Daniel Rubino On Developing Global Impact Networks Using Social Media Frameworks

Daniel D. Rubino is the Chairman and CEO of ImpactWayv, a new digital ecosystem that unites individuals, businesses, and nonprofits to inspire and collaborate on social impact and sustainability projects.

Designed as a healthier social media alternative, ImpactWayv is a marketplace for constructive conversation and positive collective action. “Impacts” are prioritized over likes as the measure of value as users affect, engage in, and share social impact on a global scale.

In addition to ImpactWayv, Mr. Rubino has also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cabrini Mission Foundation, on the Board of Trustees of the World Energy Forum, on the Board of the New York Institute of Energy and Water, and as a Board Member of the Fordham Center for Nonprofit Leaders.

Daniel discusses how the social media communication model can be adapted to enhance social change, and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs to develop and grow their social enterprises and businesses sustainably.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Indio Myles] - To start off, can you please share a bit about your background and what led to your interest and work in social enterprise?

[Daniel Rubino] - I've been involved in social enterprise and philanthropy for the last 30 years, and this path included being an investment banker, a lawyer, but generally an entrepreneur. I had the luxury of doing all of those professions in my career, but philanthropy is probably the dearest to my heart because you could actually impact the most people in a really positive way. Also, however at the same time, it's been the most frustrating because I always wanted to do more! I wanted to do more in a lot of different ways on the philanthropic side of social change, and I think what you're doing is exactly what's needed.

You need a medium where you have a social enterprise creating social impact, and it should be actually disseminated throughout the world.

I was so frustrated with the whole concept of philanthropy and how I considered it to be stagnant, and I don't mean to be pejorative at all. It was somewhat stagnant in that it never really adopted new ways methods and the for-profit ways of doing business. Finally, it never really developed the way it should have in terms of adopting technology, and that has been my biggest concern over the last three to four years. About two and a half years ago, I created with several people this concept of social impact and we called the idea ImpactWayv. What we wanted to do is really bring that concept together with technology and social media through creating a social media platform, and that's how we got to ImpactWayv. We're very proud of what we've done to date, we are just this week in fact launching our Android version, which is a major milestone for us. Now we've set the foundation to develop the business and to achieve what our goals have been stated as, so I'm pretty pleased about it.

You're the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ImpactWayv. Can you explain to our audience how through ImpactWayv you're helping to bridge gaps between entities that are creating social change?

That's the whole point of the platform. Part of the deficiency that I've seen in the world of philanthropy over the last 30 years has been a lack of connectivity. There's a lack of engagement by organisations as well as individuals, government and businesses around social change and social enterprise issues. That's why we created the platform. Now the platform as I said before is a social media platform.

We thought that was the most efficient way from a macro perspective of uniting these forces. It's basically for individuals, businesses and not-for-profits throughout the world to come to a central place and ecosystem to connect and engage with each other while building up respective ideas.

This is whether it be a business, cause or personal endeavour, just like you would on a social media platform. It's what we call a healthy alternative to social media. What's interesting about it is, especially over the last year, there are so many negative things that have been said about media like Facebook and even Twitter to a certain extent. We looked at that and thought that it is pretty interesting, because what our platform does is basically provide a healthy alternative to platforms where people, businesses and not-for-profits on a 24 /7 basis can engage with each other based on social good. Social good could mean everything and anything. The way we define it, and our link is we have 50 different Wayv categories that people interact with, and that's pretty much all inclusive in terms of all the social good and social enterprise categories. It was an all-encompassing journey through social media and through that technology that we've created in order to really connect all those entities that are out there who would like to be involved with social enterprise and social good.

Why is it important for changemakers to be able to assist or synergise with governments and businesses to operate more effectively? How can people seek to connect within these spaces more deeply?

I think the bottom line is that we're all interconnected, and whether it be individuals, organisations, businesses, or governments, it's a combined effort.

If you want to have the maximum impact from a social good and social enterprise perspective, it's most important to make sure that all the stakeholders are included in the mix, and with that, you create the optimal result.

Certainly, in the United States and I know elsewhere in your region of world (Australia), it's critical to have the proper engagement of all these different sectors, because they all basically have a say and an opinion. There's a lot of value added to everyone's input in that regard, and it's important to get them involved. It's almost the whole concept of public private partnerships that are throughout the world in terms of business development and what that means for projects and businesses. It's essential to have buy-in and the involvement of all the constituent sectors, because if you don't, it's not going to be the best business and it won't be the best work product. That's one of the things that we're striving for. Regardless of what the objective is, the fact of the matter is if you get all these stakeholders to agree, participate and benefit from whatever you're doing, you're going to have the better work product in the end.

You're also the Chairman and CEO of the business development organisation The GCA Capital Group. What is your key piece of advice to an entrepreneur who's seeking to incorporate social impact into their existing or future business models?

There is so much advice that I'd love to get across! The first is something that people talk about on a regular basis, and it's significant as of today and recently. You have a situation where Elon Musk has taken a position in Twitter. It is a very interesting development, and I think people need to think long and hard about what this means, because it's not just an investment for him, it's something that I think will lead to bigger and better things for our benefit. In terms of what I could suggest to budding entrepreneurs, it revolves around freedom, liberty and free speech. It's about challenging established norms, thinking about problems in alternative ways and valuing critical thought more than anything else in terms of what you do from a business perspective. I think that Elon Musk a prime example. This is a person who's done this throughout his entire life.

He went from doing what he's done, whether it be rocket launches or Tesla, and now he's off to working at Twitter. There's so much there that could be learned and there's no doubt that he's a genius, and I would say that those experiences we all could learn from.

What key issues do you believe are going to become more addressed by up and coming social enterprises and start-ups?

My sense is that in the future (and I mean the immediate future as well as distant future), everything that is being done involves social enterprise and social impact, and I think people in the world are taking note of that. Whether it's ESG, CSR, the Sustainable Development Goals or the concept of stakeholder capitalism, that's what you'll see on for the next ten to fifty years. I think that must be respected, and people just need to ensure that it be honoured that that's the way people are going to make money. That's the way you get to make a profit and those are important concepts to embed in your business philosophy, because it makes sense to do that.

From a company perspective, it makes sense to incorporate from a perspective of your employees, your suppliers, and your shareholders. Everything will ultimately revolve around those concepts, and I think it's very important.

Going forward, we must respect business development and new start-ups that are being created as we speak, whether it be electric vehicles, batteries, or artificial intelligence. All those things will have CSR, ESG and SDG implications, and I think that they must be dealt with, addressed and ultimately incorporated into their businesses.

What other organisations have you seen that you believe are creating a strong social impact?

That's a great question, because I look at it from the perspective of businesses and what they are doing to better the lives of people (for lack of a better phrase). When you look at the concepts of ESG, CSR, SDG and stakeholder capitalism, you can see that a lot of businesses are doing it now, and whether it's businesses in the mining industry, companies out of Silicon valley, Tesla or drug companies like at Bristol Myers Squibb (who devote a lot of what they do to drug development and research in Africa), I think a lot of businesses are doing a lot of great stuff from a social enterprise and impact perspective. I think that's good; they're doing it because it makes business sense and their shareholders, employees and the world wants it. When you look at that, I think those are all positive developments.

What doesn't exist (and what Impact Boom is doing quite well), are organisations focused on properly disseminating the great things these people are doing throughout the rest of the world.

You create an 'Impact Boom’, and that's why we created ImpactWayv, and we do it on a macro level, as I said at the outset, through a social media site where the information is put out there. It is disseminated so people can talk about it, because consumers and employees need to know about it. Those items ideas very important in terms of how this area unfolds going forward. It's a very dynamic sector that we're in, and you could see that it envelops all industry, businesses and not-for-profits. It's a worldly sector, and there's no one out there who is looking at it from a global macro perspective, and I think that's what we tried to capture, and I know that's what you try to capture, because without that overall global look you're not going to have much impact. We're very happy that we have the technology and social media application to really change the world. There's a lot there, and it's a great thing to do together. I'm glad that we're on the same side!

To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend our listeners to check out so they can start making their journey as a changemaker?

In terms of books, papers, and things of that nature, I would go back to a couple of the really critical business books that I've read over the last couple of years. I think these books could really help budding entrepreneurs a great deal, whether they are a social entrepreneur or otherwise. Zero to One by Peter Thiel I think is a phenomenal book in terms of information about start-ups and how to build them for the future.

I think that's what we're talking about, how breakthrough companies for the future are necessity, and involvement from social enterprise type companies is vital.

The other book that I've been reading is a part of a series of books by Ray Dalio, and he's one of the biggest hedge fund managers in the world in New York and Connecticut. Those books are Principles: Life And Work as well as Principles For Dealing With A Changing World Order. Now, those books are interesting from a daily life, business, and macro perspective books. They have been impactful to me because I respect both Peter and Ray just as I do Elon Musk, so those are the two people that I would highlight for budding entrepreneurs wanting to learn how to grow and develop a business in a very unorthodox, but highly successful way.