Entrepreneur Kunal Sood is impacting a billion lives - Hindustan Times
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Entrepreneur Kunal Sood is impacting a billion lives

ByHT Brand Studio
Jan 15, 2021 04:53 PM IST

Kunal Sood has invested over $250,000 in tech, design and marketing from his savings and family, #WeThePlanet are actively creating the organization of the future and seeking to raise a much larger round of capital.

Kunal Sood is a world renowned impact entrepreneur and award-winning disruptive innovator. From serving in the slums of Mumbai as a global health scientist with Harvard at PUKAR to building Global Movements at the United Nations General Assembly as the founder of #WeThePlanet, X Fellows, and NOVUS, he is on a mission to make the impossible possible by positively impacting a billion lives over the next decade with his latest ventures #WeHaveADream and We The Future (WTF). As a TED Resident, Forbes Impact Icon, and Tribeca Disruptor Honoree he is focused on unlocking humanity's exponential potential to usher in a new era of human prosperity and planetary flourishing. He has a life-long love for learning having earned five master’s degrees that include an MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University, MSc from UCSF, MAPP/MPhil from University of Pennsylvania and is currently an Innovation Fellow at Columbia Business School.

Kunal Sood
Kunal Sood

#WeThePlanet was inaugurated and officially launched on 21st September 2019 as a high-level in-person convening at the United Nations during the 74th UNGA with the President of the UN General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés and H.E. Thomas Remengesau Jr., President of Palau. It was launched to transform our world for a better future during the Climate Action Summit. #WeThePlanet is on a mission to make the impossible possible by uniting the youth and the elders, the left and the right and the abled and disabled to positively impact a billion lives over the next decade. The co-founders, Kunal Sood and Laura Muranaka are actively creating a virtual platform, curating a purpose-driven community and building a real life #WeThePlanet Campus to safeguard and protect all life on land and under the sea.

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Investments in #WeThePlanet

The dynamics of social entrepreneurship in today’s world affect how companies raise funds and thrive in the future. Kunal Sood has invested over $250,000 in tech, design and marketing from his savings and family, #WeThePlanet are actively creating the organization of the future and seeking to raise a much larger round of capital.

Roles & responsibilities of the founders

Kunal Sood’s role in the company is to set the overall vision and high level execution of all things at #WeThePlanet and develop and implement global strategies to drive impact and build a sustainable organization for the world. Laura Muranaka writes, designs, strategizes, and enacts change working with the best minds in the world. Both founders are building #WeThePlanet to unite world leaders, iconic visionaries, and exponential entrepreneurs to reimagine how science, innovation and technology can protect all species on the planet.

Challenges for a social entrepreneur

Growing up in India, Kunal shares that he suffered as a young child from a learning disability and obesity and states. “Early in life this suffering taught me valuable lessons where I transformed to build the moral courage, emotional resilience and mental strength to stand up to my adversaries. I learned how to harness my learning disability as a superpower and made it my life’s calling to serve as a guardian and protector of the people and the planet.”

Working in the trenches of the slums in Mumbai as a Global Health scientist with Harvard he then moved on to building global movements at the United Nations General Assembly with some of the most iconic leaders such as the Prime Minister Modi and Steve Forbes and in 2018 he was spotlighted and named a Global Movement Builder at the first-ever Forbes Impact Summit. Kunal says, “Barring the challenges often faced by social entrepreneurs where the odds are not in favor of their vision, I used my life’s experience to fuel my passion for creating a difference in the world. I believe no matter what challenges this industry throws at us, social impact entrepreneurs must always defy the odds and leverage exponential technologies and turn influence to impact by uniting global leaders with extraordinary citizens from the bottom to the very top and make the impossible possible.”

Summits and achievements

#WeThePlanet has been successful in launching various summits in the past. With the help of world leaders, artists, explorers, artists and many other renowned personalities, we have been able to create a dialogue around the future of social impact in the world. There was #WeHaveADream that focused on ending all forms of social, racial, gender and environmental violence and injustice on the planet; Father’s Day summit that brought together extraordinary leaders and initiated conversations around leaving an exponential legacy of prosperity for the next generation; then there was Mother’s Day summit to re-imagine the approach to planet, people, peace, prosperity, and partnership. Kunal says, “We also had our flagship X Impact summit where we united all generations of leaders from around the world to talk about the most pressing challenges of the day and we announced our new venture We The Future (WTF).”

Vision for India

India is a model nation with the power of youth to stimulate the social impact economy that will usher in the 5th Industrial Revolution. Our latest venture We The Future (WTF) looks perfectly poised to address this opportunity as a strong force in the world focused on empowering next generation leaders through leadership training and community building think tanks that takes an idea into action. Given the democratization of information, ideas and technology in India, it has caused kind of a perfect storm for humanity to come together and make the impossible possible. #WeThePlanet recognizes that amidst this global change, there is a new force for good of young entrepreneurs working to create impact-driven business models and strategic frameworks by focusing on consumer consciousness as opposed to just profit-driven conventional businesses. Even the United Nations has recognized the next decade as the decade of action and once where the youth will matter the most in order to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Future of #WeThePlanet

There is an intimate connection between the current global pandemic and the lost harmony between humanity and nature. Integral ecology architecture is one way to demonstrate how human systems can reorient to address human and planetary longevity, social inequities, and increase health and wellness to flourish into the future. COVID-19 highlighted the challenges faced in both the in-person summit industry and the architectural industry surrounding the future of working environments. In the future, #WeThePlanet will raise funds in attempts to investigate new and forward-looking opportunities for people-friendly architecture in harmony with nature.

The #WeThePlanet Campus serves as a definitive platform to educate and communicate how we as humanity can protect all life on land and under the sea while advancing the frontiers of sustainable design. The floating building campus for instance is an inspiring example for the future convening, preservation of energy and of life, innovative living and working environments, and will be addressing topics such as longevity, climate change, social justice and equal opportunities. The 50/50 concept foresees architecture for the future centered on shared spaces that increase wildlife habitat in urban environments while harnessing the power of solar and other renewable energy sources.

Disclaimer: This is a company press release. No HT journalist was involved in the creation of this content.


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