an actual 30,000-square-foot mansion in Washington, D.C., in which fellows live gratis while they hammer out their creative visions. Halcyon also provides them an allowance, an office, a mentor, and a supportive community. The organization does not take equity in its fellows’ ventures. Its mission is to let change makers devote five uninterrupted months to socially conscious ventures in business and art.

“We believe in the power of human creativity and the power of compassion to change the world for the better” Goodall said.

Goodall spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the Halcyon House in Washington, D.C., as part of theCUBE’s special AWS Public Sector CUBE Conversation series. They discussed the tech-fueled renaissance in social entrepreneurship.

This week theCUBE spotlights Kate Goodall as our Guest of the Week.

The business fix for failing philanthropy

Should the responsibility to right the world’s wrongs fall on entrepreneurs’ shoulders? Is the job not better suited to government agencies and philanthropists?

Philanthropic organizations and government-run nonprofits may have good intentions, but lately they don’t often affect permanent change, according to Goodall. “Philanthropy was originally designed to solve problems, not to become a charity machine,” she said.

An injection of business principals could resuscitate philanthropy’s power to cure rather than simply treat social ills, according to Goodall. So should philanthropists become business people? Obviously, it’s more practical for philanthropists to fund entrepreneurs whose ventures happen to serve a philanthropic purpose. “Using these business principles so that their solutions can also be scaled effectively is absolutely what we’re trying to approach,” she said.

Social entrepreneurs may fund their ventures in a variety of ways — not just through the generosity of philanthropists. Startups for social good may partner with government organizations or fill up on one-to one donations, for instance.

Big tech steps into social good shoes

Some established tech companies are building out their own social good initiatives. Teresa Carlson, vice president of the worldwide public sector at Amazon Web Services Inc., recently spoke to theCUBE about AWS’ efforts to apply technology to vexing social issues. For instance, it has partnered with the Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub at California Polytechnic State University to help it develop technology to boost public safety, aid the justice system, etc.

AWS cloud infrastructure enables young social entrepreneurs whose efforts would otherwise be strangled by hardware costs, Carlson pointed out. This provides a practical underpinning to Millennials’ growing desire to work for more than a paycheck. Indeed, a 2014 study from Achieve Consulting Inc. found that 94 percent of Millennials want to use their skills to benefit society.

“Today, social entrepreneurship is cool. Many young men and women — if you talk to them — they want to be involved in something,” Carlson said. “They want to make money, but they want to be involved in something that’s really doing good things.”

Another factor that contributed to the trend was the economic recession that began in 2008, according to Goodall. It ripped the rug out from under a striving young workforce, compelling them to seek less-traveled paths to income.

“… Millennials didn’t have jobs. So they had to create them, and they created them in a new model. They created them in a way that gave them satisfaction beyond just getting a paycheck,” Goodall said.

Halcyon’s all-inclusive fellowship goes further than simply monetary funding for entrepreneurs. The human elements that foster creative growth are also extremely important. “You can’t take mentorship lightly. This is human chemistry we’re talking about, and even if you think you’ve got the perfect match on paper, it may not work,” Goodall stated.

Dispatches from social entrepreneurship front lines

So far, the output from fellows has validated Halcyon’s holistic approach. Its ventures range from healthcare to art to the justice system. In just over three and a half years, it has had 55 ventures come through. It has raised nearly $40 million and impacted half a million people around the world. It has also created nearly 500 jobs. 

“Many of them are tech-enabled whether or not they’re using apps or the cloud or just a new actual technology product,” Goodall said. 

Since Halcyon does not take equity in the ventures, it simply loves them and sets them free. The organization is happy to watch the effects ripple out into unmapped terrain, Goodall explained. “We don’t feel that we have to own or control this in any way,” she said.

One venture in the current batch includes Pilleve, a startup tackling the opiate epidemic with IoT-connected pill bottles. “They’ve created a pill bottle that connects to your phone or your family’s phone and can give data and control over medication so that you can really start to attack addiction,” Goodall said. She sees much more potential for IoT opening up to consumers as they learn to use it in diverse areas. 

A current fellow named Ryan Soscia created JDoe, a platform that anonymously unites sexual assault victims so they can take class action. “It has a business model, but it’s been proven that victims of assault are much more effective when they go as a group instead of alone,” Goodall said. “So it’s a really brilliant way to use technology.”

Boosting founders beyond Halcyon

Goodall is invested in other efforts to help founders access funding for their ventures. She feels that equal gender representation among investors would improve the odds of female founders. So together with Halcyon co-founder and chair Dr. Sachiko Kuno, Salamander Hotels and Resorts founder Sheila Johnson, and 13 other women, Goodall founded WE Capital.

The consortium of businesswomen is focused on paying back their success to striving women entrepreneurs. The hope is to redress bias in the very male-skewed venture capitalist world. In fact, it may not even be conscious, Goodall believes.

“Really good people have inherent bias, and that needs to be solved for,” she concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations at the AWS public sector headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

Photo: SiliconANGLE