@andrewjiang really intriguing. a few q's:
1) what are some of the biggest social impact challenges you are tackling right now?
2) what's it like to be a non-profit functioning and fundraising in YC?
3) what are your goals before Demo Day?
@eriktorenberg, thanks for the Q's!
We're working on 4 projects for the summer during our pilot fellowship:
1. Detecting fraud in microfinance loans for Zidisha (YC W14)
2. Identifying early indicators for Parkinson's for the Michael J. Fox Foundation
3. Implementing an outcomes driven approach to solving family homelessness with the City and County of San Francisco
4. Reducing recidivism within prisons by developing prisoner risk assessment models
As a nonprofit, YC has definitely been a unique experience in trying to parse out what advice (that's typically meant for for-profit startups) works for nonprofits. We started in April and are growing at a fast pace, which for nonprofits is typically unheard of -- but that also means challenges in the funding environment as growth typically means higher costs. The biggest advice we've had to *slightly* ignore is "don't fundraise during YC", as most foundations and funders for nonprofits take months if not years of courting for nonprofits. But overall, the experience has been incredible.
Our goals before demo day are to complete our summer projects and have our fall fellowship class ready. So far, we have a pretty incredible candidate pool, including a postdoc researcher from the Max Planck Institute, former quants, google engineers, and PhDs / postdocs in theoretical physics, math, etc. Send this to your friends if you think they might be interested!
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@eriktorenberg@andrewjiang This is really interesting, will your projects expand in scope like tackling social impact challenges that might have a play in environmental issues... like say, behaviors around energy conservation or waste management?
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I understand it's still early, but how much do you see the fellowship expanding over time: will Bayes Impact itself retain a role in the program or act as a go between for non-profits/public institutions and researchers?
@gentlemanbasil Our vision is to be a data-driven research and incubation institution for elite scientists, researchers, and engineers to work on solving various social impact challenges together. There is room for us to play matchmaker where our model doesn't quite fit, but generally the tougher social challenges will require us to be heavily involved in managing projects to execution.
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@andrewjiang mmmh. I see that, you guys provide focus and direction in getting these agents together! I'm curious to see how you'll optimize for incubation period when compared to startup incubators. :D
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Smart team, important problems, really great idea. In YC's current cohort.
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