#StartWithWhy, Yoann Fol
From local communities and challenges faced around the world to regenerative solutions for all (Digital and Entrepreneurship) as a Global Citizen
Having a powerful Why gives our business/life a deeper meaning and makes everything else secondary. A powerful Why makes us motivated and enthusiastic and can be a powerful driving tool.
Join us for this campaign as we share our Why and help Inspire individuals looking for their #WHY.
Who are you and what project did you start?
I am a global citizen with roots in France where I grew up and had the chance to study in a good free education system. I nurtured a double background in social sciences and "Tech" (Maths & Computer Science) up to my master's degree while always being involved in various associations. After some great years as a Data Scientist in Singapore for a large company, I decided to start my own company to use my skills on projects that matter. Indeed I was growing with great people and good technical challenges but the company values did not fit my ambitions. This experience opened my eyes to various communities' real situations in South East Asia and I really wanted to do more for them, with them.
I founded Dathappy to really combine Digital innovations and positive outcomes ("impact"), first as a consultancy and educational model before pushing for more content and coaching accessible for all.
Why did you start, where did the idea come from?
My day-to-day experiences, both personal and professional experiences triggered my wish to do more. Why so many organizations and individuals are still left behind in the Digital Economy ("the great Digital Divide")? Why aren't we using the power of technology & digital solutions to enable positive change and open opportunities for all while protecting the planet?
The contrast between the large companies from the richest countries (a privilege I had to be part of it) and my discoveries of the local communities in South East Asia was too big to not act.
What impact do you want to have / make ?
The first outcome I was aiming at starting Dathappy is to offer opportunities to all in the Digital Economy. Both impact-driven organizations and some communities are not yet leveraging this opportunity for development.
Now with GlocAllia, the gloCal approach around entrepreneurship is widening this ambition to help individuals and organizations thrive (not only in the Digital Space) while having great governance and attention to the planet and ecosystems regeneration.
Having fewer frontiers and divide, with flourishing local communities and environments, adapting the solutions to the needs while regenerating our common living ground, the Planet.
What is your WHY?
I want to live in harmony with People and Nature, to do so we need a systemic change and we need to help people transition, showing the value-added for them and the ecosystems surrounding them. So we can all grow up together.
Because I want to see smiles on flowers, tigers, fishes, corals, trees, mushrooms, people but also admire of freshwater flowing full of life, of wind and clean air supporting wellbeing, a soil giving birth continuously to many colors and shapes I know we all have to be part of the solutions, but we all have our own challenges. Together we can do that, being more empathic and focusing our strengths, energy and wealth on solutions by and for communities.
What do you need from the community to go the next mile? / Feel free to also mention How you could help others, the ones reading your story, our community, to go to the next mile?
I am really looking to always extend my network of like-minded people to get support on specific questions I can have and potentially find synergies to co-build something great together. Like this, we can always build on top of each other and I can help on the DIgital / Entrepreneurship space.
What advice would you give to a future entrepreneur?
Start with your means to solve a well-framed problem. If there is no problem to solve (value-added), the relevance of your project won't exist. Build your network to achieve it with others and continuously adapt to the feedback and needs easily.
Who are you looking up to for inspiration?
Most of my inspiration comes from local communities, nature and then people building amazing solutions, sharing their experience in an open and collaborative way. Living a nomadic life where I can meet various communities and environments really helped me to envision the next steps for and with the People I met.
Why are you sharing your story? What impact are you aiming at with this?
I know many people are sometimes lost on what to do (in those challenging and fast-evolving times), or not knowing how to get started. Sometimes, just a bit of experience shared and proof it is feasible can help to trigger the first step, and the most important is to keep moving, learning and building meaningfully to find solutions for us (and potentially others).
A deep Thanks to Yoann, for sharing his Why with us and being amongst the first to open GlocAllia’s #StartWithWhy campaign.