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In this edition of our Partner Spotlight series, we continue highlighting partners at the forefront of app innovation on the commercial marketplace. Throughout the series, we will be telling the unique stories of partners who are leading the way with AI in app development, who are building using multiple Microsoft products, and who are publishing transactable applications on the marketplace. In this article, I sat down with threshold.world's CEO & Co-founder Dan Lammot to learn more about their story and partner journey.
About Dan: Dan is an ocean advocate, avid surfer, and serial social entrepreneur who has worked alongside NetHope’s members for over a decade and a half to leverage technology to improve the state of the world and the lives and livelihoods of the species that call it home. Dan is currently CEO and Co-founder of threshold.world and b.world, a key Microsoft Tech for Social Impact partner. While leading threshold.world, Dan has been a contributor to the Common Data Model for Nonprofits which created the first end-to-end common language for nonprofit data.
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[JR]: Tell us about threshold.world and its mission. What inspired the founding?
[DL]: threshold.world’s mission is to leverage technology to empower all nonprofits and social impact organizations to do more good. We build and deliver solutions aligned to the Common Data Model for Nonprofits (CDM) on Microsoft Technology. Our industry-leading experience with the CDM and history of delivering complex CRM solutions for nonprofits on enterprise platforms set us apart. We think and work like a product company to build things that last. We founded threshold because we believe the world is at a threshold moment. The decisions we make, at this point in time, will determine the future of life on this planet. We believe technology's role in this story is just beginning.
[JR]: Tell us about your background and your time at threshold.world. What inspired you to join?
[DL]: Prior to joining threshold.world, I was CEO and Co-founder of a Salesforce nonprofit partner named roundCorner.
[JR]: Can you tell us a bit about the application(s) you have available on the marketplace? How does it work?
[DL]: Because of the urgent challenges facing humanity and our planet, consumers, employees, and investors expect organizations to be a positive force for change in addition to delivering great products that people love to consume. This force for change is known by the word “Impact” – which describes how an organization’s actions affect people and planet. The problem is that it takes an average of 2 months to compile data and content to publish an impact report. In fact, less than 1% of organizations have the knowledge and tools required to efficiently and transparently measure and report on their impact. Until now, there hasn’t been a sign-up and go impact reporting equivalent to QuickBooks, which made mandatory financial reporting accessible to the masses of small companies.
This is why we created b.world, to make impact measurement and digital storytelling easy, fast, and cost-effective for corporate social impact teams.
[JR]: Can you talk about your experience in building an app for the commercial marketplace? How has Microsoft supported you along your journey?
[DL]: Microsoft has been an incredible partner through our journey to becoming an ISV. This is especially true for us as a member of the Microsoft for Startups ecosystem, and the Microsoft Global Social Entrepreneurship Program. The three most impactful contributions Microsoft has made as a partner are:
- Microsoft has served as a trusted supporter of ours to the market which has increased our reach.
- Microsoft has provided free access to technology during the programs which went straight to our bottom line, helping us to grow faster.
- Microsoft has provided expert technical guidance when we needed it, improving our efficiency of product engineering and sustainability as a company.
[JR]: What Microsoft cloud products did you use in your app development?
[DL]: b.world is 100% Azure, and we wouldn’t build it any other way. The scalability, security, and interoperability of the platform are a key part of our promise to our customers who trust us with some of their most sensitive, mission-critical data assets.
[JR]: How is threshold.world leveraging AI in app development?
[DL]: b.world is the world’s first AI powered impact measurement and storytelling app, and we’re proud of it! The AI capabilities we’ve built in already:
- Help impact teams start projects faster by lowering barriers to entry through AI-assisted project creation and design.
- Improve data literacy by summarizing impact results to generate insights.
- Reduce the time to generate authentic, high-fidelity impact stories to seconds by powering b.world's storybuilder with generative AI.
b.world, built on Azure, currently connects directly to Open AI GPT-3.5. We can’t wait to continue learning from our b.world community to extend these, and other AI powered features including evolving toward the Azure Open AI Service . Our goal is to continue empowering impact teams to spend more time on their mission, and less time on administration.
[JR]: What excites you about the future of nonprofit and social impact work in the tech industry?
[DL]: I’m proud to say I’ve been working with passionate, committed, and incredibly committed teams at the intersection of nonprofits, social impact and tech for the past 15 years. At this point in time, there are three things that excite me most about continuing this journey. First, is the emergence of accessible AI – it’s already changed everything for us at threshold and I am just barely starting to understand how much it will empower us to partner with the impact ecosystem to accelerate the pace of change. Second, is the team at threshold.world. It’s such an honor to serve as the CEO of this company and as a witness to their work and human ingenuity. And finally, despite the incredible challenges we have created and now face with the climate, the world is waking up to what we must do now to improve the lives and livelihoods of all those who are lucky enough to call this planet home. We believe technology’s role in this legacy is just beginning – and that this moment in time is truly a threshold moment!
[JR]: What inspiring leaders do you look up to?
[DL]: I’ll mention three people that I’d like to be when I grow up. First, is Melinda French Gates. I am in awe of her commitment to global health, and in particular, maternal and child health. Second, is Erik Arnold, who serves as General Manager and Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft Philanthropies. Erik’s commitment to the sector is unparalleled only by his humanity. And finally, Sir Ronald Cohen, for being a leading voice for moving towards a better and fairer world where we put doing well and doing good on par with each other.
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Resources:
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