<story><title>Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?</title><text>For a few years now, there&amp;#x27;s been a rising tide of activism and talk of capitalism 2.0 -- is anyone actually riding this wave, or is it mostly talk?&lt;p&gt;If anyone is actively working on (or with) a social enterprise, or if you know of any, I&amp;#x27;d really appreciate it if you can loop me in!&lt;p&gt;Thank you in advance!</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>kfreds</author><text>We started Mullvad VPN in 2009 for political reasons.&lt;p&gt;My cofounder Daniel and I viewed it as direct political action through entrepreneurship. In particular we wanted to protest Swedish surveillance legislation (FRA), which is partly why we chose a Swedish name for the service.&lt;p&gt;So far we have refused at least five serious offers of investment and acquisition, because we would rather retain control, even if that meant slow growth or obscurity.&lt;p&gt;As time went by the company grew and so did our capabilities to affect change. So far we have reinvested all profit in things we believe move the needle in the right direction. Some are direct donations, others are pure investments, others should probably be classified as &amp;quot;high-risk bets that might make things better, but not necessarily for us&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The fact that we retain 100% ownership in the company enables us to engage in strategic behavior that is unavailable to competitors who accept outside investment. All VCs have investment horizons. If we invited one onboard they would eventually want us to sell, or commit to handing out dividends.&lt;p&gt;We&amp;#x27;d rather build some kind of institution. Even better if we can obsolete VPN services as a concept. Then we could move on to other problems. It&amp;#x27;s not like there&amp;#x27;s a shortage. We have explored the idea of moving our shares to a foundation. Unfortunately that is an action that can&amp;#x27;t be undone. It&amp;#x27;s kind of the point, but by retaining the shares we retain maximum strategic flexibility.&lt;p&gt;Edit: I don&amp;#x27;t identify as a social entrepreneur, but thought you might enjoy the story anyway, as we&amp;#x27;re also sort of optimizing for impact. Whatever that means.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>seibelj</author><text>I see you take Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, any reason you don&amp;#x27;t take Monero? Monero is the most private cryptocurrency in existence, and if you want maximum privacy you could use this so customers don&amp;#x27;t need to mix their coins first.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?</title><text>For a few years now, there&amp;#x27;s been a rising tide of activism and talk of capitalism 2.0 -- is anyone actually riding this wave, or is it mostly talk?&lt;p&gt;If anyone is actively working on (or with) a social enterprise, or if you know of any, I&amp;#x27;d really appreciate it if you can loop me in!&lt;p&gt;Thank you in advance!</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>kfreds</author><text>We started Mullvad VPN in 2009 for political reasons.&lt;p&gt;My cofounder Daniel and I viewed it as direct political action through entrepreneurship. In particular we wanted to protest Swedish surveillance legislation (FRA), which is partly why we chose a Swedish name for the service.&lt;p&gt;So far we have refused at least five serious offers of investment and acquisition, because we would rather retain control, even if that meant slow growth or obscurity.&lt;p&gt;As time went by the company grew and so did our capabilities to affect change. So far we have reinvested all profit in things we believe move the needle in the right direction. Some are direct donations, others are pure investments, others should probably be classified as &amp;quot;high-risk bets that might make things better, but not necessarily for us&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The fact that we retain 100% ownership in the company enables us to engage in strategic behavior that is unavailable to competitors who accept outside investment. All VCs have investment horizons. If we invited one onboard they would eventually want us to sell, or commit to handing out dividends.&lt;p&gt;We&amp;#x27;d rather build some kind of institution. Even better if we can obsolete VPN services as a concept. Then we could move on to other problems. It&amp;#x27;s not like there&amp;#x27;s a shortage. We have explored the idea of moving our shares to a foundation. Unfortunately that is an action that can&amp;#x27;t be undone. It&amp;#x27;s kind of the point, but by retaining the shares we retain maximum strategic flexibility.&lt;p&gt;Edit: I don&amp;#x27;t identify as a social entrepreneur, but thought you might enjoy the story anyway, as we&amp;#x27;re also sort of optimizing for impact. Whatever that means.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sneak</author><text>As a customer, I didn’t know any of this explicitly, but a lot of it seems a little implicit from the copy on your site and the way you do business.&lt;p&gt;I also appreciate the support and visibility you provide for WireGuard.&lt;p&gt;Thanks for running the service, it’s great!</text></comment>