--- title: How Tech Entrepreneurs Are Overcoming Washington’s Dysfunction description: Move aside, politicians. canonical: https://time.com/3842595/how-tech-entrepreneurs-are-overcoming-washingtons-dysfunction/ author: Adam Frankel article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-04T19:28:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:15.219Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Tech Entrepreneurs Are Overcoming Washington’s Dysfunction og:description: Move aside, politicians og:url: https://time.com/3842595/how-tech-entrepreneurs-are-overcoming-washingtons-dysfunction/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Tech Entrepreneurs Are Overcoming Washington’s Dysfunction twitter:description: Move aside, politicians twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Tech Entrepreneurs Are Overcoming Washington’s Dysfunction > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Adam Frankel](https://time.com/author/adam-frankel/) ## Adam Frankel May 4, 2015 7:28 PM UTC by [Adam Frankel](https://time.com/author/adam-frankel/) ## Adam Frankel May 4, 2015 7:28 PM UTC The startup world has often been rightly criticized for its obsession with the highest valuations, biggest exits, and hottest new apps. But there is a growing community of startups bringing their entrepreneurial chops to areas that have long been the purview of governments, nonprofits, and philanthropists. Across America and around the world, entrepreneurs are tackling challenges in ways elected officials and policymakers can’t or won’t—translating groundbreaking ideas into products and services that hold the promise of advancing social progress and improving millions of lives. Here are a few of them: **Workforce training and unemployment:** Our country’s governmental, educational, and financial institutions seem to be failing to solve the problem of preparing our workforce for a digital economy. Filling this void are corporate and nonprofit initiatives, such as Opportunity@Work. Led by Barack Obama administration alums Byron Auguste and Tyra Mariani, Opportunity@Work aims to bring employers together to find the tech talent they need. In Africa, a startup called Andela, where I work, is recruiting and training the best and brightest, providing career paths in technology in countries with youth unemployment rates upwards of 55%. **Energy and the environment:** While politicians remain trapped in 20th-century debates about science, tech-savvy activists and socially conscious technologists are racing into the future. Here in the U.S., Public Lab is applying open-source tools to environmental exploration and investigation, using aerial mapping tools to expose corporate malfeasance, advocate for wetlands restoration, and hold government and business accountable. Meanwhile, overseas, Off Grid Electric (an Andela hiring partner) is offering communities without access to credit or bank accounts pre-paid mobile phones to pay for solar power, replacing kerosene lamps while saving lives, the environment, and money. **Global aid and relief:** As the world bears witness to what appears to be the collective failure of the international community to stanch the hemorrhaging across the Middle East, startups are applying Silicon Valley technologies in settings where people lack opportunities many of us take for granted. Within days of the devastating earthquake in Nepal, the data team at MapBox had created or updated more than 16,000 buildings and 1,600 miles of roads on digital maps to aid the emergency response. In East Africa, Segovia (also an Andela hiring partner) is building a technology platform to make cash transfers more efficient, empowering governments and nongovernmental organizations to bypass corruption, ensuring that relief dollars get to the people who need them. Technology is not only disrupting the private sector with industries like transportation and hospitality being remade by the likes of Uber and Airbnb. It’s also disrupting the public square in ways that are making life better for people around the world. ### See The 7 Most Important Tech CEOs You Wouldn't Recognize  Jack Ma, founder of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, stepped down as that firm's CEO in 2013\. But he's still the company's most public face, and after Alibaba's September IPO, China's single richest man. Scott Eells—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Larry Ellison stunned the tech world in September by announcing he's stepping down as CEO of Oracle, the enterprise software company he co-founded in 1977\. Since Oracle doesn't sell products to the public like Apple or Microsoft, Ellison's a little less-known outside Silicon Valley: But he's a hugely important figure, having heavily influenced Steve Jobs and a host of other tech leaders. Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Tony Hsieh, CEO of shoe-tailer Zappos.com, is a controversial figure in the world of tech chief officers. He's pouring money into Zappos' corporate home of Las Vegas, Nevada, which is welcome by some locals but spurned by others. Still, Zappos is known for being a very fun and very different place to work, thanks in part to Hsieh setting those qualities up as priorities for the company. Noah Berger—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Satya Nadella just took over the reins at Microsoft earlier this year from now-Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, but he's already making his presence known through sizable layoffs and simultaneous acquisitions. Nadella's Microsoft has let go of nearly 15,000 employees this year — a chunk of whom were made redundant when Microsoft closed an approximately $7.2 billion deal for Nokia's device wing. Also on Microsoft's tab? $2.5 billion for the Swedish gaming company behind top-hit Minecraft. Microsoft/Corbis  Linkedin CEO Jeff Weiner, formerly a longtime Yahoo employee, has grown the "Facebook For Professionals'" user base and revenue exponentially since coming becoming CEO in 2009\. He's got quite the fan base, too: His workers, 100% of whom support him as CEO, according to Glassdoor. Robert Galbrath—Reuters/Corbis  John Donahoe has been president and CEO of eBay since 2008\. He's now guiding the company in a time of deep uncertainty: In early 2014, eBay settled a nasty public feud with activist investor Carl Icahn, who wants eBay to spin off payment service PayPal as an independent business — and Icahn isn't the only one who thinks that's a good idea. Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Don Mattrick became CEO of Zynga, the social gaming company that brought us FarmVille, in 2013, coming over from Microsoft. He's been tasked with leading Zynga through a tumultuous period — the now publicly-traded company hasn't been able to replicate its FarmVille success, leaving many to wonder about the company's future. 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