I really appreciated the sentiment of this post, and if I may be so bold, I’d actually like to nominate someone for your list. His name is Vekrum Kaushik. He is my current business partner.

First let me provide a full disclaimer: this letter hails from the “other side” — Silicon Alley, and I am what you would call an “outsider, insider” in the tech scene there; I do not code, do not have a technical background (rather, I have a public policy degree) but am fortunate enough to be launching a political tech project with Vekrum called PublicPulse.

I want to shine a light on Vekrum not only because I personally respect him, but because he is an exceptional visionary. By the age of 30 he was an entrepreneur, CEO and owner of a $20 million revenue company, with more than 350 employees across the globe. These successes enabled him to enter Harvard Business School while simultaneously running offices in New York, Boston, New Delhi, and London.

Vekrum has more than a vision and a mission, he has a deep interest in humanity that keeps him humble and honest, and this intuitive spirit of giving is where he shines, and has led him to explore socially minded ventures. I’m talking more than the (somewhat) superficial gesture of establishing a B-corps, but a deep-seated interest in structural change. With this mind he, spent two years in Africa working on aids relief where he led projects to optimize the drug supply chains for Tanzania and Rwanda.

I first began working with him on establishing a non-profit in India with the goal of aligning public policy with citizen needs. With our learnings from this model, we are now generating a platform for U.S politicians.

Above all, Vekrum has imparted to me an invaluable wisdom about the intersection between ethics and leadership, especially in the entrepreneurial world. For example, what was most surprising to me as I jumped into this world was that in order to get funded entrepreneurs often have to present a one-sided, positive picture of growth. As an entrepreneur then, one can rarely show doubt and we are even discouraged to share negative information. If one brings a balanced perspective most investors are hesitant to fund. Such pressure leads to unfortunate behavior in the community such as entrepreneurs “cooking up” results, severe depression, and even suicide, among other things. This wasn’t the world, which was supposed to celebrate constant feedback and failure as a badge of honor, rather than just high quarterly returns, that I had naively imagined. A few months ago, the Economist noted that Wall Street used to be the only place where money was produced without value creation, positing that Silicon Valley is in danger of becoming similar.

Vekrum has taught me otherwise.