Pierre Omidyar

Ebay's success as a company depends on the success of the community of sellers.

In terms of my belief that one individual can make a difference - that belief comes from my parents.

Microfinance initiatives are very high-touch models. The loan officer meets with local groups of borrowers every week, they share tips and techniques. There's a lot of training and learning that goes on, which adds to the cost of the model.

I'm a technologist by origin and by training, but I'm focused on philanthropy.

As a philanthropist, I try to help people take ownership. Everything I've done is rooted in the notion that every human being is born equally capable. What people lack is equal opportunity.

In 1991, I co-founded my first start-up, Ink Development, which made software for an early tablet computer.

My dad was a physician. As a kid, I remember driving around with him on weekends so he could do his rounds at the hospital and talk to patients. We'd spend time in the car talking about what was going on with them, their stories.

You can invest in companies, you can help grow companies, you can be a venture capitalist - and be a philanthropist at the same time.

In the early days of eBay, I articulated for the very first time this belief that people are basically good.

News organisations that have been around a while have a lot of traditions and ways of doing things that may have served them for many years but perhaps make them less flexible in the digital era. As an entrepreneur, it just makes more sense to start something new.

Technologists come at a problem from the point of view that the system is working a certain way, and if I engage in that system and actually change the rules of the system, I can make it work a different way.

Long-term sustainable change happens if people discover their own power.