Just over two years ago, I launched the Now Go Build CTO Fellowship with nine technology leaders working in disaster management and climate resilience. Since then, the program has grown to 24 Fellows from 18 countries across four continents, tackling problems in healthcare, education, and food security.
Today, we’re releasing the second season of our documentary series. Across five episodes, you’ll hear from Brendan Michaelsen, Ezekiel Brooks, Maryam Bello, Abheejit Khandagale, Adnan Ahmed Qureshi, Miriam Chickering, Alexandra Kroenert, Gokul Kumar, Jassen Stanchev, Rosius Ndimofor, Oluwafunmilayo Ajakaiye, Djime Sacko, Rajasekhar Kaliki, and Jay Patel. They’re building safe digital spaces for survivors of violence, open-source health record systems to serve millions of patients, maternal healthcare services via SMS for expectant mothers using feature phones, digital micro-schools in refugee camps, and AI-powered learning in languages that commercial models don’t support.
What makes this group unique are their journeys to become builders. A lawyer who understands the refugee experience. An international relations graduate who knows reproductive health policy. A student from Mali who saw firsthand what the education system in his country was failing to provide. And rather than waiting for technologists to show up and solve their problems, they picked up the tools themselves and got to work. It’s a scrappiness I’ve seen in the best builders I’ve worked with over two decades at Amazon, and the Fellowship exists to help them go further, faster.
Watch the first episode below. The entire series is available on the new Now Go Build CTO Fellowship site.
Now, go build. For good.