Have you ever written a check for a charity and wondered, “Where is this money going? Is it really doing anything?” GlobalGiving takes the mystery out of international philanthropy by connecting donors with high-impact projects all around the world. Donors visit GlobalGiving’s website and choose from among a variety of pre-screened charity projects. The leaders of the projects submit updates, so donors can see how their money is making a difference. As an online marketplace for legitimate charity projects, GlobalGiving has been dubbed the “eBay of international philanthropy.” One of the people who helps keep this marketplace operating is Saima Zaman, 29, a Program Officer at GlobalGiving.
Think of a few networking sites you have registered for – whether for dating, professional, or entertainment purposes. The accessibility to join any e-group is beyond comprehension, and for as popular as this trend has become just among your circle of friends alone, think about how many more people around the world are jumping at this phenomenon too. As millions of internet users prop themselves up in front of the screen at home and millions more pour into internet cafes, many people are choosing with great selectivity which networking site – specifically which social networking site – suits them best. For Daniel Kafie, Chief Executive Officer of Vostu.com, he made the selection process easy by designing Vostu specifically for Latin Americans both local and abroad. In 2006, this 24-year-old Harvard MBA found a market relatively untapped and leapt forward to create one of the strongest Latino-centered websites with mounting numbers of hits and registered users daily. Working to expand the user base, Daniel leads a 30 person team to keep up with his speed of light successes and continual opportunities to enhance client services. For more information on Daniel and Vostu.com, read more in this week’s The LatinConnect to learn about your newest social networking site.
For much of his life, Tawheed Kader has looked at the daily annoyances of life and said, “It doesn’t have to be this way.” Back in the early ’90s, he used that mindset to help automate his father’s business. Today, he has used it to co-found and develop HipCal, an online calendar that minimizes the overhead it takes to get your life organized. With HipCal, users can ditch their dinky day planners and instead rely on a cutting-edge technology that ensures they always have their friends’ latest contact information and are updated on where they need to be. Soon after Tawheed, 24, and his fellow co-founders created HipCal, it was acquired by Plaxo, where Tawheed is now a product manager. Tawheed sees life as an adventure and is always working on side projects. Right now, he’s working on a Facebook application and a site that lets companies and bloggers get closer to their visitors. To learn more about this thrill-seeking entrepreneur who’s always up to something, check out this week’s Young & Professional Profile
Sade Sobande, 27, and her colleagues were in search of a place to develop as African entrepreneurs when they realized that place didn’t exist. Instead of giving up they took action and created The African Network, an organization whose purpose is to foster the growth of entrepreneurship and technology in Africa and the African diaspora. Their organization has managed to both develop individual entrepreneurs here in the Silicon Valley as well as to develop the future of Africa. Not only have they held a successful conference, in which they discussed the future of science and technology in Africa, they have also held networking events that enable members to interact and learn from speakers from the worlds of technology, business, government, and academia. One of their largest accomplishments has been the development of The TAN Empowerment Program, which in 2006 donated computers to needy schools in Sierra Leone. For more information on The African Network and how you can get involved, read on in this week’s Non-Profit Spotlight.
Brian Gee’s company, Aragon Consulting Group (ACG), is growing at a stratospheric rate. Started in January 2006 with just seven people, the IT consulting company had expanded to a team of 60 halfway through this year. It recently raised venture capital that is expected to take it to a team of 60 by the end of next year, and possibly as many as 1,000 in four years. ACG provides clients with onsite-offshore IT consulting services by combining onsite project management with cost-effective offshore software development from its China-based engineering team. As Chief Executive Officer, Brian, 32, manages the rapid growth of his company and works with clients to map out their IT and product-development strategies. To learn more about Brian and ACG, check out this week’s Young & Professional Profile.
People who work in sales and customer service have to manage relationships with large numbers of customers, clients, and other contacts. Traditionally, customer relationship management (CRM) has been complicated and expensive. But James Wong’s company, Avidian Technologies, offers a software solution that makes CRM simple and intuitive. Avidian created Prophet, a CRM software that is built right into Microsoft Outlook. Since sales professionals and customer service people spend so much of their time in Outlook anyway, it made obvious sense to develop a software that was within Outlook. That way, users have to deal with just one application and one customer contact database. Prophet was named “Favorite Small Business Tool” by PC Magazine this year and has been praised in other publications as well. As Co-Founder and CEO, James, 35, is also proud that Avidian has been named as one of Washington state’s “Best Companies to Work For” for three years in a row. To learn more about James and Prophet, check out this week’s Young & Professional Profile.
With endless to-do lists at work, appointments and meetings to remember, and constant errands to run, there is high likelihood that you might forget some of your minor personal tasks. Enter Networkcar! The brainchild of Diego A. Borrego, Founder and Director of Product Engineering, Networkcar offers real-time wireless vehicle management for personal or business purposes. Simply put, this system includes GPS tracking, remote diagnostics, preventative maintenance alerts, reporting for fleet vehicles, and a stolen vehicle recovery program. It’s easy enough to use if you’re a parent looking to track your teen’s car use or, perhaps, a truck fleet owner working to reduce operating costs. To learn more about how Diego turned his boyhood truck driving dream into a multi-million dollar and multi-award winning concept, read more in this week’s Young and Professional Profile.
Syed Majid heads not just one, but two, very distinct companies. At Orion Technologies, he helps engineering, accounting, and technology firms figure out how to operate more efficiently and increase their bottom lines. The company provides these clients with individualized, innovative solutions to their technical management needs so they can achieve their strategic goals. Though all this technical work at Orion may sound very left-brained, Syed’s other company, Voyage-Films, involves a bit more of the right brain. Voyage-Films aims to develop, finance, and distribute creative, truthful, and powerful stories featuring South Asian characters and themes. It’s striving to fill a niche the mainstream Hollywood film industry is unable to address. Syed, 32, reviews scripts, interacts with actors and screenwriters, and meets with investors. In early 2008, Voyage-Films plans to release a film about a South Asian detective who works with New York City’s police department and the personal trials he faces before and after 9/11. To learn more about Syed and his companies, check out this week’s Young & Professional Profile.
Americans nationwide are opening their pocketbooks at the billion – not million – dollar level communally. Climbing that corporate (or non-profit) ladder, you now find yourself able to join this community of givers…working hard, living securely, and giving back freely. But do you donate to your university? An environmental cause? Or maybe to international development? With thousands of organizations to choose from, all needing continual support for operational stability, you’ll need to turn to Charity Navigator as the one-stop shop of charitable and non-profit research. Fully investigating charities’ fiscal fitness, this web-based non-profit allows the user to sit back comfortably while making an informed decision on philanthropic giving. Founded in 2001, Charity Navigator weeds those non-profits looking only to make a quick dollar on uninformed, yet well-intentioned, donors and instead offers a thoroughly vetted list of quality aid organizations. Read our Nonprofit Spotlight to learn more on the history of this service and how it will help you leap forward into that fine world of philanthropy.
For Dr. Juan-Antonio Carballo, the fear of launching his own venture capital firm lasted all of three seconds. At age 36 and as a General Partner of Argon Venture Partners, Juan-Antonio saw the tech market of Western Canada as almost entirely untapped, and as such, jumped into what he knew would be a guaranteed business success. Based out of Silicon Valley, California and Alberta, Canada, he and two other General Partners found that the greatest profits were reaped through early investments in technology start-ups. Guiding new projects through the full line of development to marketing allows Juan-Antonio to ensure a project’s stability and ultimate market value. If this weren’t successful enough, can we just add that he has three advanced degrees up his sleeve as well? Learn more about his never-ending drive and the company’s upcoming projects as we feature Dr. Carballo in this week’s Young & Professional Profile.
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