How Red Bull and Further Created a Global Community of Social Entrepreneurs

Ian Calvert from social entrepreneurship incubator Further joins us with three incredible women changemakers: Brittany Young, a Maryland native who B-360, an organization that utilizes dirt bike culture to end the cycle of poverty; Adriana Barbosa, based in Sao Paulo, the woman behind the Pretahub Platform, the largest community of Afro-entrepreneurs; Bathabile Mpofu, in South Africa co- founded Nkazimulo Applied Sciences after developing ChemStart, a portable science kit to help young people become confident scientists.

Ian Calvert

Founder, FURTHER

Based in CapetownIan is the Founder of FURTHER, a platform that supports the holistic development of community-based impact entrepreneurs. He led the creation of the programme, originally from inside Red Bull, and has enabled hundreds of early-stage community entrepreneurs in South Africa, Brazil, USA & UK. 

From the very beginning, Further’s mission has been to work with people who had a personal connection to the problem they were trying to solve, and to deeply understand the social and cultural complexities around those problems. 

Their mantra became “the people closest to the problem should be the people closest to the solution.” Too much of the “doing good” in the world is increasingly elite, academic and disconnected from the communities it claims to serve.Further believes we need to change the system by enabling the people in the communities where the problems exist with the tools, technologies and resources to be the architects of their own solutions.

Bathabile Mpofu
Founder & CEO, Nkazimulo Applied Sciences

Based in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Bathabile Mpofu co- founded Nkazimulo Applied Sciences in 2016 after developing ChemStart. ChemStart is a portable science kit to help young people become confident scientists. 

She worked at a university as a laboratory technician for 5 years before working in an organisation that provides resources: financial, business and technical assistance to entrepreneurs in science. In that organisation, she then worked as a Research Scientist and helped entrepreneurs develop their products. She obtained a PDBA from UCT in 2013 and MBA from UCT in 2016.She graduated with BSc Honours in Chemistry from UKZN and is a registered scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions.  

The development of the kit was inspired by Bathabile’s own struggles at high school because she never did science experiments. She did her first experiment at varsity and this was very intimidating and overwhelming for her. unfortunately thousands of learners go through the same experience every year. Bathabile decided to do something about this situation by developing ChemStart.

ChemStart has won several awards and which led to Bathabile getting opportunities for professional development internationally, in San Franciso, USA and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Bathabile believes in a future where all young people have an opportunity to fall in love with science by having access to the resources that help them understand science concepts which then enables them to become the scientists they aspire to be.

Brittany Young

Founder and CEO, B-360

Brittany Young is a Baltimore native who has programmed nuclear plants, developed medical devices, and planned satellite explorations, but she finds the most satisfaction in her roles in education, problem solving and service to her community. 

In 2017 Brittany launched B-360, an organization that utilizes dirt bike culture to end the cycle of poverty, disrupt the prison pipeline, and build bridges in communities through STEM education. Since launching in 2017, the organization has served over 7,000 students, hired 30+ dirt bike riders and changed the narrative around dirt bike riders and STEM professionals. 

After her minor brother was tried as an adult and incarcerated, she became empowered to create solutions to help Black students turn their talents into career opportunities. She taught technology in Baltimore City Schools and was a project manager for the BCCC STEM Scholars program. 

Brittany is passionate about reimagining city planning and government best practices, and providing a model for culturally relevant programming and school curricula. She wants people to recognize and appreciate the natural genius in cities like Baltimore and match opportunities to people’s passions. Brittany sees herself as a “socio-economic” engineer – connecting talent and passion with resources and opportunity. 

Brittany’s accolades include TED, Echoing Green, OSI Baltimore, Baltimore Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, Roc Nation’s Black History Month Hero, Baltimore Corps, Social Innovation Lab at Johns Hopkins, and the Trailblazer Award for Rising Star in Humanitarianism. Brittany’s work has been featured by Shondaland, Mashable, Forbes, Entrepreneur, CBS News, Teen Vogue, NBC Sports and AfroPunk. 

Adriana Barbosa
CEO, PRETAHUB

Adriana Barbosa is the woman behind the entire Feira Preta platform, which in 2019 became the PRETAHUB Platform. She realized that as the Brazilian economy developed, so did the purchasing power of people of  Afro-heritage.With that in mind,she created in 2002, the largest tblack fair in Brazil.

The Feira Preta is a hub of black inventiveness and creativity, and has become the largest festival of Afro-contemporary trends in the market and the arts,as well as promoting Afro-entrepreneurial initiatives from various segments.

She has become a reference of Black entrepreneurship in Latin America, recognized in 2017 in Most Influential People

of African Descent (UN/MIPAD) and among the 50 most influential Black people under 40 by the Obama Foundation. Adriana has been an Ashoka Fellow since 2018 and in 2020 is part of the Ford Foundation’s global team of social justice leaders.