Nathan Gwilliam Blog :: e-Business, Social Enterprise, Faith

My passions in life are my family (which I very rarely blog about for privacy reasons), my faith, social enterprise (organizations that change the world for good), and Internet business. This blog is specifically about e-business, social enterprise and faith. I realize most readers may only be interested in one or two of these topics. However, my primary goal in writing this blog is to help me learn and internalize these subject matters as I write about them. So, if you are not interested in all three of these topics, I hope that you can still find value in the topics of interest to you.

This is a personal blog, and the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of any of the businesses in which I am involved.

I served as a volunteer missionary for two years in many small towns in Brazil. I fell in love with the Brazilian people, and part of my heart is still there with them. In Brazil I went to bed hungry for the first time in my life not by my choosing, without food or money to buy food. Looking back, that experience seems trite, but helped me to understand to a very small degree the sense of hopelessness that millions of children around the world deal with on a daily basis.

I committed to make a lasting difference in the lives of these children. So, when I returned to my studies at BYU, I wrote a business plan for a business that would use the power of the Internet to help children and families through adoption. I’m grateful for my father who trusted me enough to invest in that business idea and spend many years of his life helping build it. I have been thoroughly blessed to work with Adoption.com since 1996. I am very grateful for many team members who have worked diligently to make our visions realities, and who have taught me so much in the process.

Adoption.com grew into Adoption Media and a few other companies that operate websites related to adoption, foster care, crisis pregnancy and infertility. Adoption Media became (I believe) the largest adoption organization in the world, as measured by the number of people who use our services each month. My favorite part of Adoption.com is the waiting child photolisting, which has profiles of 4,000 children who are waiting for their forever families.

In addition to the adoption-related businesses, I served as CEO of Today.com, a publicly traded Internet software company during the dotcom bubble. I was the co-founder and CEO of Families.com, which was sold in 2007. I also was blessed to serve until recently as president the More Good Foundation, a non-profit organization which does online missionary work through websites such as LDS.net, MormonWiki.com, MormonChurch.com and Christ.org.

My heroes include Jesus Christ who changed the world with love and truth, Walt Disney who changed the world with gutsy imagination, Ghandi who changed the world with peace and virtue, George Washington who changed the world with unselfish leadership, Bill Gross who is the genius behind the IdeaLab entrepreneurial machine, and Paul Allen (not the Microsoft founder) who has created many social ventures and who I have tried to emulate in many ways.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, and the phenomenal example and impact they are creating by contributing the vast majorities of their net worth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In the end, tens of millions of lives will be saved, have their suffering alleviated, or have their lives changed for the better by the generosity of Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffett.

I am involved with the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship, which is helping young entrepreneurs change the world. I am trying to become more involved with the BYU Center for Economic Self Reliance, which is changing the world through supporting social enterprises.

I am passionate about social enterprise, the businesses and non-profit organizations which are changing the world for the better. I am a firm believer in social entrepreneurship, and champion businesses making money on social ventures where possible and appropriate, so these ventures can be sustained and do good perpetually instead of depending upon donations.

I am passionate about child welfare issues, and believe that we as a society need to take our collective stewardship to orphans very seriously. These are our children and we are responsible for them. Solutions could be implemented so that every waiting child in the U.S. is able to have a forever family. I believe that many solutions exist to the global orphan crisis.

I am a big fan of BYU Football and the Phoenix Suns. Michael W. Smith is my favorite musical artist. I love musical theater, and wanted to write musical theater scores as a career when I first went to college. I love rooting for the underdog, and as such Star Wars, Its a Wonderful Life and Facing the Giants are some of my favorite movies. I enjoy skiing. I love nature, especially mountains and beaches. The Crab Cooker (Newport Beach, CA) and Tucanos (Provo, UT) are two of my favorite restaurants.

I am passionate about online missionary work, using the power of the Internet to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly referred to as the LDS Church or the Mormon Church). I believe it is the restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth, and that it is lead by modern prophets, as it was anciently.

I am becoming increasingly more interested in environmental issues, and am excited by the solutions which have not yet been implemented to help us be better stewards of our earth. I am excited by the rise in gas prices, because the pain level has finally become high enough for us to do many of the things we should have been doing already. However, I need to improve my “green living” tremendously before I can be an advocate for others to do anything in this field.

I know few people will agree with everything which I believe. This blog is not intended to convince you to believe exactly as I do. I simply hope we can find the areas of shared passion where we do agree and where we can get to work together to change the world.