Right: Alexandre Mars is on a mission to make giving the norm
Opposite top: Mars meets with local children in Nyaka,
Uganda during a trip to find impactful social organisations that could join the Epic portfolio in 2015
Opposite below: Mars on a trip to Mumbai, India to find organisations to join Epic’s portfolio
SOMETIMES YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY OF YOUR LIFE, JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE BORN IN THE WRONG PLACE AND WRONG TIME. THAT IS WHAT WE WANT TO FIND, WE WANT TO FIND THOSE KIDS WHO WERE BORN UNLUCKY
“When we talk about inequalities,
the biggest inequality in the world is where you are born, and that is something we do not decide,” Mars says. “Sometimes you will never be able to
change the trajectory of your life, just because you were born in the wrong place and wrong time. That is what we want to find, we want to find those kids who were born unlucky.” Epic employs a team of experts to
make sure the organisations are the most impactful—the 36 on the books were selected from a pool of more than 3,500, with applicants going through a three-stage vetting process looking at 45 data points. The foundation then monitors these
data points and visits the organisations on behalf of donors, creating reports
ISSUE 72 | 2018
and virtual reality films of how money is being used. Donors can track this progress through a web app, as a way of building trust and keeping them engaged. While a relatively simple concept,
Epic’s model addresses the three concerns Mars mentioned earlier: Donors’ lack of trust, time, and knowledge. “We want to make giving the norm,
so we need to provide the solutions so people feel they can act on this in a seamless and painless way,” Mars says. Mars amassed his personal wealth in
his 20s and 30s, during an illustrious career which saw him create tech companies, most famously Phonevalley which was bought by French multinational Publicis Groupe in 2007. His press clippings include repetitive
comparisons to Mars as “the French Bill Gates”. Today, about 90% of his time is spent
working with Epic, while 10% is spent running his family office blisce/. blisce/ invests in tech start-ups including Spotify, Pinterest, and Alibaba and its profits help support Epic. But Mars says he believes the
definition of success is changing thanks to millennials, and is becoming less to do with “the number of zeros in the bank account”. “The truth is, people want to act,
people want to care, people want to do good,” Mars says. “We have more and more proof of
this because of millennials. They are givers and they care. That generation is about purpose. Purpose is the new currency.”
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