An Interview With Ankur Jain, Founder And President, Kairos Society (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Ankur: Another cool story is [about] a friend of ours, Ben Lewis. Ben is a student at the University of Pennsylvania, and he started a company called Give Water, or PurBlu Beverages, [with] one of their products being Give Water.

Ben’s company is a socially responsible water bottle company that sells eco-friendly water bottles that allow consumers to choose which causes they want to donate money to. So, they can pick from Give Hope, Give Life, Give Energy, or a variety of causes.

Ten cents of every bottle is donated directly to that cause, so it allows consumers [to have] control over giving as they purchase necessary goods. They’ve taken off and are being distributed nationally [at] Whole Foods, Duane Reade and quite a few other places.

I want Kairos to serve as catalyst, as an inspiration, to young people around the world to take on entrepreneurship. To me, entrepreneurship does not mean starting a company and that’s it. If you start a company, it doesn’t mean you’re an entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur is someone who solves problems sustainably, not someone who says, “I’m starting a company to make a quick buck and get out.”

At that point, you’re not creating meaningful jobs; you’re not creating wealth for society; you’re not creating value long term. If you can get young people around the world to start thinking about problems, whether they’re big or small – they don’t have to be things like clean water and education, it could be smaller problems that you encounter in everyday life – that’s important.

When you take an entrepreneurial mindset, that’s how you create meaningful, sustainable businesses. You’re creating solutions that matter.

Irina: Very true. Thank you, Ankur.

This segment is part 5 in the series : An Interview With Ankur Jain, Founder And President, Kairos Society
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