How to Do Good While Doing Well: Ethical Challenges in Entrepreneurship

The Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth is providing an exclusive in-person opportunity to join like-minded entrepreneurial alumni for an interactive conversation with notable alumni in the Seattle area.

Most entrepreneurs dream about doing good, but what happens when the rubber meets the road? Whether we’re talking about responsible AI or fair compensation, the interests of your customers, your investors, your community, and your bottom line may not always be aligned. Join our panelists for an honest discussion about the challenges of building a profitable business that you can be proud of.

All small business owners, founders, future founders, executives and employees at startups, investors, contracting freelancers, and any other Dartmouth affiliated entrepreneur is welcome to join us for this evening conversation! This includes Geisel, Guarini, Thayer, and Tuck alumni. Food and beverages will be provided.

Meet your panelists:

Steven Hooper Jr. has over 22 years of hospitality industry expertise. Currently serving as the President of Financial Services for TipHaus, a Restaurant SaaS company specializing in fully automating tip dispersion, Steven also holds influential roles on the boards of organizations such as the United Way of King County, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Washington Hospitality Association, Pike Brewing Co, and served as the President of Seattle Restaurant Alliance. Steven’s educational background includes an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (2011) and a BA from Colby College, where he graduated Cum Laude with distinction in Economics, and a Baker Scholar.

Rene Bystron is on a mission to make AI education fun, effective, and accessible for everyone. This passion fuels his role as a founder of two organizations: ai LaMo, an educational app that has reached over 100,000 users, and DeltaGen, a GenAI advisory firm serving governments and companies. Before launching ai LaMo and DeltaGen, Rene spearheaded the largest forum in Central Europe, served as a Project Leader at BCG, and began his career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Barclays. He holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (2018) and a Bachelor’s Degree in History and East Asian Studies from Yale.

Rob Hillas is the Founder of PlainVanilla. PlainVanilla is leveling the playing field in contracts by making sure everyone knows what’s normal and what isn’t. After all, bad contracts have bad consequences and no one wants that.

Hillas moved to Seattle in 2017 after leading corporate development, sales and marketing, and FP&A for CAMP Systems, which was sold to Hearst for $2.0B. Rob is a graduate of Middlebury College, where he majored in chemistry and economics, and the Tuck School of Business (2013). In his spare time, he enjoys being outside with his kids, baking, and running.

Moderator: Emma Velicky is the founder of Saturday Box, a sexual wellness brand to help couples connect with kink, roleplay, and romance adventures. She first came to Seattle to work at Microsoft and then branched off to writing for a romance mobile game. After producing a few original shorts as part of the film program at UW, she turned to entrepreneurship as a middle ground between conventional wisdom and creativity. Emma graduated Dartmouth in 2020 with a Computer Science major and an English minor.