TECH |
1776.vc 1776 is a global incubator and seed fund that finds promising startups focused on solving the world’s most fundamental challenges and helps engineer their success. 1776 focuses on startups in the most broken, entrenched industries and sectors that impact millions of lives every day – specifically education, energy, health and cities. From its hub in Washington, it is sparking a global movement of “problem-solving’ startups through its Challenge Cup and Startup Federation, the premier network of incubators throughout the world. The companies on this page are all based at 1776 and are disrupting the philanthropic, medical and education worlds.
JOHN GOSSART
JUAN PABLO SEGURA
COO and Co-Founder, GoodWorld goodworld.me
President and Co-Founder, Babyscripts getbabyscripts.com
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his Army veteran, Georgetown University adjunct professor and former deputy director of special operations and couterterrorism policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense helped create GoodWorld, a platform that allows charitable donations to be made using a hashtag on social media. Simply tweet #donate to a charity or post #donate on their Facebook page to make a contribution. (There is a brief, one-time sign-up process after your first #donate missive.) Only out of beta since April, GoodWorld already boasts partnerships with over 700 charities, including UNICEF, Save the Children, United Way and Oxfam, and has amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from over 15,000 users. GoodWorld was founded by Dale Nirvani Pfeiffer.
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e jokes about sharing the same first name as a certain ABC “The Bachelor” star - the one dubbed by some the “most hated bachelor in history,” - but rather than starring in reality television, Segura, a former Deloitte consultant, is working on improving the health care experience, an interest he developed after watching a friend tackle a debilitating disease. Enter BabyScripts, which is reimagining how pregnancies are managed using Internet-connected medical devices. They deliver “mommy kits” to expectant mothers that include an Internet-enabled blood pressure cuff and weight scale. Through the devices and the BabyScripts mobile app, they “monitor a mother’s vital signs between appointments and work with her doctor to deliver more precise and convenient care.”
MANU SMADJA
MICHELLE BROWN
GARY HENSLEY
CEO and Co-Founder, MPOWER mpowerfinancing.com
CEO and Founder, CommonLit commonlit.org
CEO and Founder, EdBacker edbacker.com
ormer English teacher and Teach for Amer ica cor ps member Michelle Brown founded the non-profit CommonLit while pursuing her master’s degree in education policy at Harvard. Today, the free website allows teachers and parents to access a curated digital collection of high-interest instructional materials designed to address the diverse needs of both high and low-skilled readers. It now serves roughly 70,000 students per day. Brown says she is dedicated to closing the achievement gap in literacy for 5thto-12th graders and helping ensure that all students are prepared with the reading and writing skills necessary to be successful in college and beyond. In 2015, she was recognized as the winner of the Teach for America Social Innovation Award.
ensley made national headlines in 2014 when he was suddenly left the widower of a former Playboy Playmate, going from a stepfather to a single father of two school-age children, now 7 and 14. It was his role as a dad that helped inspire Edbacker, which simplifies how PTAs and other parent organizations raise funds, sign up volunteers and host events by centralizing the process online. “I wanted a better way to raise money than running around a track collecting quarters or eating out,” he says, referring to standard school fund-raisers. Edbacker now works with over 750 organizations in 27 states. Previously, Hensley built and sold a dropout prevention tool to Pearson Education. His roots in education started as a teacher and assistant principal in California.
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s an international student from France, Smadja found it hard to get the financial assistance he needed during his college years, relying on odd jobs and financial sacrifices from his family in order to graduate from the University of Virginia. He and co-founder Mike Davis began MPOWER to help the one million international students and more than two million domestic students across the United States whom they say don’t have access to traditional student loan options. MPOWER offers three- or 10-year, fixedrate loans ranging between $2,000 and $25,000 and disburses payments directly to the university to cover tuition, housing, meal plans and health insurance. In the last year, they began lending at Harvard University and are now in talks with more than 30 additional schools.
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