Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/LinkedIn
In 2012, Charlie Javice strode across a San Francisco stage in a sharp black suit and made a case for PoverUp, her microfinance platform for students, in a presentation titled: “Doing Good.” Then a 20-year-old student at Wharton, Javice was vying for a fellowship from tech billionaire Peter Thiel that gives 20 students $100,000 to drop out of school to pursue their innovations full-time.
“I stand here extremely grateful, lucky, and truly really humbled before you today to have this opportunity to share my dream and passion to end poverty,” Javice told the crowd, in a moment captured on a CNBC reality show. Off stage, however, the Wharton student shared doubts about the contest.
“Is it really worth one hundred grand? Like really?” Javice told the CNBC cameras. “I’ve made a network that’s if not comparable if not better than what Thiel has to offer me only in Silicon Valley.”
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