Our philosophy

We believe that the best way to solve the world's most difficult challenges is to see it through the eyes of  a typical engineering-minded entrepreneur rather than to see it through the eyes of a philanthropist or a non-profit's.  For years, doing good has really only been the domain of philanthropy and of non-profits - neither of which are very attractive to engineers or graduating students looking to be entrepreneurs.  Thus very few engineers get involved in coding for good.  But that doesn't really match the sentiment of most engineers.  The problem is that engineers enjoy working on challenging problems and enjoy the freedom and focus offered by the typical startups.  Working in a company that is lead by people who don't understand engineers is not an enticing proposition for most engineers.

 

But imagine what would happen if you gave engineers the opportunity to work in a "do good" company modeled after an engineering focused startup.  To have a scalable impact on the world while having the opportunity to make a ton of money and to do it in a company that was run by engineers.  

 

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense.  Technology is an inextricable part of everyday life, even in 3rd world countries.  Perhaps more than any other thing that we can imagine, it's technology that effect more people than anything else on earth today.  So why wouldn't we use engineers to help solve the world's problems?

 

The problem is that the "do good" industry has never really been an industry and that's why it has been dominated by non-profits and foundations.  But recently, especially with the movement toward going green, we are seeing a shift in consumer sentiment.  And as with any market where there is a dramatic shift in consumer sentiment, there is market opportunity and an opportunity to build new companies.

 

With that in mind, we started Virgance two years ago to test a theory.  Could we build a mission-driven company that could 1) tap into one of the market opportunities, 2) do it in a way that could attract top talent like any other startup and 3) could get financing from a top venture capital company.  

 

We see that our job is to provide an environment that enables engineers to 1) be molded into great leaders that 2) build companies that 3) are mission-driven and 4) are as profitable and rewarding as any startup.