Leila Janah
Leila Janah
Leila Janah is the Founder and CEO of Sama and Laxmi, two companies highlighted on Fast Company’s 2016 Most Innovative Companies list that share a common social mission to end global poverty by giving work to people in need. She is also the co-author of America's Moment: Creating Opportunity in the Connected Age, a book by Rework America: A Markle Initiative...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinesswoman
Date of Birth9 October 1982
CountryUnited States of America
citizen left order savvy thrive
In order to thrive in the 21st century, you have to be a savvy citizen of the digital economy or risk being left behind.
physically work
It's really helpful to be physically engaged in something that's completely different from my day-to-day work.
reduce simply
Most of us working on poverty alleviation simply want to know, 'How much poverty can I reduce for every dollar I donate?'
hindi word
My personal style comes from jugaad, a Hindi word meaning doing more with less.
developing dissimilar
The challenges that the homeless face aren't dissimilar to those in developing countries.
donors fairly opposed outcomes people
Traditional charity is still fairly focused on how it makes donors feel as opposed to outcomes for people that need help.
employment secure using vital worker
Using the Internet to secure employment is as vital to a construction worker as it is to a software engineer.
adapt california century develop digital economic founded kenya market people skills train
At Samasource, a company I founded in 2008, we train people living in poverty from Kenya to California to develop and market 21st century digital skills to adapt to new economic realities.
attempting dress jeans possibly realized remember run silicon tech trying valley
The perception in Silicon Valley is that if you dress well, you couldn't possibly be smart, or you're in P.R. but couldn't possibly run a company. I remember briefly attempting the Adidas and jeans and sweatshirt over T-shirt look, but I realized I was trying to dress like a young tech geek, and that just wasn't me.
aid became best bit chance deny economic engage equals extreme global handouts hope less loans people poor suffer tiny view
Through my studies, I became increasingly disillusioned with the international aid system. I think we systematically deny poor people the chance to engage as equals in the global economic order. At best, we give them handouts or tiny loans and hope they will suffer a bit less from extreme poverty. We don't view them as equals.
opportunity talent
Talent is equally distributed but opportunity is not.
empires underestimate kind
Don’t underestimate the ripple effect of what you do. These kinds of actionshave toppled empires.
sexy giving people
The best way to end poverty is to simply give people work, which isn't considered 'sexy' among donors who want to fund a preschool or cure a disease.
opportunity banking poverty
Time and again we’ve seen that reducing poverty comes down to economic opportunity-not just connecting the poor to services like banking, but ensuring they can be producers on fair terms in the global economy.