In the predawn hours following October 7, 2023, as most Americans were still processing the news of attacks in Israel, entrepreneur Jordan Fried was already on the phone with aviation companies. Within 24 hours, he had secured an Airbus A330—not for business travel or personal use, but to transport stranded Israelis back to their homeland and deliver essential supplies to communities under siege.
This swift, decisive action wasn’t an aberration for Fried; it was the culmination of a lifelong philosophy that erases traditional boundaries between entrepreneurship and philanthropy. It’s an approach forged in a uniquely diverse childhood household and refined through business ventures spanning digital domains, B2B software, and blockchain technologies.
Roots of Response
“Any amount of money I make in this lifetime, I plan on giving most of it away,” Fried states matter-of-factly. “If you’re in a position to help, you should help.”
This straightforward ethos didn’t emerge from corporate social responsibility training or philanthropic consulting—it began in a household unlike most others. Raised as one of ten siblings in a family where his mother started one of the largest nonprofit adoption agencies in America, Fried witnessed firsthand how problem-solving could transcend conventional divides between business and social impact.
“My mom and my dad for who they were as people and showing us kids that like, Hey, it’s not so crazy to be crazy like that,” Fried reflects on the entrepreneurial spirit his parents instilled. His father launched multiple businesses before finding sustainable success that supported their large family. This environment normalized not just entrepreneurial risk-taking but also social engagement.
“I was sleep deprived. No experience in logistics, sitting in a Beverly Hills hotel being like, okay, we have to do something,” Fried recalls of his impromptu humanitarian airlift operation. This willingness to dive into unfamiliar challenges with limited resources mirrors the entrepreneurial mindset he absorbed growing up.
From Private Giving to Public Action
Until October 2023, Fried’s charitable efforts remained deliberately low-profile. “I was raised in a way that you don’t talk about what you’re giving, you do it very privately, and the best form of giving is when your name’s not attached to it,” he explains, tracing this philosophy to his Jewish upbringing.
The urgency of crisis forced a tactical pivot from private to public philanthropy. When a friend called frantically from San Francisco, unable to return to Israel as commercial airlines suspended operations, Fried recognized that solving this problem would require significant resources and coordination.
The result was a series of humanitarian flights that ultimately transported thousands of people and delivered critical supplies. What began as a personal response evolved into an organization called Israel Friends that has channeled over $35 million in direct aid to affected communities.
For Fried, this effort connected deeply to family heritage through his grandfather, who survived the Holocaust before helping establish Israel and fighting in its War of Independence. “I knew my sons would ask me one day, ‘Dad, what did you do on October 7th when war broke out?'” Fried reflects. “And I wanted to be able to say, I did something.”
Business-Minded Philanthropy: The Israel Friends Model
Fried’s approach to the Israel crisis demonstrates how entrepreneurial thinking can transform humanitarian response. Rather than simply donating to established organizations, he identified specific logistical gaps—stranded citizens, supply shortages, and transportation needs—and built an operation from scratch to address them.
This operational model leveraged business principles: rapid resource deployment, clear metrics of success (people transported, supplies delivered), and scaling from initial flights to a sustained aid channel. The initiative has since evolved to address ongoing needs, particularly for displaced populations in northern Israel facing continued security threats.
“The soldiers are sent into Lebanon not planning on being there for this long,” Fried explains. “They’re sleeping, freezing. The army, the Israeli army had actually given a lot of its equipment to Ukraine that they had so little left expected. They didn’t expect a war to break out when it did.”
By directly addressing these specific needs rather than funneling resources through multiple layers of established organizations, Fried’s approach embodied the same efficiency-focused mindset that drives his business ventures.
Applying Tech Methodology to Social Impact
In his business investments, Fried has gravitated toward B2B software companies with “sticky” customer relationships—businesses that solve essential problems for their clients, creating dependable recurring revenue. His investment in EmailChaser exemplifies this approach. “EmailChaser sort of prove this model. It’ll prove out to be one of the best investments I’ve ever made where I took a 51% ownership stake. I left the original founder on as CEO,” Fried explains. The company provides tools for sales development representatives to find leads and email prospects, serving as a streamlined alternative to more complex CRM systems.
“It’s hard to even call them purchases as much as they are like partnerships,” Fried explains. “I very much view these as our companies are our partners in the businesses that we operate together and we sort of intervene. Really great businesses are already really great, and sometimes they just need a nudge in a different direction.”
This partnership philosophy extends to his humanitarian efforts, where he works alongside existing organizations rather than replacing them. For the Israel Friends initiative, he collaborated with an established nonprofit called Ukraine Friends that had experience in crisis response, creating a new channel under their administrative umbrella.
In both contexts, Fried’s approach prioritizes operational efficiency and direct impact over structural formalities. His businesses focus on solving practical problems for customers; his philanthropic work addresses immediate needs for communities in crisis.
Problem-Solving Across Domains
When he relocated to Puerto Rico in 2020, Fried quickly recognized untapped potential in an island still recovering from Hurricane Maria’s devastation. Rather than viewing recovery challenges as insurmountable obstacles, he saw them as entrepreneurial opportunities where private initiative could outperform institutional responses.
After acquiring puertorico.com for $1.1 million, he transformed it into a comprehensive tourism resource addressing questions prospective visitors were actually asking online—questions the official tourism board’s website often overlooked despite a reported $35 million annual budget.
“I think it just really highlights an entrepreneur will always solve the problem where a government just inefficiently spends capital to do it,” Fried observes. This conviction in entrepreneurial efficiency over institutional bureaucracy runs consistently through his ventures.
The Business of Impact
What distinguishes Fried’s approach is not merely philanthropic giving alongside business success, but rather an integrated view that applies entrepreneurial principles to social impact and sees business itself as a vehicle for community betterment.
“Can I do something that’s both good for Puerto Rico but also generate a profit at the same time? Can I promote the island, do the island a service, while also generating a profit? That would be a really great win-win,” he articulates, rejecting the false dichotomy between profit-seeking and social benefit.
This integration extends to his philanthropic efforts, where business-honed skills in identifying inefficiencies and deploying resources strategically shaped his response to crisis. Setting up a warehouse in Los Angeles, coordinating 17 tons of cargo, handling customs clearance, and managing complex logistics—these tasks leveraged the same capabilities that drive his business ventures.
The Permanence Question
Underlying Fried’s approach is a philosophical awareness of impermanence and legacy. “There’s very few things in life that are immutable,” he reflects. “We’re not immutable. We will all die, we’re born and we die.”
This recognition of limited time frames his frenetic pace across multiple domains. “I could die at any point in time and I just want to do as much as I can before that point comes and leave this place better than I found it,” he explains.
For Fried, true legacy emerges not through accumulating wealth but through deploying it effectively to address problems—whether market inefficiencies or humanitarian needs. “Making money is not fulfilling. Helping people is where the fulfillment truly comes from,” he states.
Beyond Personal Brand
While his financial success has enabled greater impact, Fried resists the personal branding that often accompanies high-profile entrepreneurship. He expresses discomfort with the vilification successful entrepreneurs sometimes face, noting that “you end up getting vilified because you’re an uber successful person and you’ve made all this money.”
Instead, he positions himself as “the guy who’s too stupid not to try”—an entrepreneur driven by curiosity and problem-solving rather than status or wealth accumulation. This self-characterization aligns with his integrated approach to business and philanthropy, where the common denominator is identifying problems and mobilizing resources to address them.
The measurement of success, in Fried’s framework, extends beyond financial returns to community impact. His expressed goal is simple: “to leave the communities and the places I’m part of better than I found them.”
As he continues building ventures across domains from Puerto Rico to Israel, this integrated approach defines Fried’s evolving legacy—one that challenges conventional separations between entrepreneurship and philanthropy in favor of a unified problem-solving ethos.
In a business landscape often fixated on unicorn valuations and exit strategies, Fried’s approach offers an alternative vision: entrepreneurship as a vehicle for addressing real problems, creating sustainable impact, and leaving communities stronger than you found them—whether through B2B software solutions, strategic domain investments, or humanitarian airlifts delivering critical supplies when traditional systems fail.
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