June 28, 2024 - Crash Course Angel Story Ricardo Jimenez and Scaling Altruism Donald Summers

School for Startups Radio

Ricardo Jimenez – Founder, Angel investor and Author of Crash Course: A Founder’s Journey to Saving Your Startup and Sanity

Ricardo Jimenez is a Spanish-born author, entrepreneur, and active angel investor. Since 2014, he has invested in over fifty tech projects, including the Ethereum token launch. In recent years, he backed up the first electric aircraft designed for hydrogen propulsion in France, a gold mine in Paraguay, and a financial solution for Gen Z in the Middle East. Back in 2013, Ricardo and a partner launched the kids educational company for plush toys – Plushkies. They failed and learned a lot. This experience later became the foundation for his new book – Crash Course. It’s a book intended to serve as an emotional tool kit for founders, helping them better navigate the startup rollercoaster. He wrote from his personal experiences in entrepreneurship, investing, travel, meditation, and personal growth. He hopes to be a companion to founders in the noble yet often overwhelming pursuit of their dreams. He holds an MBA from Duke and am fluent in Spanish and English. He has traveled to sixty countries, visited the Seven Wonders of the World, spent six months at a meditation retreat in Uruguay, and he continue to spend several months every year at the Isha meditation center in Mexico. He enjoys kite surfing in Puerto Rico and motorbike riding the Texas back roads. He is a founding supporter of “Yo Elijo”, a non-for-profit that supports children and families in socio-economic stress in Colombia by offering them a different path in their lives. He currently lives in Puerto Rico and Barcelona.
Donald Summers – Founder & CEO of Altruist Partners and Author of Scaling Altruism: A Proven Pathway for Accelerating Nonprofit Growth and Impact – Running a Non-Profit like a For-Profit

Donald Summers is the Founder & CEO of Altruist Partners, a global advisory firm for nonprofits and social enterprises. He and his firm have led over one hundred successful nonprofit and social enterprise accelerations from the local to the global level in the fields of education, human services, health, environmental reform, and public media.Altruist has helped hundreds of mission-driven organizations around the world solve their toughest challenges, generate hundreds of millions in new revenue and capital, strengthen their boards, staff and volunteer teams, and deliver some of today’s most important social change efforts. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and Harvard University.