I’ve never been so proud
By Caitlin Ewing | August 29, 2008
The SBEs gave their final business model presentations today, and I just about burst with pride and happiness. Coming off the stage, each one of them looked so triumphant. Every entrepreneur gave a smooth, confident, compelling pitch and they were received very well by the audience. I think they made a lot of valuable connections in the audience today, and I was just overwhelmed with how far they’ve come in the last two weeks.
One of the brightest spots in the last two weeks has been Tendai from Zimbabwe, who is just delighted by life in general and an absolute pleasure to be around. He came from Malawi – it took him 6 planes to get here! – and he had to leave right after his presentation. I know everyone was sad to see him go, but it’s going to take him another few days to fly home. We’re starting to lose people – Ali from India leaves tomorrow afternoon, as does Neelam in the evening. I’m having a hard time leaving this group. It was so diverse, so international, so individualized, yet so compatible with one another. All the GSBI faculty is saying that this is the best class they’ve had so far. Jim Koch even went so far today as to say it was his favorite. Everyone got along so well, cared about one another, coached each other, kept one another working through the small hours of the night… it was really great. Thinking about going back into the normal, plain-vanilla world after spending two weeks immersed in so many colorful cultures, stories, accents, beliefs, experiences, etc… it makes my next steps (which are exciting!) seem rather drab in comparison. If anything, this has just strengthened my desire to work overseas.
I know I say this at the end of every post, but I have to get some sleep if I’m ever going to make it out of bed in time tomorrow. But really… what an incredible day.
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Reaching terminal velocity
By Caitlin Ewing | August 28, 2008
The final presentations are tomorrow, and today was spent in a frenzy of preparation. In between sessions, the participants took every spare minute to finalize content, polish, tweak, perfect their slides… which meant that I, too, spent the day working on PowerPoint. I’m glad to help. I am far from being anything of an expert on PowerPoint, but I’ve used it enough that I can help some of the people who have never used it at all. Most of the work is just formatting, animation, a little proofreading, but it’s pretty incredible to find that I can also give them pointers on the essentials of a business plan. I swear this is the #1 advantage of the block plan: the material just sticks with you. I took Eric’s class back in April and have been supremely busy since then, but I still remember what I learned, even the strange little details that you wouldn’t think would stick around. It’s really nice to be able to help them choose who their audience will be tomorrow and give them pointers on what’s important to present to venture capitalists versus social investors versus NGOs or government agencies, etc. – and it’s making a huge difference. I know this stuff, and I haven’t even started a business of my own yet. Eric’s class (and this internship) saved me from going through the really painful trial-and-error that many entrepreneurs have to go through.The other great part about today was having one of the guys from KickStart come in to talk to the entrepreneurs about lessons learned from the field. When I took Eric’s class, each team had to extrapolate a business plan from a case study, and I was on the team that studied KickStart. It was so cool to see the way they themselves present their company, and I have to say – we did really well! It was a bit strange to hear someone else giving “my” presentation, but we even found the same stories to tell about their customers and knew all the small details about why their main product was designed in a specific way, and emphasized the same things, and so on. I was really impressed with my team, seeing that. We owe a lot of it to Eric’s coaching, but either way, it was interesting to see a class project manifest itself in real life.We have to be ready to go at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow so I can herd the participants over to the auditorium tomorrow. That in mind, I need some sleep… but what’s new? Every minute here is too good to waste sleeping anyway.
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Suddenly, it’s almost over
By Caitlin Ewing | August 26, 2008
As I sat down at my computer with my coffee this morning, waiting for the first session to begin, it dawned on me that we only have a couple days left, that this incredible experience is coming to an end. It’s so strange to look back on last Wednesday night, as we all settled into our chairs in the suite upstairs that has since become our unofficial decompression room, and talked about how the first three days felt like three weeks. The next week and a half stretched out ahead of us, seemed like forever. Now we are coming into the last three days and it feels as if the days have flown by, as if we’re only getting started. We need more time to wrap around us, to stay here and maximize every minute. It’s hard to believe that I’m going to get on a plane on Saturday and likely never see these wonderful people again. It will be good just to know they’re out there, doing their small part to change the communities around them. But still… I wish I had more time.
With my presentation behind me and facing the much easier task of collecting feedback and improving the model, I can relax, being assured that the stress and uncertainty was worth it, and I finally contributed something valuable, something original and my own. I’m still hearing from people today that they felt that it was an important addition to the curriculum, and that my presentation was clear and to the point. Apparently no one saw my knees trembling – I should remember those slacks for next time.
I think I actually enjoy presenting to a group, providing that I can sufficiently prepare myself ahead of time. The adrenalin rush is not unlike the feeling I get when I’m out climbing, and physiologically the effects are the same. I wouldn’t mind getting into a position where I can do that more often, because there is something very rewarding about the confidence that comes with knowing your subject well and delivering that knowledge to a group.
IDEO is coming to the seminar today. They’re one of the top design firms in Silicon Valley, which I suppose makes them one of the best in the world. We watched a video about the way they work the other day, and they offer one of the most interactive, playful, and genious-stimulating work environments I’ve ever seen. I’m looking forward to that presentation. Speaking of which… I’m outta here.
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… and it was a resounding success
By Caitlin Ewing | August 25, 2008
It went well. I mean, it went really, really well. Last night, I waited for everyone to leave the main conference room (around 11:30 p.m.) and put my presentation up on the projector, made a few adjustments to make it look perfect and went through each slide until I had it down pat. I got news last night that Eric was ill and wouldn’t be able to make it to the presentation, so after a moment of panic I figured out how to do his portion in my own words. Luckily, he was able to drag himself in this morning – though he looked and felt awful – and the presentation went over perfectly. Not only was I able to hide my trembling hands and knees, the participants seemed really interested in the idea and the brainstorming exercise was extremely animated. We received excellent feedback about the possible obstacles and opportunities within the model, and Eric is already talking about my next steps.
I’m so glad I was finally able to contribute something valuable to this seminar from which I have learned so much already – and it’s not over yet! It meant a lot to be able to add my own piece to the experience, other than the basics of note-taking and giving advice on PowerPoint. I’m very, very pleased.
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Big day tomorrow
By Caitlin Ewing | August 24, 2008
Oh boy. I’m finally going to give my presentation tomorrow, and I am nervous. We had a lecture today on how to give a powerful presentation, and yes, I was taking notes. It’s almost worse, though, because now everyone who sees my presentation will be cross-checking to see if I’m guilty of any of the ‘presentation faux pas’. It’s like we just handed them a grading scale. However, I did learn a few good tips, such as standing (facing the audience) with the presentation screen on your left because Western cultures read from left to right, so you won’t strain your audience and keep their attention on you first, screen second. He also gave us a few good opening gambits and explained how to transition smoothly into the body of your presentation. Good good lessons at the exact right moment, no?
On a side note, I think one of the participants is courting me to become part of his company. He’s fantastic, but he’s stretched pretty thin and doesn’t have anyone running his office… which is on a tropical island. Let’s just say I’m listening…
Have to go practice my presentation. Keeping my fingers crossed!
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Aquarium!
By Caitlin Ewing | August 24, 2008
We had a wonderful day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium today. I’ve been there before as a kid, but it’s always a magical place to go. I really enjoyed watching the reactions of the participants that have never experienced it before. Still, even on our day off, I could see the wheels turning in the mind of an entrepreneur. David from Vanuatu (aka “Island Dave”, not to be confused with David from Kenya, aka “Coconut Dave”) innocently asked me how long I thought it would take to open up an aquarium like that, and how well it might fare in a place with relatively little competition. I think Vanuatu has incredible resources in terms of marine life and ecological know-how, but I’m not so sure they have the foot traffic necessary to make one of those things profitable. That is an expensive, expensive operation.
The barbecue at Al Bruno’s place was equally wonderful. They have a house overlooking the beach in Santa Cruz county with big hibiscus and bougainvilleas in ferocious colors and two great dogs. Deepinder had a long talk with me about getting involved with social enterprise in India. He told me it would be extremely worthwhile to get involved in a business there, whether it meant joining up with someone already established in the area or starting one of my own. He also said that if I didn’t want to move to India but were to just invest 20% of my income, whatever it ends up amounting to, not only would I have it back in 18-21 months, I would see significant returns and get first-mover advantage. “There are so many opportunities, Caitlin, it will drive you mad. It drives you mad to see what you can do. You can’t choose.” Interesting… it’s definitely something I’m going to keep in mind as I get more and more hungry to start a business of my own. He says water is the number one place to be working as a social entrepreneur, and I actually think that he’s the most successful participant in the group. He started his company in 1984, and has had a huge impact on rural India communities. Anyway, something to think about.
I have to go to bed – I need to prep for my presentation tomorrow morning – but I’ll try to post some pictures sometime soon. I don’t have a cord to connect my camera to the computer, so I’m going to try to make it to an electronics store.
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Long days and big learning
By Caitlin Ewing | August 23, 2008
Yesterday was a long day, and today even longer. It’s 1:30 a.m. and I’m just now crawling into bed.Yesterday, we all broke into groups and the entrepreneurs presented their business models (a fairly intensive portion of the final business plan presentation they are due to give at the end of next week). Again, these groups are broken down by sector, and I’m assigned to the energy/environment/health group, which is the largest because it encompasses so much. We have a guy in wind energy working in Nicaragua, a distributor of renewable energy light products in Vanuatu, a developer of solar-LED lanterns in Nepal, another doing therapeutic food for malnourished children in Haiti, a woman manufacturing and distributing sanitary napkins from recycled materials in Kenya, and another woman who is working to create a new low-cost, low-skilled, portable technology to detect cervical cancer targeting both the U.S. and India. I took notes on the feedback that every single one of the entrepreneurs received in both the morning and afternoon sessions, which ran an hour and a half over time and still there was more work to be done. I thought sitting in class taking notes for four hours a day was exhausting, but try nine!
Today we had some really incredible lectures in the morning about “crossing the chasm” when staring up a new business and how to approach markets vertically or horizontally. Simple ideas once explained, but it’s clear why so many start-ups run into trouble; these things aren’t immediately apparent, especially when you’re caught up in trying to get off the ground at all. There was another good point about remaining focused on your business. Looking back at some of my notes from this morning, one of the lecturers (who is an extremely successful entrepreneur and now runs a large VC firm) said that in the beginning his motto was always, “We may not be right, but we’re not confused.” His point was, make sure every single person in the company knows and agrees upon what it is you so, if someone from outside the firm asks multiple people, they all give the same answer. That was, you can ensure that your company is all moving in the same direction and everyone is focused on the same goals. I’m never going to be able to express the super-charged feeling in the room when everyone is engaged in the lecture and actively learning and thinking, thoughts are churning and you can almost see everyone mapping out things for their own business in their minds. You can feel the “Ah-ha! I needed that information.” Its a sort of desperate gratitude: you can feel how thankful everyone is for this education, and that is a truly incredible thing to be a part of.I’m trying to network as much as tactfully possible here, trying to get the word out that I’m interested in working in this field and would very much like a job or internship to get me rolling. I might have gotten a lead on something tonight that would be extremely noteworthy, but I’m not going to jinx it. Just keeping my fingers crossed.
I can’t believe how many big names in the field are here. There’s a man named Al Hammond who works for Ashoka and the World Resource Institute and founded NextBillion.net, a website that I’ve admired for a long time. He worked with C.K. Prahalad on all of his BOP market work. I get so starstruck the level of achievement in this place, I feel like a 14-year-old girl following around her favorite boy band.
I have to go to sleep. We’re going to the Aquarium in the morning, followed by a barbecue hosted by the Academic Dean of the GSBI.
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Progress, ever progress
By Caitlin Ewing | August 20, 2008
Eric and I met again today to discuss our presentation. I’m putting my last few polishing touches on it tonight so Eric can tweak it tomorrow. We’re presenting on Monday, and he said that I ought to handle the bulk of the presentation, since we developed this module from an idea in one of my papers. He told me it isn’t very common to have a chance to do “original work” at my age and before I’ve any real experience, so I feel very humbled and honored to be here doing this work. I’ll just have to keep that in mind while I’m battling my nerves before the presentation – I’m going to have to rehearse like crazy.
Still, I’m looking forward to contributing something to the course and Eric has been extremely encouraging. He has said more than once that he really feels that this is going to bring a lot of value to the course and that my presentation looks great. It’s in incredible feeling to have a such a weathered professional believing in me and backing me up when I’m uncertain. He’s really made me feel competent and credible, and that I’m ready for a career in the field.
I’ll post the final version of my presentation as soon as it’s finished, and maybe I can get somone to take a couple pictures of it as well. Action shots, if you will. After all, that’s what I came for – action!
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Whirlwind of activities
By Caitlin Ewing | August 19, 2008
Whew. Yesterday was busy busy busy, which is why I didn’t post anything. We went from 8:45 a.m. through, oh, 9 p.m., breakout sessions following lectures. I’m acting as a recorder for the group here on energy and environment initiatives, which means I follow them around and scribble down everything they say. I feel useful sometimes, knowing that they’re able to focus more on the experience; I just hope the notes I take are worthwhile.
More and more, I feel honored to be here. Just being a fly on the wall while these entrepreneurs grow and streamline their businesses is incredible. I’m also learning a lot, and having things I already knew cemented into place. I love that I already know something about the material here (after taking Eric Carlson’s Entrepreneurship course at Cornell), and it’s great to be able to answer questions from the participants if something remains unclear.Today we focused on market creation, business models, income & expense drivers, metrics and market segmentation. I can’t imagine that sounds like an exciting curriculum to anyone other than a student of business and entrepreneurship, but it’s music to my ears. This is some of the most exciting stuff in the whole process of creating a business plan. It requires you to really dissect your business, figure out what makes it work and who is going to benefit from your product and how you’re going to get it to them and where you can innovate to become even more effective. We looked at case studies like Aravind Eye Care in India, who instituted a revolutionary tiered pricing model for social benefit enterprises, and the way they’ve managed to cut costs while offering such a high-quality service (more accurate than Western surgeons). This organization is extremely successful without accepting a single red cent of donor money. All the profit goes back into the business to expand and build new hospitals, and I think there is a lot to learn from them. In fact, some of the first “medical tourists” from the U.S. were customers of Aravind: they have managed to keep the price so low, it’s cheaper for an American citizen to fly to India to have cataract surgury than it is to have the operation here in the States.
Eric and I are meeting tonight to go over our presentation for the 25th. I finally finished updating the MFI directory toda, including cross-referencing all the various rating organizations. My eyes are about to fall out of my head from ceaselessly staring at my computer screen for the last two days. Oh, and on that note, we’re about to start again – more tommorrow!
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First day – Introductions
By Caitlin Ewing | August 18, 2008
What an incredible day. We had a late brunch followed by a tour of Mission Santa Clara, then came back to home base for a panel of GSBI alumni. Matt Flannery of Kiva was there to talk about what he gained from this experience and how it helped him identify what his company was actually good at and should focus on, rather than trying to be everything to everyone. We also had Bal Joshi in from Thamel, which was pretty incredible for me. I had the opportunity to study his organization back in April during the Entrepreneurship course that led me to this experience. Wow wow wow.
The barbecue this afternoon was even more fun. We heard from the president of the university (who apparently was just named director of all the Jesuit universities in the country – impressive), and Sally Osberg, who is President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. The Skoll Foundation is a leader in the field of social enterprise and was founded by Jeff Skoll, the first president and employee of eBay. The story goes that after eBay went public, he found himself with oodles and oodles of money ($4.8 billion was the most recent figure I’ve heard) and didn’t want to just golf or buy expensive cars, he wanted to make a difference. Thus, the Skoll Foundation was born, and he has made a pledge to give away $3 billion at a rate of $25 million a year, spreading it among “ingenious risk-takers.” Good for him, I say – he’s making an enormous difference.Anyhow, after the introductory remarks, we heard an ‘elevator pitch’ from each of the entrepreneurs. The elevator pitch is very much a Silicon Valley invention, the idea being that if you get into an elevator with someone you want to support your organization, you have to be able to deliver your pitch before they get off that elevator on the 10th floor. It’s generally no more than 150 seconds (and business schools will drill you on this), but today’s ran… a bit longer. Let’s just say we were in a very tall building, with a very slow-moving elevator. Still, it was wonderful to hear more about these organizations and what thye’re doing, where they see themselves in five-ten years. A few had very moving speeches, and I could feel the excitement ripple through the crowd.That’s what kills me about being here. Every single person involved has been driven here by great compassion and a sense of urgency to answer the problems of the world, from the bottom-up. This is definitely a civil-society, grassroots-business gathering, and nothing makes me more optimistic. I can’t even express how privilidged I feel just to be here and watch it all unfold, to be on the ground floor of so much social change through the private sector and not through government-run programs. These are individual people impacting the lives of so many, and their reach is just amazing.That being said, I have to go to bed. We have our first day of real work tomorrow, and even though I’m not a participant per se, don’t think for an instant I won’t be furiously scribbling notes.
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