Bob Dipasquale of HumorQ Talks about His Startup
Where are you from originally?
I was the youngest of six children in my family and I was born in Buffalo, New York in 1960. It was a bit of a bumpy start since my dad died when I was three of heart disease, and my mom died when I was 10 from cancer. Soon afterwards, my brothers and I went to live with my oldest sister in Vermont. I continued to start my own family there until November 2006 when we moved to Round Rock. I’m guessing that’s the longest, saddest, and most complicated answer you’ve ever gotten for that question.
What university did you go to?
I guess I want to add to the short list of successful people that didn’t go. I worked as a co-op for IBM when I was in high school, and soon after graduating I got a job in their manufacturing area. I taught myself some software skills, and now after 32 years with them, I’m working remote as an application developer and release engineer for their semiconductor plant in Burlington Vermont. I’ve learned a lot more than software of course by being an IBMer.
What brought you to Austin?
A good Google Earth shot right about now would tell that story best. Winter is long and brutal there and my wife and I really enjoy warm weather. The sister that acted as my guardian ended up here and her grown children and families are here too. Housing, college for my teenage girls, and opportunity are big additional reasons that made Austin a great choice.
What is the idea behind your startup?
I’ve always had a side of me that enjoys writing comedy. One of the ways I enjoy exercising those muscles is to participate in caption contests. I really started to get disappointed though at some of the winners and finalists being selected, so I put on my application developer hat and built one myself. It uses a selection method I call crowd-sifting where members judge other members, and the best rise to the top. As I developed it, I realized we can provide feedback for every captioner, and actually put a reasonable metric on how funny someone is. So HumorQ.com does just that.
What need does it fulfill?
A lot of people would say they don’t need to put a number on how funny they are. There’s still a lot of people that say they don’t need to put a number on how smart they are either. But, there’s a large population of people that are curious and want to know. If we can create a widely accepted humorq, we’ve established a valuable metric for many industries involving creativity and humor.
What exactly does your product do?
HumorQ measures two things for a member, the popularity of their captions, and their ability to recognize popular captions when they are judging the captions of others. It uses an algorithm that calculates and maintains a humorq for each member which is a number between 1 and 200. I’ve built it such that your humorq requires maintenance. Just because you we’re funny last year, doesn’t mean you’re funny now.
Who is it for?
It’s for creative directors, advertising executives, script writers, greeting card writers, singles, bored housewives, and everyone with a handheld device and five minutes for a creative exercise.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business?
I would use the word ‘is’ rather than ‘was’. I’ve built a working prototype, and a very modest membership base, but I’m finding the most challenging part to be building a team.
What is the next step for you and your startup?
Building a team is the obvious next step, and as I mentioned a significant challenge. I think there are probably many readers that see the merit and potential of this idea. At the same time, they see the captain of the ship with no degree, no startup experience, and oh yeah … no money, and their better judgment sends them in another direction. I need to find equity partners that can fill those significant voids. I need person(s) that are smart enough to know that most ideas are dead without the right team, but that there are some ideas that quite frankly don’t deserve to be dead. I’m ready to give up all but control in exchange for a team of people that can put this together with me and bring the capital needed to get going. Meet with me, and I’ll show you my business plan and that I have what it takes to grow this idea with the right teammates and vendors. So visit the web site http://www.humorq.com , and contact me (Bob DiPasquale) by email bob@humorq.com.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
Simply said. Don’t give up.
What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
I took the Startup Business Class offered by the Austin Entrepreneur Network. It was extremely eye opening, and I made some significant contacts there. It taught me about the many facets and levels of startups, and exposed me to a group of people all nurturing ideas at different steps along the journey. I’m very grateful for what that experience extended to me.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Terry Chase Hazell Talks about RampCorp
Terry Chase Hazell Talks about RampCorp
Where are you from originally?
I’m originally from Pottstown Pennsylvania, then home of Mrs. Smith’s pies. We used to throw plastic army men into the pumpkin trucks as they went under the climbing tree in the front of our house. I still look for those men in pumpkin pies. I moved to Maryland in High School and lived in Maryland until I moved to Georgetown Texas in 2008.
What university did you go to?
I went to the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP). I almost became a life-time Terp!
My internship in High School was with Martek Biosciences Corporation and they did work at the scale-up facility at UMCP. I went to UMCP as an undergrad, then managed their scale-up facility through graduate school, then started a spin-out company from UMCP, married a professor of UMCP (not one of mine!), moved my company into the incubator at UMCP, became a UMCP CCLS Board of visitor member, my kids went to the UMCP preschool, I spoke at commencement, I started a second company at UMCP….finally decided 20 years was enough and moved to Texas.
What brought you to Austin?
We wanted to relocate within Maryland, but I met some Texans at NIH and they told me of the “magical” entrepreneurial environment in Texas. I didn’t think “entrepreneurship” when I thought of Texas, so I visited to check it out. I loved Austin, but wanted to be a little bit out of town. My husband pointed at the map and said “check out this Georgetown”. I did and loved Georgetown’s mixture of small town feel but high-tech spirit. So we moved to Georgetown.
What is your group’s mission?
We aim to increase the number of women-led growth companies through-out Texas. Texas State RampCorp Austin provides training and coaching for women who are or who want to be running a scalable business.
What need does it fulfill?
Texas State RampCorp provides women with specialized coaching, and an access to network of men and women to learn knowledge and skills to more successfully scale their businesses. Also, we offer women the opportunity to gain support from other women building big businesses but starting small. Often women find themselves to be the only one in a group for scalable or technology entrepreneurship—we provide dozens of peers.
What exactly does it bring to startups?
Often our members have not started a business and they launch in the program. Start-ups that have already launched learn methods to lead, connect, fund and scale their business.
We teach 16 “Ramps” toward scaling your business. These Ramps include 8 knowledge and 8 skills that all entrepreneurs, especially women need to be successful. Check out our list of resources for one of our Ramps at http://www.mindmeister.com/74492521/the-ramps-scalable-business-model
We offer lots of one-on one coaching and access to our expanded networking. Check out the team of investors, inventors and entrepreneurs providing help… http://www.txstate.edu/rampcorp/team.html
We offer women “sponsorship”—meaning we get them connected with people and organizations they need to know and we advocate for them. Once such organization is Springboard Enterprises that has helped women raise $5 Billion.
See some of the quotes from women helped by our team…
http://www.txstate.edu/rampcorp/Team-info.html
What type of startup would benefit from your group?
We’re looking for startups led by a CEO with the determination to grow the company beyond her own labor, to serve a national or international market, to choose a scalable business model and to generate economic value for her and her company’s stakeholders.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the initiative?
The most challenging aspect of launching in Texas was finding a University brave enough to bet on training for women entrepreneurs to launch scalable and emerging technology ventures. It was also challenging to branch away from the ACTiVATE program. Although challenging, both items worked out great.
RampCorp is a program of Texas State University and I don’t think we could have found a better place to grow. Texas State funded the program and not only continues to support it, but has expanded all commercialization efforts. Texas State is agile, hungry for connection with companies and forward thinking. I may like the Bobcats better than my Terps now—but don’t tell.
I came to Texas with the idea to run the ACTiVATE program just like the University of Maryland Baltimore County program where I taught. I led the first expansion out of Maryland and used the name with permission from UMBC. I found we needed to make so many changes to fit Texas that what is now RampCorp didn’t fit the vision of the ACTiVATE program—so we branched away. ACTiVATE is a great program and continues in Texas and is now expanding in many other locations outside of Maryland.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
For women, to realize that we do often think and learn differently and to seek entrepreneurship training and support to understand those differences, optimize differences that are strengths and improve where differences hurt competitiveness. At the same time, remember your network is your greatest asset and spend the time to build and maintain it.
What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
Number 1 is certainly Texas State!
Coining Austin as the Human Capital is very apt. I found the people to be the best resource. Robin Curle, the “Galaxy of Entrepreneurship” has been a change agent, leading instructor and champion for our program. The Austin Chamber was immensely helpful and introduced me to resources, connected me and helped find a “home” for the training program. Terapio and Curt Bilby helped me get connected and provided some temporary employment as I transitioned. The entrepreneurship scene stewards group and Bijoy’s great map of entrepreneurship scene is a model for many cities. So I guess those Texans at NIH were right—“magical”.
Where are you from originally?
I’m originally from Pottstown Pennsylvania, then home of Mrs. Smith’s pies. We used to throw plastic army men into the pumpkin trucks as they went under the climbing tree in the front of our house. I still look for those men in pumpkin pies. I moved to Maryland in High School and lived in Maryland until I moved to Georgetown Texas in 2008.
What university did you go to?
I went to the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP). I almost became a life-time Terp!
My internship in High School was with Martek Biosciences Corporation and they did work at the scale-up facility at UMCP. I went to UMCP as an undergrad, then managed their scale-up facility through graduate school, then started a spin-out company from UMCP, married a professor of UMCP (not one of mine!), moved my company into the incubator at UMCP, became a UMCP CCLS Board of visitor member, my kids went to the UMCP preschool, I spoke at commencement, I started a second company at UMCP….finally decided 20 years was enough and moved to Texas.
What brought you to Austin?
We wanted to relocate within Maryland, but I met some Texans at NIH and they told me of the “magical” entrepreneurial environment in Texas. I didn’t think “entrepreneurship” when I thought of Texas, so I visited to check it out. I loved Austin, but wanted to be a little bit out of town. My husband pointed at the map and said “check out this Georgetown”. I did and loved Georgetown’s mixture of small town feel but high-tech spirit. So we moved to Georgetown.
What is your group’s mission?
We aim to increase the number of women-led growth companies through-out Texas. Texas State RampCorp Austin provides training and coaching for women who are or who want to be running a scalable business.
What need does it fulfill?
Texas State RampCorp provides women with specialized coaching, and an access to network of men and women to learn knowledge and skills to more successfully scale their businesses. Also, we offer women the opportunity to gain support from other women building big businesses but starting small. Often women find themselves to be the only one in a group for scalable or technology entrepreneurship—we provide dozens of peers.
What exactly does it bring to startups?
Often our members have not started a business and they launch in the program. Start-ups that have already launched learn methods to lead, connect, fund and scale their business.
We teach 16 “Ramps” toward scaling your business. These Ramps include 8 knowledge and 8 skills that all entrepreneurs, especially women need to be successful. Check out our list of resources for one of our Ramps at http://www.mindmeister.com/74492521/the-ramps-scalable-business-model
We offer lots of one-on one coaching and access to our expanded networking. Check out the team of investors, inventors and entrepreneurs providing help… http://www.txstate.edu/rampcorp/team.html
We offer women “sponsorship”—meaning we get them connected with people and organizations they need to know and we advocate for them. Once such organization is Springboard Enterprises that has helped women raise $5 Billion.
See some of the quotes from women helped by our team…
http://www.txstate.edu/rampcorp/Team-info.html
What type of startup would benefit from your group?
We’re looking for startups led by a CEO with the determination to grow the company beyond her own labor, to serve a national or international market, to choose a scalable business model and to generate economic value for her and her company’s stakeholders.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the initiative?
The most challenging aspect of launching in Texas was finding a University brave enough to bet on training for women entrepreneurs to launch scalable and emerging technology ventures. It was also challenging to branch away from the ACTiVATE program. Although challenging, both items worked out great.
RampCorp is a program of Texas State University and I don’t think we could have found a better place to grow. Texas State funded the program and not only continues to support it, but has expanded all commercialization efforts. Texas State is agile, hungry for connection with companies and forward thinking. I may like the Bobcats better than my Terps now—but don’t tell.
I came to Texas with the idea to run the ACTiVATE program just like the University of Maryland Baltimore County program where I taught. I led the first expansion out of Maryland and used the name with permission from UMBC. I found we needed to make so many changes to fit Texas that what is now RampCorp didn’t fit the vision of the ACTiVATE program—so we branched away. ACTiVATE is a great program and continues in Texas and is now expanding in many other locations outside of Maryland.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
For women, to realize that we do often think and learn differently and to seek entrepreneurship training and support to understand those differences, optimize differences that are strengths and improve where differences hurt competitiveness. At the same time, remember your network is your greatest asset and spend the time to build and maintain it.
What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
Number 1 is certainly Texas State!
Coining Austin as the Human Capital is very apt. I found the people to be the best resource. Robin Curle, the “Galaxy of Entrepreneurship” has been a change agent, leading instructor and champion for our program. The Austin Chamber was immensely helpful and introduced me to resources, connected me and helped find a “home” for the training program. Terapio and Curt Bilby helped me get connected and provided some temporary employment as I transitioned. The entrepreneurship scene stewards group and Bijoy’s great map of entrepreneurship scene is a model for many cities. So I guess those Texans at NIH were right—“magical”.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Austin Venture's AV Hours -- A First Look
I encourage startups to meet with investors well before they go out to raise funding to understand better the investors criteria and to build a relationship. Many investors want to see how well the entrepreneur executes on their plan so it's best to take the investor on the journey with you. By the time you go out to raise funding you should have 20 to 30 investors who you are keeping up to date on your progress.
One investor to consider is Austin Ventures. They have dedicated a portion of their fund to early stage, emerging technology companies. Last year they funded Spredfast.
The February 22nd "AV Entrepreneur Hours" event is coming up. To join you can email them at entrepreneurhours@austinventures.com, and give a brief description of your new project. Selected entrepreneurs will get a 20 minute time slot. By Friday the 18th, they will post or email the schedule for the meeting.
Best regards,
Hall T.
One investor to consider is Austin Ventures. They have dedicated a portion of their fund to early stage, emerging technology companies. Last year they funded Spredfast.
The February 22nd "AV Entrepreneur Hours" event is coming up. To join you can email them at entrepreneurhours@austinventures.com, and give a brief description of your new project. Selected entrepreneurs will get a 20 minute time slot. By Friday the 18th, they will post or email the schedule for the meeting.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Got Funded: A Rounds in Austin Start-ups!
Texchange Austin will hold its next event on Tues, Feb 8, from 6 to 8pm at the AT&T Center
Austin's high-tech entrepreneur CEOs will share their stories about the journey of their start-ups from concept to funding. They will share the positives of their rides, the "avoid this" list and hints and tips to get a start-up from idea to funding. They will share how their journeys as first time leaders/founders of start-ups put them at an advantage or disadvantage in the current funding climate. The "repeat offenders" aka "serial entrepreneurs will share how this time was different than in the past. The CEOs on the panel and the discussion leaders have raised their first institutional round of capital for their companies from Austin to California and beyond in the past year.
The Moderator: Kip McClanahan, Partner, Silverton Partners
The Panelists are:
Brian Magierski, CEO & Founder, Appconomy
Rick Orr, CEO, TabbedOut
Larry Warnock, CEO, Gazzang
To register Click here.
Austin's high-tech entrepreneur CEOs will share their stories about the journey of their start-ups from concept to funding. They will share the positives of their rides, the "avoid this" list and hints and tips to get a start-up from idea to funding. They will share how their journeys as first time leaders/founders of start-ups put them at an advantage or disadvantage in the current funding climate. The "repeat offenders" aka "serial entrepreneurs will share how this time was different than in the past. The CEOs on the panel and the discussion leaders have raised their first institutional round of capital for their companies from Austin to California and beyond in the past year.
The Moderator: Kip McClanahan, Partner, Silverton Partners
The Panelists are:
Brian Magierski, CEO & Founder, Appconomy
Rick Orr, CEO, TabbedOut
Larry Warnock, CEO, Gazzang
To register Click here.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Top Ten Trends 2011-- Cloud Computing
For several years now, cloud computing has been coming such that there are over 50 Million servers installed today. The amount of digital information increased by 73 percent in 2008 to an estimated 487 billion gigabytes, today. In 2011, cloud computing will become mainstream and supplant the PC-centric model. Computing hardware you see in the office will start to disappear as functions shift to the cloud -- storage, backups, large memory models, and numerical processing, will lead the shift. Netbooks which topped the trends list last year are now being replaced by tablets.
Software applications such as Microsoft Word will move from your desktop to the cloud as well. You won’t need your own personal copy of Word -- just an instance of it for a project. In fact, most application development will shift from the PC to the cloud.
Online backup which is common today will continue to grow as desktop applications will follow.
I’ve developed a list of the Top Ten trends for 2011. Actually, it’s a list of ten areas with the major trends in each one. If you are considering a startup you may want to look at these trends as a source of direction. If you runa business you may find these trends a wake up call for what you should be doing to grow your business. I’ll be coming to a group near you soon.
Best regards,
Hall T
Software applications such as Microsoft Word will move from your desktop to the cloud as well. You won’t need your own personal copy of Word -- just an instance of it for a project. In fact, most application development will shift from the PC to the cloud.
Online backup which is common today will continue to grow as desktop applications will follow.
I’ve developed a list of the Top Ten trends for 2011. Actually, it’s a list of ten areas with the major trends in each one. If you are considering a startup you may want to look at these trends as a source of direction. If you runa business you may find these trends a wake up call for what you should be doing to grow your business. I’ll be coming to a group near you soon.
Best regards,
Hall T
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Liz Elam of Link Coworking Talks about Her CoWorking Space
Liz Elam of Link Coworking Talks about Her CoWorking Space
Where are you from originally?
I graduated from Westwood High School right here in Austin, Texas. My childhood was spent in Virginia and Vermont, where my Dad was an IBM Executive.
What university did you go to?
I have a Bachelors of Science from Texas A&M. I majored in journalism and minored in marketing.
What brought you to Austin?
I moved back to Austin from Italy in 2008 to open a coworking business here in Austin.
What is your group’s mission?
Link Coworking’s mission is to build a community that brings people together who share the need for a place to conduct their business in an interactive space.
What need does it fulfill?
We have a huge workforce that is conducting business from their homes or coffee shops and they desperately need a professional space.
What exactly does it bring to startups?
Link brings a supportive community for collaborate and support for a startup buisness.
What type of startup would benefit from your group?
Anyone who needs a professional space to conduct their business, wants to work amongst other knowledge workers and/or hold a meeting could benefit from Link Coworking.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the initiative?
Finding the right physical space for the business was a real challenge. I was looking for a space that was:
1. Less than a mile off of Mopac
2. Plenty of parking
3. First floor
4. Covered outdoor seating
5. Walking distance to retail spaces and restaurants
It took me about a year to find the ideal space, but once I found it, I knew in my gut it was right.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
Follow your gut. Period. End of story.
What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
SCORE was critical to my success. I was immediately paired with a counselor who came from a similar industry. She was with me step by step through my business plan, and we even looked at lots and lots of possible locations until we found the one we both agreed was it. She listened, encouraged and celebrated my success and patiently helped me through the entire process.
The other resource I must mention is the Austin Cosmopolitan Rotary Club. ACRC is the younger hip version of your father’s Rotary club. My fellow Rotarians encouraged me, supported me and even built furniture with me. It is a great place to network and build business relationships. I even found my web designer and insurance agent through Rotary.
Where are you from originally?
I graduated from Westwood High School right here in Austin, Texas. My childhood was spent in Virginia and Vermont, where my Dad was an IBM Executive.
What university did you go to?
I have a Bachelors of Science from Texas A&M. I majored in journalism and minored in marketing.
What brought you to Austin?
I moved back to Austin from Italy in 2008 to open a coworking business here in Austin.
What is your group’s mission?
Link Coworking’s mission is to build a community that brings people together who share the need for a place to conduct their business in an interactive space.
What need does it fulfill?
We have a huge workforce that is conducting business from their homes or coffee shops and they desperately need a professional space.
What exactly does it bring to startups?
Link brings a supportive community for collaborate and support for a startup buisness.
What type of startup would benefit from your group?
Anyone who needs a professional space to conduct their business, wants to work amongst other knowledge workers and/or hold a meeting could benefit from Link Coworking.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the initiative?
Finding the right physical space for the business was a real challenge. I was looking for a space that was:
1. Less than a mile off of Mopac
2. Plenty of parking
3. First floor
4. Covered outdoor seating
5. Walking distance to retail spaces and restaurants
It took me about a year to find the ideal space, but once I found it, I knew in my gut it was right.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
Follow your gut. Period. End of story.
What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
SCORE was critical to my success. I was immediately paired with a counselor who came from a similar industry. She was with me step by step through my business plan, and we even looked at lots and lots of possible locations until we found the one we both agreed was it. She listened, encouraged and celebrated my success and patiently helped me through the entire process.
The other resource I must mention is the Austin Cosmopolitan Rotary Club. ACRC is the younger hip version of your father’s Rotary club. My fellow Rotarians encouraged me, supported me and even built furniture with me. It is a great place to network and build business relationships. I even found my web designer and insurance agent through Rotary.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Maggie Miller is the founder of discover hope fund, a non-profit organization providing micro loans and education to impoverished women in Peru. These loans can be as small as $150 but they enable women to feed their families, send their children to school, and improve the communities they live in. When an opportunity to travel to Peru came along in 2004 Maggie went knowing that she was looking for her next move, but not knowing what that would be. She found the answer, what would become discover hope fund, by simply asking the Peruvian women what they wanted for themselves and listening to their answers. Discover Hope funds holiday of hope benefit is taking place next Wednesday, December 8, at Mercury hall. You can get more details at Discover Hope .
I think that the work you’re doing with Discover Hope Fund is really pretty amazing stuff. Explain how the program works.
The mission statement has two program goals; one of those goals is microcredit for women who are living on less than $2 a day, and the other one is training which is access to knowledge and information for those women. So microcredit is not a new concept; I wish I would have invented it but I didn't. It's the idea of giving these small loans, or access to credit, to women (traditionally world wide) and ill talk about that in a second. To initiate or grow their small businesses. And worldwide 97% of the borrowers are women and the reason for that is women have the ultimate care for their children at the end of the day. They have the responsibility to feed them and clothe them and educate them. And women in developing world also wont traditionally have access to other means of credit. Their only access would traditionally be a loan shark that would charge them up to 50-70% a day at times. So that first goal is really giving access to credit. The loans do look like, as you said, $100$150 to initiate and grow a small business. To me that's like the fishing pole, that old saying that we all have heard many times that I love which is teach a person to fish instead of giving them a fish. So microcredit is the fishing pole, it’s a tool, it’s an amazing tool used world wide to help lift people out of the situation of poverty. But at Discover Hope we really feel that there is a part 2. And that's when you give a tool to somebody that they've never had in their hands before, that you have the ultimate responsibility to teach them to maximize the potential of that tool. If I gave you a fishing pole and you've never fished before, you've never seen this thing you would not know how to use it. So what we do is we ask the women in our microcredit program “what else do you want and need to maximize yourself as a women, as a mother as an entrepreneur”. And then the trick is to listen. To listen to what they want.
What do they want?
What they say they want has been things like literacy for themselves, health education for themselves and how to care for their families. Issues like respiratory illness and disease, gynecology, those types of issues.
But how do those types of education, how does that help them run their businesses?
So those are two of the top personal things they ask for, so still kind of going down the line of what they want. The other areas have more focus towards their business, which is business particular classes they ask for business and finance classes. Now remember literacy is also mathematical literacy. And if someone doesn't know how to compute a day’s work, that is about $5, $10, then they don't know if they've lost or gained at the end of the day. So business classes, finances classes, classes that has to do with their type of business in general, that looks like veterinary workshops on how to care for their animals, a lot of them work in agriculture and husbandry. Creating artisan works, jewelry, t-shirt stamping, weaving, crocheting. Whatever they ask for. Last year we did 72 types of artisan classes alone. So again, it’s really about listening to what they want. One last big area is culinary as well. We have a lot of women who do fresh food production on the streets. They want to learn how to add to their menu, or bake cakes for Quincineras, or whatever they need. So again the high level goals are microcredit, that access to credit, and training which is access to knowledge.
Is the training typical among other microloan organizations, because I mean, that's really an amazing piece?
I wouldn't say it’s typical. It does exist. There are some really great organizations; one of my favorites is Freedom From Hunger out of Davis California. They have a credit plus education model that I think they really well developed. There are other microcredit borrowing mechanisms that are really just about you paying into the loan or the loan money itself. At Discover Hope we kind of have the stance that that’s just really not enough. And I think some of that comes from the background of being in the field and watching microcredit in action for several years and working with different organizations and seeing that the biggest question is how paternalistic can you be about a microcredit loan. Do you give $100 and make sure they go to the store and buy the goods that they said they said they wanted to buy for their business. So I guess the trick is that if you give the credits, the education side to the credit, you've actually given them a path for how to best maximize that tool. When a woman leaves our classes and she’s learned to make a pair of earrings, and she sells it on the street for $2 ten minutes later she’s going to go buy more jewelry materials. When a woman bakes a cake in a culinary class and sells it to her neighbor for her daughter’s event, her quincinera, she’s going to go invest in more product.
Tell us about actually the loan payback rate. These are women who haven’t had access to money before and now they’re getting it.
Absolutely. Worldwide microcredit is very successful. The payback rate in the world is %97 98% success and these are entrepreneurs that don't have any collateral at all. Its not like you can go take their home from them or their car from them. Our payback rate at Discover Hope is 100% and were really proud of that. And what I think that that speaks to is the ownership and the accountability that people are willing to take on for themselves to make a sustainable change for their families. Its not just like hey give me some money and I’m going to take off with this money. Its I’m willing to pay back this money in 4-6 months which is a typical loan cycle. So they may take $150 $100 depending on the interview you've had with them and what they want to do with that money and their going to pay back over 4 to six months. Now the way that that works is in a mechanism called the village bank. It’s also known as community bank or community groups, communal banks. That is a group of 6-8 women or 6-25 women (it matters what origination your working with). Ours is 6-25 women that basically borrow together as a unit. So they have each other’s backs so to speak and this is called social collateral and this is used world wide in micro credit.
Right and another key thing, what you just said about here in the United States. Now they are trying microcredit models in the United States but one of the keys that makes it work internationally is communities are not mobile like they are in the United States. When your born in a community, unless you have kind of gotten a break, gotten an education and gotten out of our community, you’re going to remain in this community for your entire life. So, the trust, and what people think of you, and your home unit and your family unit is always in that community which makes that social collateral bond really strong. So that's another big point about it working internationally.
That is so interesting. Maggie I want to find out how you came to do this work. So you have a Bachelors degree from George Washington university, a master’s of communication from San Diego state, you graduated summa cum lade from both, and you had a full athletic scholarship for soccer. So how did you come to help poor women in Peru?
So the short answer is the still small voice, that's my short answer and I’ll tell you what that means. After my masters I started working in San Diego for an amazing non-profit and what I did there, the mission was stop children from killing children. And my job was to create peace education for kids that are from gang families. For anyone that can see me in this interview I definitely don't look like I have… You know I’m white, I have blue eyes, I grew up in the mid-west, and I didn't have trouble in my family. And so my job was how to relate to kids that were really having difficult times in their family. No matter how they looked it was just different experiences. And the thing I learned the most from these kids was ask them what they want. So they wrote this curriculum, which was eventually called Peace works, and it still exists to this day in the organization in San Diego. Shortly after that, one day in quietude of my home, I heard this internal call, and that call was go see con otros ojos.
And it was in Spanish?
It was half Spanish half English. Go see con otros ojos—go see with other eyes. And being in San Diego, which was a beautiful place to live, working for a wonderful origination, doing fine financially. I loved the beach, the people, the friendships. And hearing something that kind of shifted inside me and made me uncomfortable, lets just say I wasn't happy about it. So for the next three months, I just kept inquiring internally about that call. What does this really mean? What does this mean for me? And at the end of that kind of contemplation period, what it really meant for me was going outside the boundaries of the United States and seeing myself from another perspective. And so at that point I shared this with my coworkers and gave an 8 month notice, ended up giving away all my things I sold everything I had, gave most of it away, paid off my debts, had nothing at the end, and I mean I had my health and goodness so you know I didn't have nothing but I took off on March 4, 2004 to the mountains of Peru with about $7000 in investor money. It was an investment in the idea that I would create a project once I got there. And once I did get there, I spent about the first three months asking women, “what do you want.” and they all said the same thing they all said, “We want a hand up and not a hand out.” We don't want you to give us something that's going to go away tomorrow.
Were they happy to talk to you? I mean here you are you've described yourself; I mean blonde hair blue eyed white chick from America. Are they happy to talk to you?
Someone asked me that recently, and I think the trick is really being in their situation with them and taking interest in what they were doing and went to the places that were important to them. In the markets, in the fields…
Did you just walk up to them and say, “Hi”?
Well I think that the confidence came from them seeing that I wasn't going away. I wasn't a week visitor, I wasn't two days visiting, I wasn't a month visiting. After about 3 weeks they were like this chicks sticking around you know, lets see what she’s all about. I think it's a funny part of the story, but my real name is Madelyn. So obviously in a very catholic nation the name Madelyn is a very revered figure, Mary Madelyn. So it was kind of an open door as well. “Oh well what’s your name”, oh Magdalena “oh well wow, you must be an angel. What are you doing in town?” So it was almost a kind of a conversation starter. And just asking about their families. I just didn't immediately say what do you want. You now, what is your life like, tell me about your business tell me about your family and creating friendship and trust that way.
And so then, its one thing to hear theses stories, its thing to make that real.
Right. So at about 6 months into the project I wrote the investors and said look, what I would like to do is create a microcredit pilot project. I started studying along this time microcredit models, and what microcredit meant and how it worked and just kept in touch with these folks. And all of them said do it, go for it. So what I did was start doing the first generation of loans to women and really for the next year and a half I ran this pilot project called hope bank and hope bank was the predecessor to Discover Hope, the non-profit. Hope bank was really the experiment of how microcredit really works in the field, programmatically, what does it really look like. A lot of people hear of microcredit but how it unfolds in the field is another story. Brining the bank to the people, which is the point of microcredit, not making people come to a bank. Getting to a rural bank in the mountains of the Andes or wherever it is it's a whole operation in itself. People exchanging $20 and
50 cents.
50 cents?
Yeah well a payment sometimes can look like $1.50 or whatnot so it’s really an amazing process to watch. And I ended up stunning with FIMCA who is out of Washington DC. FIMCA is a very large non-profit and this non-profit brought me to Guatemala to study with them. And what I saw was the questions that I was seeing as a small guy, small organization, were the same with the large organization. They had the same kind of questions of how to do microcredit best. So after 2 years time of being there I knew I had to come back to the US and legitimize the structure as a non-profit. And I did that in 2006 and Discover Hope was born.
Maggie share with us some of the success stories that you've seen thanks to these microloans from Discover Hope Fund.
Okay with our interest with time I’m just going to share what my favorite success story is. We track the income the women make based on the trainings they take with us. So they’ve taken a cake training, therefore, they've started making cakes they didn't make before and they’re selling them now. you could use any product. So we track that total, we ask women to report those totals, and what that looks for us now, is nearly $10,000 plus in income for women.
You mean one woman is making $10,000?
No no 10,000 total dollars. So if you’re talking about, at this point, 175 women with active loan cycles right now. So when you’re talking about somebody that's making $2 a day, to me it's a great success to know that, on the income side, their lives are totally changing. Where one of our women, for example, made maybe $20 a month total, she’s making $20 a week right now.
She’s one of our women that came to our chocolate making class and created a chocolate business out of it. And she got really fancy about it. Like for the holidays, mothers day, fathers day, Christmas, she does coffee mugs. And through our computer class, she learned to do some electronic images on the coffee cups with messages that she got done at a local printing shop, and stuffed some with her homemade chocolates. So her business is a total success something she didn't do before.
So she has quadrupled her income! So how does that translate to her family in terms of what they could now do that they couldn't before?
Right. So, where money usually goes that you’ll traditionally see as microcredit starts boosting a family they'll do several things with it. The first thing they'll do with it is make sure that their kids get food. They'll start replacing things like instead of eating a piece of bread for breakfast and lunch, or bread for breakfast and lunch, they'll add in some protein there if they can. So it happens to work through how their kids are eating. The second area is school. It's a catholic nation where school is free, supposedly, but all kids have to go to school in a uniform and they have to get supplies and so those supplies and uniform may equate to $30 a year. And its sometimes just money that they cannot get together. They can’t get ahead that much. And so they'll put it right into that school pot right away along with the food. And the third thing is really house improvement. You’ll see, it's a poverty indicator; the first indicator of poverty is floor type. So a family with a dirt floor will often finish their floor into concrete. Or the adobe walls, they'll finish their walls with paint or concrete. So that home improvement is kind of another area you’ll see as well.
How do the husbands feel about the women being the one to provide these types of things for their families?
Right. So a lot of the women we work with are either widowed or single, or they have different fathers to their children. I think there are a lot of interesting dynamics that we don't have to talk about today, but with women being in a less powerful situation and not always choosing their mates, and when they want to mate with somebody and then having children, and having the responsibility of their children and then not always having a collaborative partner to raise those kids. So a lot of our women are in those situations. Now when they do have a family unit, and the husband or partner is involved, I think the most important thing that you can do is engage that male in a conversation. What we do is called the pre interview, before a woman ever gets money. That includes asking about her family situation, socioeconomic situation, the husband has to be involved in that interview.
So making sure it will be successful before you give the money?
Right. We do the interview with everybody to make sure what they really need and they've thought through what they really need. If they need $30 really for what they propose they don't need $100. The end goal is to do no harm. You want to help not harm. So if someone needs 30 don't give them 100. If their propensity to pay is for a $50 loan don't give them a $200 loan.
What if there was a husband that was hostile to the idea of this? Does that factor into whether or not they get the loan?
Yea. It would because you don't want to put a women into a dangerous situation without a doubt. We’ve had very little situations like this. So, you have the interview with this family. If the husband is drunk or violent or if there is an issue there we talk with the women further is this really the best thing for you to do. It seems like a dangerous situation. Sometimes they’ll get handy and they'll borrow through like a family member will take the loan under their name. The other way we really befriend the male side is we do a lot of work with community leaders and neighborhood leaders, and these leaders are all males in this culture. So when you have the trust of those leaders, information travels by what we call passé la vois (pass the voice). Its old school you know, its not texting messages like “Maggie’s a good person, meet with her.” Its people passing the information on that you’re a good person doing a good thing and you’re organization can be trusted. If that passa la vois happens and it’s positive for you, it’s usually a-ok. Now the last thing is that if you’re engaging a male in the discussion and it's a family business, and a lot of it happens in agriculture and husbandry, they’re raising animals as a family unit, they’re getting grains to sell in the market, or they’re making wood structures a lot of the stuff is happening in the family—they have a family store. And if you just have that conversation with the family it’s often seen that it could benefit the family business rather than be a detriment. It’s not a power struggle it’s meant to lift a family.
Maggie December 8 is your Holiday of Hope Benefit Gala. Tell us about it.
Okay so on December 8, this is our last event of the year. Holiday of Hope is in our third year. What it will look like is just an evening of fun. Well have some Latin jazz, some wonderful food and drink, and a silent and live auction with some wonderful things that the community has kind of contributed to our organization. And if anyone would like any more information about that they can go to our website which you said is www.discoverhopefund.org.
How much are you hoping to raise?
Our raise goal for that evening is $20,000.
What does $20,000 translate into in the way of loans?
So for us $20,000 would give us… We’d like to do at least 150 new loans next year, but were also taking care of the women that are still in our system. And so they’re in their second or third or fourth generation loans because you usually go 10 cycles with a women to get them some savings for their lives. So we have these 150 going and we want another 150 and then we want to do 375 trainings next year.
And you know longer term, maybe 3 years from now.
What are your goals for Discover Hope Fund?
So we have several high level goals. Longer term would be we have two sights waiting for us to come to them right now. One is in Peruvian Ecuadorian border, another area in Northern Andes that we have a local partner at that we need to raise the money ourselves to have these sites. So we want new sites. We’re also looking at Mexico for a site. And then another high-level goal is to package up the model of what we do a-z, how do you do the micro credit plus model anywhere in the world and to really make that an available published accessible piece for people.
So kind of like a franchise kind of thing. Like plug in and..
It won’t be us leading all those all over the world. It will be giving people the knowledge if they would like to assume that into their organization or build it themselves.
Is it a hot topic, meaning are there a lot of people looking to do this?
Oh I get probably 2-4 emails a month, hey I'm in this country, I'm working with this partner, how are you doing what you’re doing? So I think the question for us is how can we leave a legacy if were small and we’re roots and we cant go to all these places what is the legacy you can pass on and that's how you do it actually.
I think that the work you’re doing with Discover Hope Fund is really pretty amazing stuff. Explain how the program works.
The mission statement has two program goals; one of those goals is microcredit for women who are living on less than $2 a day, and the other one is training which is access to knowledge and information for those women. So microcredit is not a new concept; I wish I would have invented it but I didn't. It's the idea of giving these small loans, or access to credit, to women (traditionally world wide) and ill talk about that in a second. To initiate or grow their small businesses. And worldwide 97% of the borrowers are women and the reason for that is women have the ultimate care for their children at the end of the day. They have the responsibility to feed them and clothe them and educate them. And women in developing world also wont traditionally have access to other means of credit. Their only access would traditionally be a loan shark that would charge them up to 50-70% a day at times. So that first goal is really giving access to credit. The loans do look like, as you said, $100$150 to initiate and grow a small business. To me that's like the fishing pole, that old saying that we all have heard many times that I love which is teach a person to fish instead of giving them a fish. So microcredit is the fishing pole, it’s a tool, it’s an amazing tool used world wide to help lift people out of the situation of poverty. But at Discover Hope we really feel that there is a part 2. And that's when you give a tool to somebody that they've never had in their hands before, that you have the ultimate responsibility to teach them to maximize the potential of that tool. If I gave you a fishing pole and you've never fished before, you've never seen this thing you would not know how to use it. So what we do is we ask the women in our microcredit program “what else do you want and need to maximize yourself as a women, as a mother as an entrepreneur”. And then the trick is to listen. To listen to what they want.
What do they want?
What they say they want has been things like literacy for themselves, health education for themselves and how to care for their families. Issues like respiratory illness and disease, gynecology, those types of issues.
But how do those types of education, how does that help them run their businesses?
So those are two of the top personal things they ask for, so still kind of going down the line of what they want. The other areas have more focus towards their business, which is business particular classes they ask for business and finance classes. Now remember literacy is also mathematical literacy. And if someone doesn't know how to compute a day’s work, that is about $5, $10, then they don't know if they've lost or gained at the end of the day. So business classes, finances classes, classes that has to do with their type of business in general, that looks like veterinary workshops on how to care for their animals, a lot of them work in agriculture and husbandry. Creating artisan works, jewelry, t-shirt stamping, weaving, crocheting. Whatever they ask for. Last year we did 72 types of artisan classes alone. So again, it’s really about listening to what they want. One last big area is culinary as well. We have a lot of women who do fresh food production on the streets. They want to learn how to add to their menu, or bake cakes for Quincineras, or whatever they need. So again the high level goals are microcredit, that access to credit, and training which is access to knowledge.
Is the training typical among other microloan organizations, because I mean, that's really an amazing piece?
I wouldn't say it’s typical. It does exist. There are some really great organizations; one of my favorites is Freedom From Hunger out of Davis California. They have a credit plus education model that I think they really well developed. There are other microcredit borrowing mechanisms that are really just about you paying into the loan or the loan money itself. At Discover Hope we kind of have the stance that that’s just really not enough. And I think some of that comes from the background of being in the field and watching microcredit in action for several years and working with different organizations and seeing that the biggest question is how paternalistic can you be about a microcredit loan. Do you give $100 and make sure they go to the store and buy the goods that they said they said they wanted to buy for their business. So I guess the trick is that if you give the credits, the education side to the credit, you've actually given them a path for how to best maximize that tool. When a woman leaves our classes and she’s learned to make a pair of earrings, and she sells it on the street for $2 ten minutes later she’s going to go buy more jewelry materials. When a woman bakes a cake in a culinary class and sells it to her neighbor for her daughter’s event, her quincinera, she’s going to go invest in more product.
Tell us about actually the loan payback rate. These are women who haven’t had access to money before and now they’re getting it.
Absolutely. Worldwide microcredit is very successful. The payback rate in the world is %97 98% success and these are entrepreneurs that don't have any collateral at all. Its not like you can go take their home from them or their car from them. Our payback rate at Discover Hope is 100% and were really proud of that. And what I think that that speaks to is the ownership and the accountability that people are willing to take on for themselves to make a sustainable change for their families. Its not just like hey give me some money and I’m going to take off with this money. Its I’m willing to pay back this money in 4-6 months which is a typical loan cycle. So they may take $150 $100 depending on the interview you've had with them and what they want to do with that money and their going to pay back over 4 to six months. Now the way that that works is in a mechanism called the village bank. It’s also known as community bank or community groups, communal banks. That is a group of 6-8 women or 6-25 women (it matters what origination your working with). Ours is 6-25 women that basically borrow together as a unit. So they have each other’s backs so to speak and this is called social collateral and this is used world wide in micro credit.
Right and another key thing, what you just said about here in the United States. Now they are trying microcredit models in the United States but one of the keys that makes it work internationally is communities are not mobile like they are in the United States. When your born in a community, unless you have kind of gotten a break, gotten an education and gotten out of our community, you’re going to remain in this community for your entire life. So, the trust, and what people think of you, and your home unit and your family unit is always in that community which makes that social collateral bond really strong. So that's another big point about it working internationally.
That is so interesting. Maggie I want to find out how you came to do this work. So you have a Bachelors degree from George Washington university, a master’s of communication from San Diego state, you graduated summa cum lade from both, and you had a full athletic scholarship for soccer. So how did you come to help poor women in Peru?
So the short answer is the still small voice, that's my short answer and I’ll tell you what that means. After my masters I started working in San Diego for an amazing non-profit and what I did there, the mission was stop children from killing children. And my job was to create peace education for kids that are from gang families. For anyone that can see me in this interview I definitely don't look like I have… You know I’m white, I have blue eyes, I grew up in the mid-west, and I didn't have trouble in my family. And so my job was how to relate to kids that were really having difficult times in their family. No matter how they looked it was just different experiences. And the thing I learned the most from these kids was ask them what they want. So they wrote this curriculum, which was eventually called Peace works, and it still exists to this day in the organization in San Diego. Shortly after that, one day in quietude of my home, I heard this internal call, and that call was go see con otros ojos.
And it was in Spanish?
It was half Spanish half English. Go see con otros ojos—go see with other eyes. And being in San Diego, which was a beautiful place to live, working for a wonderful origination, doing fine financially. I loved the beach, the people, the friendships. And hearing something that kind of shifted inside me and made me uncomfortable, lets just say I wasn't happy about it. So for the next three months, I just kept inquiring internally about that call. What does this really mean? What does this mean for me? And at the end of that kind of contemplation period, what it really meant for me was going outside the boundaries of the United States and seeing myself from another perspective. And so at that point I shared this with my coworkers and gave an 8 month notice, ended up giving away all my things I sold everything I had, gave most of it away, paid off my debts, had nothing at the end, and I mean I had my health and goodness so you know I didn't have nothing but I took off on March 4, 2004 to the mountains of Peru with about $7000 in investor money. It was an investment in the idea that I would create a project once I got there. And once I did get there, I spent about the first three months asking women, “what do you want.” and they all said the same thing they all said, “We want a hand up and not a hand out.” We don't want you to give us something that's going to go away tomorrow.
Were they happy to talk to you? I mean here you are you've described yourself; I mean blonde hair blue eyed white chick from America. Are they happy to talk to you?
Someone asked me that recently, and I think the trick is really being in their situation with them and taking interest in what they were doing and went to the places that were important to them. In the markets, in the fields…
Did you just walk up to them and say, “Hi”?
Well I think that the confidence came from them seeing that I wasn't going away. I wasn't a week visitor, I wasn't two days visiting, I wasn't a month visiting. After about 3 weeks they were like this chicks sticking around you know, lets see what she’s all about. I think it's a funny part of the story, but my real name is Madelyn. So obviously in a very catholic nation the name Madelyn is a very revered figure, Mary Madelyn. So it was kind of an open door as well. “Oh well what’s your name”, oh Magdalena “oh well wow, you must be an angel. What are you doing in town?” So it was almost a kind of a conversation starter. And just asking about their families. I just didn't immediately say what do you want. You now, what is your life like, tell me about your business tell me about your family and creating friendship and trust that way.
And so then, its one thing to hear theses stories, its thing to make that real.
Right. So at about 6 months into the project I wrote the investors and said look, what I would like to do is create a microcredit pilot project. I started studying along this time microcredit models, and what microcredit meant and how it worked and just kept in touch with these folks. And all of them said do it, go for it. So what I did was start doing the first generation of loans to women and really for the next year and a half I ran this pilot project called hope bank and hope bank was the predecessor to Discover Hope, the non-profit. Hope bank was really the experiment of how microcredit really works in the field, programmatically, what does it really look like. A lot of people hear of microcredit but how it unfolds in the field is another story. Brining the bank to the people, which is the point of microcredit, not making people come to a bank. Getting to a rural bank in the mountains of the Andes or wherever it is it's a whole operation in itself. People exchanging $20 and
50 cents.
50 cents?
Yeah well a payment sometimes can look like $1.50 or whatnot so it’s really an amazing process to watch. And I ended up stunning with FIMCA who is out of Washington DC. FIMCA is a very large non-profit and this non-profit brought me to Guatemala to study with them. And what I saw was the questions that I was seeing as a small guy, small organization, were the same with the large organization. They had the same kind of questions of how to do microcredit best. So after 2 years time of being there I knew I had to come back to the US and legitimize the structure as a non-profit. And I did that in 2006 and Discover Hope was born.
Maggie share with us some of the success stories that you've seen thanks to these microloans from Discover Hope Fund.
Okay with our interest with time I’m just going to share what my favorite success story is. We track the income the women make based on the trainings they take with us. So they’ve taken a cake training, therefore, they've started making cakes they didn't make before and they’re selling them now. you could use any product. So we track that total, we ask women to report those totals, and what that looks for us now, is nearly $10,000 plus in income for women.
You mean one woman is making $10,000?
No no 10,000 total dollars. So if you’re talking about, at this point, 175 women with active loan cycles right now. So when you’re talking about somebody that's making $2 a day, to me it's a great success to know that, on the income side, their lives are totally changing. Where one of our women, for example, made maybe $20 a month total, she’s making $20 a week right now.
She’s one of our women that came to our chocolate making class and created a chocolate business out of it. And she got really fancy about it. Like for the holidays, mothers day, fathers day, Christmas, she does coffee mugs. And through our computer class, she learned to do some electronic images on the coffee cups with messages that she got done at a local printing shop, and stuffed some with her homemade chocolates. So her business is a total success something she didn't do before.
So she has quadrupled her income! So how does that translate to her family in terms of what they could now do that they couldn't before?
Right. So, where money usually goes that you’ll traditionally see as microcredit starts boosting a family they'll do several things with it. The first thing they'll do with it is make sure that their kids get food. They'll start replacing things like instead of eating a piece of bread for breakfast and lunch, or bread for breakfast and lunch, they'll add in some protein there if they can. So it happens to work through how their kids are eating. The second area is school. It's a catholic nation where school is free, supposedly, but all kids have to go to school in a uniform and they have to get supplies and so those supplies and uniform may equate to $30 a year. And its sometimes just money that they cannot get together. They can’t get ahead that much. And so they'll put it right into that school pot right away along with the food. And the third thing is really house improvement. You’ll see, it's a poverty indicator; the first indicator of poverty is floor type. So a family with a dirt floor will often finish their floor into concrete. Or the adobe walls, they'll finish their walls with paint or concrete. So that home improvement is kind of another area you’ll see as well.
How do the husbands feel about the women being the one to provide these types of things for their families?
Right. So a lot of the women we work with are either widowed or single, or they have different fathers to their children. I think there are a lot of interesting dynamics that we don't have to talk about today, but with women being in a less powerful situation and not always choosing their mates, and when they want to mate with somebody and then having children, and having the responsibility of their children and then not always having a collaborative partner to raise those kids. So a lot of our women are in those situations. Now when they do have a family unit, and the husband or partner is involved, I think the most important thing that you can do is engage that male in a conversation. What we do is called the pre interview, before a woman ever gets money. That includes asking about her family situation, socioeconomic situation, the husband has to be involved in that interview.
So making sure it will be successful before you give the money?
Right. We do the interview with everybody to make sure what they really need and they've thought through what they really need. If they need $30 really for what they propose they don't need $100. The end goal is to do no harm. You want to help not harm. So if someone needs 30 don't give them 100. If their propensity to pay is for a $50 loan don't give them a $200 loan.
What if there was a husband that was hostile to the idea of this? Does that factor into whether or not they get the loan?
Yea. It would because you don't want to put a women into a dangerous situation without a doubt. We’ve had very little situations like this. So, you have the interview with this family. If the husband is drunk or violent or if there is an issue there we talk with the women further is this really the best thing for you to do. It seems like a dangerous situation. Sometimes they’ll get handy and they'll borrow through like a family member will take the loan under their name. The other way we really befriend the male side is we do a lot of work with community leaders and neighborhood leaders, and these leaders are all males in this culture. So when you have the trust of those leaders, information travels by what we call passé la vois (pass the voice). Its old school you know, its not texting messages like “Maggie’s a good person, meet with her.” Its people passing the information on that you’re a good person doing a good thing and you’re organization can be trusted. If that passa la vois happens and it’s positive for you, it’s usually a-ok. Now the last thing is that if you’re engaging a male in the discussion and it's a family business, and a lot of it happens in agriculture and husbandry, they’re raising animals as a family unit, they’re getting grains to sell in the market, or they’re making wood structures a lot of the stuff is happening in the family—they have a family store. And if you just have that conversation with the family it’s often seen that it could benefit the family business rather than be a detriment. It’s not a power struggle it’s meant to lift a family.
Maggie December 8 is your Holiday of Hope Benefit Gala. Tell us about it.
Okay so on December 8, this is our last event of the year. Holiday of Hope is in our third year. What it will look like is just an evening of fun. Well have some Latin jazz, some wonderful food and drink, and a silent and live auction with some wonderful things that the community has kind of contributed to our organization. And if anyone would like any more information about that they can go to our website which you said is www.discoverhopefund.org.
How much are you hoping to raise?
Our raise goal for that evening is $20,000.
What does $20,000 translate into in the way of loans?
So for us $20,000 would give us… We’d like to do at least 150 new loans next year, but were also taking care of the women that are still in our system. And so they’re in their second or third or fourth generation loans because you usually go 10 cycles with a women to get them some savings for their lives. So we have these 150 going and we want another 150 and then we want to do 375 trainings next year.
And you know longer term, maybe 3 years from now.
What are your goals for Discover Hope Fund?
So we have several high level goals. Longer term would be we have two sights waiting for us to come to them right now. One is in Peruvian Ecuadorian border, another area in Northern Andes that we have a local partner at that we need to raise the money ourselves to have these sites. So we want new sites. We’re also looking at Mexico for a site. And then another high-level goal is to package up the model of what we do a-z, how do you do the micro credit plus model anywhere in the world and to really make that an available published accessible piece for people.
So kind of like a franchise kind of thing. Like plug in and..
It won’t be us leading all those all over the world. It will be giving people the knowledge if they would like to assume that into their organization or build it themselves.
Is it a hot topic, meaning are there a lot of people looking to do this?
Oh I get probably 2-4 emails a month, hey I'm in this country, I'm working with this partner, how are you doing what you’re doing? So I think the question for us is how can we leave a legacy if were small and we’re roots and we cant go to all these places what is the legacy you can pass on and that's how you do it actually.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Bart Bohn of the ATI Talks about the Texas Wireless Summit
Bart Bohn of the ATI Talks about the Texas Wireless Summit
Where are you from originally?
Grew up in Houston.
What university did you go to?
Went to college at Trinity University in San Antonio and to UT-McCombs for my MBA.
What brought you to Austin?
After college I spent six years in Houston in strategy consulting. Through that time I grew a passion for working with clients and found the startup and incubator space to be the most rewarding. Austin’s entrepreneurial community and the ATI in particular was a great place to launch a new phase in working with the high-tech startup ecosystem. My entry point was UT, where I got an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship.
What is the idea behind your group?
Texas Wireless Summit is an industry-focused conference to provide a platform for industry leaders to discuss emerging technologies and business models that give insight on the next three or more years of the wireless industry’s trajectory. ATI-Wireless and UT’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group will focus on technology and startups that will enable the continued innovation surge in the wireless industry.
What need does it fulfill?
On the Austin level it provides an event to bring together the wireless and mobile community. Additionally it provides a conduit for WNCG, ATI-Wireless and the startup community to interact and exchange ideas with the traditional leading wireless companies.
What exactly does your group do?
TWS is and industry conference that showcases the most compelling wireless technologies and research.
Who is it for?
Attendees are industry executives, investors, media, startups, technologists and the service companies critical to the industry.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the group?
I didn’t start it. The greatest challenge in keeping it going, as with any front-line technology sector, is continuing to provide cutting-edge content and discussion points.
What is the next step for you and your group?
TWS is only half-way to taking over the world, so that’s a good question. Our next step is to continue to reinforce our position as the go-to event for compelling wireless technology, innovation and discussion.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
Something that will be on full display at this year’s TWS is the collision of the internet- and web-based startup culture with the traditional “heavy-iron” wireless industry culture. You’ll see keynotes and panels from the legacy players and a host of startups showcasing their web-based technologies that will highlight how the industry is enabling this collision and benefiting from it.
Depending on the specific nature of your technology and the way it needs to be commercialized, be aware of the dynamics of that collision. On the surface you have the apps space, which Google and Apple have created by collaborating with the traditional telecomm-infrastructure folks that provide the core communications platform and services. Either strata is navigable, but the path through each of them is different. As a wireless entrepreneur, you need to be aware of which level you’re on.
Tell me more about your upcoming event.
Early bird pricing ends Nov. 5, so sign up now.
What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
The ATI-Wireless Incubator and UT’s WNCG are the premiere catalysts for wireless entrepreneurs in Central Texas.
Where are you from originally?
Grew up in Houston.
What university did you go to?
Went to college at Trinity University in San Antonio and to UT-McCombs for my MBA.
What brought you to Austin?
After college I spent six years in Houston in strategy consulting. Through that time I grew a passion for working with clients and found the startup and incubator space to be the most rewarding. Austin’s entrepreneurial community and the ATI in particular was a great place to launch a new phase in working with the high-tech startup ecosystem. My entry point was UT, where I got an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship.
What is the idea behind your group?
Texas Wireless Summit is an industry-focused conference to provide a platform for industry leaders to discuss emerging technologies and business models that give insight on the next three or more years of the wireless industry’s trajectory. ATI-Wireless and UT’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group will focus on technology and startups that will enable the continued innovation surge in the wireless industry.
What need does it fulfill?
On the Austin level it provides an event to bring together the wireless and mobile community. Additionally it provides a conduit for WNCG, ATI-Wireless and the startup community to interact and exchange ideas with the traditional leading wireless companies.
What exactly does your group do?
TWS is and industry conference that showcases the most compelling wireless technologies and research.
Who is it for?
Attendees are industry executives, investors, media, startups, technologists and the service companies critical to the industry.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the group?
I didn’t start it. The greatest challenge in keeping it going, as with any front-line technology sector, is continuing to provide cutting-edge content and discussion points.
What is the next step for you and your group?
TWS is only half-way to taking over the world, so that’s a good question. Our next step is to continue to reinforce our position as the go-to event for compelling wireless technology, innovation and discussion.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
Something that will be on full display at this year’s TWS is the collision of the internet- and web-based startup culture with the traditional “heavy-iron” wireless industry culture. You’ll see keynotes and panels from the legacy players and a host of startups showcasing their web-based technologies that will highlight how the industry is enabling this collision and benefiting from it.
Depending on the specific nature of your technology and the way it needs to be commercialized, be aware of the dynamics of that collision. On the surface you have the apps space, which Google and Apple have created by collaborating with the traditional telecomm-infrastructure folks that provide the core communications platform and services. Either strata is navigable, but the path through each of them is different. As a wireless entrepreneur, you need to be aware of which level you’re on.
Tell me more about your upcoming event.
Early bird pricing ends Nov. 5, so sign up now.
What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
The ATI-Wireless Incubator and UT’s WNCG are the premiere catalysts for wireless entrepreneurs in Central Texas.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Business Plans vs. Business Models
In starting a new venture, most start by trying to write the business plan because everyone tells you how much you need one. So you sit down to write the business plan and you start through your checklist. Typically this is how it goes:
“Management team -- well so far, there’s only me, so I’ll just add two more positions to be determined later. Next, it’s Problem to be Solved. Well, that’s an interesting question. I’m solving so many problems, I’ll just say, we’re going to save the customer time, and make it easier for him to do his job. That should cover it. “
If the above description sounds familiar it should because most everyone starts by trying to write the business plan but there’s just not enough information to carry it through at the early stage. There are too many decisions still to be made. There’s too much information not yet accumulated.
Instead of working on the business plan from day one, work on the business model. Focus on how you are going to generate revenue and what will be your core costs. If you figure out this, then you have the key elements of a business plan. You can fill in the other pieces based on the business model. For example, the management team positions will become clear once you know the business model. The problem you are solving is much clearer and so it goes with the other elements of the plan.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Friday, October 15, 2010
5 Common Misconceptions About Starting Your Own Business
Starting your own business is extremely appealing for a lot of reasons. Being your own boss, running things the way you want to, and doing something you love are key reasons why people seriously consider making the immense investment in time and money -- and taking on the significant risk of failure. This risk can be minimized if you actually know what you're getting yourself into. Here are 5 common misconceptions of starting your own business with a dose of reality to clear up any confusion.
1. If I have my own business I won't have to work as much. That is completely false, especially when getting your idea off the ground -- and turning it into profit. Expect longer hours, more tasks, and in all likelihood more headaches than when working under someone else. Even if you have staff, you still have to set them on the right course, deal with payroll, hiring and management, etc., etc.
2. I'll be able to set my own hours and create my own schedule. To some extent that is true, but a business' priorities lie with customers and clients. You, and your business, have to be there for them. And as head of a business, you have to be there for your employees as well, ready to assist at all times in any way necessary to keep your business running well. Running an online-based business allows some more flexibility, and to learn more check out these Great Resources for Online Entrepeneurs.
3. It will be easy to attract investors and customers to my business. Unfortunately, there's a lot of competition out there for peoples' dollars, whether those dollars be from investors or customers. You have to sell to both of these groups, and often, there is no such thing as an easy sell. Be prepared for some slow (and low on revenue) times and be prepared for lots of "no"s. To make yourself more attractive to investors and customers, just be prepared: have a polished, well-thought out plan to present to potential investors and have an equally thoughtful and high-quality product available for potential customers and clients.
4. The books will be easy. Taxes, payroll, and money management can be difficult. There are a lot of numbers to keep track of and (hopefully) a lot of money to be accounted for. Make it easier on yourself, if you have the resources, by getting an accountant and Human Resources personnel.
5. Business owners are rich and someday I will be too. It's a nice thought but the reality is that many business owners are just scraping by, hoping to keep their business and personal finances just barely in the black. Sacrifices will be necessary until the business becomes profitable, and unfortunately, many businesses never do. Starting your own business can be an incredibly rewarding and exciting venture, but it takes a lot of hard work and does not always lead to equal rewards.
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Joseph Gustav is a guest blogger for Pounding the Pavement, an up-and-coming outlet for career-oriented expression. An ambitious freelancer, Mr. Gustav also contributes articles about call center management careers for Guide to Career Education.
1. If I have my own business I won't have to work as much. That is completely false, especially when getting your idea off the ground -- and turning it into profit. Expect longer hours, more tasks, and in all likelihood more headaches than when working under someone else. Even if you have staff, you still have to set them on the right course, deal with payroll, hiring and management, etc., etc.
2. I'll be able to set my own hours and create my own schedule. To some extent that is true, but a business' priorities lie with customers and clients. You, and your business, have to be there for them. And as head of a business, you have to be there for your employees as well, ready to assist at all times in any way necessary to keep your business running well. Running an online-based business allows some more flexibility, and to learn more check out these Great Resources for Online Entrepeneurs.
3. It will be easy to attract investors and customers to my business. Unfortunately, there's a lot of competition out there for peoples' dollars, whether those dollars be from investors or customers. You have to sell to both of these groups, and often, there is no such thing as an easy sell. Be prepared for some slow (and low on revenue) times and be prepared for lots of "no"s. To make yourself more attractive to investors and customers, just be prepared: have a polished, well-thought out plan to present to potential investors and have an equally thoughtful and high-quality product available for potential customers and clients.
4. The books will be easy. Taxes, payroll, and money management can be difficult. There are a lot of numbers to keep track of and (hopefully) a lot of money to be accounted for. Make it easier on yourself, if you have the resources, by getting an accountant and Human Resources personnel.
5. Business owners are rich and someday I will be too. It's a nice thought but the reality is that many business owners are just scraping by, hoping to keep their business and personal finances just barely in the black. Sacrifices will be necessary until the business becomes profitable, and unfortunately, many businesses never do. Starting your own business can be an incredibly rewarding and exciting venture, but it takes a lot of hard work and does not always lead to equal rewards.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Gustav is a guest blogger for Pounding the Pavement, an up-and-coming outlet for career-oriented expression. An ambitious freelancer, Mr. Gustav also contributes articles about call center management careers for Guide to Career Education.
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