Hundreds of founders have launched their startups with an aim to change the world. But uttering the words “making the world a better place,” isn’t the same as doing it or doing it well.
Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, founder of Promise, and Jessica O. Matthews, founder of Uncharted Power, have not only launched companies that “do good,” the pair have shown how to properly and successfully scale their businesses. We’re excited to announce that Ellis-Lamkins and Matthews will join TechCrunch on our virtual stage at Disrupt 2020 on September 14-18 to offer guidance to other founders and entrepreneurial hopefuls who want to build social impact companies.
Ellis-Lamkins has a long history as a labor and community organizer, as well as a businesswoman. Her labor and community organizing experience includes a stint as the executive officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, an organized labor federation representing more than 100 unions and more than 110,000 members in California’s Santa Clara and San Benito counties. She was also executive director of Working Partnerships USA, a coalition working to address economic disparities in California’s Silicon Valley. She also served as the CEO of the anti-poverty organization Green For All.
Prior to co-founding Promise, Ellis-Lamkins ran revenue and operations at Honor. She previously worked with the musician Prince and led the effort to secure ownership of his masters. Ellis-Lamkins is currently a board member of the Tipping Point.
Matthews founded Uncharted Power at the age of 22. The company, which she leads, has developed technology that can interconnect decentralized power applications such as residential solar, electric vehicle charging stations and IoT sensors into one sustainable network. The goal is to bridge the power access gap between current grid and off-grid solutions. Her experience includes raising what was at the time the largest Series A round ever raised by a black female founder.
Matthews, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States, has a degree in Psychology and Economics from Harvard University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is listed on more than 12 patents and patents pending, including her first invention of the SOCCKET, an energy-generating soccer ball, at the age of 19.
Her success led to a White House invitation from President Barack Obama to represent small companies for the signing of the America Invents Act in 2012.
You may have heard that we’re taking Disrupt virtual this year, a move that lets us make the event accessible to more people than ever before while keeping everyone safe. Disrupt 2020 is scheduled to run from September 14 through September 18. Buy the Disrupt Digital Pro Pass or a Digital Startup Alley Exhibitor Package today and get access to all the interviews on our main stage, workshops over on the Extra Crunch Stage where you can get actionable tips, as well as CrunchMatch, our free, AI-powered networking platform. As soon as you register for Disrupt, you will have access to CrunchMatch and can start connecting with people. Use the tool to schedule one-on-one video calls with potential customers and investors or to recruit and interview prospective employees. If you act fast, you can even save an additional $100 during our flash sale that runs until Thursday, August 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
