Back to “US mode”
As Daniel and Reuben were traveling through Southern Tanzania, I was getting back into “US mode”, unfortunately missing out on all the exciting progress in Tanzania. But, it was great to be back in the US for two main reasons – (1) to catch up with family and (2) to meet with people in the US.
My trip began in my home in Conyers, GA. There, I turned our “computer” room into my office, and I spent my days directing things in Tanzania with 6am phone calls and preparing for my three weeks ahead, which were going to be supremely hectic. I was able to squeeze in a meeting with First Light Ventures and Grayghost Ventures, which was a great experience, especially in giving me insight into what types of companies they fund. I also came to realize the greatest part of presenting to them, as Ross told me himself…if anything, it’s free consulting.
After Atlanta, I went straight to Boston. I met with Brown Rudnick, our lawyers, and we wrapped up all our founder paperwork and prepared both our common and preferred stock certificates. Aside from that, I soaked back up the MIT atmosphere, meeting with former SEID president Chris Mitchell, 100K mentor Joost Bonsen, D-Lab, and then, of course, the 100K team. It was a great time, for sure.
Two cities later, I ended up in Manhattan to meet with Kim from Presumed Abundance. It was great to catch up with her, as she was really the essence of funding it forward. After talking with her, I rode out of her house on her bike (that she let me borrow, of course!), ready to take on Echoing Green Selection Weekend, which ended up being truly phenomenal.
As to what made it what it was, it was really meeting the staff, the board, the past fellows, and then the fellow finalists! The finalists had so much passion, and it was truly invigorating. It was also a great time to network, and it really cracked us up how we all moved in the same circles, having connected with all the same social venture funds, seeking money to help us get our start-ups off the ground.
Moreover, it was fantastic to realize how many finalists I could connect with because of our experiences in East Africa. There were two other finalists already working full-time in Tanzania, including fellow MIT alumnus Jamie Yang with EGG Energy and Drew Durbin from Anza Technologies. And then there was Josh Nesbit and Isaac Holeman from FrontlineSMS: Medic working in Malawi and Uganda, using SMS to save lives. With such a short weekend, we only had a chance to exchange a few words, but I look forward to seeing how we might work together in the future, especially since both of us have ideas/concepts so closely tied with the cell phone.
As for Echoing Green itself, I’ll keep you posted on who is named the finalists. And wish Daniel the best as he gets the first taste of the Unreasonable Institute! As for me, back to “US mode” with long hours and endless energy, ready to take on the world!
Jodie | New York City, USA
Mbeya and Kyela
After leaving Dar on the 2nd, I headed south to Mbeya to meet Daniel. The plan was to join up with CNFA for their farmer exhibitions. However, upon arriving to the CNFA office on Monday, we learned that the exhibitions were on hold pending funding.
So to make the best of the situation, Daniel and I went to the TechnoServe office the next day (with our newly acquired bike) to follow up with the contact Hillary told me about the week prior. It turned out that the person I was looking for, Iddi, was based in Kyela (about 1.5 hours further south).
I stopped by the Tanganyika Farmers’ Association (TFA) next and met the branch manager, Henry, who agreed to let us hold a demonstration in their parking lot at the end of the week. In the few days leading up to the demo, I printed out flyers and rode the bike around town pubbing our demo to every cell phone shop and agrodealer I saw.
Friday, the day of demo, turned out to be a bit of a disaster as issues with the bike delayed the start for quite a while. Once we got things working, we demo’d the sheller and charger in front of our modest crowd for another 15 minutes before we had to pack up and head to the next site up the road. In total, we gave 6 demonstrations over three days and were well received by the villagers. Fortunately, the subsequent demos ran much more smoothly than the first.
Pleased with our work in Mbeya, we left the sheller and bike at TFA on the 12th as Daniel headed north (with a sheller) to visit other TFA branches and I headed south (with a charger) to meet Iddi in Kyela. Kyela is remarkably much warmer than Mbeya (I didn’t need to wear my sweater at night for example), produces much less maize, almost everyone rides a bike (probably due to the flat landscape and few amount of dala-dalas servicing the town), and lacks power in many of the surrounding villages –> a perfect target market for the charger. It just so happened that the TechnoServe office was in the same building as PRIDE and Tujijenge Microfinance (TMF) so Iddi arranged for me to meet with the branch managers of each.
Over the next 2 days (Thurs and Fri) I visited several groups of villagers with TechnoServe and TMF to talk about the phone charger. TechnoServe has a cocoa farmers program and the farmers I met with were very eager to begin selling GCS chargers. Similarly, the TMF farmer loan groups (councils) I presented to were just as impressed. Over the weekend, I tried my luck in town by showing the charger to
some store owners. It was a tough sell becuase the charger I had wasn’t working and my swahili still isn’t all that great. Nevertheless, I tried to explain that they wouldn’t have to pay now and landed 6 orders in the end.
The feedback I received from the microfinance (mf) groups got me thinking about doing the same thing in Arusha. If we can partner with a few mf organizations, we’ll be able to reach a large number of villagers and likely have an easier time landing bulk orders. This plan will have to wait until next week at the earliest however because I will shortly be on my way to Sumbawanga (via Mbeya). CNFA has
secured funding so I will soon be hitting the road with them.
Reuben | Tanzania
Days in Dar
Last week I concluded my trip to Dar es Salaam with Philemon for the CNFA Agrodealers Convention. Wanting to make the most out of my time there, I arrived a few days early so that I could meet with some organizations headquartered there. I arrived late Wednesday evening (4/28) and made arrangements to stay with fellow MIT alum Jamie, CEO of EGG-energy. Since I was discouraged from taking the dala-dalas at night in Arusha, I was pretty excited to take one to Jamie’s place in Msasani. A helpful passenger on the bus made sure I got off at the right stop where Jamie came to pick me up.
I started out the next day meeting Hillary, the Country Director of TechnoServe/Tanzania. I showed her videos of our sheller and charger in action and then took out the samples I brought with me. She was very intrigued by what she saw and gave me a handful of contacts to follow-up with. The next stop was the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) where my plan was to meet with the Director. The Director was away on travel but I did manage to get a meeting with John the Investment Manager. My videos and samples impressed him so much that he ordered one of each on the spot. John also talked a bit about the benefits that TIC certification would provide us at GCS such as assistance getting residents permits, duty incentives, and greater access to investors. I thanked John for his time and then headed over to FINCA for another impromptu meeting.
One of difficulties of selling products to the rural poor is that many of them can’t afford to purchase them. I was hoping that we could work with FINCA to provide financing to our customer base of agrodealers and maize farmers. Unfortunately, the FINCA President was in a meeting and I was told to come back the next day. The next morning I headed back to FINCA and sat with Issa, FINCA Credit Manager. While not as impressed with our company as John from TIC was, he did see some potential and told me to write a proposal. His main concern was that our sheller is a season product and that a bad harvest to impair the farmers’ ability to repay their loans.
My last stop of the day was the CNFA Convention. At lunch, Philemon and I met with Alfred, the Country Director of KickStart. He gave us a lot of valuable advice on how we should market and sell our products. Towards the end of the Convention, I met Kelly from CNFA who introduced me to a bunch of staff from Dar, Arusha, and Mbeya. She also managed to get Philemon and me a spot at the end of the meeting to show our videos which, after overcoming technical difficulties with the USB drive and projector, went over very well. By the end of the day, we landed over a dozen orders each of both the chargers and shellers. A nice way to kick off the sales trip!
Reuben | Tanzania
Magnificent Mbeya
I have to admit that my impression of Mbeya after my trip in February was that it didn’t hold enough potential for the company in our current stage. It seemed so sprawling and indifferent. I happily confess that I was very wrong in my initial perceptions.
Reuben and I really started working the town on Tuesday (Monday was spent getting the bicycle that we bought for demonstrations up and running). We first met with Technoserve. They seemed particularly impressed with the charger, but also had some ideas for the sheller as well. The man (his name was Carol, which I liked) gave us a list of contacts for Reuben and I to follow up with.
After that, Reuben met with some agro-dealers, while I visited the National Microfinance Bank (NMB). The staff at NMB was definitely impressed and told me that I had to come back next week when the Zonal Director will be back. I am excited about that. Meanwhile, Reuben was being swarmed by customers and staff at agro-dealers in town. I showed up with our charger, and it turned from a swarm into a mob. We struggled to hand out brochures and answer questions while trying to line up prospective dealers.
Over the next two days, Reuben made flyers and distributed them to people around town for the demonstration on Friday. He also met with the local CNFA office to start planning more demonstrations. Most importantly, he arranged to pick up some maize from Arusha for the demonstration (most of the maize isn’t ready for shelling here, which is good, since if we arrived when it was time for shelling, we would be too late).
Yesterday was the big demonstration day. TFA (Tanganyika Farmers’ Association) generously agreed to let us set up outside their shop and they seem ready to sign up as dealers. We arrived early for the demonstration and started setting up. Plenty of curious passers-by came over to try out the assembly. I could see that there was a problem with the chain alignment (part of the drive system for the sheller is a second chain on the back wheel), but rather than speak up, I decided to see how they would solve it. Apparently, they decided to douse the chain in oil, which didn’t solve anything. Still, it was good to know what the first instinct was. At this point, I stepped in and adjusted the sprocket, and all of a sudden, it was running perfectly.
One interested man named Mr. Masha from the Agricultural Council of Tanzania told us that this was all well and good, but we needed to go further from the town center if we wanted to meet actual farmers. We agreed with him, and he drove us to the edge of town where we set up another demo. We happened to be near a school, so lots of students came up to ask questions. The buzz was great, and I found myself feeling slightly claustrophobic as people crowded around the bicycle. Still, lots of people tried it out and kept commenting “haina bidii” (it doesn’t require effort).
At this point, Mr. Masha had to leave, but he told us that he wanted to take us out into the villages on Monday. Meanwhile, we loaded everything into the CNFA truck and went out to visit two villages outside Mbeya. At this point it started raining, so we were doing the demonstrations pretty quickly. In the first village, we were in the market and there were probably 150 people crowded around and braving the rains to see the machine in action. They wound up scattering before we could get too much contact info, but they all wanted to know where they would be able to buy this machine. Then, we drove to a neighboring village, where people were more wary of the rain, but still had nearly 100 people crowded around to see us demonstrate. Those who were out in the rain were definitely adventurous, and everyone wanted to try out the machine.
We wound up shelling nearly an entire sack of maize that day (we only have two down here right now) since people were in such disbelief at how fast it was going that they kept needing to see us shell more. The problem with it shelling so fast is that if you blink during the demonstration, you could miss it. I’d call that a pretty good problem to have.
Daniel | Tanzania
Iringa in 36 hours
Reuben and I were all set for a string of demos around Mbeya starting Monday, but then we hit a snag with some of our partners. We decided that we should head to Iringa on Tuesday afternoon and use some of my personal contacts until the issues were all sorted.
Then, on Tuesday morning, we found ourselves surrounded by opportunities in Mbeya. We were just walking down the street with the bicycle, and we were mobbed with questions about the sheller. We decided that this was too good to pass up. We made some new contacts and arranged for a big demo on Friday (more to come on this soon). We knew that we would have plenty of work to fill the week, so it seemed like Iringa would be postponed indefinitely.
But Reuben and I talked that evening about what needed to be done for this demonstration and it seemed like it was really more of a workload for one person. So I called a friend in Iringa to see about setting up a demonstration at a campsite for Thursday and packed up for my trip (good thing Reuben and I had each brought a sheller).
I left for the bus station at 4:45 AM on Wednesday morning. Fortunately, I slept for the entire bus ride and felt pretty refreshed by the time I reached Iringa. I set off for TFA (Tanganyika Farmers’ Association – the largest agro-dealer chain in Tanzania), since I knew that they have a strong presence in town and are widely trusted by farmers. The manager wasn’t there, but I showed the assistant manager a video of the machine working. He was incredibly impressed and handed me his phone number as well as the manager’s and implored me to visit Iringa again when the manager was around.
After that, I headed to Tumaini University on the outskirts of Iringa. They have a strong agriculture department and I knew that they would be interested. I met with a research assistant named Gabriel who marvelled at the video and gave me the contact information for several people in the department.
Then, I went a bit out of Iringa to the Riverside Campsite. It took about 30 minutes on public transportation, but the campsite it self was 1.5 km from the road, so I had to walk a little to get there. When I arrived, I was warmly greeted by the director, Steve Borman, who said that he was very interested to see the machine in action. I talked with some of the guests and the workers there to get them excited about the demonstration the following morning. One of the women from the kitchen volunteered to bring some of her maize to be shelled.
The next morning, we started setting up at 9 AM. Steve, who studied engineering in university and is currently working in sustainable development, was there helping me the whole time. We first tried it on a randomly selected staff bicycle at the campsite. It was brand new, but we discovered that some of the parts had been replaced with counterfeits, including a wheel bearing that was non-standard size. The GCS adapter wouldn’t fit on the wheel, which was a valuable lesson (this is the first time we’ve encountered this, but we will be ready for it in the future). We switched to a different bicycle and this one fit perfectly. Unfortunately, the bicycle had some wheel alignment issues and we had to spend some time fixing those. Still, the bicycle was up and running by lunch time and everyone came to see it in action and try it out.
Teresia (the woman who brought the maize) kept commenting that it was “so quick!” One of the guests was admiring the simplicity of the design. A kiswahili language teacher (they offer language lessons to expats at the campsite) told me that she didn’t know how to ride a bicycle, but she agreed to try using the sheller. With the ease that she managed to shell 10 ears of maize, I told her that I didn’t believe that she had never ridden a bike before. She just laughed. The big question that everyone was asking was where they would be able to purchase one in a month at harvest time.
Even though it was only about 2 dozen people who saw the sheller, they were all impressed and seemed ready to tell their friends. I definitely felt like the trip was a success. After that, I headed back to town to grab my ticket to return to Mbeya for the next day’s demonstration.
Just as a closing note, I want to say that I am deeply grateful to everyone at the Riverside Campsite for their hospitality and their enthusiasm.
Daniel | Tanzania
