Selamat Siang!

Hello folks!  I’ve been in Jakarta for just over two weeks now, and have been having a great experience so far.  When I decided to spend my summer with the Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI), I never would have guessed how much exposure I would gain so quickly.

I’ve already had the opportunity to attend INSEAD’s Social Entrepreneurship Conference here in Jakarta where I met entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs from Indonesia and beyond, sat in on a meeting with GEPI’s executive board consisting of prominent Indonesian business people, and met with the leadership of The Founder Institute Jakarta.  GEPI is definitely on the forefront of both the entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship scenes here.  Its mandate is to promote entrepreneurship in Indonesia, and I’m excited to be able to contribute to that even for just a short while. 

GEPI’s three big initiatives are starting up an angel investor network, launching Indonesia’s first business incubator/co-working space focused on the creative sector, and supporting innovative social enterprises.  While I’ll be contributing to all of these, I’ll be spending the bulk of my time on this last piece.

I had the opportunity to meet with a member of the management team of one of the startups I’ll be working with, and am incredibly excited to be able to help them out.  The for-profit social enterprise is helping farmers transition to organic farming practices, allowing them to sell their rice at a premium while also benefitting the environment and consumers.  The team is a group of young, talented, and humble entrepreneurs who just need some help thinking about how to scale their business.  I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to use what I’ve learned at Ross so far to help them accomplish this goal.

Outside of work I’ve been spending my time getting acclimated to Jakarta.  I’ve learned enough Bahasa Indonesia to confidently tell a taxi driver where I want to go (until he responds or asks a question that is…).  There’s tons of great food here, and since all of it is Halal, I’ve been able to try out all sorts of food I can’t eat at home.  I’m planning on venturing out to other parts of Indonesia over the weekends, and will post some more pictures soon.

Untapped Talent

My plane landed in Amman, Jordan on May 7^th, 2012. The beautiful sunny (and dry) afternoon in Amman was a welcome change from Ann Arbor’s unpredictable weather. On my drive back from the airport, amidst the sounds of heavy traffic, pedestrian activity, and my sisters’ excited chatter around me, the call to prayer rose in the background announcing the sunset. There is something about Amman, the energy, the chaos, and hints of frustration that make it so unique.

I worked in Jordan for two years prior to joining the University of Michigan. In October 2010, I met Amir in Amman. Amir worked two jobs, commuted from Jerash two hours north of Amman, and was supporting five children, two of whom were university students. We worked in the same building and I often saw him in the elevator, a few months later he confessed to me the difficulty he was facing supporting his family financially and the real burden college tuition has become on his family.

As I returned to my office, sincerely bothered by his troubles, I just wanted to find ways to help. I realized he was not the only one, in fact, I soon learned that only about 16% of Jordanian families can afford higher education in Jordan. That being said, programs and organizations that provided student loans have not been able to reach anywhere near the capacity needed. Will Amir win the battle against his circumstances? Will he be able to finance the education of his five children? And what about the other 84% of Jordanian fathers? With access to higher education seemingly limited to a few, how many opportunities, in the shape of untapped talent, is Jordan’s economy missing out on?

The following year, I started my graduate degree at the University of Michigan, and I am lucky enough to be chosen as a William Davidson Institute fellow this summer, working with Vittana, a non-governmental organization that provides student loans in developing countries. Vittana partners with microfinance institutions in the countries they serve, and their loans are funded by lenders on their website.

This summer, I am addressing the questions I started to ask two years ago. I am hopeful and optimistic. 

First week!

Since the end of February, I very much looked forward to my summer internship working in India as a WDI fellow with Start Up!, an angel investor, incubator and consulting firm that strives to launch, strengthen, and scale social ventures in India, and now it has become reality.

It’s been close to a week since I landed in New Delhi, India, with no working phone and no sense of direction. While the first few days were rough in getting used to the different pace and infrastructure of life here in Delhi, I now have a working phone and become accustomed to the random honking, constant haggling for an auto rickshaw ride, and of course, the intense summer heat (109 degrees Fahrenheit today!). Thankfully, I’m now more in the know of the various neighborhoods, what each area has to offer, and how to haggle a decent price with the auto rickshaws. 

Furthermore, my stomach has been fairly content with the level of spicyness it gets to indulge in every day :) In addition to the spice, I even got to try some Himalayan food in Hauz Khas Village.  This is the Yeti special non-veg (clockwise starting with the tingmo (the white bun - tastes like a chinese mantou), lungs, tongue, sausage, and meat).

I've also made a few new friends along the way, especially since I'm one of the early birds here in Delhi. Knowing other people here has definitely helped make the transition less daunting. 

As for my internship, I started this past Monday, and I can already tell that it’s going to be a busy summer but in a good way.

Start Up! was founded in 2007 and since then has partnered with social ventures in the non-profit and for-profit continuum. These social ventures are ones that aim to maximize philanthropic capital in the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). The Start Up! office and team are small, vastly different from my past work experiences in corporate America. However, it’s great because this means many opportunities to take ownership in my projects and take the initiative to grow and learn more about the social enterprise space in India.

I have several internal and external projects to pass my time for the next 12-13 weeks, apply what I learned this past year at Ross, and further refine my business skills. Internally, I will be developing a refined business plan and financial model for Start Up!, creating a business plan for Start Up!’s business accelerator with two other interns who will be joining me soon, and reviewing the design of an incubation toolkit for internal use. My external project is expected to be evaluating the market feasibility of a social enterprise.  They provide young semi-urban Indian women with an online platform to share their thoughts on various issues through video blogs. I’m definitely looking forward to working with an organization whose mission is to empower women.

That’s all from me for now. I will take more pictures soon. I'm looking forward to hanging out with the WDI Fellows who will be joining me here in India very soon!

New Member!

Adam Byrnes is joining us as a WDI Fellow this summer! Adam will be working with Simpa Networks in exploring new markets for its technology, including analyzing various business models, implementing pilots, and recommending next steps. He will be based in Bengalore, India, but will travel to the northern parts of the country where their pilots are located. Welcome to the team!