Daniel at Unreasonable Institute (Part 1)

After 18 months in East Africa, I’m back in the states for the first time.  I had a quick visit with my family before heading to Boulder, Colorado for the Unreasonable Institute, which is working on business incubation for social entrepreneurs.

It kicked off on May 30 and has been action-packed since then.  There are 22 fellows in the area from all different regions and sectors sharing ideas and working to support one another.  On a typical day, there are workshops, office hours with mentors and open group sessions.  I’ve pitched the venture to public audiences twice and received some really positive feedback and made some useful contacts.

We had a really interesting session on company structure with Joy Anderson from Criterion Ventures.  I had a great conversation with Paul Polak from Windhorse International (formerly he founded International Development Enterprises, which has a presence in eleven countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America) about the direction of the company and how to successfully grow.  Ross Baird from Gray Ghost Ventures gave a great session about investment in social enterprises.  And I sat down with Lindsay Clinton from Intellecap about how we can make better use of our social media (keep your eyes open for improvements in the coming weeks).

Most importantly, I’ve sat down with other Unreasonable Fellows working in Africa to establish relationships and plan how we can best collaborate.  We’ve had both one-on-one sessions and whole group sessions.  Maria Springer from Kito International works with street youth in Nairobi and wants to work with us on finding opportunities for them as salespeople.  Pierre Bataille from APAID works on strategies for empowering the physically disabled in eastern Africa and is interested in attaching some of our products to wheelchairs.  Raina Kumra from Light Up Malawi has a lot of contacts throughout Malawi and has given us a really good perspective on the business climate there.  Ben Lyon from Frontline:SMS Credit is working on mobile banking and is going to be a great resource for figuring out financing schemes for our customers.  We’re also eagerly awaiting the arrival of Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu from The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio to discuss ways of using media on the ground to reach more customers.

I will be here for another 3.5 weeks, and I’m really excited about where things are going

Daniel | Boulder, USA