‘Tis the season of thanks, and we are ever grateful to have you in our community of change-makers. Thank you for how much you care and all that you do to work towards a better America, and a better future.
There’s a lot to celebrate right now: a new administration coming to the White House, a new generation of leaders elected to office across the country, and record numbers of voters turning out all across the country.
Sure, we have more work ahead of us. Most pressingly in Georgia. Our friends, Stacey Abrams and Lauren Groh-Wargo at Fair Fight, have built a strategy that can get us there. Some of you heard from them earlier this summer during our Incite Civics seminars. Chip in, if you can, and spread the word to help secure a Senate that will advance causes we care about - from COVID response to healthcare and climate change. Thank you for your generous support this year!
We’re also grateful for the way our Incite portfolio founders have helped keep the faith – both in what they are building to make world-positive change and how they are building it. We wanted to share updates from them so you are encouraged by their tenacity, as we are, to press on and do good. As ever, if you'd like to learn more about any of them - drop us a line.
In gratitude,
The Incite Team
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The Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Summit Distinguished Speaker Series is an opportunity for students to hear from leaders in the industry, receive career guidance from executives, learn tips for navigating the industry during Covid-19, and network with business leaders.
Our cofounder, Matt Rogers, returned (virtually) to his alma mater to talk about why the survival of humanity demands that we–technical founders and everyone else–dedicate our energies to solving hard problems, like climate change and the protection of our sacred democracy.
Watch the fireside chat here.
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The Room is a podcast series, hosted by Madison McIlwain and Claida Laurie, interviews tech founders and funders to talk about what it was like to be in the room where it happened.
Episode #1 went live this morning, featuring our cofounders–partners in life and in work–Matt Rogers and Swati Mylavarapu. In a candid, open conversation, Matt and Swati explore themes such as the power of patience, distilling a grand vision into one product and what it takes to be a servant leader.
Take a listen here!
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Since its founding in 2016, Wright has pioneered efforts to advance aerodynamics and propulsion technologies. Wright's goal is to produce a fleet of zero-emissions commercial airplanes.
Wright's flagship airplane under development is the Wright 1, a 186-seat airliner with 800 mile range, targeting entry into service in 2030.
The company just announced details about the motor development program in collaboration with ARPA-E (the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy).
ARPA-E selected Wright for a prestigious contract to support the development of a novel approach for innovative, lightweight, and ultra-efficient electric propulsion motors, drives, and associated thermal management systems for commercial electric aircraft.
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Uncle Matt’s Organic is the nation’s oldest organic orange juice company offering premium quality, delicious organic products.
Last month, founders Matt and Susan McLean announced the launch of its Ultimate Immune Orange Juice Beverage, an immune support powerhouse made with organic orange juice, elderberry, 300% of your daily dose of Vitamin C, 50% Vitamin D and 25% Zinc for immune and wellness support.
Congratulations to the Uncle Matt’s Organic team for winning the Spark Change 2020 NEXTY award! Now more than ever, it is so important to keep our families healthy and strengthen our immune systems. Try a glass of delicious Ultimate Immune today - cheers!
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Petal is a better credit card with the mission to help people access honest, simple and responsible credit. This matters even more in today’s turbulent economy, when credit has become harder to obtain than any time in the past decade.
Today, nearly half of all Americans have a non-prime credit score. Unfortunately, this will only increase with the fallout from COVID-19.
Many of these consumers—whose financial lives may have been thrown into disarray by sudden unemployment, unexpected medical bills, or family financial obligations—don’t qualify for mainstream credit cards. Instead, they’re forced to use predatory financial products like payday loans and auto-title loans that charge 100%+ APRs and can trap people in debt for years.
In response to this need, the team at Petal has introduced a new card–Petal 1– that is designed to give consumers with more complicated credit histories a better option, in an economy where it’s become much harder to get a credit card if your credit history is anything short of perfect.
Learn more about Petal 1.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s partner, Grimes, is a talented musician and artist who is using her art for good. Grimes teamed up with gallerist Michele Maccarone to create an art show, but Covid-19 stopped the show and the duo decided to do something to benefit charity. Overall, with this project, Grimes is using her art and music to raise awareness for the fight against the climate crisis, and other charities or projects may benefit in the future.
Carbon180 is an NGO that is partnering with policymakers, scientists, and businesses around the world to create a world that removes more carbon than it emits. Carbon180 sees a world where climate change is stopped and economic prosperity is driven by innovative farmers, foresters, and businesses that are pulling carbon from the sky...KEEP READING.
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This election cycle, Hollywood showed up. You probably noticed your favorite celebrities posting photos, links and captions urging their followers to vote. In many of those cases, we have Vote.org to thank:
Part of the reason so many celebrities posted about voting this year, [Nora Gilbert, Vote.org's sector of partnerships] said, is that Vote.org launched a targeted campaign to get them to. The non-partisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit reached out to influencers—from YouTubers to musicians to Hollywood A-listers—with a "blueprint" for what they could post to help boost turnout, and even helped some craft specific plans for a long-term social media rollout.
There isn't data to show how many people decided to vote because a celebrity told them to—but according to Gilbert, "There's no world in which it's not a net positive on voter engagement."..KEEP READING.
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By Arati Prabhakar (Founder, Actuate)
Three hundred and thirty million personal variants of the American dream rest on the notion that the future can be both safe and filled with promise. Between us and that future are some sobering challenges: mitigating climate change, establishing good health across our population, making data and information trustworthy, and opening access to opportunity for every person.
Our new nonprofit organization, Actuate, is setting out to address these four challenges with a new model that can generate fresh, practical, potent solutions. Today, I want to share why we started and where we’re going — and invite you to join us...KEEP READING.
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