Listen to the interview: Download (mp3) or Stream (m3u)

Miche Mathres: Hi, my name Miche Mathres. I'm here from an organization called Susten8 and we are a global network focused on innovation for economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Social Edge: How did you get involved in it? What is the passion that brought you to Susten8?

MM: It actually started four years ago when I was the founding team member of a company called Global Legacy with the (back-then) number two at Coca Cola. They were basically trying to set up an investment fund that was interested in investing in impoverished communities, and then I just got the network, got the knowledge, got the experience, got the skills and here I am now, leading my own company with my other partners and we're trying to change the world!

SE: What do you think the things are that you need to change the world?

MM: Money! Money! Money to make it happen! No, but seriously, we have all the resources except, really, just the financial resources. For example, last week people gave us office space (we are a for-profit company by the way). But we need that initial seed funding that will help us develop our full proposition. But we launched very successfully actually, three weeks ago.

SE: Congratulations!

MM: Yeah! And our first networking event had over 200 people.

SE: And what brought you here specifically to the forum and what have you gotten out of it?

MM: What brought me here was that I knew it was just going to be a great amount of positive energy and enthusiasm and a great number of really high-quality people--like minded people, obviously--and that's what I came here for.

SE: Did you find it?

MM: Yes! I could stay here for a year or two years and talk with all these people, which leads me to my next point: it would have been great to have sessions where people would be able to network or feed off ideas or exchange resources, rather than just have an informal aura of all these people--just have some more interactions.

SE: In one sentence, what would you say you are hoping for in the future? Not just for your organization, but for our field as whole or for our world as a whole--you're trying to change the world!

MM: In one sentence? <laughs> I would want the whole world to know about social entrepreneurs and environmental entrepreneurs--people that have, as Jed Emerson said, some sort of blended value in the way they live, operate and work.