Jessica Jackley

There's absolutely not a trade-off with doing good, doing well.

There's absolutely not a trade-off with doing good, doing well.

The strategy of most entrepreneurs

The strategy of most entrepreneurs

you

you

It's a pleasure to get to talk to you today. I grew up in a really loving, incredible, super close family. We had really strong core values together around generosity and compassion and love. I felt like it was always an obvious and straightforward thing. We have everything we need. Therefore, our job is to focus on giving and making sure other people have everything that they need. And so

It's a pleasure to get to talk to you today. I grew up in a really loving, incredible, super close family. We had really strong core values together around generosity and compassion and love. I felt like it was always an obvious and straightforward thing. We have everything we need. Therefore, our job is to focus on giving and making sure other people have everything that they need. And so

I've always been primed to look for ways to help, to look for ways to serve. I did a ton of that growing up with my family. And so I went to college and in undergrad studied philosophy and poetry and political science, nothing related to entrepreneurship. I was not interested in business. In fact, I thought, why would you want to preoccupy yourself with

I've always been primed to look for ways to help, to look for ways to serve. I did a ton of that growing up with my family. And so I went to college and in undergrad studied philosophy and poetry and political science, nothing related to entrepreneurship. I was not interested in business. In fact, I thought, why would you want to preoccupy yourself with

Thinking about how to sell stuff that maybe people don't even need and get someone else's money. It just felt focused on the wrong values. And so, again, my tune has changed over time, of course, 20 some years into my work. But in the beginning, I thought business is bad. What's the opposite of business? Nonprofits. That's where I should go. So my goal was to be of use in the social sector.

Thinking about how to sell stuff that maybe people don't even need and get someone else's money. It just felt focused on the wrong values. And so, again, my tune has changed over time, of course, 20 some years into my work. But in the beginning, I thought business is bad. What's the opposite of business? Nonprofits. That's where I should go. So my goal was to be of use in the social sector.

It was very obvious to me. That's where I wanted to be. I ended up, though, as soon as I hit the real world after college, I graduated with my philosophy and poetry degrees and did not know exactly how to be useful. I knew how to think. I knew how to write. I knew what I believed, and I didn't know what that meant for a job. So I ended up moving to California on a whim. I was in love with a boy.

It was very obvious to me. That's where I wanted to be. I ended up, though, as soon as I hit the real world after college, I graduated with my philosophy and poetry degrees and did not know exactly how to be useful. I knew how to think. I knew how to write. I knew what I believed, and I didn't know what that meant for a job. So I ended up moving to California on a whim. I was in love with a boy.

This is not prescriptive. This is just what I did. And I ended up getting a job as a temp at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Now, I was, again, not interested at all in the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In fact, I thought, I better not corrupt my soul here. This is, I don't know. I don't know about this place.

This is not prescriptive. This is just what I did. And I ended up getting a job as a temp at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Now, I was, again, not interested at all in the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In fact, I thought, I better not corrupt my soul here. This is, I don't know. I don't know about this place.

Just to really hammer this home, I was so worried about how it might change who I was. And I was so convinced nobody there would be my people that I ended up getting a second job. I lived at this home for teen moms and I was a house mom there. And I would do that at night. I'd help the girls. It was a handful of teenage girls and their kids. in this nonprofit home in East Palo Alto.

Just to really hammer this home, I was so worried about how it might change who I was. And I was so convinced nobody there would be my people that I ended up getting a second job. I lived at this home for teen moms and I was a house mom there. And I would do that at night. I'd help the girls. It was a handful of teenage girls and their kids. in this nonprofit home in East Palo Alto.

And I would work with the girls, help them get the homework done, make dinner, make sure all the kids were in bed, et cetera, drive everyone to school and daycare in the morning, and then go to my real job as a program coordinator at Stanford Business School. But it just so happened in the business school

And I would work with the girls, help them get the homework done, make dinner, make sure all the kids were in bed, et cetera, drive everyone to school and daycare in the morning, and then go to my real job as a program coordinator at Stanford Business School. But it just so happened in the business school