Top left to right: Sasanku Munukutla, Shiloh Keziah Wachira, Drew Barbill, Tilo Brown, Kelly Redmond, Justin Ziegler, Vivek Ramakrishnan, Nia Rose Froome | Image courtesy of
Stanford University has awarded more than $1 million in fellowships and cash awards to advanced degree graduates who want to launch high-impact ventures that address the world’s toughest environmental and social problems.
This year, eight students, more than twice as many as last year, won Stanford Impact Founder Fellowships to launch high-impact ventures that address pressing social or environmental needs. The fellowship provides $110,000 in funding, year-long individual coaching, and an invitation to access Stanford Venture Studio resources during the fellowship year.
“Since 2009, Stanford University has been providing this important opportunity to graduates who are passionate about starting new businesses that make a difference in the world, but who may not yet be ready to raise traditional funding sources. We have been providing support,” says Neil Malhotra of Edith M. Professor of Political Economy and Center for Social Innovation, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Cornell University. “In the early days of this program, we were awarding one or two fellowships a year. Demand has grown. The number of well-prepared and engaged students inspires me every year.”
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The fellowship provides $110,000 in funding and one year of individual coaching.
“There is a huge amplification factor in funding Stanford’s brightest talent with a passion to tackle deep-rooted problems,” said Amanda Greco, associate director of the Stanford GSB Social Entrepreneurship Program. . “These students aim to create great social or environmental value. Supporters of this program come to the table and say, ‘This is how we can really make a difference in the world. ‘Yes,’ he said.
The collaboration between Stanford GSB’s Center for Social Innovation and the Stanford Ecopreneurship Program, established through the Benioff Ecopreneur Fund, has doubled the number of SIF fellowships and awards awarded. This new partnership between Stanford GSB and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability aims to support entrepreneurs focused on environmental sustainability. Although social and environmental issues are interrelated, these two tracks are best suited for teams whose primary indicators of impact focus on human well-being (health, income inequality, education, etc.) or on environmental sustainability. We work with teams focused on opportunities (such as greenhouse gas reduction and biodiversity conservation).
This year’s applicant pool, the largest ever, was diverse in both the founders’ demographics, their backgrounds, their subject matter expertise, and the issues they want to address, including mental health, education technology, battery storage, and sustainable agriculture. .
Wide range of institutional support
Stanford University takes a proactive stance in the support it provides to students interested in entrepreneurship, offering special programs for aspiring entrepreneurs who tackle thorny social and environmental issues. Last summer, more than 40 graduate students participated in immersion programs including the Impact Design Immersion Fellowship and the Bota Chan Innovation Internship. These programs fund students over the summer to identify needs and create prototypes with target users and beneficiaries.
“Before applying for a SIF Fellowship, a high-profile, high-stakes award that allows students to work full-time on impactful work after graduation, they are offered a series of program,” says Greco, “and Stanford makes it available to a wide range of students.”
Investing in leadership potential
This award is more than just a seal of approval for each student’s business plan. Judges evaluate both the venture idea and the student’s leadership skills.
“What sets the SIF Fellowship apart is our focus on celebrating and supporting candidates’ leadership abilities,” said Renee Coman, associate director of the Co-Curricular Ecopreneurship Program. I am. “We believe that our students’ passion and ability to lead others is what will enable them to endure long journeys, pivot when necessary, and succeed in making a significant impact. We recognize that. This is about supporting them and their leadership in the areas where they are trying to make a significant contribution.”
Stanford Impact Founder Fellowship: Social Entrepreneurship Recipient
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Drew Barbir, MBA ’23, is the founder of Sonar Mental Health, a platform that proactively identifies youth mental health challenges and fosters positive interventions by analyzing online activity and activating youth support networks. is the co-founder of
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Nia Froome, MBA ’23, is launching Comfort Food. It combats the crisis of increased mortality and chronic disease within low-income communities of color by increasing access to healthy, delicious food at convenient points of sale within the community.
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Vivek Ramakrishnan, MBA ’23, is a co-founder of Project Read. Project Read tackles the fact that 83% of low-income students cannot read proficiently by creating an AI-powered reading coach that generates content based on a child’s interests.
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Justin Ziegler, MBA ’23, is co-founding Juice, a new payments network that increases Africa’s access to the global economy through faster, more secure, and cheaper payments.
Stanford Impact Founder Fellowship: Ecopreneurship Recipient
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Tilo Brown, MBA ’23, MS ’23 (Environment and Resources), is a co-founder of And Battery Aero. The company will address the environmental costs of the transportation industry by developing new battery systems to decarbonize heavy-lift transportation, including aviation.
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Sasankh Munukutla, BS ’22, MS ’23 (Computer Science), is building a complete and scalable soil carbon sequestration measurement, reporting, and validation platform to rapidly scale soil carbon remediation to combat climate change. I am the founder of Terradot, which is building .
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Kelly Redmond, MS ’23 (Engineering), is working on Oleo to develop a sustainable, deforestation-free, lab-grown alternative to palm oil using a process that can be implemented directly with smallholder farmers in producing countries. We are launching Sustainable Palm Oil Solutions.
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Shiro Wachira, MA ’23 (International Policy), is the founder of Growing Acres. Growing Acres aims to build human capital to strengthen climate-adapted modern farms in sub-Saharan Africa through on-the-job technical and behavioral skills training programs . farm.