While not all these traits are necessary, a great entrepreneur is self-motivated, organised, irrepressible, open-minded, and creative. Founders tend to handle many things ‘just well enough’ (usually with little training or guidance) and focus on the few things that are worth doing well.
80,000 Hours’ career review on Founders of new projects tackling top problems is a great resource to get an overview of what it takes to succeed and how to plan your next steps.
Big: What’s the size in orders of magnitude? How much effect will solving the problem have in the long run? Neglected: How many people and resources are tackling this problem? How well allocated are these resources? Solvable: How easy would it be to make progress on this problem? Do interventions already exist to solve this problem effectively, and how strong is their evidence?
Global health and development. Eight hundred million people live in absolute poverty—with less than $2 per day. Five million children die every year, mainly from preventable diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and diarrhea. Factory farms, where animals are caged, crammed, mutilated and indoors for all their life. Humans slaughter seventy billion land animals every year—2,000 per second. Existential risks threaten the destruction of humanity’s long-term potential. These arise from artificial intelligence, biological hazards, great power conflict, nuclear security and extreme climate change.
Project ideas on reducing existential risk from FTX Future Fund Top charity ideas by Charity Entrepreneurship Alternative protein ideas by the Good Food Institute Ideas for megaprojects on the Effective Altruism Forum
Use a spreadsheet to rank options using a weighted-factor model and a cost-effectiveness analysis. Then narrow the list down with rounds of iterative research. Start with shallow research into all ideas, then deeply research the few best ideas. The first intervention that popped into your mind might not be the best. So take your time to rank the most effective interventions, even a couple of months—it might be one of your most impactful decisions.
You don’t need to fire yourself from your current job to explore your new nonprofit idea. Instead, try to pursue your project on the side until you are confident and ready to commit full-time. Pick one very small and simple version of your idea as a test. You don’t need a “perfect launch”—it doesn’t exist. Then iterate and improve the product or service.
Charity Entrepreneurship offers a free, two-month online program for effective charities within global health, animal welfare, and ‘meta charities’. They research the most effective interventions, so you don’t need an idea. Apply here. Fast Forward accelerates tech nonprofits that aim to scale impact. Y Combinator—the World’s leading startup accelerator—includes a few nonprofits in every startup batch.
If you have never worked before with your potential co-founder, start with some trial tasks to test how well you work together. Also explore your compatibility with this questionnaire. Read How to Find the Right Co-Founder by YCombinator and check out YC Co-Founder Matching, their free online platform for finding a co-founder.
Is the problem you want to solve highly present in that country? Is it easy to scale your intervention in that country? Do you have a relationship network in that country?
Give your colleagues constructive feedback—it will motivate them to build on their strengths. See this guide on how to give and receive feedback. If you feel heated and need to talk about something important, try to sleep on it. Avoid making the listener feel defensive by using the Nonviolent Communication Framework.
The National Council of Nonprofits (US) and the Small Charities Coalition (UK) have many free resources on their websites. Professional organisations like TrustLaw and Charity Finance Group connect nonprofits with professionals and resources. If your project is within one of 80,000 Hours priority problem areas (Artificial Intelligence alignment, biosecurity, global priorities research, building effective altruism) or problem areas that seem promising, then get a free 1:1 advising session with 80,000 Hours to help you choose your focus and make connections. Within animal welfare, Animal Advocacy Careers offers a free online course, job board, and a list of useful resources. The Effective Altruism community has a vibrant forum of professionals happy to exchange information, answer questions, and share resources.
Spend every dollar intelligently. This way, fundraising will always be easier. However, if you spend too much, you will have to raise more money, and you will run out of money sooner. Here’s a list of funding sources: the Effective Altruism Funds focus on global health and development, animal welfare, longtermism and building effective altruism; FTX Future Fund for improving humanity’s long-term future; Charity Entrepreneurship for global health and development, animal welfare, and building effective altruism; GiveWell Grant for global health and development.
Join a virtual program to discuss these ideas in a series of online meetups hosted by experienced facilitators. Join an effective altruism conference, event or local group to get to know more people within the community.
