A brand new episode of the Innovate Fort Worth podcast dropped on Tuesday with guest Sheryle Gillihan, the CEO of CauseLabs.
What is CauseLabs?
CauseLabs is a certified B Corp business that helps other companies promote positive change using technology. CauseLabs specializes in web development and UX/UI services in order “to help the community grow their impact and make a difference.”
In 2010, Sheryle Gillihan was looking for a career change out of mergers and acquisitions and due-diligence, and into something that aligned more with her personal beliefs and passions. She came on as a project manager for CauseLabs. By 2018, Sheryle and her husband Michael acquired CauseLabs from its original owner. Sheryle became CEO while Michael took on the role of COO.
During her time at CauseLabs, Sheryle has travelled to India to lead a Scripture translation effort for a language that had never even been written down, gone to Kenya to help introduce mobile money to an entire country, and worked with huge companies like IDEO and Lego. What do all her endeavors have in common? Technology and change. You only need to listen to a few minutes of Sheryle speak to know exactly where her passions and interests lie: with helping people and having a positive impact. It is evident by the people and companies that she chooses to work with where her heart is.
“I meet change-makers every single day. I meet people who don’t even realize they’re change-makers.”
Sheryle believes that most entrepreneurs are just like her- they want to do good and help people. Turning a profit is just an added bonus. This is quite a refreshing perspective given that too often people assume that all entrepreneurs just want to get rich quick and don’t care how they achieve that goal. Sheryle provides some interesting commentary on that topic.
“I feel like there is a reason everybody starts a business. There is a problem they’re trying to solve, there is a purpose behind it… Most businesses start because they’re solving a problem and they’re serving a need.”
There were several times when Sheryle questioned her career path, believing that she was better equipped for a non-profit or a missionary. However, CauseLabs has provided the CEO with a unique opportunity. Sheryle has an incredibly powerful story of where she came from that has impacted the way she lives her life today and helped to forge CauseLabs’ path forward.
“Now I have the opportunity to do what I can to lift others up and help these communities and to have some empathy.”
One of the reasons Sheryle continued her work at CauseLabs was because she saw the huge potential technology can have in a community by promoting positive change on a large scale that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
“CauseLabs exists because I believe that technology can be used as a force for good.”
Sheryle Gillihan and CauseLabs have been helping communities and changing lives for years now. Tune in to this new episode to hear more of Sheryle’s story, and to be inspired to use your gifts and passions to help bring about change to your own community and the people around you.
