Terriers InBiz is a series that highlights Boston University alumni who have been innovative leaders in their field and have played a significant role in businesses, locally or globally.
From her early college days working under the former ambassador of Tanzania, Alexandria Lafci showed interest in international affairs, land reform and making a global impact through leadership and education. Matt Barba, a whiz kid of sorts, had an interest in finance and was working as a real estate agent by the end of his freshman year. Both graduated from Boston University’s School of Management, both followed their entrepreneurial visions and both made the most recent Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, which featured “young game changers” in 20 different fields such as social entrepreneurship and enterprise technology. Of the 600 young people featured, six were BU alum.
Lafci earned a spot on the list for her crowd-funding platform, New Story, which allows donors to build homes and secure land for families in countries like Haiti and El Salvador. A unique aspect of the nonprofit is that with just one click, donors can watch families around the world tell their stories and move into their new homes. All of the donations go toward families in need, said Lafci.
“We value personal connections,” Lafci said. “In that sense, we’re trying to create a ‘new story’ and a new standard of excellence in the nonprofit sector as well.”
Lafci, who graduated from SMG in 2011 with a concentration in international relations, said her time at BU allowed her the space to explore her interest in development. On her first tour of the campus, she was excited to learn that SMG offered classes about diplomacy from ambassadors and examined intelligence from former members of the CIA. Lafci, while interning at the African Presidential Center on campus, traveled to Berlin to sit at the African presidential roundtable and discussed democracy and reform with former African presidents.
“That’s where I really learned about land reform, which is a huge component of my work today — trying to secure land so families not only own their homes, but own the land that it sits on,” Lafci said. “I had so many international experiences at BU. It’s really shaped my cultural sensitivity and my world perspective.”
New Story came to be a little more than a year ago after Lafci, a then-recent Teach for America alum, met one of her co-founders, Brett Hagler, at a monthly social entrepreneurship gathering in Atlanta. He mentioned that on his last trip to Haiti, he saw people living in the same tents they were given after the 2010 earthquake. Lafci, who had dealt with homelessness from her often-underprivileged students, was excited by the idea of tackling the issue.
“I knew that giving a home was really more than what it seems like. It’s more than putting a roof over someone’s head,” Lafci said. “A home does have far-reaching implications into education, into income, into health.”
After just one year of New Story, the team of four founders accomplished many Forbes-worthy achievements. According to the nonprofit’s blog, it raised $1,080,000 for 180 homes, opened the NASDAQ on live television and depleted an entire tent slum in Leveque, Haiti.
“The reason we want to build these communities is to create new stories,” Lafci said. “New stories for individuals and new stories for entire communities that have all but lost hope until this point.”
Barba, a 2009 SMG graduate, and his co-founder Fred Townes, also a BU alum, joined the list of celebrated millennials with their startup, Placester, which helps improve a different community — the intersection of real estate and technology.
Placester helps real estate professionals grow an online presence for their businesses. The business provides “all the tools they need, all in once place,” Barba said. Although the Boston-based company has venture partners from the West Coast, this young duo decided to stay in the Bay State to build their company.
“We were a small team and we can move quickly and take chances and ultimately make big bets that would pay off,” Barba said. “From a broad perspective, that’s the beautiful thing about startups. They’re easy to start, they give you a lot of flexibility and you can ultimately make a huge impact on whatever you want, whether that’s the world or your local community.”
Barba said the company started out with just the two of them coding in their apartments, where they could take risks and test out their programs without putting any employees in peril.
The two met in 2010 when Barba, who was working in real estate, was on the hunt for someone to help him with a new software tool. Townes, who graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2001 and was making waves as a prominent figure in the Boston technology and startup communities, caught Barba’s attention.
“We met at the Starbucks right at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Newbury and kind of kicked it off,” Barba said. “It was really through that [BU] alumni relationship network. I think that was one of the big driving reasons to reach out.”
According to Placester’s website, the team has since raised nearly $50 million in funding and is backed by leading investors like Romulus Capital and Techstars. But before it was a Forbes-recognized company, Placester’s founders, like Lafci, were just BU students with an idea to change a community.
“You just need a person, an idea and a computer,” Barba said. “There’s no reason why you need to wait. You can always start over again.”
A previous version of this story said Placester has raised nearly $8 million in funds rather than $50 million. This correction is reflected in the story above.
Editor-in-Chief. Bostonian by way of Indiana. Excessive Instagrammer. Seltzer addict. Journalism junkie, storytelling fiend.
