Alex Stephany, our founder, was inspired to build Beam after getting to know a homeless man at his local Tube station. The man had spent decades out of work. Alex would buy him cups of coffee and pairs of socks, but could see his condition going from very bad to even worse. When the man had a heart attack, Alex asked himself: “What could we do to make a real difference to that man’s life?” The answer lay in giving him the skills to support himself. Alex knew that’d cost much more than a coffee. But what if everyone chipped in? At Beam, we crowdfund new career opportunities for homeless men and women. We provide them with a support network, from our support specialists to the kind strangers who fund their campaigns. We use technology to find scalable solutions to the toughest social problems - starting with homelessness.