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The Skoll World Forum, Oxford Jamming & Other Conference Musings

By on April 11, 2012 in i2i with No Comments

Two weeks ago, I arrived in an unusually sunny London, excited for the week ahead. On Tuesday, I attended the 3rd anniversary of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), an all-day workshop with ANDE members (Invest2Innovate recently joined their community) that included breakout sessions around Capital Aggregation, Communicating Impact, and Gender Initiatives. On Wednesday, I trekked down to Oxford to attend the Skoll World Forum and frequent the parallel unconference Oxford Jam.

The week was dotted with inspiration, from listening to incredible and awespiring speakers to meeting amazing people. It is not every day that an animated Hans Rosling can truly engage you in a talk about population demographics or Annie Lennox serenades you with some of the Eurythmics’  greatest hits, or V-Day Founder Eve Ensler uses the word ‘vagina’ in a repeatedly powerful way. Oxford – at least once a year – becomes a buzzing hub of social entrepreneurship warmth & fuzziness. Standing ovations and hugs (on stage and off) are a common occurrence. The community that we so often speak of in this ‘sector’ is palpable here.

If I was to summarize my experience in London and Oxford in one word it would be: introspective. I’ve recently been involved in some thought-provoking discussions around higher education and how youth today actually learn versus how institutions presume we learn. When I was at university, I was the most engaged when I was discussing topics versus listening to lectures; when I was empowered to personalize my learning rather than digest content unquestionably. Obviously, everyone is different, but going to a traditional conference at Skoll and comparing it to the informal vibe of the delegate-led Oxford Jam just down the road led me to reflect on that point further.

The Global Skill Share @ Oxford Jam

At Oxford Jam, I participated in a global skill share led by Unltd – a collective discussion about challenges & lessons from various enterprises operating in different countries. It was eye-opening, got my creative juices flowing, and spurred fascinating discussion around the challenges of working in emerging & frontier markets, from how to mobilize talent to work in enterprises to developing social entrepreneurs from the bottom-up. It was very reflective of our work with i2i, and the challenges our team faces every day in pursuing a model that best reflects the ground realities in Pakistan. In contrast, at the Skoll Forum, I was attending larger lectures with incredible role models and figures in the social entrepreneurship sphere. I was undoubtedly inspired, but there were obviously less opportunities to be truly engaged.

There has been increasing cross-pollination between Skoll & Oxford Jam in recent years, with seemingly more delegates from Skoll leading targeted discussions at Oxford Jam. The unconference is not necessarily a challenge to the traditional conference-style format, but it is a refreshing alternative for someone like me – a younger entrepreneur that wants to learn more and share constantly. A successful conference experience isn’t one built on how many business cards I managed to accumulate or how many handshakes I exchanged while peering subtly at a delegate’s name tag. For me, it’s about the interesting conversations I had, based on building relationships not furthering transactions. That can happen at both Skoll and Oxford Jam. You just have to go in with that mindset.

For more on Oxford Jam, see below:

Kalsoom Lakhani is the Founder/CEO of Invest2Innovate, based in Washington, D.C. She loves traveling, pretending to be a foodie, Jeopardy, and inane discussions about morality in mainstream television shows. If you watch mainstream television shows, you know this amounts to very little discussion.

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East Africa: Lessons from the “hot bed” of social innovation

By on March 21, 2012 in Uncategorized with No Comments

Social enterprises are springing up in various parts of the world.  From rural small town U.S.A. to large urban cities in Kenya, social entrepreneurship is becoming a global phenomenon.  However, while the model has flourished in many parts of the world, social entrepreneurship is still struggling to take hold in others.  East Africa is one hotbed of social innovation (East Africa refers to the region including Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania).  Understanding why social enterprises succeed in some locations and don’t exist in others is paramount in expanding the concept to untapped markets.

The factors attributed to the rise of social enterprises in this region are numerous and range from the affects of investment to the popular markets in these countries.  One thing is certain; East Africa is becoming more of a technologically-centered, entrepreneur-friendly location.  According to the Economist, there are currently 600 million mobile phone users.  With such a huge market, it isn’t surprising that many enterprises are turning to the mobile technology space.

A popular example of such an enterprise is M-Pesa, which allows for mobile money transfers for individuals who may not have a bank account or lack access to one.  More than half the population in Kenya use M-Pesa for these transfer services, often sending money across the country.

Another social enterprise using this mobile-rich market is Ushahidi.  With various products including the Ushahidi Platform and the SwiftRiver Platform, Usahidi is using technology to develop “free and open source software for information collection, visualiziation, and interactive mapping.”

In just these two examples, we can also see two different approaches of tapping into the East African social enterprise space.  M-Pesa was founded by two companies, the Vodafone affiliate Telkom Kenya and Safaricom.  Usahidi materialized out of the post-election violence that occurred in Kenya in 2008 — the site was used to map the conflict.

In social entrepreneurship, we often come across an internal struggle of the insider versus outsider dichotomy.  Should we seek to create positive social and economic growth by penetrating markets, or should we emphasize the need for local social innovation over outsider intervention?

Of course, there is no clear answer, though Jonathan Kalan, the founder of The (BoP) Project and a freelancer based in East Africa, thinks that the discussion should be handled carefully.  On the subject of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, “A lot of people begin in Nairobi because it is waiting to be served.”   It makes economic sense to begin these enterprises because there are pressing problems, and if entrepreneurs have a market to start and investments to begin then their venture could be profitable.

A problem Kalan sees though is the sustainability of these foreign entrepreneurs coming into the markets, “[These entrepreneurs] have investment and support, but how long are they willing to stay?  Five years down the road, are they still profitable?  At what point do people pull out?”

Kalan does point out that it’s mainly due to foreign investments from foundations and other grant making bodies that allow for any social entrepreneur, East African or foreign, to establish his or her enterprise.

Dave Mark, an HIV/AIDS researcher in Nairobi who has ties with mobile technology social enterprises, says that there is also a significant effort by the same companies that invest in these enterprises to support local entrepreneurial education.  “Workshops are popular and are conducted from names like Nokia to the World Bank.”

The combination of both foreign investment and local innovation may be the key to the success of social entrepreneurship in this region.  And for local enterprises, education plays a key role in creating ventures.  Examples of this attempt to educate individuals on entrepreneurial skills include, m:lab and Educate! which both educate future entrepreneurs.  Educate! places Ugandan high school students with mentors in the field of social entrepreneurship and trains these students to begin their own projects to solve problems of poverty, healthcare and among others.

Foreign investment in both enterprises and the education of local entrepreneurs can therefore allow for the organic growth of social innovation in East Africa, and can be a lesson for other regions. But does this still foster a sense of dependency? And what are the factors you feel should be in place to grow innovation locally in emerging as well as more untapped markets? What is East Africa’s secret and can that be replicated?

Join the conversation by commenting below or participating in i2i’s Twitter chat on the topic on Wednesday, March 21st at 12 pm EST/9 pm PKT (#i2isocent).

Alex Cooper is i2i’s Social Impact Intern, pursuing a B.A. in Government and Community Studies of Eastern Europe at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.  He loves social justice, politics, political sociology, pop culture and trashy documentaries.  In the rare moments when he is not on his computer tweeting, researching or reading various news articles on the web, you can find him at coffee shops or with friends enjoying the small things in life and laughing loudly. 

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Back to the (Socent) Future

By on February 8, 2012 in i2i with No Comments

For the past two years, I’ve been increasingly attached to social entrepreneurship, both its theory and practice.  The love affair began with a summer program in Petersburg, Va. in 2010.  I participated in the program as a naïve freshman at The College of William and Mary, having no idea what social entrepreneurship was or any idea about what I wanted to do with my life.  This program allowed me to begin thinking about service in a way that I never had before, looking at how business can play a role in social change.  As I began learning about social entrepreneurship, I also began questioning the model because I didn’t understand where it came from and I didn’t understand where it was going.

There is no inventor of social entrepreneurship.  The idea seemed to just spring forth like Venus in Roman mythology:  It simply appeared on the horizon.  The problem lies in the fact that social entrepreneurship isn’t as novel as it may appear.  Unlike Venus, social entrepreneurship did not arise out of nothing; the concept seems to be a menagerie of ideas that have been building for some time with certain individuals (like Greg Dees, Bill Drayton, Mohammad Yunus and so on) contributing something along the way.  We can begin with the private sector since social entrepreneurship is rooted in the private sector.  We can even travel back to the creation of political liberalism to see the very beginnings of social entrepreneurship, make our way to the Enlightenment and then to Adam Smith.  We can also see the ideas behind social entrepreneurship in the acts of past individuals known for their philanthropy and service.

However, people did not begin using the term social entrepreneurship until the past forty years, and it was only in the last twenty or so years that the field began to expand into what it is today.

According to David Bornstein and Susan Davis, the beginnings of what we know of social entrepreneurship began in Bangladesh.  It began with the notion that international aid, after civil wars and natural disasters, assaulted the country.  With the creation of organizations like the Grameen Bank and Ashoka, social entrepreneurship gained a standing in the world of international development.  The idea was to create self-sustaining aid.

This lack of history however, can impede the future growth of social entrepreneurship.  Without cohesive, concrete history, the role of defining social entrepreneurship cannot be filled.  I will be honest and say that I change my definition of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise a lot.  Not having a solid definition means that the field is fluid and ever-changing and I am not sure if that is necessarily a good or bad thing.

The issue of definition and message seems to be a pervasive problem within the field.  A recent study done in the United Kingdom showed that only a third of people polled knew what a social enterprise was, but after being told what it was, individuals were more likely to want to buy a service through a social enterprise.  A lack of definition means a lack of message.

I recently read the criteria for a social entrepreneurship competition.  One criterion mandated that the organization competing could not be a nonprofit organization.  I didn’t really understand that criterion because most of my experience in social entrepreneurship comes from the nonprofit sector.  The summer program mentioned above is a nonprofit organization.  I continue to be involved in social entrepreneurial activities via a nonprofit organization.  Yet, the foundation that is sponsoring the competition subscribes to a different definition of social entrepreneurship than the organization I worked.

Further, one reason that the history of social entrepreneurship may be clouded in mystery might have something to do with the fact that the field is till evolving.  Social entrepreneurship does not always equate to microfinance anymore.  It evolves.  The term arose because the realization of the concept finally arose.  It wasn’t simply philanthropy, and it wasn’t just business.  For these social change missions, the approach was different but the results were the same.

The results were aimed at social change, and those results still motivate the social entrepreneur of today.  Bornstein and Davis write, “[s]ocial entrepreneurship is a process by which citizens build or transform institutions to advance solutions to social problems, such as poverty [...] human rights abuses and corruption, in order to make life better for many.  That is one definition.  There are countless others.

The field needs to be defined.  We may never know exactly when the idea of social entrepreneurship arose in someone’s thought, but we can know what direction it is going.

Comment below, and let’s get the conversation started.

Alex Cooper is our i2i Social Impact Intern, pursuing a B.A. in Government and Community Studies of Eastern Europe at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.  He loves social justice, politics, political sociology, pop culture and trashy documentaries.  In the rare moments when he is not on his computer tweeting, researching or reading various news articles on the web, you can find him at coffee shops or with friends enjoying the small things in life and laughing loudly. 

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Lisbon, Barbara Streisand & Playing in the Sandbox

By on January 24, 2012 in i2i with No Comments

About a year ago, I was developing the concept for Invest2Innovate, attending conferences, and talking to everyone and anyone possible. I’d come back to Washington, D.C. after a trip buzzing and inspired, feeling just that much closer to turning this idea into a reality. But as much as being an entrepreneur can be exciting, it’s also a path riddled with self-doubt and loneliness. It sometimes feels like it’s you against the world.

When I first heard about Sandbox, I realized it didn’t have to be that way.

Sandbox is a global network of selected innovators under 30, a community of over 600 people in 48 countries and 23 hub cities, including Cairo, New York, Nairobi, Singapore, Mexico City, Bangalore, and San Francisco. Intrigued by the idea of being part of a tribe rather than traversing this entrepreneurial journey alone, I reached out to the ambassadors in DC, and found out there was a DC hub breakfast the very next day. Months later, I’m now a member of the network and a co-ambassador for the hub. This past weekend, I attended the first Sandbox Global Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

Gorgeous Lisbon.

Over the course of three days in Lisbon, I met people who wowed me with their intelligence, ingenuity, and generosity. Almost everyone was doing something crazy and awe-spiring in their respective fields. But if that were all it took to be a member, then Sandbox would be just another network. Instead, Sandboxers are (more often than not), deeply collaborative and giving, using the community to not only help achieve their own goals, but to help other members do the same. Because of the peer-to-peer emphasis, Sandbox has the semblance of a family – complete with warm hugs, inside jokes, and endearing oddities.

After spending the past month working on the ground in Pakistan for i2i, the Global Summit gave me an opportunity to breathe, process, and reflect on our work and my own journey as an entrepreneur. Much of this transpired during the multitude of skills workshops taught by fellow Sandboxers and other leaders with topics ranging from serendipity to martial arts to productivity. But I also had many incredible & inspiring conversations with other members about life beyond work. I sometimes realized I didn’t know what people did (the quintessential DC question) because I was more interested in who they were.

I walked away from the Summit not only completely in love with Lisbon, but also enamored by the many friends I made, who were much, much more than just “connections” I could leverage in the future. Because of the Summit, I discovered John E.’s overpowering sweet tooth and Rand’s hilarious aversion to sarcasm. I want to keep mini versions of Tara and Nirav in my pocket. I know if I ever were in trouble, Niamh and Rahaf would be my scary heroines in shining armor. I love my Diva roommates a ridiculous amount. And I’ll never be able to hear the song, “Barbara Streisand” without thinking of Nico raising his hand, frantically (and sometimes unsuccessfully) trying to get everyone’s attention.

During one workshop, we discussed how serendipity involves being in the right place, at the right time, with the right mindset. Serendipity is a happy accident, one that not only explains my journey to launching i2i, but also my amazing experience playing in the Sandbox.

Kalsoom Lakhani is the Founder/CEO of Invest2Innovate, based in Washington, D.C. She loves traveling, pretending to be a foodie, Jeopardy, and inane discussions about morality in mainstream television shows. If you watch mainstream television shows, you know this amounts to very little discussion.

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Tis the Season…to Make More Lists

By on December 15, 2011 in i2i with 1 Comment

I have a confession.

I am an avid composer of lists. Prior to (finally) reverting to 21st century technology, my day calendar was my savior – detailing where I had to be, what I had to do, and when I had to do it. You can only imagine the panic that ensued every time I lost said calendar, which – if you know me – was very often. Although my calendars have since gone online, my to-do list synced with my phone and laptop (I use the application Wunderlist, for those who are interested), I still continue to write in my black moleskin notebook, keeping lists and notes about the things I learn and that inspire me.

As the new year fast approaches, I thought it important to develop a list reflecting on the past year. 2011 has been pretty eventful – I launched i2i this past Fall after working on the concept for a year. It’s been grueling, humbling, overwhelming – but, most importantly, exhilarating. I would never trade this experience for anything. And even though I never anticipated just how hard it would be, I also know I’m one of the few people doing exactly what I want to do. I am pretty damn lucky.

So below are some of the early start-up lessons I’ve gleaned from my own experience as well as from learning from people far more inspirational and amazing:

  1. Build a business around what you love. Last winter, I was struggling to piece together what i2i (then unnamed) was going to be – I knew I wanted to build a company that helped social enterprises get access to early-stage capital, but I wasn’t sure what it would look like. I started getting feedback from anyone and everyone. One of the best pieces of advice I received was from a director at a social impact organization who bluntly asked what I loved to do and what drove me. My answer: help great ideas grow into strong businesses and build new markets for social entrepreneurship. Her advice: don’t start a business around what you don’t know (in my case, starting a fund for entrepreneurs with very little financial expertise or background working in a fund), start one around what you love to do. That advice – which was not sugar coated by the way – spurred me to go back to the drawing board and ask critical questions about what I loved to do, and how to match that with a company that addressed a need in a feasible way. That way, when your start-up has its less-than-glamorous moments (and there are a lot of those), you still have the necessary momentum because you’re doing what you love.
  2. Know what you don’t know. It is fairly easy to know what you are good at. Personally, I’m strong at communications/marketing, building strategic plans, and understanding the nuances of various communities. But often times it’s more difficult to admit to what you don’t know. I am not a numbers person, horrible with anything finance-related or quantitative. Obviously, those skills are pretty key in developing a strong business model. So rather than barrel forward with limited knowledge, bring in the key people who can fill those gaps and enrich your team. You will be stronger for it.
  3. Listen to the voices in your head. No, not the crazy voices (though I am sure that can be tempting). I’m referring to the one that may be telling you something you don’t want to hear, but is voicing what you really feel. Did you just spend a lot of time & resources on a product or aspect of your company and then secretly feel it’s not working? Start again. Listen to your gut. You’ll respect yourself a lot more in the long-run if you are able to admit to mistakes and pivot fast to rectify those decisions.
  4. Block out the noise. When you launch a start-up, there’s a lot of noise around you. Everyone has an opinion about what you are doing, and a lot of people have exciting ideas for directions to take your enterprise. Some of this advice is sound, constructive, validating and incredibly helpful. But it’s also important during those moments to remind yourself about your core model and whether these cool-sounding synergies help advance that further or are a distraction from what you need to achieve in the next six months – one year. Having those moments of reflection allow you to stay grounded and focused on your business.
  5. Simplify, simplify, simplify. I am still new to the start-up world, but one of the key lessons I’ve learned is to boot-strap as much as humanly possible. This means whittling your financials down to a number that allows your business to get off the ground but not be weighed down by unnecessary costs. That big office? Hiring new staff? If you can work out of a coffee shop, get pro-bono services and use airline mileage for cheaper tickets instead, do it. Focus the costs of your company on what is most needed to prove that your model works.
  6. Stay curious. Keep listening. The more you listen, the more your business can be shifted, altered, and adjusted to match the ground realities. When we were launching, i2i was just an idea, something that made complete sense in my head. After we officially went live and I was working with our clients, talking to funders, building partnerships, I realized how much our model needed to be adjusted to make sense in the real world. Because i2i is so new, that continued dialogue is critical to how we grow and potentially succeed.

As we approach 2012, I have a few thoughts. One, I really hope it’s not the end of the world, (curse you, bad John Cusack movies!). Also, I hope i2i continues to learn, grow, and progress further in order to build a model that makes an impact – or at least a dent – in Pakistan, where I am from, as well as the new markets I hope we scale to. And I hope you come along for that ride, whether that means you’re a friend, supporter, client, or even just a critic. The more the merrier.

Kalsoom Lakhani is the Founder/CEO of Invest2Innovate, based in Washington, D.C. She loves traveling, pretending to be a foodie, Jeopardy, and inane discussions about morality in mainstream television shows. If you watch mainstream television shows, you know this amounts to very little discussion.

Happy Thanksgiving from i2i

Happy Thanksgiving! Love, i2i

By on November 23, 2011 in i2i with No Comments

Happy Thanksgiving from the i2i team!

In the Thanksgiving spirit, we wanted to take the time to thank you for the support you give to our team. Without our friends, clients and investors, we wouldn’t be here to continue in our mission to make a sustainable social impact.

As a fun project to make us truly remember what we are thankful for, the i2i team decided to capture that through photographs, which we then posted on our Facebook page. Kalsoom, our CEO & Founder was thankful for taking the plunge, while Cameron, our amazing MBA fellow, was grateful for family and friends. Some of our social entrepreneur clients, like Saba Gul, Founder/Executive Director of BLISS, participated as well, (see here for all the photos.)

         

It is always important to take a step back and reflect on the aspects that make us who we are and be thankful.  As entrepreneurs, we rely on the support of friends and family as we begin our choice ventures.  Here at i2i, we are no different, and neither are our clients.  We want our clients to feel that i2i is more than just a service intermediary; we want them to feel that we are here to fully support them in their entrepreneurial quests.

As for me, I’m thankful for those who are the change they want to see in the world.  On this Thanksgiving, what are you thankful for?

 Alex Cooper is our i2i Social Impact Intern, pursuing a B.A. in International Community Studies and Government at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.  He loves social justice, politics, political sociology, pop culture and trashy documentaries.  In the rare moments when he is not on his computer writing papers, researching or reading various news articles on the web, you can find him at coffee shops or with friends enjoying the small things in life and laughing loudly. 

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i2i Does Global Entrepreneurship Week

By on November 23, 2011 in i2i with No Comments

Last week was Global Entrepreneurship Week, “the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.” GEW is more than an awareness campaign about entrepreneurship – it’s about unleashing ideas, inspiring events in cities around the world that push people to think outside the box and spur dialogue on related topics.

Invest2Innovate was excited this year to make the GEW 50, a global competition that recognizes 50 of the most promising ventures from around the world. As part of the top 50 finalists, i2i was selected from a range of criteria including strength of concept, growth projections, and knowledge of the market. Although we did not win the top prizes (you can see more about the final winners here), it was awesome to make the GEW 50!

Last week, i2i was also invited to participate in two panels during GEW. On Monday, November 14, I spoke at the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) during an all-day GEW conference on Global Diaspora Engagement. Our panel, moderated by Phil Auerswald, a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and an Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, was a fun and lively discussion about the collaborative advantage of the Diaspora. Since i2i is currently engaging the Pakistani Diaspora in order to channel capital and resources to early-stage enterprises in Pakistan, this was a very pertinent topic. My fellow panelists were Semhar Araia, Founder & Executive Director, Diaspora Africa Women’s Network (DAWN) and Bill Barhydt, President/CEO of m‐Via, providing financial services to the poor through mobile technology, who were both so inspirational and engaging.

The scene at the State Department Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, November 16, i2i was invited to be part of a GEW-related event at the U.S. Department of State – a teleconference exchange between Pakistani entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Pakistani entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Since we are a company that engages early-stage enterprises in Pakistan as part of our pilot, I was more interested in hearing what the entrepreneurs on the other side of the call had to say about their experiences, from the social entrepreneur behind Karo Kuch, an ideas incubator, to a young businessman working on new energy in the country. It was a reminder about how diverse the entrepreneurship space is and can be in Pakistan. The energy in the country is palpable. Needless to say, after having just got back from Pakistan, I’m already excited to fly out again next month.

The theme behind GEW is ‘unleashing ideas’ and the week of panels and events taught me that the potential to have critical dialogue is really high. In markets like Pakistan, where we are working now, entrepreneurship has to be something that is grown by Pakistanis for Pakistanis. It is not an imported foreign solution to longstanding issues. It is not something we can throw money at. If we really want to ‘unleash ideas’ then we need to let that happen locally and organically. And we’re excited to be part of that process.

Kalsoom Lakhani is the Founder/CEO of Invest2Innovate, based in Washington, D.C. She loves traveling, pretending to be a foodie, Jeopardy, and inane discussions about morality in mainstream television shows. If you watch mainstream television shows, you know this amounts to very little discussion.

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Hello world!

By on November 8, 2011 in i2i with No Comments

Welcome to the new Invest2Innovate website as well as to our brand spankin’ new blog! I’ve been a blogger for about four years now, running a news site called CHUP! which covers current issues related to Pakistan, so naturally I feel that blogging and social media play an integral role in raising the visibility of any start-up. On our i2i blog, we will be keeping supporters/followers updated on our growth as an enterprise, our trips out into the field, profiles on our entrepreneur rockstar clients, as well as broader commentary on the social entrepreneurship space as a whole, both in the markets we work in (right now: Pakistan), as well as globally.

First, a little more on Invest2Innovate. We are an intermediary that aims to grow the social entrepreneurship space in new markets. Why, you ask? Because as much as ‘social entrepreneurship’ is the sexy buzzword of the day, there are merits to what entrepreneurial approaches to development can provide. First, social enterprises (read: SMEs) can contribute to job creation and income generation, either indirectly or directly, which can ultimately have a significant impact on developing economies. Second, the biggest difference between ‘social’ entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs (which is arguable) is that the former are primarily seeking to make a social or environmental impact. Financial returns are important in many cases, but are not the primary intention – though any good social enterprise is financially sustainable. In countries like Pakistan, in which 66% of the population live under $2 a day, such businesses can have a catalytic affect on improving the lives of low-income communities.

Take Milk’Op for instance. Milk’Op – an i2i client – is providing income generation opportunities for small dairy farmers in Pakistan. Of the 10 million dairy farmer households in Pakistan, 70% are considered ‘small,’ owning less than four livestock. Given that ‘doodhis‘ – middlemen who transport these farmers’ milk to market – make 40-50% margins on the retail price, very little profits are left for these households. Moreover, these middlemen often resort to adding water and antibiotics to the milk to not only increase their volume but to keep it from spoiling, making much of the final product unsafe for human consumption. According to sources, 15-19% of milk spoils before it even reaches market. Milk’Op, founded by Asim Hussnain, not only aims to address the quality of these dairy products by developing a fully integrated innovative dairy chain, but it also aims to provide income generation opportunities by organizing these small farmers into associations or co-ops. Milk’Op, in our opinion, is an example of an enterprise with high-growth potential not just because of the social problem it seeks to address, but also because it plans to be operationally sustainable in the first three months, scale considerably in the first few years, and is tackling a problem in Pakistan’s dairy sector in a new & innovative way. At i2i, we aim to not only connect Milk’Op to the capital it needs to launch, but also the business services it needs to grow.

Invest2Innovate launched our pilot in Pakistan in September 2011 not only because I have roots & a network there (I am Pakistani and have been working in the social entrepreneurship space for a few years prior to launching i2i), but because Pakistan is a conflict-affected or fragile state with enormous potential. There is opportunity for the growth and benefit of social entrepreneurship as well as energy to move away from traditional modes of development toward the natural growth of enterprise. My friend Joshua Foust wrote recently in the Atlantic, “What International Aid Can’t Do”:

…the real problem in international development is teaching people how to run businesses. The training for how to conform to modern accounting standards is necessary, but most people really are natural entrepreneurs. They can find opportunities in their communities far better than any international group can, and they know how to make decisions and choices for those businesses better than a visiting expatriate consultant.

i2i provides services to existing early-stage enterprises, but we also aim to partner with local partners to help grow the space. We are really excited for the potential of new and untapped markets, and we hope you continue to remain part of the conversation as we learn, make mistakes, and overcome challenges!

Kalsoom Lakhani is the Founder/CEO of Invest2Innovate, based in Washington, D.C. She loves traveling, pretending to be a foodie, Jeopardy, and inane discussions about morality in mainstream television shows. If you watch mainstream television shows, you know this amounts to very little discussion.

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