Dave Blanchard
CEO & Co-Founder @ Praxis
New York, United States
Dave Blanchard is a startup investor at Praxis in New York. Dave is an entrepreneur passionate about bringing new ideas to life to have a positive impact on society. Prior to co-founding Praxis, he was a Principal Business Designer at IDEO, an innovation consultancy, where he focused on venture design, startups, and social innovation. Earlier in his career, he co-founded DiscLive, a company working at theintersection of music and technology. He graduated from Babson College with a concentration on entrepreneurship, and also completed graduate work at Northwestern University, earning an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and an MEM in Design from the McCormick School. Dave's social enterprise experience also includes four years on the Board of Governors of Opportunity International as well as a stint on the One Acre Fund Governing Board. He lives in Manhattan and is part of the Trinity Grace Church community.
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About Praxis
We are in a moment in history where entrepreneurs have disproportionate influence on everything from the social problems they work on to what they consume, practice, believe, and desire. As Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square, recently declared on the cover of Forbes, "the most efficient means to spread an idea today is corporatestructure." Moreover, according to the Kauffman Foundation, 54% of millennials have started an organization or have the desire to start one. Given all of this, we believe the future of our world depends largely on the ventures the next generation creates. To create an institution for this context, we've created Praxis as a venture group, structured as a non-profit, that focuses on equipping and resourcing a growing portfolio of faith-motivated entrepreneurs who have committed their lives to cultural and social impact, renewing the spirit of their age one organization at a time. Praxis was conceived in 2010 by Dave Blanchard, then a Principal Designer at IDEO and Josh Kwan, the Director of International Giving for the David Weekley Family Foundation, and developed in collaboration with Q, a learning community that mobilizes Christians to advance the common good in society.Each year, Praxis welcomes 12 businesses and 12 nonprofits into their two Accelerator programs, where they provide the top-decision makers in these organizations with the knowledge, network, and personal discipleship necessary to build sustainable, high-impact organizations. In summer of 2014, they'll also launch Praxis Academy, a summer program focused on training Christ-following undergraduates at the intersection of faith, startups, and culture. Academy graduates will have a chance to apply for their Future Founders program, where they'll have an unique opportunity to do a summer apprenticeship with their Accelerator alumni.
Praxis Contacts
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Ben Chelf
Venture Lab
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Dave Blanchard
CEO & Co-Founder
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Jessica Nam Kim
Venture Partner
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Peter Court
Fellow
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1 more contact available
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