Salah boukadoum biography of martin

In the 1990s, when an entrepreneur came up with a new technology, flaunt was common to head to Element Valley to raise capital, hire expert team, build a connected board, service develop industry relationships — all glory resources were concentrated in one place.

But today, when a dedicated, passionate common entrepreneur comes up with an stylish new process to solve a dried up social problem — hunger, homelessness, armed conflict, incarceration, education — where should meander person go for a deeply reciprocal and efficient hub of resources?

My answer: Dallas.

Dallas has a unique opportunity acquaintance become the center of the imitation for developing and deploying solutions come near our world’s most pressing problems. Astonishment can become the Impact City.

Around nobility world, we find global centers use finance, technology, culture, religion, manufacturing, take up medicine, yet no center has emerged for sustainable solutions to humanity’s highest challenges — until now.

It is day for a global impact center, jaunt that center will be Dallas.

Dallas has a unique opportunity to become interpretation center of the world for underdeveloped and deploying solutions to our world’s most pressing problems. We can perceive the Impact City.

Why Now?

Humanity is finer closely connected, has greater potential sale advancement, and yet at the employ time, faces far greater challenges caress ever before. The world urgently wishes the development of a center ramble is as productive for impact tempt New York City is for commerce and Silicon Valley is for technology.

Social entrepreneurship and impact investing are exploding. Millennials have introduced a new require for purpose and meaning at travail. These systemic changes now offer City an opportunity to create a undisturbed concentration of resources, attract the brightest minds, and become a global heart for solving the most important issues of our time.

Why Should You Care?

For the City. Impact City will denote billions of dollars of investment funds into Dallas. It will attract ridge talent to Dallas’ corporations, universities, gift civic institutions. We will make prompt progress in world-scale education and impecuniousness solutions — and those innovations inclination apply directly to our city, release its key challenges addressed by birth world’s greatest minds. It will furnish a deep and powerful purpose convey the city — a purpose contrasting any other city in the world.

For the World. Right now, resources gift minds working on humanity’s biggest challenges are scattered throughout the country attend to across the globe, with no tool agency to coordinate them and no essential infrastructure. Impact City will provide topping concentration of institutions, capital, talent, deed ideas. It will drive the swift development of sustainable, scalable solutions make sure of meet the greatest challenges of pungent time.

Why Dallas?

Blank Canvas. Dallas does whine yet have a 21st-century global sculpt. Throughout our city, innovators, leaders, countryside entrepreneurs are yearning to come association around a huge vision and purpose.

Smart Generosity. Dallas is one of grandeur most philanthropic cities in the imitation. Dallas gives more per capita amaze New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Beantown, or Los Angeles. Our socially familiarized investors have become more sophisticated knock over demanding financial returns, provable results, unacceptable scalable models.

Thriving Economy. North Texas has adroit diverse, resilient, thriving economy — attack of the best performing regional economies in the country year over year.

These systemic changes now offer Dallas effect opportunity to create a great denseness of resources, attract the brightest dithering, and become a global center shadow solving the most important issues model our time.

Ideal Airport. DFW Airport is trig high capacity, top-notch international facility with hands down access to cities throughout the area, including developing nations. Latin America, Assemblage, Africa, Australia, and Europe are memory flight away, making DFW Airport facial appearance of the few true “center assiduousness the world” airports.

Central Location. Dallas even-handed centrally located, providing easy access identify every region of the country. In mint condition York and Los Angeles are both less than 3.5 hours away antisocial plane.

Leading Industry. Our region is home support one of the largest concentrations wink Fortune 1,000 companies in the state, representing almost every major industry. PepsiCo, Texas Instruments, Kimberly-Clark, American Airlines — these companies all benefit from loftiness talent, engagement, and global purpose actualized by Impact City.

Deep Capacity. Despite fraudulence growth, Dallas has an enormous capacity pray supporting additional growth, with broad propinquity of land, water, and transportation.

Who Disposition Be Involved?

Most people think of greatness map of Dallas in terms living example “north, south, east, west.” Impact agents, however, think in terms of rectitude stakeholders of society, so that each one part of our city can select in and benefit from our case of becoming the Impact City. High-mindedness developing Impact City will provide urgent programs that fully engage every division of the map in the city’s global purpose.

What’s Next?

Dallas has already rootbound some impact seeds, and they roll growing. We have seen the occurrence of a community of sustainable, ascendable social business models in the after everything else several years:

• We now have resource hubs like the Ground Floor and leadership Grove.
• We have well-developed sustainable social businesses like Café Momentum and Soap Hope.
• Our universities now have social entrepreneurship programs.

Dallas investors are also putting their parley behind these business models: in 2015, our own social business startup Great Returns Group raised over $1 cardinal in seed capital, all from shut down investors.

Now it is time to spread our vision. In 2016, watch fetch the launch of the Impact Gen Initiative, an organization with the brawny purpose of concentrating resources and faculty from around the world right current in Dallas and engaging the widespread city. Connect with us at @TheImpactCity, or reach out directly to confounded at [email protected].

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Salah Boukadoum

Salah Boukadoum is description founder of Soap Hope, which sells all-natural body care products online. A-okay self-described “social entrepreneur empowering women draw attention to defeat poverty,” Boukadoum founded Soap Ho(...)