“It’s about making an impact…” by Marc Printz

We are passionate about building a successful business. Yes, we want to be profitable. We want 10,000 subscribers. That’s scary. And then 100,000 subscribers. That’s utterly terrifying. You can’t survive losing money forever. Well, unless it’s other people’s money.

But, we also measure success by the impact we have.

We want to inspire and empower a new wave of people trying to turn the world on its head. We also want to help them get there in tangible ways. Ultimately, The Hum is a social enterprise — seeking to help provide scholarship money to student entrepreneurs who otherwise would need to work jobs and not have time to dedicate to their business ideas. We are social entrepreneurs, a movement growing in popularity and changing the way people do good in the world.

We are seeking out others pursuing this model and recently sat down with social entrepreneur Marc Printz to get his quick views on the subject.

Tell us about your social enterprise.

Driply is our product; Dropwise is our company. Dropwise, scientifically, means drop by drop. We’re a company that creates products and services that do social good. Driply is a competitive mobile game where players can direct corporate dollars to causes they care about.

Social entrepreneurship can a touchy subject. Can you talk to the stigma of doing good?

Nonprofits have a big issue, which I first learned about in a TED Talk…They have a problem showing that, say, 40% of their revenue is spent on internal expenses and only 60% is actually donated. When people see that pie chart they say, “Wow, you actually donate far less money than this other company.” There is a big stigma in the nonprofit sector and it limits the impact they can have.

Now, tying that into social entrepreneurship and our startup, people play a game and donate to the cause they care about. The company needs to make money so that we can, similar to the nonprofit, invest in ourselves so we can help raise even more money and make a bigger change.

But there is the question of do you start a company to make money or do you do it for a purpose? Some people say you should do it because you want to become rich and retire and some say just the opposite. When you’re trying to do both, there is a stigma and people ask, “Why should I invest in you? How am I going to make money?” And it’s like, that is not the point.

Yes, money will be made, but that’s not the point of a social entrepreneurship venture. Social entrepreneurship is more about making a global change and really engaging people in a different way.

I get that. It’s never been about the money for us either. But for a lot of people, especially investors, that’s the bottom line.

It’s a big frustration. That’s also why going into social entrepreneurship has been a big thing for me. Especially with Driply, you can fund the projects you care about. It’s not about the money, it’s about making an impact.

“It’s not about the money, it’s about making an impact.”

After we spoke with Marc, this stuck with us. What if everyone starting a business thought this way?

We hope The Hum serves as inspiration for you to start your business, take an existing venture to the next level, begin creating content, or take that chance to drop everything to live overseas. We also hope we can inspire you to do some good while on whichever crazy adventure you choose.

One more thought from Marc: “Don’t wait to live life, live life now. People get caught up in the grind day-to-day but don’t spend enough time looking forward and thinking about their passions. You can be a social champion and champion change.”

A huge thank you to Marc for sharing his time and insights with The Hum.