Here is a post from Cliff:
I spent two weeks in Silicon Valley last month as a fellow at the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI), an outstanding program run by Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology and Society. The program gives social entrepreneurs business skills, tools, and mentors to help them create the greatest impact possible. Read what another fellow thought about the program in this Huffington Post article. The timing of the program was perfect, as we just started selling our Talking Books a few months earlier.
I first learned about the program in the Social Edge newsletter. What attracted me to the program was the application process — three homework assignments about our business plan that was reviewed and commented on by GSBI staff. You can read more about the program here.
The first day of the 14-day in-residence program required us to stand up in front of the faculty and a few dozen guests and give an elevator pitch. They are all now posted on YouTube; you can see mine here.
Also during the first day, we met a few alumni of the program, including Matt Flanner (founder of Kiva), Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu (founder of the Smallholders Foundation in Nigeria), Marc Krizack (executive director of Whirlwind Wheelchair International), and Manoj Sinha (co-founder of Husk Power).
Literacy Bridge may soon be partnering with two of those organizations, the Smallholders Foundation and Whirlwind. The Smallholders Foundation, based in Nigeria, operates community radio stations to deliver “information to enhance the livelihoods of poor rural farmers” – sounds similar to what Literacy Bridge is doing in Ghana; but Nnaemeka and I see a great opportunity to experiment with complementing his content production and radio distribution with our ability to make that information available for playback whenever it’s needed.
A key element of GSBI is the mentorship. I was very fortunate to have three amazing mentors: Wilson Farrar, Kimberly Hendrix, and Bret Waters. They spent countless hours working with me on our business plan before, during, and now after the in-residence portion of the program.
One of the business models that I began thinking more about was microconsignment model — somewhat similar to franchising. Two other GSBI alumni have used this model in their social enterprises. See ToughStuff’s Business in a Box or VisionSpring’s Business in a Bag. I can’t help wondering if a similar model will serve Literacy Bridge’s mission — not just for selling Talking Books, but for providing all the expertise necessary to support impoverished rural families to improve their health and income through knowledge.
At the end of the two weeks, each of the 19 social entrepreneurs had the opportunity to present their business plan to a packed auditorium of investors and others from the Silicon Valley community. After each presentation, we were given feedback from a panel of judges to critique the business plan. I was very happy with the feedback I received and was quite impressed with how quickly each member of the panel “got” what we were trying to do and with their ability to see the key challenges and opportunities we will face in the next couple years.
This is just a small fraction of my GSBI story, but I’ll save some of the business plan specifics for separate future blogs.
Literacy Bridge
