This content was created by Thomas Anglero. This content was uploaded by Thomas Anglero. This is a YouTube interview titled "Thomas F. Anglero, Social Entrepreneur and Founder of WiHood" (posted April 3, 2011). The excerpt is an English conversational interview between Thomas Anglero and an interviewer (labeled SPEAKER B). Thomas describes his social enterprise (Waihut/WiHood), including a USB bracelet that provides a personal desktop for children without PCs, his work teaching entrepreneurship to schoolchildren in Norway, and how he measures social impact (by units distributed and beneficiary stories rather than monetary metrics).
Chapters
My name is Thomas Anglero. I'm an American living in Norway for too long, over 10 years, and been a social entrepreneur since 2007.
And what is your business idea?
The business idea— the business idea has matured in the last 3 years. It is, it was and still is a, the name of the company is Waihut, first of all. And the company started in 2007 because my daughter came home from school and I live up in Holmenkollen where there are, let's say, a lot of people with a lot of things, to be polite. And it didn't make sense when she came home, she says, you know, some of the kids in class can't do their homework. Because they don't have a PC and they don't have an internet connection. And that doesn't make sense in a home in Kowloon where everybody has 2 or 3 of everything. But yet these kids can't do their homework because they don't have a PC. And at that moment, you know, this light bulb went off in my head. I said, you know what, I could solve this world problem. I could do this. So I created a bracelet, a USB bracelet that a child takes it and they put into any PC, and as soon as they put it into the PC, it brings up their own desktop right on the screen. So it's sort of like a virtual laptop on a bracelet. So that's what the company started off being, and it's still global, and it's still selling, and it's great. But then I thought, "I have to do more here in Norway." So then I started teaching courses with kids in Vitregrunnaskole on how to start their own company, how to build up their own self-confidence, and things like that. So it's maturing and growing. It's a lot of fun because you get your hands dirty. It's not something you talk, it's something you do.
How do you measure the social responsibility in your idea, in your business?
Well, great question. And it's a really— that's a difficult answer because that answer— I'm asked that question a lot by different people. And everybody's looking for that answer, right? And the trick to that answer is the answer changes per social entrepreneur. It's not like a textbook, we say this is the answer and that works for everyone. It doesn't work that way. We're all addressing a need that we have identified ourselves and we relate to on a personal level, so the way we're going to measure it is different. So the way I do it is With the bracelet, obviously, it's a quantity number. The more I sell, the more I believe I'm helping. The stories I get back from the kids in the schools in Kenya, you know, make me feel like Guess is working. So that's one way I measure it. But I don't try to measure it by dollars, kronor. It's irrelevant. You don't do this for the money.
