Episode 2: Post-Growth Entrepreneurship

Disrupt Development

Our economies and companies are addicted to exponential growth. But is this good for our planet and our society? In recent years social entrepreneurship claims to offer an alternative - but something still doesn't feel right. As the founder of the world's first Post-Growth company Melanie Rieback’s talk will combine her practical experience building "nonprofit businesses" with the macroeconomic theory of "post-growth" economists like Tim Jackson and Kate Raworth. This talk will question everything that you know about entrepreneurship, business models and sustainability within Development Cooperation. Can you go back to "business as usual" again?

Dr. Melanie Rieback is the CEO/Co-founder of Radically Open Security, the world’s first post-growth business and Non Profit Ventures, the world's first incubator for not-for-profit startups. She is a former Assistant Professor of Computer Scienceceat the Free University of Amsterdam (VU) and was named one of the 400 most successful women in the Netherlands by Viva Magazine (Viva400) in 2010 and 2017, one of the fifty most inspiring women in tech (Inspiring Fifty Netherlands) in 2016, 2017, and 2019. She was also called the Most Innovative IT Leader by CIO Magazine NL (TIM Award) in 2017, and one of the 9 Most Innovative Women in the European Union (EU Women Innovators Prize) in 2019.