What does social impact mean to you?
When I think about my life’s journey, I keep coming back to one simple truth: I am deeply, undeniably human.
Every day, I wake up like any other animal. I need to eat. I need to go outside. I need the sun.
But purpose is what makes us human.
For me, purpose comes from having a measurable effect on the lives of others.
And when I think about social impact, when I think about my company, Propel Earth, I imagine a future where it is radically accessible for anyone to help someone else.
It could be that simple.
Over the last 10 weeks, that’s what I’ve been doing:
Helping people who are helping people.
I’m incredibly proud of each founder I’ve met through this program. These are people who are not building businesses just for money, but for the compounding effects of their products, communities, and the mark they leave on the world.
This was my first accelerator program, run in partnership with Tavern Community Coworking.
And it had its struggles.
There were moments when I felt unprepared to execute every question, every session, and every piece of programming we had planned.
But my previous experiences in venture, and in building companies like Catalyst, made me confident in one thing:
I know how to advocate.
And if I know how to advocate for myself and for others, then I knew the greatest impact I could make was through education, by preparing this cohort to advocate for themselves.
And now, that’s exactly what they’re ready to do.
Today, Wednesday, June 17 at 7 PM, at the Tempo by Hilton Hotel in Times Square, join Sophia Smith, Benji Schwartz, and me as we welcome the 2026 NYC Social Impact Cohort for Demo Day.
Featuring:
Jackson Greene of Arkzphere
Ayvan Krishan of ReBottle
Aurora Wenters of Evermind Labs
Dylan Manna of Coaching and Creative Consulting
Dmitry Korolev of SuperGRC
Moshe Cohen of Cohen & Co CPA’s
Veronika Petrova of becomefamous.ai
Raven Roberson of VATER
Zsombor Koman of Syneid Labs
Learn more about all the founders in the cohort on our brand new showcase page!https://propel.earth/showcase
3 years and 97 days. That’s how much time was left on the climate clock when we started this cohort. Now more than 2 months later our cohort is ready to pitch live. Sign up here to see them https://arkzphere.com/scene/user-scene-1781545207156-3fjxm
P.S. When I first arrived at NYU in August 2020, I lived around the corner from the Climate clock. It was just put in that month and it shocked my world. I had just started taking sustainable business classes and here it was in front of me a live countdown of how much time I had left to make as much impact as I could. This is really personal for me and we still have time left so do what you can and let’s make it easier to help one another and our world!
Stephen Michael,
Chief Executive Officer, Propel Earth
516-307-6380 | stephen@propel.earth
https://propel.earth