Title: A few months ago I saw a thread on Hacker News that really lit a fire inside of me. Someone posted a Ask HN thread asking something along the lines of "Does your startup help change the world?"<p>I couldn't believe some of the responses. There were tons of people saying that their iPhone apps were because they made it easier to find restaurants.. or that their B2B social media marketing startup was because it was improving productivity for marketers. I'm paraphrasing but that was the gist of many of the responses. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for people who have successful typical startups. But that said, I think people sometimes are extremely sheltered if they think that those sorts of problems are really impacting lives.<p>Families who never thought it would happen to them across the United States are finding themselves homeless. My wife is from a small town that just 15 years ago had very high employment. Today the town is rapidly turning into a miniature Detroit after the main employer of the town closed down and moved overseas. Countless numbers of children are going hungry this summer since their primary and often times only nutritious and filling daily meal is their school lunch. My city recently had a free health treatment clinic for one day only. Hundreds of people stood in line for hours and hours, only to be sent home since not all were able to be seen.<p>And yet, that's just in the United States. Elsewhere in the world, one BILLION people don't have access to clean drinking water. Hundreds of millions of people work 12 hour days seven days a week for in exchange for pennies. People are killed or imprisoned every day just for speaking out against their governments.<p>I'm not delusional or hopelessly optimistic. I'm aware that these are all major global problems, and they're far more complicated than any one person could ever hope to solve. But what I am interested in is finding out a way that I could be doing something as a career to be a part of this. I don't necessarily think that you have to be a nonprofit or charity to still contribute to these sort of things. SwipeGood and Sparked are two examples of this.<p>But my question is - has anyone actually built or is working on something related to these sorts of issues? I'm fascinated by stories such as the one behind Charity Water (http://www.charitywater.org/about/scotts_story.php) and reading about organizations like FreeGeek. I'd love to start a nonprofit of my own, but I have no clue where to begin. If anyone has any advice, thoughts, or would like to connect I'd love to hear from you.
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