Reflecting on the recent election. On the positive side, it appears the entrepreneurs and small business owners across America won. The North Star for those in EDU might be scaling youth entrepreneurship as the private sector may drive education for years to come. I spent several years supporting Build.org and other similar causes. There’s a possibility to do things differently in order to scale youth achievement.

Build.org scaled in Northern California thanks to innovative educational leaders seeking productive afterschool programs for at-risk kids. The entrepreneurial community of Silicon Valley sought skills-based volunteering opportunities for their savvy employees. Entrepreneur Suzanne Klahr saw an opportunity to fill this gap and came up with the Build idea. Philanthropy in Northern California is not hard to come by given the scale of prosperity and ingenuity. Suzanne managed to land entrepreneur Jack Dorsey on her board. Dorsey is the original founder of Twitter and Square.

Build.org launched its Pittsburgh operation during the pandemic in 2021. Austin is similar to Pittsburgh in many ways with a large tech-fueled economy, flagship universities, and an inbound population of young professionals with aspirations. Much of the world is not experiencing the prosperity felt in America or in Austin. Entrepreneurship is what keeps America ahead of the curve. Youth entrepreneurship could easily gain bipartisan support by the local and state government. It seems like everyone loves the Shark Tank TV show. 💯

There may be dozens of programs like Build.org in Austin. The closest thing I’ve found is BigAustin. There’s nothing on the scale of Build.org here. Nonprofit funding sources are much harder to find in Texas (as I’ve learned) while volunteering here. The ‘tech for good’ space is small. I believe an influential business-oriented org like Build could expand to Austin thanks to its attributes similar to Silicon Valley and Pittsburgh. The ripple effects from having a Build chapter are far-reaching as I’ve witnessed in Northern California. I’m looking forward to partnering with those interested in this journey.

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