Bonus: Ep. 57: It is possible to help people and become a successful entrepreneur. A Disruptive Conversation with Andrea Demichelis
Apr 29, 2018•37 min
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Episode description
Andreas Demichelis is as an entrepreneur as you can find. Simply put, he is going up against Google. He is trying to use a search engine as a way of funding water projects in the developing world. The idea is simple, each time you use his search engine, Elliot for Water, you will help him bring safe drinking water to developing countries!
Although I could not see this project as not being in competition with Google, one of the world’s largest companies, Andreas reframed this for me. He point out that he only needs to get 1 million people to use his platform and he could be doing a water project each week. That is less than 0.06 percent of the Googles current searches. Additionally, what they are doing is collaborating with existing technology and are an official partner with Bing, the second larest search engine in the world. So they have partnered with people like Microsoft.
The motivation for Andreas is that he wanted to make something that did more than just make money. He wanted to make a difference. The insight for Elliot for water came little by little, bit by bit. He sees the challenge like working out, he will only grow and get stronger from the process. Whatever happens he will be learning.
For Andreas, his life is a continuous series of aha moments. He is always learning. What he really want to change is the idea that doing humanitarian work is or has to be disconnected form entrepreneurship. It shouldn’t be that if you want to help other people you have to be poor, but if you want to serve yourself you can be wealthy.
His goal is to give people the best service possible. His biggest challenge is that Google is verb. People do not search the internet they Google. From his experience people do not make a distinction between the internet, search engines, and a browser, they see it all as one thing.
His advice to other people working to disrupt a sector or system is to be patient. Things do not happen overnight. Enjoy the process and learn from it. Each mistake you make is a chance to learn and grow. Perhaps most importantly, you are exactly where you are supposed to be, you are right on time.
Links mentioned in the podcast:
http://www.elliotforwater.com/
https://twitter.com/Andrea_e4w
https://twitter.com/elliotforwater
https://elliotsway.com/
Bitcoin explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4g1XFU8Gto
Although I could not see this project as not being in competition with Google, one of the world’s largest companies, Andreas reframed this for me. He point out that he only needs to get 1 million people to use his platform and he could be doing a water project each week. That is less than 0.06 percent of the Googles current searches. Additionally, what they are doing is collaborating with existing technology and are an official partner with Bing, the second larest search engine in the world. So they have partnered with people like Microsoft.
The motivation for Andreas is that he wanted to make something that did more than just make money. He wanted to make a difference. The insight for Elliot for water came little by little, bit by bit. He sees the challenge like working out, he will only grow and get stronger from the process. Whatever happens he will be learning.
For Andreas, his life is a continuous series of aha moments. He is always learning. What he really want to change is the idea that doing humanitarian work is or has to be disconnected form entrepreneurship. It shouldn’t be that if you want to help other people you have to be poor, but if you want to serve yourself you can be wealthy.
His goal is to give people the best service possible. His biggest challenge is that Google is verb. People do not search the internet they Google. From his experience people do not make a distinction between the internet, search engines, and a browser, they see it all as one thing.
His advice to other people working to disrupt a sector or system is to be patient. Things do not happen overnight. Enjoy the process and learn from it. Each mistake you make is a chance to learn and grow. Perhaps most importantly, you are exactly where you are supposed to be, you are right on time.
Links mentioned in the podcast:
http://www.elliotforwater.com/
https://twitter.com/Andrea_e4w
https://twitter.com/elliotforwater
https://elliotsway.com/
Bitcoin explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4g1XFU8Gto
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