Year Up provides a one year intensive job training and internship program to young urban adults, 18-24 years old. Year Up enrolls close to 2,000 students per year, and roughly 400 organizations have hired Year Up students as interns or permanent employees. Prior to launching Year Up in 2000, Gerald was an internet entrepreneur. Gerald speaks with Jessica Harris about how he is helping to narrow the Opportunity Divide in the United States, from scratch. Listen to the interview...
Apr 23, 2013•32 min
Kevin is an internet entrepreneur who has led innovation in the online advertising and e-commerce space since the late 1990s. Kevin was the CEO of DoubleClick, the advertising serving company that was eventually sold to Google for $3.5 Billion. Kevin has since founded a number of internet companies including Gilt Groupe , a luxury e-commerce community, 10Gen , an open source database company, and Business Insider , an online news site for the technology and media industries. Kevin speaks to Jess...
Apr 18, 2013•32 min
Interfaith Youth Core is an organization that promotes service and religious pluralism among youth on college campuses. Eboo is a member of President Obama’s advisory council for the White House Office for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He is the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation , and Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America . Listen to the interview...
Dec 20, 2012•32 min
Paul has been committed to disease and poverty reduction since his early twenties. Partners in Health , started in Haiti in the 1980s, provides health care to the world’s poorest communities. Paul launched the organization while he was a student at Harvard Medical School. Jessica Harris speaks with Paul about how he has helped to reshape the public health landscape, from scratch. Listen to the interview...
Nov 22, 2012•32 min
SecondMarket is a private market place for buying and selling alternative assets including private company stock, bankruptcy claims, and restricted public stock. If you are an investor in a startup or an employee who wants to sell your company’s stock before the IPO, SecondMarket facilities this transaction. Companies trading on the SecondMarket exchange have included Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In. Barry became a registered trader at 17 years old. He speaks with Jessica Harris about the state...
Jun 29, 2012•32 min
Pastry chef and restaurateur Sarabeth Levine started her business by first selling marmalade, a family recipe, in a small cafe on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Prior to life in the culinary world, Sarabeth was a substitute teacher, a dental assistant, and sold health insurance. Sarabeth speaks to Jessica Harris about how she pioneered “brunch” in New York City, from scratch. Listen to the interview...
Dec 23, 2011•32 min
Tim Westergren, a former jazz musician and film composer, founded the online radio station Pandora in 2000. Tim brought together a team of musicologists to analyze and classify hundreds of thousands of songs based on some 400 attributes. This project, called the Music Genome Project, is the backbone of Pandora. Pandora works like this: a user enters a song or artist, and Pandora plays songs that most resemble that entry. The company became profitable for the first time ten years after launch, an...
Dec 02, 2011•32 min
Prior to founding Badger , Bill Whyte was a carpenter who wanted to find a remedy for his dry, cracked hands. While tinkering with different botanical and natural ingredients like olive oil and beeswax, he discovered that he had a knack for creating natural solutions to common skin conditions. Bill and his family started Badger in 1995, and the New Hampshire based company sells its expansive line of natural body care products—including sunscreen, lip-balm, body oils and soap—worldwide. Bill spea...
Sep 09, 2011•32 min
There are more and more students graduating from college looking to become entrepreneurs. But where do they start? What kind of business should it be? Where will they get the funding without a track record? Jessica speaks with two pioneers who launched their natural food company when they were recent college grads. Kelly and Brendan started Bear Naked, a line of granola and cereal that’s available across the United States. They explain how they managed to build a multi-million dollar food compan...
Aug 07, 2011•32 min
(Photo Courtesy of Nicole Haley Photography.) Phil and Erin Stead are husband and wife, and author and illustrator of A Sick Day for Amos McGee , an award winning children’s book. A Sick Day for Amos McGee received the Caldecott Medal in 2011 and was listed as one of the 10 Best Illustrated Childrens’ Books of 2010 by The New York Times. Phil and Erin speak to Jessica Harris about creating their first book together, from scratch. Listen to the interview...
Jul 31, 2011•32 min
When you’re preparing for a job interview, you want to put your best foot forward. But sometimes there’s a catch 22 when it comes to what to wear: How do you afford a suit if you don’t have a job, and how do you get the job if you’re not wearing professional clothes? Jessica speaks with Nancy Lublin, founder of Dress for Success, an organization that provides clothes to unemployed women for job interviews. Nancy describes how she launched Dress for Success and helped thousands of women get jobs,...
May 30, 2011•32 min
Growing up in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Greg Mortenson was raised by a family of humanitarians. After his sister died from a struggle with epilepsy, he decided to climb K2 in her memory. While descending K2 after a failed attempt at the summit, Greg accidentally stumbled into Korphe, a remote Pakistani village. Nurtured back to health by the community, he made a promise to return and build a school for the girls. Greg is the founder of the Central Asian Institute, an organizatio...
May 18, 2011•32 min
When earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters happen, who comes to the rescue? There’s government relief, NGOs, and fifteen guys from New York City! Nick Lobel-Weiss is the cofounder of NYC Medics, an organization that provides medical services to emergency victims around the world. Nick speaks with Jessica Harris about how his organization is providing urgent healthcare, from scratch. Listen to the interview...
Mar 26, 2011•32 min
