Well, it’s about the economics, baby!

During 2 days, 300 scholars, entrepreneurs and corporate stakeholders from allaround the world gathered in rainy Oxford @ Power Shift conference to envision how to give women more access to finance.

Did you know that, until 1974, women in the US were not allowed to have a credit card?

Nowadays, globally, women’s money is worth an extraordinary £13 trillion and economists predict that in coming years the female economy will have an impact greater than Brazil, Russia, India and China!

That is what we call the third billion of emerging participants in the global marketplace.

And yet the access of women consumers and entrepreneurs to funds remains limited! Hopefully this event was the occasion to learn about solutions:

• The powerhouse Jeanne Sullivan welcomed us, explaining us her passion on funding and fueling women entrepreneurs, especially through the coming 60M USD fund built by Astia.

• Scholars like Julie Nelson explained how both finance and gender are socially constructed systems and that men and women are actually equally risk adverse inspite of the stereotypes.

• Professor Linda Scott, curator of the conference and leader of the XX economy was advocating against the fact that “the best ideas die in banks parking lots”.

• Suzanne Biegel, Founder of Catalyst at Large gave tips for future women angels in order to diversify the investment scene.

• Anna Falth from UN Women presented their new platform providing useful tools and ressources for women allaround the world.

• And corporates as Mastercard, Goldman Sachs with 10,000 women program or Coca-Cola were displaying their initiatives to bridge the $285 billion global credit gap for women entrepreneurs.

Especially since worldwide, approximately 2.5 billion people do not have a formal account at a financial institution. And yet, access to affordable financial services is linked to overcoming poverty, reducing income disparities, and increasing economic growth.

Powershift was the opportunity to learn about the transformative power of womenomics, this huge shift in financial power, with the prediction that by 2020 women’s pay will overtake men’s and the correlation done by the World Economic Forum between gender equity and economic results.

Actually, it is now proven that:

• Women-led venture-backed high tech companies generate 12% higher annual revenues than male only tech companies.

• Companies with more gender diversity delivered 30% better results from IPOs.

• The average venture-backed company run by a woman uses one third less committed capital.

• Women-led high tech startups achieve 35% higher return on investment than male led companies.

• Companies with the most gender diverse management teams achieve 48% higher earnings than the industry average.

Some organizations put these assumptions at the core of their business model as Portfolia, or Rivet Ventures which are geared toward investing in companies targeting consumers (and since women make 80% of consumer decisions…). Or Plum Alley, a crowdfunding website which focuses on the sectors that matter to women.

Hopefully, there is an ever-growing awareness among angel investors that women-led startups are good investments. And the awareness among women that entrepreneurship gives them control of their own destinies.

But, like it or not, the reality is that people are more likely to invest in people who are like them.

What this means is that for more women to get funded, more women need to become angels!

“There is a lot of money out there to be invested in great ideas and innovations. The only thing that holds us back is not having the key to open up the coffers,” said Amy Millman, president of Springboard Enterprises, an accelerator for women-led businesses seeking equity financing.

But I don’t know why, after attending Powershift, I have the feeling that 2014 will be a break out year for women entrepreneurs!

Last Saturday in Barcelona, we ran one of our editions of Storytelling workshop for women entrepreneurs.
Ten women from different backgrounds, different ages, different nationalities gathered during this sunny day to clarify their message and the way to communicate it to the rest of the world.

In the process, they traveled through their life timeline, identifying their turning points, their superpowers and their deepest fears.

And for me, this was actually my own epiphany moment.

Out of 10 random and diverse participants, smart women with a solid background and a deep will to impact the world positively, almost ALL of them were sharing the same barrier: their own insecurity.

They were ALL admiting that their own lack of self-confidence, their inner judge or their recurrent doubts were actually constantly holding them back.

This was my own ahah moment. It was not an isolated phenomenon, something that happened to some extremely introspective persons who were doomed to be lost in their doubts forever.

No, it was actually a general and silent epidemic.

Having experienced these same doubts myself, I was for the first time contemplating them from the outside and realizing how incredible it was that these smart and powerful women were actually the first ones NOT TO BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES.

And I just imagined for an instant what it would mean if this contained and self-restricted potential was actually released to the world…

In this great article on the Confidence gap, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman actually state it simply:

“The natural result of low confidence is inaction. When women hesitate because they aren’t sure, they hold themselves back.”

So we watched the TED talk from Amy Cuddy on how our own gestures and body positions could actually change who we are, affecting little by little the plasticity of our brains until actually becoming what we might have needed to fake in the first place.

As Linda Babcock explains in Women don’t ask, the barriers holding women back and the social forces constraining them actually result in dramatic difference between men and women in their propensity to negotiate for what they want, would it be a promotion, a salary raise or a shift in their schedule.

We need to change the narrative. And this means changing the storytelling.

So we spent the day nailing down their actual unique message, linking it with stories and proven facts. We learnt how to occupy the stage in a confident way, express ourselves with an assertive and changing tone and how to finally come across in a clear and simple way.

And the result was extremely gratifying.

So, since our stories actually shape who we are, let’s change them. Let’s get rid of all the distracting buzz in our heads and actually unleash the power we all have to change the world! One step at a time.

Let’s be honest. Even if some of us feel uncomfortable accepting it, Money IS power.

Power to do what you want. Power to implement your own projects and see them grow. Power to be free and independent.

 And yet, the investment arena is still an extremely male-dominated world.  

In the United States only, women represent 15% of angel investors and 11% of investing partners at VC firms according to this infographic. Although women are highly active in the philanthropic world, giving millions of dollars each year, they account for only a small percentage of the world’s investors.

This undeniable fact has massive consequences:

• On the local and national level, there is a lack of support networks to encourage women to develop growth-oriented ventures. Access to capital is among the leading challenges confronting women entrepreneurs: women-led companies actually receive less than 12% of venture capital invested, and substantially less angel capital as well.
• At a global level, the lack of diversity in the investment and leadership world leads to an economic system shaped on a unique set of values, as underlines Halla Tomasdottir, the founder of Audur Capital in her TED talk. And this vision mostly focused on economic return above all actually led us to a massive economic crisis.

Fine. But why shall we invest in women then?

Because venture-backed companies led by a woman actually produce 12% higher revenues and launch on a third less capital than their male counterparts, as show studies by the Kauffman Foundation and leading universities. They have a record of greater capital efficiency and a lower failure rate than companies only run by men.

According to DELL study, companies with more women board directors outperform those with the least by 66% ROI capital, 53% return on equity and 42% return on sales.

Venture capital firms that invest in women-led companies outperform those that don’t, according to research from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy.

And venture-backed companies that include more women on their executive management teams are more likely to succeed than companies with men-only executive suites, according to Women at the Wheel: Do Female Executives Drive Start-up Success, research conducted by Dow Jones.

But women are not only wise entrepreneurs and managers.

They are also drivers of economic growth.

A woman multiplies the impact of an investment by extending benefits to the world around her, creating a better life for her family and building a strong community. Just as an example:

• When 10% more girls go to school, a country’s GDP increases on average by 3%.
• When women possess the same amount of lands as men, the crop yields increase by minimum 10%.
• In Europe, reducing gender inequality would increase GDP by 13%.

Enabling women, particularly as entrepreneurs, benefits future generations because women tend to spend more on their children’s education and health, which should boost productivity as well.

When women are economic agents, social change accelerates and returns multiply.

As Hillary Clinton underlined it, “Investing in women is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do.”

As entrepreneurs. But also as consumers.

85% of consumer purchases are actually made by women. They control $12 trillion of the overall $18.4 trillion in global consumer spending and in the next 3 years, the World Bank predicts that the global income of women will grow by more than $5 trillion.

Women are the next global emerging market. Their economic power is truly revolutionary, representing the largest market opportunity in the world. And who talks better to a woman consumer than a woman entrepreneur or creative director?

Investing in women would finally allow a greater diversity and foster the incorporation of different values in our economic model.

Women entrepreneurs see the world through a different lens and, in turn, do things differently. They tend to take a holistic approach, looking for both economic and emotional capital, uniting financial and social return. Aiming at profit with principles. And economic returns ARE still better.

To sum up, there is a need for a durable and systemic change for women worldwide – both as investors and beneficiaries of invested capital. 

Different initiatives exist to act at different stages of the process:

• Women Effect Investments is building the field of Gender Lens Investing – which means considering gender when making investment decisions and oftentimes directly benefiting the lives of women and girls.
• The JumpFund’s invests women’s capital in female-led companies with growth potential.
• Astia Angels is a global network of female and male angel investors that invests in women-led, high-growth ventures.
• Organizations such as Springboard Enterprises have helped women entrepreneurs become more scalable and attract investment.
• The Pipeline Fellowship, an angel investing bootcamp, is educating women on how to be angel investors
• Advertising companies like 85% tend to advise brands on how to communicate to the 85% of the people who are actually making purchasing decisions.

 The power is shifting. Little by Little.

Most of the time, when we talk about gender equity, women seem to be the only ones concerned.

Just have a look at the audience of TEDWomen or listen to the last talk of June Cohen, TED’s editor.

It seems that once you put women in the title, once you want to tackle topics related to gender, men disappear from the audience, they don’t feel involved, or even worse, they feel rejected.

#Wherearethemen. How can we get them involved so that they consider that their mothers’ rights, their sisters’ security, their daughters’ futures are their own fight? How can we make them feel that THEIR OWN future is at stake?

Because how will we ever create a truly fairer society if half of the population is not included in the conversation?

But, as Sheryl Sandberg says in her book Lean In:

“Our revolution has stalled. A truly equal world would be one where women run half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes.”

And women will not achieve this balance on their own.

That is where campaigns like MenEngage make the difference.

Gary Barker from Instituto Promundo, explains how promoting the concept of men as caregivers has a real impact in the communities he works with. From Brazil to the US, he saw how men were healthier, safer and happier when they actually took care of their family and environment.

As we tend to re-enact the behaviors of our role models and elders, education is vital. And men tend to be convinced by their peers. Will Muir from ECF India explains how his organization transmits equality as a value to young boys in India. He helps them view girls and women with a different lens through mentoring and peer influence.

Tim Shand from Sonke Gender Justice deals with women’s

sexual rights in South Africa, and while challenging cultural taboos about sex, he wants the world to see women’s sexual rights are actually human rights.

Closer to us, The Good Men Project is a diverse community of 21st century thought leaders actively participating in a conversation about the way men’s roles are changing in modern life—and the way those changes affect everyone. For good.

At the end of the day, gender equity benefits all of us.

Men are also suffering from the preconceived notions and assigned roles. Be strong. Be the leader. Never fail or cry. Be an effective professional. Don’t refuse a promotion for family constraints. Be there at the meeting at 8pm because the boss said so. Make money. Be a man.

But this traditional vision of masculinity is painful and taking away men’s right to display emotions and sensitivity that we all experience as humans. Men are not only bread-winners. Most men would

be relieved by the acknowledgment of their right to be caregivers in their families as well.

In France, the association Mercredi-c-Papa set up by executives of the best business schools is creating men’s circles in companies, Happy Men in charge of promoting gender equity.

The current initiative in Spain #quieroconciliar advocates for co-responsibility and equity of opportunities between men and women.

Emmanuelle Duez from Women up explains how this reflexion is actually more global and the needs of the generation Y are different from the past. Both men and women want to be able to share roles but the traditional political or legal frame is still considering the woman as the main care provider of the family. This impacts not only women’s careers, but also deprives men of the possibility to enjoy quality time with their families, when companies would benefit from satisfied employees.

So how do we get there?

We need to change the communication strategy!

The traditional approach of making men feel guilty has proven counterproductive. When we use aggressive strategies, people retract and get defensive. That is why feminist movements, which have contributed to so much progress, are often viewed negatively.

We need to bring HUMOR back in the conversation! Give people a laugh, and then make them ask questions. Surprise them. Make them smile.

As Sindre Olav explained with his great video “Africa for Norway,” humor is a powerful tool to communicate and engage the audience. The shock strategy that uses images of female victims of gender violence may have a short-term impact, but in the long run, people become desensitized and are not moved to action. New disruptive tools have to be used to shake up the traditional vision and question the stereotypes. Like this campaign in India where men were wearing skirts. Or this flashmob of men walking with high-heeled shoes. These images create lasting memories and make us rethink.

And the conversation needs to be spread globally. Like the recent communication campaign from UN Women #HeforShe, engaging the highest levels: the opinion leaders, the politicians, the bloggers, the CEOs, the head-hunters—the ones whose influence can actually trickle down the whole society.

At the end of the day, We should all be feminists.

Where we all come back to the real, untainted definition of it: a society where men and women have equal rights, as the inspiring Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie says in her great talk.

So, what are we waiting for?

Yes, there is still a lot of fear to fight. Fear to lose power. Fear to get lost without clear role references. Fear of what others will say.

But a paradigm change is necessary. Now. For women. For men. For a healthy and happy future generation.

There is always a moment in a conference, a networking event or a birthday party when somebody asks you what you do for a living.

And in that moment, I wish I could answer something simple, plain and easy as baker, lawyer or tattoo master. But instead, I find myself struggling with a simple, understandable and straightforward answer.

I am still to find a profession in the Monster categories reflecting what I have been engaging in for the past ten years. Entrepreneur? Intrapreneur? Ecosystem builder?

So lately, I named myself a connector.

A superhero with special powers and the doubts that come with them.

Let’s see if you identify yourself as well!

Superpower #1: Matchmaker    

The connector loves to get awesome people from opposite worlds talk to each other. He thrives connecting the dots, breaking the silos between airtight ecosystems.

He does not actually break the boundaries but make them more permeable, getting the relationships more liquid.

Through challenging the stereotypes, he accelerates serendipity, making magic happen by putting in touch the right people or the right networks at the right time. Like an acupuncture master, he releases the energy and ensures the whole machine works better. He catalyzes change.

Superpower #2: Dreamer     

The connector is an idealist, he deeply believes in a better world. He does not connect for the sake of it, as a Linked in addict. He does so because he thinks that these connections will either foster great projects or at least help one of the side find its true calling. And he feels fulfilled by it.

He wishes to inspire, to engage other people in social change, to infect the society with his own virus, would it be through a massive system shift or with little poppies converting the world one step at a time.

Superpower #3: Multiple personality disorder

Like in United States of Tara, a connector does have this polymorphic personality allowing himself to immerse in Burning Man as well as in Davos. Adapting to the environment. Fitting in. You can invite him to any party, he will put on his chameleon suit and dive in. He can speak differently, dress differently and still be able to mingle and fit in.

Superpower #4: Ubiquity

He IS literally everywhere, spreading so thin he might actually disappear, thriving in the horizontality more than the verticality, the multiplication of projects which “retrofeeds” themselves more than in a specific one.

He loves to be a “parallel entrepreneur” and to see how his different ventures all contribute to his overarching theme, whatever it is.

His friends have a hard time following him on Facebook and understanding what he does but he seems to be happy so that’s OK.

As a true global citizen, the world is his village and he could actually work from anywhere anytime provided he has his Mac, decent wifi and coffee.

Perhaps the connector is commitment-adverse, but let’s not talk about that…

Superpower #5: Mille-feuilles syndrome

The connector acts at different levels. He can be a demiurge architect, a puppet master designing the system. But he can also be the builder, the systems diplomat between different networks or cities, or he can thrive being the very brick himself as the entrepreneur at the bottom of the pyramid.

Which means that he manages to multiply himself in different dimensions, from the macro to the micro, from the corporate to the alternative, from the rural area to the developed city. And this kaleidoscope allows him to see the reality in so many different angles, getting the best of each tribe!

Yet, being a connector is not always easy. His superpowers also bring in a few headaches…

Neurosis #1: Connectors all suffer from ADHD.

Let’s be honest. It’s hard to be everywhere, all the time, have 50 open windows in your browser, tons of unanswered emails and Whatsapps and be cool about it. He’s so passionate about what he does that he has a hard time leaving his technological devices and might miss what is actually happening next to him. He’s not always the most present attentive friend he wish he was and could be more mindful sometimes…

Multiplying friends on social networks ends up giving him #fomo syndrom. Why is he in Morocco right now and not @sxsw??? His attention span is getting so limited that if he wants to stay focused and efficient, sometimes, he actually needs to decelerate…

Neurosis #2: Connectors have an identity struggle.

The connector always has this weird feeling that he actually does not belong where he is. Because he belongs everywhere and nowhere. Or only perhaps when he hangs out with other connectors …

So where is his home? Where does he feel at peace?

And the difficulty to put him in a box makes him sometimes even question his real value…

Neurosis #3: Connectors are hardly recognized.

People have a hard time understanding what they do. Some connectors are framing their activities in a physical space, a coworking or an incubator that makes it easier for others to understand their role.

But a virtual connector has a harder time. Being a constant catalyzer, he runs the risk of burning himself in the process. Constantly holding the space for others, he’s threatened to lose himself into it. What is he doing for himself at the end of the day?

Neurosis #4: Connectors are not financially valued.

Being the intermediary, the middleman, the connector is not always visible to others, the value is not so tangible which leads to frustration and exhaustion.

Since his role is sometimes confusing, how can he monetize his skills, especially in a world where we are all a Facebook friend away from anybody?

And even if the traditional diplomat function is valued and funded, the networks diplomat is not a structured profession. Yet.

So how do we cheer up our superhero? How do we value this indispensable mortar?

By creating a League of connectors as now exists a League of intrapreneurs?

Let’s all come back to Bali to think it over…

So we did it!

Monday night, after enjoying Nairobi’s rush hour traffic jams and Alfred’s driving skills, Jean-Paul and Valérie joined Claude and Alina for a first welcome dinner at Osteria. This was our time to exchange first impressions, cozy in the darkness of the evening, and nestled in the walled garden outside the building. These are the first hours in Africa for most of the group. Now to let go of preconceptions and to learn about the real Africa!

Our participants were coming from several different backgrounds: communications in Washington DC, academia, entrepreneurship, and investment. How could we customize one program to match all of their needs? Really, their objectives were the same: to gain an understanding of the local ecosystem in order to pursue potential collaborations or investments. Luckily, everyone present was especially interested in education ventures, so that’s where we focused our efforts.

TUESDAY 17th: Let’s get started!

The first day was dedicated to exploring the IT ecosystem, since Nairobi is known as the Silicon Savannah. For IT in Nairobi, what’s better than the iHUB?

What is the iHUB, you might ask? It is one of the pioneers of Kenya’s IT community, initiated by Ushahidi’s founders. It has now launched some more specialized organizations like the iHUB Research or the iHUB UX Lab, the latter being the first User Experience (UX) lab in sub-Saharan Africa.

So we headed up to iHUB, where we had a special tour of the building and were briefed about the local context by two very cool local entrepreneurs: Joel Macharia (specialized in finance and IT) and the lively Nanjira Sambuli (blogger, social media specialist, and musician). These two filled our heads with tons of information so that we could all develop a thorough understanding of Kenya’s historical and geopolitical context. Some of the highlights of our conversation included:

• Kenya being in the eye of the media with some the best athletes in the world, a sitted president heard by the International Court of Justice and, of course, US President Obama’s Kenyan heritage.

• The role of agriculture in Kenya’s economy – 24% of the GDP, 75% of the workforce, but with 90% of all farming being subsistence farming.
• Questioning the hype of “Silicon Savannah” – Why all the talk of technology when there are still so many needs in the agriculture sector? Also, Kenya has the young work force and the ideas, but what about specialized managerial and business skills?
• How can Kenya develop training programs for its future business leaders?
• The difficulties of obtaining funding for private sector ventures. They need investors!

• Kenya’s key geographical positioning—access to the sea with Mombasa harbor and the doorway to East Africa’s many emerging markets—Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia.

Naturally, after such a intense first session, we needed to refuel ourselves with some food and caffeine. We had lunch at a great local place called Pete’s Coffee, where we enjoyed some of the best coffee in the country!

Feeling refreshed and ready to crack on, we met Victoria, Ilana, and Francis from the GSMA team, who enlightened us about cutting edge tech trends in East Africa. If you are surprised by the phrase “tech trends in East Africa”, you’re missing out! There is so much innovation going on in Africa, and especially in Nairobi. The GSMA team told us all about their worldwide network of mobile operators who runs the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and who has set up an Africa office in Nairobi. We learned A LOT from the GSMA team:

• Victoria (Head of M-Agriculture), explained how gender and access to technology are related: Women are 21% less likely to have mobile phones than men, which represents an untapped market of 300 million women.
• Ilana told us about GSMA-supported Mkopa, which provides loans in rural areas through mobile money to pay for solar energy. 400 million people currently lack access to power but do have mobile coverage. There’s a big market for off-the-grid development.
• They have numerous programs to provide mobile access and services to under-served peoples in emerging markets: GSMA Mobile for Development .
• And they have a program called GSMA Mobile for Development Intelligence, an extremely interesting open data portal for the developing world mobile industry (free access) which allows investors to find investments, provides evidence of the social and economic impact of mobile technology, and allows for collaboration with other investors. Check it out!
• We also learned about the use of mobiles in education through their research “Shaping the Future: Realising the potential of informal learning through mobile”  and “Mobile Services for Youth Employment”.
• And they even taught us about the BBC Janala service in Bangladesh, which is using mobile technology to provide easy access to English education.

After this enlightening session, we needed a change of pace and scenery. We had a quick chat with Sam Wakoba, founder of the well-known Techmoran blog. His objective: to share the real stories of entrepreneurs. His blog spots tech trends and shares the personal stories of African’s most promising tech entrepreneurs.

From there, we hopped over to Nailab, a startup accelerator that offers highly structured mentorship and guidance to early stage business ideas that are likely to have a large social and economic impact, are scalable, require minimum investments to prototype, and have a strong value proposition. By forming strategic partnerships, offering access to investors, and providing business advice, Nailab has been able to help over 10 startups in two years, with high success rates!

On our way out of the Nailab, we bumped into the founder of UpStartAfrica, a business reality TV show for Kenya’s entrepreneurs. Their goal is to bring a “cool and fun factor” to technology and entrepreneurship, and to inspire young people across Africa to take up technology and entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to traditional job seeking!

At the end of the day, we were exhausted but exhilarated, rain was pouring, and we did not want to get stuck in traffic, so we hung out at the nearby Brew Bistro and listened to some great local bands there. What a great way to end the day.

Wednesday 18th: What happens at the Base of the Pyramid?

Our second day was focused on the social business world, which has a strong presence in most emerging countries. This sector is vital in Kenya, as 46% of the population live below the poverty line and 3.9 million people reside in slums.

We started this journey sharing a coffee with the Young Women Social Entrepreneurs Nairobi that are causing positive change at the Base of the Pyramid like Aparna Shrivastava of WASH United, and Melissa Menke of Access Afya. WASH United uses sports to educate about good hygiene practices, and Afya provides healthcare services in the slums. Great chat!

After breakfast we headed to the ASHOKA East Africa office where Peris Wakesho organized a great gathering for us! Here’s what happened:

• We met Fredrick Ouko, Ashoka fellow from Action Network for the Disabled, working with different private companies to show them the potential benefits of hiring disabled staff.
  

  Photo credit: Javi Moreno

• Pauline Wanja told us the story of Living in a Shanty Town, which offers business consulting to small entrepreneurs in the slums.
• We were impressed by the young talents Ashoka is mentoring like Ian Mati, from Wipe A Tear Foundation, who, at only age 17 organizes sessions within orphanages, and David from Dagoretti Youth Developers, who use magnetic theater to help prevent young people from dropping out of school and to transmit messages within the community.
• Peris told us how Ashoka was trying to change the ecosystem as a whole, working directly with employers to adapt to changemakers and intrapreneurs in their staff and working with schools to change the rating system and integrate social skills such as leadership, empathy, teamwork, entrepreneurship. So inspiring!

After getting to know some of Nairobi’s most ambitious social entrepreneurs and learning about the general Base of Pyramid environment in Nairobi, it was time to hop back in the car with Alfred!

The day wasn’t over yet! We sped over to the Strathmore Business School for a meeting with John Matogo, who introduced us to the Ilab entrepreneurs. This awesome tech incubator was estab­lished in January 2011 in collaboration with Safaricom (Kenya’s largest telephone operator) to spear­head research, innov­a­tion and entre­pren­eur­ship in the ICT field. @iBizAfrica, the busi­ness incub­ator department, provides a nur­tur­ing envir­on­ment that builds on the poten­tial of the youth to develop ICT solu­tions and busi­nesses that work for the com­mon good in soci­ety. Here, we were lucky to meet the developers of TiCHAA, an application to teach Swahili in a very colorful and user-friendly interface.

After these meetings, we stayed with the topics of incubators and education. We went to MLAB, an incubator set up by Infodev, where we met the Eneza Education team, who are using simple mobile phones to make education accesible in rural areas. You might wonder exactly how that could be possible.

• Eneza is offering tests via SMS to prepare students for exams that are vital to their continuation to high school and college.
• Then teachers follow their students’ progress online.
• They currently have 85,000 users and substantial funding. Their challenge now is product testing!

After MLAB, we were able to squeeze in one more activity—and it was worth it! We got to attend the ACUMEN presentations of the applicants to the East Africa Fellowship program. The objective of this patient capital organization set up by Jacqueline Novogratz is to support a new generation of East African leaders willing to challenge broken systems and develop new, inclusive solutions to create impact.

We did some networking activities after the presentations, and we met the lovely Kate, cofounder of Shopsoko, who is interested in joining the fellowship program. We’re sure that she would be an amazing fellow!

After such a long, intense day, we enjoyed our well-deserved dinner at a wonderful Indian restaurant in Open House.

THURSDAY 19th: What about investment?

The third day was more focused on Investors and the venture capital situation in East Africa. What are the real challenges, opportunities, and legislative constraints? What is impact investing? How do you measure it? Many questions best answered by the local stakeholders themselves!

Early morning, Hannah Clifford welcomed us at the bright and inspiring  88mph– incubator that overlooks Ngong road. (The name comes from Back to the Future movie, hence the Delaurian at the entrance!).

She told us how they provide early-stage web/mobile companies with up to $100K in funding through their 3-month startup accelerator program. This private seed fund with vibrant work spaces in Nairobi and Cape Town has already hosted 2 rounds in Kenya and 1 in Cape Town, and has supported 21 entrepreneurs so far.

Two of their entrepreneurs, Kyai Mullei and Dave Mark, explained their venture MChanga to us:

• With Kenya’s growth, there is more disposable income that can be spent on community issues like education, weddings, and funerals. There is no formal social safety net, so all the donations are informal, in cash.
• And since, culturally, it is an obligation to support your family up to your ability in Africa, their product works with mobile money to leverage this culture and crowdfund for these community issues.

Everyone from the Innovation Tour bought a local SIM card, and initiated their Mpesa accounts to be able to send money to each other, and we experimented with the product. We had fun setting up a fundraiser for Nathalie’s birthday, and we all contributed to it!

After our bit of fun, Lino Carcoforo, an investor from Innovate 4 Africa, (which supports Mchanga) joined the conversation. He told us how the biggest challenge was finding the right entrepreneurs and being hands-on enough with their projects. Innovate 4 Africa started with 50,000 USD and developed Mkazi and Mchanga. They are now setting up a $10 million fund to address the need to fill the gap between seed funding and large investments above $250k.

With our heads buzzing with information, we decided to take a quick shopping break. First we saw the awesome local fashion brand Chillimango, and then we took a trip to the Maasai Market at Junction mall to buy a few souvenirs!

Photo credit:  iHub

At 2pm it was time to get back to work—the Sharks were ready for our shark tank! With the iHUB team (Jessica Colacao and Anne Salim), we actually decided to set up a fun session, inspired by the reality TV show Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank. Following the model of the show, 5 early stage ventures in the education field had 5 minutes to present their pitch to 4-5 potential investors (aka, sharks) who will then assess their ideas and decide whether or not to invest in/mentor the startups.

We set up the stage in the iHUB UX lab room. Claude, Jean-Paul, and Alina from the tour joined Lino onstage—our sharks were ready!

The entrepreneurs who were swimming with the sharks were:

• Frank from Skoobox, which provides students with the platform to connect and collaborate.
• Mukeli from Smart Blackboard – a mobile phone application accessible by basic mobile phones and smart phones alike, which allows students to post questions while doing their homework or preparing for tests and receive answers from qualified teachers.
• Will Mutua from The Open Academy, which creates an open, innovative, supplementary, community-based, online and offline autodidactic education model.
• Muthuri from Shakili, a content distribution and knowledge-sharing platform that provides an easier way for teachers to publish, organize and share multimedia educational content online across devices.
• Janet Ngugi from StudyinKenya.co.ke, a web portal that allows users to search, find, and apply for courses offered in universities and colleges in Kenya.

At the beginning of the session, the sharks were going easy on the entrepreneurs…but as time went on, they got bloodthirsty!

Photo credit: iHub

But Janet, our last pitch, conquered the jury with her clear and scalable model. Lino proposed to host her and to mentor her and Jean-Paul gave her precious advice on her business plan. Business cards were exchanged. It looks like a possible investment could be underway…

After yet another long, intense day, we popped over to the Tree House for a concert where we met Samir and Charles who told us about Sunculture, their solar powered irrigation system that combines cost-effective solar-pumping technology with a high-efficiency drip irrigation system to help farmers grow more while spending less.

That was enough business—we spent the evening enjoying the music!

FRIDAY 20th: Let’s meet the youth!

With our ears still ringing from the night before, we woke up for our last day! This was the day for the really fun stuff—youth projects, slum activism, artists…the misfits.

We went to the inspiring Pawa254. The name is a play on words, inspired by the word “power” and Kenya’s telephone country code, 254. This is a coworking space for photographers and graffiti artists started by the now famous Boniface Mwangi, TED Fellow. It has a super cool vibe and offers amazing views of the Central Business District.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Frederick Odol, local TEDx curator and president of Network for Youth Advocacy Kenya. He told us his story about the post-electoral violence in 2007 and how his network of young people was fighting to have the new constitution truly implemented. Watch the documentary here.

This story put us in the right frame of mind to visit Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, and the largest urban slum in Africa, with over 500,000 people. The life expectancy there is estimated to be 30 years of age, compared to 54.2 years in the rest of Kenya.

It’s true that these statistics are alarming. And seeing slumlife firsthand has an impact on your heart and soul. However, the feeling that you walk away with is not despair. It’s hope, energy, and optimism. These are the overwhelming forces in the slums of Nairobi. People aren’t defeated. They are creative and resourceful.  (Click here to see a project by artist JR called Women are Heroes, which features Kibera.)

It was here that we met the team of Hot Sun Film School and Masai Mbili, who told us how they were fostering creatity in young people in the poorest places.

Nathan Collett, for example, implemented a hybrid system in which Hot Sun Productions (which makes for profit movies) funds Kibera TV and Hot Sun film school, where 12 carefully selected students are trained for 5 months in film production. 60% of the graduates actually work afterwards in the film industry, and they are opening a new school in the outskirts of Nairobi. Masai Mbili, on the other hand, is a community based artist group that was started in 2001, by two artists Otieno Gomba and Otieno Kota, who initially worked as sign writers in Kibera.

After meeting these inspiring artists and having a stroll around the streets of Kibera, we had lunch at the Ecozoom office. We even got to test the charcoal and fire cooking stoves. The Ecozoom team showed us how their stoves are more efficient and cleaner than traditional stoves. So far, the company has sold 90,000 stoves in 14 countries. The cost is only $35, and the positive effects of switching to an Ecozoom stove are immense. The efficient stoves save money on fuel, lessen environmental impact, and are much more favorable for the user’s health. Cooking with traditional charcoal or firewood stove is actually like smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day, and more than 3 billion people in the world are still using them daily. Furthermore, traditional fuels are expensive! A household in an emerging country can spend up to 30% of their income on energy, compared with only 2% in the US. Products like Ecozoom stoves can help to improve the lives of those at the base of the pyramid by answering an essential market need.

We were ready to switch gears again! We joined the Hackathon of Innovate Kenya at Storymoja Hay Festival, the largest literary event in East Africa.

Jacob was asking 150 young students from different high schools which community problems they would like to tackle, how they would do it, and which project they would set up. We were amazed by the creativity and energy these youths.

Chief Nyamweya from Kenya Noir was there, the fantastic comic book writer who is releasing his new cartoon, the Hands Off Our Elephants campaign, and is head of “the African Pixar” Tsunami Studio.

After a 4-day whirlwind, the end of the trip had arrived! Our heads were full to the brim with so many new ideas, contacts, and potential collaboration. Even though some of the group were lucky enough to travel to  Zanzibar or go on safari in the Masai Mara the next day, we were all already thinking of the next steps and how to follow up with our potential collaborations. Why not return in the next few months to strengthen these new relationships, to dive deeper into the Nairobi Innovation ecosystem, and to become even more connected with this beautiful city? 

We at The A Factor feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude toward our friends and colleagues in Nairobi. Thank you to everyone who shared their time and expertise with us, thereby making this Innovation Tour possible. We couldn’t have done it without you!

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We would like to give our condolences and express our sadness for our friends who have been affected by the attack on the Westgate Mall. We are with you in spirit.