#25 – Mission Driven: Bringing Solar Power to 1M People in Africa

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He’s not on a mission to make money, quite the opposite. Xavier Helgesen is a mission driven founder, who uses money to do more good in the world. His first company, Better World Books sells 10 million used books a year that’s collected by leftover books at libraries – in and shares revenues with literacy partners (Over $25M given to non-profits). This business lead him to Africa, where he noticed 20,000 people in a village had no electricity – so he decided to change that. He created Zola Electric, the largest solar power company in Africa, providing 1 million people with electricity per day. He talks to us about how he turned his college side hustle into a $70M biz, moving next to his customers in Tanzania, selling electricity to people who never used electricity and how ‘Mutual Improvement Societies’ could help you 10x your life.

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