NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

I like it when I feel really tired on a Friday evening. I like it even more when I’m able to look back at the week and feel like exhaustion comes from meaningful, engaging work that has helped projects and ideas that matter make progress.

That’s how I feel today. I’m exhausted, but it’s been a fun and productive week. I had the pleasure to visit Ann Arbor and the impressive grounds of the Ross School of Business, where our colleagues at the William Davidson Institute hosted a one day workshop to discuss the future of NextBillion as a project.

Several exciting initiatives are in the works, which we hope will make this platform more meaningful and engaging for the growing patient capital/ social enterprise community around the world. As we celebrate the second birthday of our sister site NextBillion en Español (which has made enormous progress this year and continues to grow successfully), we discussed the potential of similar sites for other regions around the world. When the time comes, we’ll be sharing the news on that and other NextBillion-related fronts with you, our readers, first and foremost.

This busy week didn’t leave enough time to catch up on interesting reads which I’ll pick up during the weekend. In particular, I’ll take a look at the interesting discussion taking place at Business Fights Poverty on financing for youth entrepreneurship, and the New York Times piece on the looming “collapse” of Indian microfinance. I also got my copy of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, which includes what seems to be an interesting review on the performance of Acumen Fund in its first decade. It asks whether Acumen’s approach is effectively changing the face of development. Considering Acumen’s position as a leading innovator in our space, I’ll be reading the review with attention this weekend. You can do the same.

Even on a busy week, good content kept flowing through the pages of NextBillion. Here’s our Roundup in case you missed it.

In Case You Missed It: NextBillion This Week

• Global Entrepreneurship Week: Let’s Get to Work (by Scott Anderson)
  
• Guest Post: M-PESA Gets High Marks as It Goes Down Market (by Guest Blogger Jake Kendall)
  
• CSR That Works: Interview with Hindustan Unilever’s former Chairman and MD, Vindi Banga (by Nilima Achwal)
  
• Inspire, Empower, Connect: Celebrating Entrepreneurship in the MENASA region (by Diana Hollmann)
  
• Financial Services for All Kenyans: Equity Bank and M-PESA Go Head to Head (by Guest Blogger Ignacio Mas)
  
• Being Comfortable With Uncertainty and Other ’Letters’ to Entrepreneurs (by Al Hammond)
• Impact Investing Forum Coming Up – Testing the ground in Europe (by Diana Hollmann)
• Forum Looks at the “Base of the Pyramid” space in Brazil (by Scott Anderson)
• Why Entrepreneurs Should Seek A Strong Board of Directors (by Al Hammond)
• After the Dust Has Settled… Enduring Hybrid Value at CGI (by Nathan Wyeth)

Make Sure You Don’t Miss It: Upcoming Events and Opportunities

• Become an Unreasonable Fellow. Applications close on November 30.