Nick Sowden's Blog

Family Planning: The Best Thing for Kenya

2011-09-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

FP has been a real passion of mine for a long time. Here are the mainreasons:

Familyplanning is simply the best way to improve conditions in Kenya

Population growth in Kenya is unsustainablyfast. This makes meaningful progress nearly impossible in almost every sector of development.

For example, maternal healthcare. I just spent 6 months helping launch a world-classmaternal healthcare organization. I’m really proud of our progress and feel lucky to be part of it. I recently readthis NewYork Times article, about how FP is another extremely cost effective method of saving mothers at birth.

Before that,I spent 2 years building ToughStuff(who is doing really well lately, btw). Turns out that FP is about 6 times more costeffective at reducing carbon emissions than solar!

Many believe that educating girls is the key to slowing population growth. I agree. The key to educating girls? You guessed it: Investing in FP is more effective than investing in the Kenyan education system itself.Source: USAID.

In fact, this type ofdata can be found to show Family Planning’s positive impact on almost every sector of development. And the data becomes more and moreconvincing the longer into the future you consider. The below graph shows the savings for Kenya in 5 areas by investing in FP over 6 years. Imagine the savings over a generation or two.

Anecdotal,but a quick conversation with a few Kenyan families will show the personaleffects of population growth: the more kids you have, the less money you have. A womantaught me a Kenyan saying last week, “Rich people count their money. Poorpeople count their children.”

Secondly, women want FP. No convincing needed

National data shows 25% of women have an unmet need for family planning in Kenya. That’s 1out of 4! My personal research supports this as well. Hundreds of mothers have toldus that they don’t want another child but they have no choice. The demand forfamily planning already exists - no education or advertising needed.

Side note -Sex and your body are about as core to someone’s rights as it gets.Unfortunately, there are a lot of women who don’t get much of a say in their sex lives. Iwould love to help some women regain control of something women should always havethe final say in anyway.

Another sidenote - More FP leads to less abortions. Correlation proven:

There's lots of interesting demographics in Nairobi from a FP perspective:

Women atuniversities – the vast majority, around 80% according to early surveys, of whom arecurrently only using emergency pills for contraceptives. Some as often asweekly.
Women whowork in factories – six days a week makes access to FP tough.
Women whomeet in groups, such as microfinances, chama’s, church groups, sports, etc., are easy toaccess and accustomed to pooling funds.
Middle andupper income Nairobi women – some of whom have really fun and healthy sex livesand enjoy talking about that stuff (I mean, who doesn’t?).

For allthese groups I see major gaps in the current healthcare system around the sametwo issues. One is privacy, confidentiality and how it relates to the men intheir lives. The other issue is judgment; many women feel so judged that theyresort to the FP options that you can get over the counter without seeing adoctor (namely, emergency pills).

Possiblebusiness models could be a healthcare clinic designed specifically for any ofthese demographics and their needs in women’s health and FP. Another could bemobile clinics that go to factories or universities. Maybe a healthcareprofessional at your doorstep idea for women’s groups. Any models designed atthe upper income bracket could be an excellent way to drum up local support andto earn income that could subsidize efforts aimed at other targets.

Government

They’re behind family planning full force and the capability to deliver isgrowing. Article in our national paper.

Technology

It’s not perfect and results depend highly from woman to woman, but we have lotsof great options now, all available in Kenya.

Knowledge

FP actually isn’t that hard. The population council has built anunbelievable guide on how to do counseling and education, provide the careand how to train your staff to do it. They even translated to Kiswahili. It hasall the answers. It’s like we’recheating!

If you love this stuff, get in touch with me. NickSowden21@gmail.com And do some perusing of the links below and throughout this post:

Hey boss: Hire more Kenyans

2011-08-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

Dear bosses and managers in East Africa: If you want to be more successful, I think you should hire more Kenyans -- and hire them in more senior positions.

In Nairobi, lots of really great organizations that are heavily weighted toward expat staff, especially in their management positions. And I think that’s a bad move. My motivation here is not affirmative action or empowerment or anything related to ethics (although I do believe making more local hires is the right thing to do). I think that hiring more Kenyans will make organizations more successful, full stop.

Five reasons why you should be hiring more Kenyans:

By and large, Kenyans are awesome: Smart, fast, creative, well-educated and effective. Natural entrepreneurs.
Local knowledge: This asset should not be underestimated -- and it’s even more important in more senior positions.
Local connections and networks: Who did you go to university with?
Longevity: Most Kenyans aren’t in Kenya for a six months or two years. They have more time to offer your organization. Hire a great Kenyan and watch them climb the ranks.
Expats are surprisingly expensive. Even volunteers and interns. Add up all the costs (flights, housing, food, your management time and the loss of knowledge when they go home) and you could probably get a qualified Kenyan for the same price.

PS. This blog is focused on Kenyan companies, but this is also true world-wide. Kenyans rock in East Africa and Kenyans rock in NYC, London, Hong Kong, etc.

My guess is that there are four reasons why many organizations don’t hire Kenyans:

The people in charge don’t know that many Kenyans.
Managers can get international volunteers for “free.”
There are cultural differences – for many, it takes time to learn how to work well with different cultures.
There’s a perception that Kenyans lack ability, desire or integrity. Check these perceptions twice. There are certainly specialized jobs for which you may need an expat, but those cases are a lot fewer than many people think. And desire and integrity are specific to the individual -- just like anywhere else in the world.

How does one become a great Kenyan employer? I don’t know, but place lots of great Kenyans on your team -- and then ask them. Take this seriously. It’s a mistake to assume that if you don’t know how to do something then it’s impossible or not worth attempting.

Where to get started? Use recruiters. Great Kenyans don’t leave one job until they have another one. Good recruiters have access to talented people who are not yet actively on the job market. Good recruiters are really affordable, when you consider the value of great people and the low risk -- you only pay a small deposit until the recruiter has helped you hire the right person. I recommend Career Connections [LINK: http://www.high-fliers.com/html/overview.html] (definitely the best for very senior positions) and Impact Personnel (lillian@impactpersonnelkenya.com ).

Another option is universities. Hire young and wicked-smart kids fresh out of the school. They’ll be running a successful company in 5 years, so it might as well be yours. (I’ll place some university suggestions at the end of the post.)

I've used Kenyans throughout this post, but I think Ugandans, Tanzanians, Rwandese and Burudians are all generally pretty bad ass. I also think that, despite the five East African nations being culturally very different, skilled professional East Africans can perform well in any East African country.

In fact, a good friend of mine, with 20 years experience in Unilever Africa’s management, suggests hiring great people from neighbouring countries, especially for management positions. The reason? The region’s different cultures offer different strengths. When a Ugandan comes aboard a Kenyan company, for example, he has seen fewer cases of corruption and nepotism, and his perspective may benefit his new organization.

Relying on expats is not the best way to run a business in Kenya. So put some resources behind hiring, training and retaining Kenyan staff. I think that those who do will see huge advantages over their competitors.

University contact information:

USIU
Dorothy Ikamba,
Tel: 3606311/3606162
Email: dikamba@usiu.ac.ke

Strathmore University:

Jatieno@strathmore.edu

Nairobi University
Bernard Mwangi: Bernard.kiige@uonbi.ac.ke
Dean's Office
0722581144

Update: A colleague just asked, "So what are you doing about it?"

I've been lucky enough to hire dozens of Kenyans and East Africans over the last few years. While I've made a few bad hires and had tough experiences, the vast majority have been fantastic people who have gone on to do great work. I'll keep that going. This blog is definitely personal and not a reflection of Jacaranda Maternity, but we are hiring lots now and over the next few months, so stay in touch or tell a friend.

Share Everything With Everyone All The Time

2011-06-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

I believe organizations can be much more successful if they share all their information with all their people and even customers early and often. Reasons:

1. It's encouraging and exciting

In fact, I find very few things discourage people faster than feeling like a secret is being kept or feeling like an outsider.

2. It helps your people make better decisions

3. Its a great teaching tool and quickly develops your people

If you give people lots of info at the time things are happening, such as the decisions you’re facing and then why you made them, people learn so much more than just hearing the news afterwards. You can train people just by clueing them in on what you're doing. Also help them to understand you better and be better able to respond to things in the same way that you would.

4. Its fun for our everyone. Especially in a start up

5. Its a sign of trust which translates to loyalty

This is especially true when you haven't yet made up your mind about a big decision. Trust your people enough to tell them and you have them on your team for a long time.

6. Your people can help you make big decisions if they know you're facing them

~~~

This is all true for your customer base as well.

Many brands have built diehard fans by sharing information that wouldn't usually leave the company. Similarly, customers find this exciting, it informs customers on how they can help you best, its a great way to get feedback and really builds deep loyalty. Though many think this will give secrets away to competitors or make customers go running, brands like Southwest, Pandora and Chipotle have leveraged difficult times and situations to their advantage by letting everyone know.

Create a ‘this is my company’ feel by giving customer information, asking their opinions and even asking them for help when you need it.

~~~

Times you should NOT share information:

Sure, some things need to be kept secret. Bush’s baked beans can’t just share their secret recipe, the CIA can’t share their agent’s names and Steve Jobs is never going to let us know what product is coming next. Fine, no objections here. Organizations should simply be very sure they have a good reason not to share info, because you’re losing so many benefits by not sharing.

Common reasons people don’t share information, but should reconsider:

1. The information will scare people

90% of managers say, 'I won't tell them until we know ________." They are trying to protect their employees or keep them from getting scared. But in reality these fears are blown out of proportion - your teams aren't going to quit or start looking for jobs or start spreading rumors, etc. (especially because they'll be loyal to you if you have a culture of sharing information with them). The other 10% of managers know trying times are a powerful opportunity to teach, build loyalty and get feedback from your people.

The other potential scare is about employees leaving to other opportunities. Some keep employees shielded so they don't up and leave. I can speak from personal experience here - no one leaves a boss who cares about you enough to send you good opportunities! You should literally send good job descriptions you find to your people. They'll never leave you, and if they do they'll be more helpful to you in your next job than the current. This is only a worry if you're a terrible boss. Dear terrible bosses: don't share good opportunities with your employees.

2. Competitors will get the information

Dear 95% of organizations who think their competitors are tapping their phone calls - Here’s a secret for you: Your competitors don’t even take the time to check your website. Also, your website probably has more information that you think on it, so if you really don’t want to give them any info you should shut that site down. Chill out.

“People can steal your idea buy can’t steal your execution.” –Some smart guy somewhere

Finally, what’s the best way to keep an edge over your competitors? One way is to build customer loyalty and diehard fans that won’t leave when someone else comes up with a good idea. So, share your information with them, they’ll reward you.

3. Employees may take the information and use it against us after they leave

First of all, if you trust your employees, they are MUCH more likely to be loyal to you and not leave. Second, if you’ve been sharing information with them, it’s more likely they’re taking a promotion somewhere else and leaving on good terms. They probably still like you.

Finally, you can’t steal something that’s free. If an employee gets their hands on something you don’t want them to have, what do they do? Make a back-up on their home computer. If an employee gets their hands on the same information because you want them to have it? They probably read it, learn and then forget about it. It’s just not interesting.

4. Customers will react negatively to your profits

As long as you’re providing something people like (check – are they buying it?), most customers want you to make profit. People want their favorite businesses to do well, make money, expand and offer more products and services.

NGOs and social enterprises of the world – Profit equals scale. Make more money (or lose less money) and you have more money to expand, invest, market, etc. Also, the less you need to fundraise. Finally, make a lot of money and competitors will start flooding into your area. The end result? More organizations doing what you do and more end results to your customers (beneficiaries).

5. Salaries

Touchy issue. Frankly, unless you have something to hide (your cute secretary is making more than they should, you’re making 200k and golf 4 times a week, etc) there’s few reasons to keep this secret. Yes, many will call me crazy, but think about it. If you’ve earned your position, you should feel free to say your salary. If people question it, that’s a sign you need to get back to work.

What if one employee feels underpaid? Well, if there is a reason they are underpaid, give them some advice on how to improve and get better. Go back to school, work hard and get a promotion or get the same experience as so and so. If there’s no reason they are underpaid, maybe you need to fix that.

6. Information overload slows employees down

Ways to improve this:

A. Send (FYI) at the begging of emails that are for your information only. People know they don’t need to read it if they are too busy. Do this also for (urgent) emails.

B. BCC or CC people on emails. Then create a filter so that emails directly to you show up first and emails where you’re cc’d shows up later.

C. Get a CRM. Salesforce.com is awesome and easy. Then whenever an employee has a question, they can just read about it. And for the love of god, if you have less than 1,000 employees, please no privacy restrictions!

D. Send half-baked notes whenever they are half-baked. Rather than perfecting your notes and sending them once per week or month, just send ‘em out when you write up. Don’t worry about typos (following my own advice here). If you make sharing information a big process it is harder to do and less likely to get done. Just send it.

"Information is like an endless supply of garden tools. Useless you unless you put it in people’s hands." -Some dumb-ass named Nick Sowden

Big News: Just Joined Jacaranda Health

2011-05-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

This is my first post in a long time and it’s a good one. As of April I’ve joined forces with the brilliant ideas and people of Jacaranda Health (more like they allowed me to join for some reason. Maybe they’re not so brilliant after all).

We’re aiming to revolutionize the way maternal healthcare is done across the world, starting with one preggers mother in Nairobi at a time.

For those of you who know me even a little bit, I LOVE start-ups. And this is a good one. It’s a great idea, the potential scale and impact is massive and the people behind it are rock stars.

Problem: In many developing countries, and even in Kenya, the maternal death rates are much higher (like 77 times higher) than they need to be. There are lots of reasons for this including inadequate medical organizations, high costs, difficulty getting medical supplies or equipment, regulatory issues and women who aren’t always informed of all the things they ought to be doing during pregnancy (namely, seeing a medical organization), etc. etc. etc.

Our idea: Very high quality healthcare, focused solely on maternal health, using lots of innovations (technology, marketing, clinical, innovations from around the globe) to make it very efficient and low cost. Like really low cost. In Kenya for example, very nice private clinics can cost $1,000 or more for a delivery. Government hospitals are supposed to be free, but are scary and aren’t actually free ($40ish). There’s a big range of private clinics in between, and the quality ranges widely, often to the really terrible side. Among all that, we’re aiming to do a normal delivery for around $60 at world-class levels of care.

We’re launching very modern clinics that will deliver babies and we’ll be running mobile clinics that take antenatal care (ANC) to our moms where they need it. Each day we’ll go to a school, a church, a factory, etc. and set up shop so Moms can get really professional ANC without traveling. And when more women start coming to early ANC visit, the likelihood of a safe delivery goes way up. And the likelihood that they deliver with us goes up too. (ie, marketing strategy)

Scale: If we can figure this thing out right, we’ll be offering much better care than is currently available at much lower prices. We’re going to grow like gang busters. And if we can make money (or be real close to sustainable), we’ll grow scale even faster. In just 18 months after touching ground in Kenya, ToughStuff is now cranking in across Africa and seeing massive growth (that I can’t really talk about, but it’s big) and Jacaranda could do the same.

And if we grow like crazy we’re going to steal all the damn moms from all the other guys and they’re going to have to start copying us – at least the really good things we’re doing. We’ll attract all kinds of followers and copy cats across Africa and the developing world.

And even bigger impact will come when smart people (the guys know a few already) start doing studies and writing medical journals on us. Apparently that’s how you really impact how things are done on a global scale in the medical world.

People:

Nick Pearson, a good friend of mine, invented and founded this thing over a year ago. He’s an ex-Acumen and completely awesome guy.
And his wife’s an OBGYN (right?) at UCSF, so she’s big time too, though I haven’t met her yet.
Aliya Walji’s running the show in Kenya. She’s ex Grameen Technology (in Ghana with another medical organization) and completely awesome.
Tammy Guo is ex-Boston Consulting Group and Stanford and completely average.
Jane Adera is a really talented and professional researcher/public health person and awesome and a good Kiswahili teacher.
Maryanne Darwinkel and Julius Maina are both very senior and experienced in the Kenya medical field.
And several other seriously-qualified people that I haven’t met in person yet are all joining forces to make this thing go crazy.
Finally, we’ve put together some real-deal advisors, including two very good friends, Biju Mohandas and Andrew Youn.

One thing I’m really excited about is offering really friendly services. Like, crazy friendly. I don’t know what pregnancy’s like, but I really feel like that’s the time a mom could really use some TLC. And I think we can make the world a better place just by spreading some big smiles when Moms need ‘em. Also, we’ll being offering really comprehensive family planning choices and education for mothers after delivery, which I’m big believer in.

As for ToughStuff, we’ve parted on a great note. All the guys there have been nothing less than fantastic to me. Lots of friends and mentors. And I gave lots and lots of notice, so I think they’re not too annoyed with me. I’m getting better at learning when a company is too big for me to be valuable and ToughStuff is way past that point. We’ve sold well-over 100,000 solar panels, touched more than half a million lives across almost a dozen African countries, won multiple international awards and we’re doing it all as a social business. I can’t say much, but we have some really big news coming up soon, too. It’s really been a dream ride and I’m really confident in their continued growth (which will surely accelerate now that I’m gone.)

As for Rolex – we’re entertaining (begging for) offers now from interested parties (party) who may want to buy (accept) the company. Thanks for asking.

How you can help: Join our mailing list, friend us on facebook and start having more babies! I need customers!

I seem to be making a bit of a career out of this start-up thing (Jacaranda is number 8) and its reallllly nice to be back to the early days. I have to say: this is such a good venture, it almost feels like cheating. Huge global need, great idea backed by amazing people. Hopefully I can find a way to help out. Welp, back to work…

ToughStuff Solar Working on the 100th Object EVER

2010-10-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

Really cool support today comes from an unlikely place. The BBC has announced Solar Powered Lamps as the 100th object in their count of the objects of humanity.

No joke. ToughStuff Solar is working in East Africa, Kenya, Madagascar and across Africa to bring people the 100th most significant object in human history. Very exciting to have something we believe in so much be supported by a group with such a wide perspective.

Check out the full story here on the BBC and a summary written here on PR Web.

And if you haven't had time to see the newest video on a ToughStuff Solar Entrepreneur - watch this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ImMvmODA6w

Hope you're working on something you believe in too.

ToughStuff Solar wins Tech Awards 2010

2010-09-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, ToughStuff Solar is feeling appreciated today! We're one of many solar products in Africa and we're doing well with solar in Kenya and solar in East Africa, but the Tech Awards is really nice for us:

ToughStuff is proud to announce that last night we were declared winners of the prestigious Tech Awards that are awarded in Silicon Valley USA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRG7UjDdv7Y

The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity. The Tech Awards program inspires global engagement in applying technology to humanity's most pressing problems by recognizing the best of those who are utilizing innovative technology solutions to address the most urgent critical issues facing our planet. People all over the world are profoundly improving the human condition in the areas of education, equality, environment, health, and economic development through the use of technology. It is the goal of The Tech Awards to showcase their compelling stories and reward their brilliant accomplishments.

Each year, candidates are nominated and then invited to submit applications. Individuals, for-profit companies, and not-for-profit organizations are eligible. International panels of judges review the applications and annually select 15 Laureates. Awards are presented in five categories: Environment, Economic Development, Education, Equality, and Health.

Thanks for everyone who has already mentioned us and this award:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1690442/toughstuff-pharmajet-announced-as-tech-award-laureates
http://money.blogdig.net/archives/articles/September2010/22/ToughStuff__PharmaJet_Announced_As_Tech_Award_Laureates.html
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/global-award-enterprise-africa,1470355.html
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni4473147/
http://www.ifvnews.com/inf/toughstuff-wins-top-global-award-enterprise

Spread the word if you can. Thanks.

This Is A Clue at Elitch Garden's this Summer

2010-05-03T05:56:00.000-07:00

OH MAN. I'm super excited to go to Elitch Garden's this summer. As my friends know, I'm a big wimp when it comes to scary rides, but I'm also an expert a solving mysteries (LOL, yeah...).

Check the start of the 120: The Mystery of Mary Elitch's Fortune, from the This Is A Clue Facebook Page:

"Mary Elitch’s fortune…
$120 million strong!
Claimed today by four,
But three liars don’t belong!

Mary Elitch opened her park
120 years ago
And for nearly two decades,
She put on quite a show.
Sadly when she left this earth,
Back in 1936,
Mary’s will disappeared
Leaving her fortune in a fix.
Today four different people,
own a will that claims a stake
But only one will is authentic,
The other three are fake." *Read the rest here.

If this event is anything like the other This Is A Clue events (check out their YouTube page), this is going to be amazing. This is coming from the This Is A Clue guys who do the Denver Mystery Tweet Challenges. Check out www.Twitter.com/ThisIsAClue to follow along. Here's the details of it:

They also just recently got reviewed in Rex and the Beast, which is pretty cool. The guys had really good things to say about it.

Bottom line: Get to Elitch Garden's this summer for the This Is A Clue mystery. See you there.

Solar in Kenya: ToughStuff's Award

2010-04-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

The ToughStuff team in Kenya and East African has been working very hard recently to deliver our solar panel for charging lights, phones and radios to Kenyan families. It's a really nice Friday night pat-on-the-back to hear we've just won a really great award.

ToughStuff just won the NEMEX Renewables Innovation Award for 2010!

We are delighted to announce that it won the 2010 NEMEX Renewables Innovation Award sponsored by British Gas at this year’s Environment and Energy Awards. Read more here.

If you're a ToughStuff fan, stay tuned... we have some big announcements coming up from Kenya and East Africa later this year. :)

Unreasonable Institute Finalist Marketplace - So much fun!

2010-02-24T10:25:00.000-08:00

I just had such a fun hour and a half reading through all these great ideas. 5 REALLY impressed me. 15 were good. The rest were pretty lousey, honestly. Sorry Teju and team.

I funded:

And:

And:

I WOULD HAVE funded (if they weren't already in):

And:

Wow, really enjoyed this. Can't wait to see the winners.

My first speech in Swahili... painful

2010-02-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

This last week I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at TechnoServe's first Innovation Clinic in Ndaragua, Kenya. For some stupid reason, I decided to give the speech in Swahili. Watch through until the end:

TechnoServe is a brilliant NGO, (one of the very few in Kenya) with a fantastic track record of using business principles to fight poverty. I went with TechnoServe's Annah Marcharia to the Nyala Dairy plant. TechnoServe organized and now advising the chilling plant, a 100% farmer owned cooperative, which provides a much higher income for over 6,000 farmers (and this is one of a dozen plants, with more expansion coming). As part of their continued business advising, TechnoServe brought together the 400 most innovative and leading farmers near their plant for some presentations. More videos coming soon, but here's another 30 sec clip.

Really, really great organization and a great day. Can't wait until the next one.

Nairobi's New Tech Innovation Hub: iHub

2010-01-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

I'm am so excited to be in Nairobi right now. Just launching is the first (I think) of what will be many start-up/business/entrepreneurship related hubs in Nairobi. Get ready for a new generation of high-class start-ups Kenya.

Introduced on Erik Hersman's blog, White African:

"iHub...It’s an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in the area. This space is a tech community facility with a focus on young entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers and designers. It is part open community workspace (co-working), part investor and VC hub and part incubator."

YES! The combination of a physical location, advising, investor attention and network is a recipe we've seen work. Hundreds of fantastic start-ups have emerged from similar projects in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Boulder, etc. Namely Y Cominator and TechStars come to mind. Keep your eyes on iHub; I predict some big successes by the end of the year.

Interestingly, the location is totally free to any coder in Nairobi. "...our only requirement is that you are indeed involved in the tech space as a programmer, web designer or mobile application developer." We'll see how that plays out over the next few months.

Check out the full post here.

And stay tuned for something along these lines coming up in the Social Enterprise space...

Christmas in Jinja, Uganda

2009-12-31T05:04:00.000-08:00

What an amazing Christmas this year! I saw Uganda, rafted down the nile and made a few good friends. Also I peed in the Nile and ipso facto (sp?), peed in the Mediterranean. hehe.

Also, MONKEYS!

And one last quick one from my bus trip to Uganda...

My Terrible Haircut

2009-12-31T04:56:00.000-08:00

Me: "Are you sure you can cut Mzungu hair?"

Shady Barber in Kisumu: "Yes, yes, yes!"

TheSanDiegoSurf.com - The Most Amazing SD photos

2009-12-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

Today I discovered a recently launched project called The San Diego Surf. You can find it, naturally, at TheSanDiegoSurf.com.

Here's a photo from this morning's post by Stephen Eaton.

Each day these dudes take amazing photos from some beach in SD and post it with some tips about the surf. If you live or have ever lived in or near San Diego, you will love this site. Subscribe by rss or by email and enjoy!

Interesting/weird things in Nairobi

2009-12-21T07:54:00.000-08:00

Quick clip from an email to my friend Moriah:

"I'm doing really well here. I'm traveling all over western Kenya for work and I'm going to Uganda next week for Christmas with some friends. I'm feeling pretty well settled in when I'm in Nairobi. I have an apartment, some friends, getting to know my way around. I'm learning swahili!

Random interesting thoughts... The nicest mall I've ever been to (ever) is about 1 mile from my house. I have no mailing address, my address is: the far end of school lane, with the green gate on the left. Men sometimes hold hands here for minutes. The girls here are super beautiful, and the weather is even better (70 degrees everyday). Chipatis and Ugali are amazing, but it's almost impossible to get not-fried food at a restaurant. In swahili the word for tomato is the same as grandmother. But I forget what it is right now. I bought a bike to ride around Nairobi and people laugh at me because only "maids and cooks" ride bikes in nairobi. Plan for Christmas: rafting down the nile. No joke. I'm super amped."

Pics coming soon...

My First Week in Kenya

2009-12-05T00:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks for allowing me to be massively narcissistic. First week here is going great!

I live in the little pink building next to the big pink building in the middle of this map. Sorry, no street view for Nairobi yet.

View Larger Map

Also, my cell phone in Kenya still works. 303.900.2121. Call me or text me anytime!

Simple Explanation of Patient Capital

2009-08-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks very much to Seth Godin. Read his post here.

ToughStuff got its start in exactly this way: funding from a venture philanthropist. If we had to raise that money as a grant (rather than an investment), we probably wouldn't exist today.

Here's a quick excerpt below from his post:

"So, how to create this micro surplus? How to prime the pump of the system to improve productivity enough that things get better?

Markets.

When two people trade, both win. No one buys a bar a soap unless the money they’re spending for the soap is worth less to them than the soap itself.

When someone in poverty buys a device that improves productivity, the device pays for itself (if it didn’t, they wouldn’t buy it.) So a drip irrigation system, for example, may pay off by creating two or three harvests a year instead of one.

What does that do for the family that buys it? Well, if you have one harvest a year and you’re living at subsistence, it means your income is zero, or probably just a little below. If you can irrigate and get two or three harvests a year, though, your income goes up by infinity. Now, instead of making -1 pennies a day, you’re making 100 or 200 pennies a day. That’s a surplus of $700 a year."

I would add that business and markets is much more effective than it's often preferred, but idiotic cousin: charity work.

Thanks for the post Seth.

Start using Mint.com to manage your money today!

2009-08-06T07:37:00.001-07:00

"I'm seriously so impressed by Mint.com. I've used it for about 9 months now, and it's amazing. Really, really easy. Easy to understand representation of data. Weekly reminders and budgets if you like that stuff.

Oh, and it's free. "

Why you'll love Mint.com:

* Easy --set up in minutes
* All your accounts in one place
* Alerts for bills, fees, budgets, and low balances
* Personalized savings
* Complete security and privacy

View >>

Tough Stuff - Solar Power for the Developing World

2009-07-27T13:57:00.001-07:00

Tough Stuff - Solar Power for the Developing World

Posted using ShareThis

How Tough is ToughStuff Really?

2009-03-10T06:29:00.000-07:00

Our Operations Director has just sent back a few videos of him and the ToughStuff Asia team testing out the products. I think it's safe to say that we're obsessed with making products that are durable enough for Africa.

We could do this for hours...

ComputerTan.com - Amazing

2009-02-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

Please, please go to www.computertan.com.

In London there are huge ComputerTan.com adverts all over. This is quite possibly the greatest marketing campaign in the history of marketing campaigns. This is soooooo funny.

Well done KAREN CLIFFORD SKIN CANCER CHARITY.

What? There is no way you could ever run across America

2008-09-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

What? That is impossible. No man or woman could ever run that far. America is really long.

Running America. This crazy bastard's attempt to run across a country. A big one.

A good friend of mine, who knows the runner says, "Unlike most folks around these parts, that claim running or mountaineering mastery cuz they are getting their annual 5% discount from REI or can summit sanitas in under 30 mins, This dude is the real McCoy."

Check the site out and cheer him on.

The 7 Things You Must Research and Understand Before Starting a Microfinance Institution

2008-09-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

I attended a great lecture today held at the University of Colorado at Boulder (where I completed my undergrad). Sousan Urroz-Korrori, a professor in Leeds School of Business, is teaching a semester long course on Microfinance.

The lecture discussed the 7 things you must research about a country before starting a Microfinance Institution (MFI):

Financial System - Is there access to capital from commercial banks or other institutions? How will you raise temporary working capital? What is the current infrastructure of finance organizations? Note that more regulation always leads to more expensive capital.
Government Position - How does the country view NGOs, foreigners and finance institutions? How does the government treat loans? Are there interest rate caps? Will you be allowed to mobilize savings?
Legal Environment - Are there laws in place for property rights? It's an virtual necessity that borrowers can own land AND have documentation to prove it. Is there transparency and honestly within the government?
Current Regulation - Or lack there of, that is. Is the Basel agreement followed? How is capital adequacy treated? Will your organization be subject to audits?
Macro Economic Conditions - Be sure to look at climate and natural disasters that may come into play. Will inflation be an issue? If so, you'll need to diligently consider loan date ranges, currencies and structures to protect both the MFI and borrowers. Is it a growing economy? This will generally lead to better opportunities.
Internal Risk - What will your management look like? You MUST have locals involved in (in charge of) operations; foreigners can not effectively understand the culture enough to be successful. How will you pay? Honesty is vital in this business, so plan on paying competitive rates and avoid bonuses for sales, members, etc.
UNDERSTAND YOUR CLIENT BASE - The most important point of the lecture. You MUST have a strong understanding of you borrowers and the local culture.

Where to find the answers to these questions? Start with the IMF reports. Be sure to look at the World Bank data as well. Professor Urroz-Korrori strongly suggested a 3 month visibility study into the country, region, people and potential projects before beginning an work as an MFI.

Unbelievable Social Start-Ups - Microfinance

2008-09-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

Since starting some heavy research last month into the world of microfinance and microlending, I've becoming completely enthralled in the business of social start-ups. For anyone interested in the subject, I strongly recommend Muhammed Yunus' A World Without Poverty, The Power of Unreasonable People, and Eric Thurman's A Billion Bootstraps.

Here's a look at a few incredibly impressive start-ups that are working to increase the capital going microfinance organizations.

Kiva.org, the original peer-to-entrepreneur website for microlending, has been around since 2005. It's members now loan ~2 million dollars worth a week. Just last week they began repaying loans after every payment comes in from borrowers (through local MFIs).

This start-up is unbelievably well-run and easy to use. I'm an avid lender and a big supporter of the cause on facebook. Its remarkable success has led to other competitors entering the market, such as MicroPlace.com.

MicroPlace.com is an ebay project, launched last October, is also very well run. I made my first loan today which went very smoothly. A great explaination of the difference can be found on Next Billion Blog by Rob Katz.

There are lots of differences (and similarities) between the groups, but only one paradigm shifting difference. MicroPlace offers a return to its investor, while Kiva does not. The loan I placed today, for example, will return 2% on my loan. So which method is better, and what does this mean?

This difference really boils down to the difference between charities, social business and for-profit companies. Charities are always raising funds to support their cause. Hybrid charities may make some revenue but still seek outside investment. Social businesses are neither for-profit nor non-profits. Social business are businesses indeed, operating efficiently and competing with other business, often having investors and charging full rates for goods and services. They are not for-profits, however, in that they are working help a social cause and any dividends from the operation are reinvested into the business or returned to those in need (after investors are repaid, of course).

The question of "which is better" is really of question of which model does the most good. In the case of microfinance and microlending - the industry is limited primarily by capital constraints. Therefore, which ever model can raise the most capital is preferred. So which model will raise the most capital?

In that light, Kiva has a track record of much higher capital loaned so far. But it's been around years and was the first of its kind. Anyone know if MicroPlace is at the same place Kiva was 10 months in?

Long-term, however, MicroPlace's model of returning some interest to investor will probably be preferred. I already admitted today that it really helps getting interest back from the loans. Some may prefer the feeling helping more with no interest loans, especially since rates of 1% and 2% probably won't mean a new car, but these will be few, I suspect. Money always drives more interest (hence the dead-lock in the presidential race). Winner: MicroPlace.

Objectors would argue that interest returned to lendors puts another cost in the system, either charging borrowers more, thinning margins for local MFIs. While this is true, most MFIs recieving capital from either organization are self-sufficient social businesses or NGOs. They either willingly accept capital under these terms OR don't. And both Kiva and MicroPlace specifically refuse to work with MFIs that charge rates that are too high to be beneficial, or have other poor practices.

In the larger picture, this is another example of how more capital investment, talent and great ideas will flow into business and industries that have a higher return. Charities will always struggle more for funds, great people and innovative cultures. This capitalist logic says that for-profits will always be the most successful. A new line of thinking, however, would argue that social business can and will compete in the future, while serving some kind of social cause.

In the mean time, make a loan to one of these great start-ups, make a difference in the world. And let me know which one you pick.

50 Ways to Use Social Media from Chris Brogan

2008-07-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

Great post this morning from Chris Brogan on how marketers can use social media. Also, I should say, I found this on Jeremy Owyang's blog first this morning. He went another step further and segmented the list into 5 groups. Catch that one here.

Idea #47, " Spread good ideas far. Reblog them. Bookmark them. Vote them up at social sites. Be a good citizen." Well, we're doing our part. Read the full post here.

From Chris Brogan:

50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing

Add social bookmark links to your most important web pages and/or blog posts to improve sharing.
Build blogs and teach conversational marketing and business relationship building techniques.
For every video project purchased, ensure there’s an embeddable web version for improved sharing.
Learn how tagging and other metadata improve your ability to search and measure the spread of information.
Create informational podcasts about a product’s overall space, not just the product.
Build community platforms around real communities of shared interest.
Help companies participate in existing social networks, and build relationships on their turf.
Check out Twitter as a way to show a company’s personality. (Don’t fabricate this).
Couple your email newsletter content with additional website content on a blog for improved commenting.
Build sentiment measurements, and listen to the larger web for how people are talking about your customer.
Learn which bloggers might care about your customer. Learn how to measure their influence.
Download the Social Media Press Release (pdf) and at least see what parts you want to take into your traditional press releases.
Try out a short series of audio podcasts or video podcasts as content marketing and see how they draw.
Build conversation maps for your customers using Technorati.com , Google Blogsearch, Summize, and FriendFeed.
Experiment with Flickr and/or YouTube groups to build media for specific events. (Marvel Comics raised my impression of this with their Hulk statue Flickr group).
Recommend that your staff start personal blogs on their personal interests, and learn first hand what it feels like, including managing comments, wanting promotion, etc.
Map out an integrated project that incorporates a blog, use of commercial social networks, and a face-to-face event to build leads and drive awareness of a product.
Start a community group on Facebook or Ning or MySpace or LinkedIn around the space where your customer does business. Example: what Jeremiah Owyang did for Hitachi Data Systems.
Experiment with the value of live video like uStream.tv and Mogulus, or Qik on a cell phone.
Attend a conference dealing with social media like New Media Expo, BlogWorld Expo, New Marketing Summit (disclosure: I run this one with CrossTech), and dozens and dozens more. (Email me for a calendar).
Collect case studies of social media success. Tag them “socialmediacasestudy” in del.icio.us.
Interview current social media practitioners. Look for bridges between your methods and theirs.
Explore distribution. Can you reach more potential buyers/users/customers on social networks.
Don’t forget early social sites like Yahoogroups and Craigslist. They still work remarkably well.
Search Summize.com for as much data as you can find in Twitter on your product, your competitors, your space.
Practice delivering quality content on your blogs, such that customers feel educated / equipped / informed.
Consider the value of hiring a community manager. Could this role improve customer service? Improve customer retention? Promote through word of mouth?
Turn your blog into a mobile blog site with Mofuse. Free.
Learn what other free tools might work for community building, like MyBlogLog.
Ensure you offer the basics on your site, like an email alternative to an RSS subscription. In fact, the more ways you can spread and distribute your content, the better.
Investigate whether your product sells better by recommendation versus education, and use either wikis and widgets to help recommend, or videos and podcasts for education.
Make WebsiteGrader.com your first stop for understanding the technical quality of a website.
Make Compete.com your next stop for understanding a site’s traffic. Then, mash it against competitors’ sites.
Learn how not to ask for 40 pieces of demographic data when giving something away for free. Instead, collect little bits over time. Gently.
Remember that the people on social networks are all people, have likely been there a while, might know each other, and know that you’re new. Tread gently into new territories. Don’t NOT go. Just go gently.
Help customers and prospects connect with you simply on your various networks. Consider a Lijit Wijit or other aggregator widget.
Voting mechanisms like those used on Digg.com show your customers you care about which information is useful to them.
Track your inbound links and when they come from blogs, be sure to comment on a few posts and build a relationship with the blogger.
Find a bunch of bloggers and podcasters whose work you admire, and ask them for opinions on your social media projects. See if you can give them a free sneak peek at something, or some other “you’re special” reward for their time and effort (if it’s material, ask them to disclose it).
Learn all you can about how NOT to pitch bloggers. Excellent resource: Susan Getgood.
Try out shooting video interviews and video press releases and other bits of video to build more personable relationships. Don’t throw out text, but try adding video.
Explore several viewpoints about social media marketing.
Women are adding lots of value to social media. Get to know the ones making a difference. (And check out BlogHer as an event to explore).
Experiment with different lengths and forms of video. Is entertaining and funny but brief better than longer but more informative? Don’t stop with one attempt. And try more than one hosting platform to test out features.
Work with practitioners and media makers to see how they can use their skills to solve your problems. Don’t be afraid to set up pilot programs, instead of diving in head first.
People power social media. Learn to believe in the value of people. Sounds hippie, but it’s the key.
Spread good ideas far. Reblog them. Bookmark them. Vote them up at social sites. Be a good citizen.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Be ready to apologize. Admit when you’ve made a mistake.
Re-examine who in the organization might benefit from your social media efforts. Help equip them to learn from your project.
Use the same tools you’re trying out externally for internal uses, if that makes sense, and learn about how this technology empowers your business collaboration, too. "

Thanks guys.

Oh no - I'm Dwight Shrewt, not Jim Halpert

2008-07-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, I refer to all the characters from the TV show the office by their first names and treat them as friends. It's not uncommon for me to tell a friend, "That's something Pam would do," or, "Remember how Michael warms up for basketball games?"

Our office is increasingly similar to the office. Yesterday we found a bat in the office and had to capture it and let it free. Eerily similar to this office episode: http://youtube.com/watch?v=PFdVhRE3q7E.

My boss, Darren Kelly (aka Michael Scott), just wrote up a blog post detail the event. He says, "I walked into our new offices this morning (formerly Google's offices in Boulder) to find a team of Collective Intellect commando's attempting to capture a lost bat in one of our conference rooms."

Unfortunately, since Ricardo and I captured and released the bat, it means we're both our office's version of Dwight Shrewt. I was really hoping to be Jim Halpert, damn it. At least I didn't toss a bag over anyone's head with the bat in it.

Think I'm retarded? Well in the words of Michael Scott, "You don't call retarded people retards. It's bad taste. You call your friends retards when they are acting retarded."

Collective Intellect is not the only one who thinks Collective Intellect is awesome

2008-07-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since someone has done a really in-depth analysis of social media companies and here is a real killer. Phillip Sheldrake, Director at RacePoint Group has broken the silence with an incredibly detailed analysis of the current players in the social media world. Download the full 99 pages of sweetness and make sure to subscribe to the RSS at Marcom Professional.

The eBook had 6 pages about Collective Intellect including the following excerpts (that I liked) :

"Collective Intellect describes their last year as one focused on adding millions of new social media sources and improving data quality with highly automated categorisation and analytic tools. Quite rightly, they point out that analysis is pointless if you don’t start with accurate and comprehensive data. Collective Intellect must be doing something right to have attracted custom from the likes of Microsoft, Chrysler, Anheuser-Busch, Pfizer, Dell, Yahoo!, Viacom, Verizon, Levi’s and Adobe."

About yours truly: "Collective Intellect’s Nick Sowden is the only staff member of the SWA vendors described here to let me know he’s on Twitter and to have subscribed to my Twitter. He’s also one of two to have invited me to link up on LinkedIn. To me, ‘being’ social inspires confidence that they truly ‘think’ and ‘live’ social."

"I recall telling a colleague that Collective Intellect has “the magic dust”. Here are a few more things, additional to those above, that led me to make such an exclamation.... "

Phillip closes with more praise: "In fact, the only other criticism I can muster up is the plainly visible fact that their reports aren’t as pretty as the competions’; not a critical desideratum and easily fixed… come on Collective Intellect!" Good point Phillip. We pride ourselves on data and we're working on making our reports 'prettier'.

To be somewhat balanced I should talk about Phillip's main criticism: "Interestingly, Collective Intellect dismisses social networking pages as 'highly off topic and generally unhelpful', and instead prefers to focus on the group / community pages within such networks. They also write off micro-blogs such as Twitter and Jaiku as 'highly irrelevant'. That’s one perspective I can’t agree with." Erroneous! I think this was a miscommunication between Phillip and I, as we're all about twitter. I twitter more than I eat... and I'm a hungry man. We're already incorporating twitter into our data, in fact. I wrote Phillip, to see if he can amend this, so we'll see if he does.

Also, Facebook and Myspace walls are totally useless, if not offensive. Have you seen my facebook wall (search Nicholas Sowden, be my friend)? I'll include a picture:

Now I'm glad that Anne Laesecke (hey gurl...) thinks something is funny, or that Ariane has a good life (sweet thang). But is anyone going to pay me for that? HOWEVER - myspace blogs and facebook notes, great content. How about groups and pages? How about the comments on those pages? All valuable information when organized well. We love twitter and we love social networks, but you don't really want to watch my pathetic attempt to flirt with girls online (lookin' at you Katie.)

Thanks for the write up guys!

Kiva - still the coolest thing since... Otter Pops

2008-07-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Check out my lender page on Kiva.org.

http://www.kiva.org/lender/nick3133

Also - help a young entrepreneur somewhere. It's no charity, it's just a loan.

Smirnoff Tea Partay - Great Creative

2008-06-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

This is brilliant. Strategically targeted, well executed, great creative. This is going to be huge in the next few weeks.

Tea Partay

You for the East Coast or West Coast? I think I'm East.

Secret way to find data on facebook demographics

2008-06-01T22:02:00.001-07:00

Here's a back door route to find data on who exactly is one facebook. Steps:

Create a facebook page (advertising on the bottom of your facebook).
Click 'promote your page' at the top right
Click advertise on the next page

The second page then let's your choose your demographic. The top right hand corner shows how many people fit into the demographic.

For example, there are ~ 2.3 million people on facebook between the ages of 30 and 39.

Facebook starts with 26 million people (no restrictions, just advertising to anyone). These seems low to me as I've reports of as high as 50 million profiles on Facebook. This may have to do with those who opt out of targeted ads.

Interestingly, there are:

~500,000 over the age of 50 in the US
12.3 million women, only 9.9 million men
2 million in Colombia, only 291,ooo in Argentina, 179,000 in China, 600 in India

In particular, there are 18,000 people in boulder age 21 and up on facebook. 87,000 in denver. Rumor has it the Boulder Car Share might be expanding...

Should I make a Facebook Group or a Page?

2008-06-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

First real foray into social media marketing for Boulder Car Share: Facebook. I did a little research to find out whether I should make a page or a group. Short answer: Page.

Peter Leonard wrote a fantastic post a few months back describing the difference and benefits of each. The basic feel is that Pages are much better for companies or anyone trying to promote anything.

Tim Davies wrote a similar piece. He concludes:

"Pages if I wanted a long-term public record of the dialogue, and wanted to engage young people via Facebook over the longer term
Groups if I wanted to quickly host a discussion with those already on facebook, but without building a presence on Facebook right now."

I'm a believer in continuous interaction, outreach and relationship building rather than short-term attempts and making something, "go viral." That's another vote for a page.

Here's a really great facebook page. Well done Microsoft. This page has:
-23,000 fans (doesn't hurt having your name be Microsoft)
-External link to a page
-Full event calendar right at the top of the page (adding value)
-Recruiting and applications
-1000 discussion topics!
-2000 wall posts

Finally, The Social Media Guy (cheeky name, I like it): writes a pretty good post describing some keys to facebook groups. A little old, but very helpful.

Use Social Media to Market a Company with no Budget

2008-06-01T16:49:00.001-07:00

Well, it's only one week into my blogging experience and I've decided to completely change the focus of my blog. I read a great post last week, "5 reasons why business blogs fail" by Lee Odden. The number one reason: No clear objectives. Well, thanks for the help Lee, I'm setting my objectives straight.

This blog is about my experience using social media to market a company on no budget. There's a few reasons why I've decided this:

1. Social Media marketing is new. There are lots of self-proclaimed experts, but not a lot of good examples.
2. I work for a social media analytics company. I have some expertise here.
3. I work for a social media analytics company. I want to know if this stuff really works?
4. I have a great project. Boulder Car Share is a young non-profit with great potential and $0 for marketing budget.

So wish me luck, and I hope you learn something.

Awesome Non-Profit Start Up of the Day

2008-05-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

I am rarely as impressed as I was today upon discovering Boulder CarShare. This non-profit has taken a young idea, car sharing, and is growing it with passion and energy - AND a conscience.

"CarSharing is the smart alternative to owning a car. Members have access to a number of cars and pay only for actual use. In so doing, they help the environment and their communities; and they save money... Boulder CarShare world. It is volunteer based and nonprofit."

Boulder CarShare is modeled after ZipCar and other car sharing companies. ZipCar has been around much longer and is much larger, of course. ZipCar tends to focus on one city and flood it with cars and users (in order to make a profit). They have no operations in Colorado, and none in Boulder, a town ripe for car sharing. We have enough hippies, social conscience business people and wealth to support a whole fleet of cars.

While larger companies maintain ratios as high as 20 or 30 people to a car, Boulder CarShare keeps this figure around 10. This means more availability and easier reservation of cars (and therefore higher satisfaction rates). It also means difficult profitability. The model in general, though seemingly successful with larger players, seems economically challenged. We'll see if BCS can continue success without the economies of scale a larger company would have.

With 8 cars already in Boulder, the organization is successful so far. I spoke today with the groups Executive Director, Karen Worminghaus, who is full of passion. I'd be surprised if she doesn't work 80 hours in a week. Her and other volunteers have done a great job supporting the organization's dreams so far. They are always looking for new volunteers and even committee members to be involved. Something tells me they could really use a finance mind around too.

Well, I joined today and am getting my first car next week. Is Boulder CarShare right for you?

First blog post

2008-05-25T14:28:00.001-07:00

My first blog post on NickSowden.com