TSC 2: Social Impact Tech - Crowdfunding to Tackle the Homelessness Crisis with Alex Stephany, Founder of BEAM

The Tech Startup Collective

Alex Stephany is the Founder and CEO of Beam. Previously, he was the CEO of JustPark where he led what was the largest equity crowdfunding round for a tech startup in history, and is a Board Advisor at JustPark and crowdfunding platform, Spacehive. Alex is the author of the leading business on the sharing economy, The Business of Sharing. Alex was inspired to build Beam after meeting and getting to know Richard, an illiterate homeless man who wanted to learn to read. He asked himself: "Would any local people be prepared to help this man learn to read, if technology existed that made it easy and safe?” At Beam, they believe the answer is 'yes', and that it is possible to use technology to solve a range of large complex social problems, starting with homelessness. Beam is the world's first crowdfunding platform that helps homeless people to train up and get into work. Beam has been named by The Guardian as one of the most important social tech innovations of 2018.