Jordan Kassalow – VisionSpring

Victor "Global X" d'Allant
Former Executive Director, Social Edge

At the 2009 Skoll World Forum, Global X interviewed Jordan Kassalow, the founder of VisionSpring. The social enterprise formerly known as Scojo Foundation helps women create businesses to sell eye glasses to those at the bottom of the pyramid who need them the most.

Jordan Kassalow’s moment of epiphany came 24 years ago as he was a young student in optometry doing volunteer work in Mexico. He noticed a seven-year old blind boy ("carrying his Braille book and with the typical blank stare of a blind person, living the life of a blind child in rural Mexico"), only to realize that this boy was actually profoundly near-sighted (prescription: – 22!) but not blind.

Jordan Kassalow remembers this moment: "I was the lucky guy who put the glasses on his face for the first time. The boy totally changed his expression from the blank stare of a blind person to the universal smile of joy of a seven-year old boy. This moment was infectious, it was powerful, and I knew I had to do more of this. His life changed as much as mine did at that moment."

From that time, Jordan Kassalow defined his success by how many more moments he could create just like that one.