Ask HN: Companies that are contributing "something good" to the world?

16 points by ducttapelogic 5 years ago | 12 comments

For months (maybe even for a year) I wanted to ask this question, or something similar, but I always felt uneasy to do so. An hour ago I was browsing through HN and found posts like these: - “User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction” (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26153331), - Does anyone find strange that sport is part of daily news? (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26153670) etc.

Basically, companies are doing whatever it is needed to attract users, keep them as long as possible (I think that's called churn or so), and extract whatever they can from them (money-wise of course).

I'm pretty sure that most companies are responding to the market needs (does this sound too naive?) and that the main goal of companies is to make money (I really dislike this idea, and I even have a bitter feeling in my stomach when I even think of this - but that's how the world works) but - what companies do you know of that are "adding value" to the world?

By that I mean, companies that are doing research and (I guess) selling info/stuff/whatever that are increasing the human knowledge in fields like: - medical/biotech (Crispr companies; Crispr Therapeutics, Editas Medicine etc.), - robotics (Boston robotics?), - physics - chemistry (there was a hairdresser that invented Starlite, a thermal shielding material. Interesting project. What happened there? ) - mathematics - aerospace (BOOM, Lilium) or maybe even - legal - ai + language - ai + medicine etc.

As often happens here on HN there are heated debates. Please be polite, even when you don't agree.

p.s. Also I'd like (no, scratch that; love) to work for some type of the aforementioned organisation/company (especially if it's something connected with natural, or even technical sciences). That would allow me to extend my self-learning project(s) and I would enjoy doing that kind of a job. One of the things very close to my heart is open-source...

O_H_E 5 years ago |

I definitely count Fairphone as such. They build long-lasting android phones from responsibly sources materials. They closely monitor their manufacturing chain, make sure people are paid well, and release updates for many years (with as much software in the open so the community can take over). No new phone every 2 years.

The banger? The phones are fairly modular and serviceable (10/10 ifixit score) and they sell spare parts for years even after they stopped selling them. Moreover, they freaking made an upgraded camera module for people to pop into their phones instead of buying new ones.

https://www.fairphone.com/en/impact/ https://www.fairphone.com/en/story/

ducttapelogic 5 years ago | |

Ahh, if only more companies would be like Fairphone! I'd love to buy a phone from them at one point.

Thanks.

gurubavan 5 years ago |

Check out Kepler (https://kepler.space) -- they're doing great work in satellite constellations to provide constant access to the internet in underserved parts of the world. I can vouch for the founders and team.

ducttapelogic 5 years ago | |

Oh wow, that was fast. :) Thanks gurubavan, that sounds very interesting. Do you know them personally or so? Have you worked with them? I'll definitely check them out!

gurubavan 5 years ago | | |

Yes and yes. Feel free to DM me on twitter (same username). Also check out Ginkgo Bioworks (http://ginkgobioworks.com/), one of the top 100 YC companies. They're working on some really hard problems.