SOCAP11 Social Entrepreneur Spotlight: David Auerbach, Co-Founder, Sanergy

Why are you participating in SOCAP?
There are a lot of ambitious people in the world. Some want to climb Everest, others want to conduct a symphony orchestra, and others want to run a 100 mile race. Sometimes, I feel like I’m doing all of those at once through my own ambition. I want to permanently reduce sanitation-related disease – which kills 1.6 million children every year – throughout the developing world by making sanitation profitable. I freely admit this was not what I said when answering the “when I grow up” question as a child.
But Sanergy’s vision requires help. What we strive to accomplish – a re-imagination of the sanitation experience in urban slums – requires the imagination and experience of more than just our incredible team. We need mentors, investors, and soldiers to help us scale.
The power of partnerships has taken us far already. With respected organizations such as Bridge International, we have launched two sanitation facilities in two different slums of Nairobi. These facilities serve 150 people every day, and the waste is being collected and converted into biogas.
We are now scaling. By the end of the year, we aim to be serving over 5000 people with affordable, accessible and hygienic sanitation. After that, we will be in a position to ramp up operations throughout Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa and beyond.
SOCAP brings together the right people with the right experience to invest their minds, money and hands to channel our crazy ambition to crack this sanitation nut. I am excited to represent Sanergy at SOCAP and am looking forward to meeting all the sanitation aficionados out there!