Technology can empower or control society. Tech for good or tech for greed? I chose my side: 100% of my speaking fees fund social innovation. 24 social startups. No sponsors, no ads, no SDG theater. Real. 25 years of receipts.
Here is what the cynics missed: social entrepreneurship is already big business. 10 million social enterprises generate $2 trillion a year and 200 million jobs, more than the global fashion industry. Half are led by women.
Where does the money go? The $2 trillion is earned in education, agriculture and food, and healthcare, the 3 biggest sectors of the 10 million social enterprises. After that: clean energy, financial inclusion, creative industries, and care services. Companies teaching people, feeding people, and healing people. On top of that sits $1.6 trillion of impact capital, compounding 21% a year while Wall Street's total money grows 5%. That capital flows into inclusive finance for the unbanked, clean energy, healthcare, and affordable housing, with climate now the fastest riser: from 6% of impact capital in 2018 to 48% in 2023. 94% of impact investors say returns met or beat expectations. And there is still a $1.1 trillion funding gap waiting for the next generation of social entrepreneurs. Nobody even audits this economy properly yet. That is how early we are.
The builders are my people. Boyan Slat was 18 when he decided to clean the oceans. 38,000 people from 160 countries crowdfunded him. Today The Ocean Cleanup has pulled 50 million kilos of plastic out of our oceans and rivers, 25 million in 2025 alone. His mission: plastic free oceans by 2040. Find and fund 9 more Boyans and we get there by 2033. I put that call in Rolling Stone in 2022.
Sadio Mané built the first hospital and a school in his village in Senegal. Novak Djokovic funds early education in Serbia. Serena Williams backs 60 social enterprises. Cristiano Ronaldo mobilizes 1 billion fans as a force for good. Cause artists and cause athletes combined have billions of fans. Mobilize them for social innovation, and you have an army of many.
My forecast for 2040: 4% of the world's workers run a business that employs someone, I round it to 5%. The other 96% work for that 4% or work alone to survive. Yet the do-good slice of that 5% already produces $2 trillion a year, more than fashion. My mission is to grow that 5% to 10, 15, 20% of the working population: business builders, not gig workers. More entrepreneurs means more social innovation, more problems solved, faster and better than governments ever will. Get there, and the do-good economy passes $5 trillion by 2040. Small shift in people. Massive shift for the planet.
And someone will build the missing piece: a stock exchange for do-good companies rather than polluters. When that exists, ESG theater is over.
Tech for good or tech for greed. Pick your sensei.
Early call
