Nick Martin On The Expanding Possibilities For Social Innovation As Technology Evolves
Nick Martin is an educator, technologist, and social entrepreneur with 15 years of experience in international development and social innovation.
In 2010, he founded TechChange, a Washington DC-based company that builds beautiful online courses for individuals and institutions who want to make a positive difference in the world. They are now one of the largest providers of online education for the nonprofit and social sectors, helping hundreds of organisations deliver training on everything from malaria, to human trafficking, to climate change, and more. Nick Martin also loves to teach and has taught over 60 graduate-level courses at Columbia, Georgetown, George Washington University in the last ten years on topics related to technology and humanitarian work and social good.
He currently serves on the board of PopTech, a global network committed to the vanguard of emerging technology, science, exploration and creative expression, founded by John Sculley and Bob Metcalfe. He was a PopTech fellow in 2013 and is deeply committed to helping the organisation grow.
Nick discusses the importance of effectively marketing your impact as a social enterprise as well as the positive and negative implications of technology Progressing rapidly.
Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)
[Thomas Long] - To start things off today, can you please just share a bit about your background and what led to your work in social enterprise?
[Nick Martin] - I sure can. My dad really wanted me to be a CIA spy, that was his aspiration. For me in my head, [I had] different career goals for myself. I started out as a modern poetry major and undergraduate at Swarthmore College, then ended up doing a Master's degree in education for peace and human rights. But I tell you, Thomas, those are hard degrees to enter the market with. For me, starting my own enterprise was really a function of applying for many jobs in the international development and humanitarian sector and not getting any traction. This was around 2006, 2007 and 2008. I was working and living in Washington DC trying to find work where I was able to connect with a number of like-minded folks who at the time were just very excited about the potential that technology could have for addressing problems in the world related to humanitarian crisis, public health, climate change or so forth.
We were at a time when 30% of the world had access to the internet and around 90% of people in the world had access to mobile devices. But we started to see these amazing examples of tech being used for good.
But of course, some of you that are listening may remember the Arab Spring in 2010, where suddenly we were using social media to track human rights abuses and digital maps to respond to disasters. Mobile devices were being used to track public health outcomes.
Our little team of volunteer nerds, as it were, we thought “Hey, what if there's a way to actually provide online education to people, to actually professionally develop them to grow and to expand their skills in this sector?”
That's really how tech change was born, this idea cut in on a hunch that there was a market not being served, and that we could reach a lot of professionals and adult learners with course content in innovative ways that would help them build their own skills to advance in their careers and help solve some of the world's most challenging problems.
It's really interesting to hear how TechChange started, how you noticed these trends in the world, and how you wanted to create a positive social impact from that.
As CEO at TechChange, what projects are you involved in and what have you learned from observing the business for good movement and how has it grown in recent years?
For a brief stint in time, I also tried to run a non-profit right out of grad school. We were helping to essentially promote the University for Peace in Costa Rica, recruit students [and run] lots of peace education programs.
But I really struggled with the model that required me to go out and fundraise as a non-profit, write grant proposals and accept money in that format. I thought “No, it's better If I can actually provide a service or product for someone, and then in turn, get paid for that provision”, that felt like a better model to me.
That was really the founding ethic of TechChange. 10-11 years in as a med-tech social enterprise, I think that was the right decision. We've since gone through processes like the B Corp Certification to really understand how our business model aligns with our mission, environmental impact and our organisational structure. Again, I really am excited that these types of movements are growing. We were the 600th B Corp Project. We beat Ben and Jerry's to the punch as they were next after us.
But I think there is tremendous desire, especially coming out of this pandemic where a lot of people and organisations are re-evaluating their relationship to the world and the impact they want to have on their audience and communities.
I think a lot of that is really going towards businesses rethinking how the bottom line relates directly to that impact. For us, it's sort of second nature as we really started on this path. These two things were hand in hand, but it was hard. We ended up not raising investment because we couldn't quite figure out how to pitch ourselves to investors as a company that had aspirations to do good and make money, but I think it's becoming more common.
Obviously, we can talk more about the impact of the investing world and how that's matured. I just think coming out of this pandemic there's going to be a renewed focus on how our companies really behave both internally and externally, and how do we keep them accountable?
I think social enterprise things like B Corp’s are a great instrument in that journey.
Seeing that social movement with companies is really great, [especially] how companies are taking charge and they're taking responsibility to try and do good while making money, which can sometimes be the hardest aspect of creating positive change.
What have you learned in leading TechChange’s social marketing efforts, and what are the key points social enterprises should consider when marketing their organisations?
Well, I don't think we do a really great job as a social sector and I link social enterprises and non-profits into that larger category.
In terms of marketing, I think we could consider ‘marketing’ and ‘sales’ dirty words, and a wiser person than me once said “You know great products don't really matter as much as great distribution” and really marketing is distribution.
In the early days we really bought into this philosophy that we had to figure out how to market our products and our services well, and it's taken many different formats. Early on we were very active on Twitter, building a blog and we didn't have as much of a product and service offering. In the last, I'll call it three to four years, I personally spent a lot of time on LinkedIn, really trying to understand that community as a channel for promoting all the things we want to do as an organisation, our products and services, but also trying to connect and curate a broader social enterprise community on LinkedIn. I've been really pleased with the connections I've made, the conversations we've had, and I think platforms could serve as such incredible channels for community building if they're used correctly, and that is marketing, right?
I think we're both trying to kind of push our own products and services, but we're also trying to create a broader community and a legitimacy for these models. Not everybody intuitively accepts that social enterprise should exist, and we're still up against that even in 2021.
I do think some of that has to happen in these broader conversations as we use these channels to do some traditional marketing and even sales.
Being good at marketing, sharing your message and showing your impact is just so incredibly important. For all of our listeners, I definitely recommend you jump on LinkedIn, follow TechChange and see some of their amazing posts and have a look at their website. They're doing some awesome work and they've done an amazing job of sharing their message. Where have you seen clear opportunities arise to help people tackle social and environmental problems?
I do think some of these platforms, especially in a pandemic when we're not able to convene in person, are providing these communities with mechanisms and collaboration opportunities to tackle some of these really big problems. Obviously, I'm a big fan of LinkedIn, and I think Twitter, Facebook and others are exciting. We have a great partnership with a group called the Peace and Collaborative Development Network (PCDN). That is another community focused on social change careers, and so when I think about this question, I think a lot of people don't really know where to start when they say “I want to start a social enterprise or work for a social enterprise”.
It can be intimidating if you're coming from the private sector, government or academia, and so what I often say to folks is first, you have to define your why. Why do you want to do this? What is it about the social and environmental change you want to see in your role [that is important]?
As you look back in 20, 30, 40 years, if you don't do this thing, how are you going to feel about your life? If there's that burning desire once we've established that why, then it's about the models for how we achieve that why, and social enterprise is one of those pathways. I think it's an attractive one because people liked the idea of making money alongside doing good, but it's not the only one.
I think really trying to be clear with oneself around what are the reasons [this model may work] and why is this the right model for me and my journey or for the organisation I'm trying to start with my partner [is important to consider].
I think that reflection is good, and Thomas, the last thing I'll say here is we're also seeing a lot of companies like Facebook, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Google and Amazon as well as some of the smaller ones like Okta and Cloudera [I'm primarily thinking about tech companies here] are starting tech for good operations inside their larger organisations. Now they're not traditional Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) units. They are really looking at how they can do things like align more directly with the Sustainable Development Goals articulated by the social sector and thinking about how the data that they are producing or collecting can actually be used for good and help solve crises. One example is that Facebook and TechChange are working together on a series of courses on gender and data, particularly gender bias and data.
We've had a series of cohort-based learning opportunities that are all online for folks in the non-profit and corporate worlds to be able to come together and to talk about some of these challenging issues and also to build some really credible skills.
We did our first course last summer for 500 people and it has since done a number of rounds. You can go on right now and sign up, it's all free to actually take these courses. It’s a great opportunity if you're curious, but I think this is illustrative of how tech companies are trying to provide value beyond their core business products to the social sector, and again, I think some of these new models will really be exciting to track and maybe a great place for you to land as someone listening, who cares about the business side of things, but also the impact you want to have on the world.
How do you see online learning playing a role in the COVID era and beyond?
Thomas, it's a great question. If you look at the early days of the pandemic, a lot of people gave up on online learning and Zoom based instruction pretty early. We had these fairly elaborate op-eds in places like The New York Times from university professors crying “The end of online learning and how awful the quality of instruction was”, and I read those articles that said, “Don't blame the medium for your poor preparation, don't blame Zoom for your inability to have anticipated this challenge.”
If you follow me on LinkedIn, you know that I really as a university professor myself have become quite disillusioned with the academic industrial complex and the role that it has in our lives. It's really quite sad how the tuition rates have (especially in the United States) blossomed so dramatically.
But if you look at some of these other countries, I think some of these trends do hold up. We’re not really fair to generations of students who are currently enrolled and the deal, if we look back historically, was “spend time learning your trade, your craft and building your career. On the other end of this journey, there is a great job waiting for you.” You could easily pay back your loans and suddenly you're launched and buying your own house.” Lecturers are really falling apart, and I think the quality of instruction has gone down as these schools couldn't have figured it out.
I could point to probably several dozen examples of schools that are doing incredible work, but the vast majority were not prepared and frankly should have been as they had 20 years to figure this out.
I think if you look beyond higher education, there are a number of exciting examples of online learning doing exciting things. The Elementary, or K-12 system in the United States, for younger students is hard. It’s certainly harder to do a lot of the kinetic energy types of learning that involve more active community-based work. It’s hard to get kids to focus online, but I've seen some awesome examples of things happening. Certainly, in our world, we have really doubled down on using interactive whiteboards, training game-based simulations, building 3D virtual worlds or using new tools to really drive interesting conversations in breakout rooms.
There's so much innovation that's happened in the past 10 months, and we've accelerated this curve about 10 years. I think you're going to see more innovation as things evolve. Some really great players are going to rise to the top, and I think those that are not evolving are just desperate to get back to normal but normal is not coming “news flash”.
I think with universities, some of the best brands are always going to be fine, but this whole long tale of universities (particularly global ones) that haven't really figured out a business model in this new era are in serious trouble. It’s a great opportunity for all those social entrepreneurs listening.
My background is actually as a tutor at the Queensland University of Technology, and after seeing the changes and the online learning that we've done, the initial integration was very rough and jagged. But now we are also seeing these opportunities for online learning, interactive whiteboards and shared creativity. I think that's an awesome answer, that's going to be relevant to a lot of people. What's one piece of advice you think all social entrepreneurs should know?
I am going to string a couple of smaller pieces of advice into one and see how far we get. The first thing I'll say here, is having an idea is not enough. You really have to think about implementation, and implementation in my mind has several different dimensions. One, I don't believe that any great ideas about changing the world can be done in isolation. Really, you have to think about having a team that has complementary skill sets. Sure, you can go write a book, be an author and think about the theory of change in that context, but if you're trying to go with social enterprise, chances are you're going to have to do this with other humans.
Humans are messy and by nature difficult, so trying to align incentives, skill sets, and visions can be tremendously challenging. However, that's the sauce that change happens through. I would also say along those lines, you just have got to keep going, and most people just give up when they have a social enterprise and that's it.
There are all kinds of reasons to give up, and some of them are great reasons, but if you really want to drive this change, having clarity around what your timelines are, what your thresholds are and how much risk can you really take [is vital]? Ultimately you just have got to wait for the market and the product market fit to align, and that might take a while. For us, it's taken a long time to get there.
We've had many twists and turns in a 10-year journey, but my core team (there's three of us) on the leadership side were patient and it wasn't easy, and it wasn't something I necessarily would recommend for everyone. But certainly, to wait for that product market fit was worth it in our case.
The last thing I'll say along those lines is just keeping that focus. It's so easy with social enterprises to try and do a million things, because we were saying right out of the gate we care about profits, but we also really care about impact. But what the hell does impact mean?
To have these forty different indicators that all tell me that I'm having the social and environmental impact I want to have on the world. Well, if those are going well, but I can't make any money, what do I do then?
I think trying to keep things as simple as possible, especially early on in terms of your product and services is key.
That really is so hard to do but having that discipline will make it easier as things evolve. I crammed four things in Thomas, but at least you've got a flavour for how I think about this.
What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently which are creating a positive social impact?
I can talk about where I'm seeing the field go a bit, and again, when I say field, I'm really more focused on tech and social change. That's really my wheelhouse. Hopefully, that's interesting for your readers, but then I might also highlight a couple of projects that I think are pretty neat that I'm excited about at TechChange. I think we're seeing a lot of conversations and energy focused on data privacy and security. Some of your listeners may have watched The Social Dilemma which talks about the role of social media in our lives. I think this is going to be an increasingly important conversation this year and this decade.
What is the amount of privacy and security we as users are willing to give up to big tech companies, and how do we hold them accountable?
Alongside that and tangential to that is artificial intelligence, machine learning and ethics. What types of data are we feeding these algorithms that ultimately determine how the next chapter of tech is written?
The technology and artificial intelligence really just reflect back to us what we designed it for. So, if we are inputting an imperfect, biased and unhealthy world, we will then of course see that reflected in our tech models. I think these are big topics that we're going to wrestle with. For our part at TechChange, we're particularly excited about a lot of the public health work we're doing at the moment. We're building the first ever digital health 101 curriculum for ministries of health around the world, particularly measures of health in low to middle income countries. It's a very interactive curriculum that includes a board game that can be analogue and digital around how ministries think about digitising their healthcare provisions in their countries.
You would think that even the developer would think, even though countries think they have this all figured out (they don't), they have opportunities to really build some leadership capacity among ministries of health and other countries, and we need it!
We are actually living through one of the biggest public health crises of the decade, of the generation, and what do we really need? We need strong leaders to be able to figure out where and how a technology can make a difference, in workflows, and for us to be able to build that curriculum to help actually shape that is really tremendously exciting. Those are a couple of examples of the work and projects we're doing, but also the larger trends that we're seeing in the space.
To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?
I would definitely again highlight LinkedIn, and for those that are interested, I have a hashtag #nickatnoon where I have curated a lot of the insights across the social enterprise space, but I also share jobs to great opportunities across the sector. In terms of thought leadership, I really love Harvard Business Review and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. The latter is really focused on social enterprise more intentionally, and HBR has, of course, just great management insights and trends across the sector that I think are relevant for social enterprises. Those are my go-to for publications. Authors like Adam Grant I'm just a big fan of. He’s thinking about organisational psychology, politics and how that maps on to management models. These are just a handful [of resources], but definitely we would have folks look at LinkedIn, think about LinkedIn, and use LinkedIn to curate those resources because I think it's such an amazing community.
Thank you very much for your generous insights and time.
