Leila Janah, founder of Samasource, recalls how she came to commit her life to fighting poverty after witnessing first hand the grit and resourcefulness of villagers living on a dollar a day in sub-Saharan Africa. "We're wasting the most important natural resource on the planet, which isn't gold or diamonds or lithium. It's the talent at the bottom of the pyramid."

Samasource Founder Leila Janah discusses the many ways that jobs are a more effective and sustainable way to reverse poverty than traditional aid. Also author of the book "Give Work," Janah cites findings that earned income provides people with stability, community and dignity, while lessening an economy's dependence on international donors.

Entrepreneur Leila Janah explains why she calls her startups Samasource and LXMI "social" enterprises, a business model she credits to Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, inventor of the micro-finance movement aimed at social impact. "What I wanted to build was a company that would measure itself based on how many people we moved out of poverty each year," Janah says.

Samasource Founder and CEO Leila Janah describes how villagers with the wherewithal to survive on a dollar a day possess all the talent and initiative needed for digital work. She recounts how Samasource's first data-services center started as a four-station Internet cafe, and how it has since grown to a network of 2,000 full-time workers across east Africa.

Social entrepreneur Leila Janah talks about how her luxury skincare brand LXMI (pronounced "luxe-me") also gives dignified work, instead of charity, to women and families in need. She says the business addresses growing consumer demand for supply-chain ethics, as well as for a more personal connection to retail products.

Leila Janah, whose social enterprise Samasource has allowed 45,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world move out of poverty through fair-wage digital work, implores aspiring entrepreneurs to launch startups that have an impact beyond making "an incremental change in the lives of rich people." In the long run, the most valuable companies will be those that make the biggest social and environmental contributions, Janah says.