Hello

Hi! My name is Michael Thomas. I tell stories, start companies, and fund social impact projects. Also I like seeing the world like a fox.

Companies and Social Impact Projects

SimpleData

In 2015 I started a company that sold widgets to tech companies. The product wasn’t that glamorous, but I pledged 25% of the equity and profits to charity and that gave me the resources to do some cool stuff like start a code school for refugees (more on that below).

I wrote about the process of starting and selling the business here:

How I Built A $5,000 Per Month Side Project

What I Learned Scaling From $5k to $25k Per Month

How I Built and Sold My Company in 18 Months

Social Hackers Academy

After I sold SimpleData I volunteered at a refugee camp for three months. A lot of the refugees that I met told me they wanted to learn to be developers. So in 2017 I co-founded a code school to teach refugees how to code. I donated $15,000 of seed money and found other donors to match me. As of 2019 the school has helped 25 people find jobs as developers and taught more than 100 refugees technical skills.

The original idea and pilot project at Oinofyta Refugee Camp

Year 1 update

Campfire Labs

My current company helps brands like Dropbox, Stripe, and Asana produce content. 50% of our profits and equity go to non-profit projects aimed at preventing the climate crisis.

What we do

Our origin story

An interview about our social mission