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NextThought Monday: Helping the BoP Design its Own Way Out of Poverty
Daniel Altman is an economist, writer and teacher with a deep commitment to international development. He’s had a revelation about the power of consumer products to create markets from the inside out, and he’s doing something about it.
Emerging Design Centers (EDCs) is a for-profit enterprise that puts cutting-edge design tools in the hands of the poor.- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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PopTech: On Failure, Jedi Knights and the Edge of Social Change
I recently sat down with Executive Director and Curator Andrew Zolli, and PopTech President Leetha Filderman for a candid conversation on a broad spectrum of topics, from impact investing to the importance of failure, to the pace of social innovation and how PopTech sees its role as an accelerant. While best known for its leave-your-head-spinning conferences, it appears that what’s actually popping at PopTech is a lot quieter, slower and more fundamental than may initially meet the eye.
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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- failure, incubators
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Njambre, a New Social Enterprise Accelerator in Argentina Looks to ‘Swarm’ Impact
Based in Buenos Aires, Njambre (a Spanish term for “swarm”) is a new space of support, advice, and mentorship for social entrepreneurs. Launched by Paula Cardenau, Emiliano Fazio and Federico Seineldin, Njambre seeks to identify entrepreneurs with ideas and with the potential of becoming sound social enterprises.
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- Uncategorized
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Incubator and Impact Investor Aims for Multiple BoP Sectors
In July 2011, Anurag Jain decided to leave his position as the head of Dell’s Services Delivery unit, where he lead a team of thousands of IT professionals working in key infrastructure areas like cloud computing, applications, and business process solutions. Jain, an engineer and entrepreneur, decided to focus exclusively on growing a multi-sector BoP impact investing incubator, Anavo Global LLC.
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- Health Care
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Unlocking Pakistan’s Enterprise Potential
The criticisms of Pakistan’s volatility are not without merit; the roses are more the thorny than plain variety. But I launched my company, Invest2Innovate (i2i) in fall 2011 because because I believe strongly in the potential of untapped markets like Pakistan, 66 percent of the population lives at the bottom of the pyramid, under $2 a day.
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- Social Enterprise
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Unreasonable Institute Finalists Emerge
The 2011 Unreasonable Institute, an intensive six-week mentorship program that seeks to accelerate budding ventures serving the base of the pyramid consumers, fielded applications from 300 entrepreneurs who hoped to attend. The first test was competing with other applicants to raise $8,000 in tuition fees, while rallying support for their mission.
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- Uncategorized
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Perceiving Innovation
Does the lack of fancy salt shakers coming out of Africa imply its citizens are less innovative? No. They are. But perhaps not in a way that we, as Westernized culture, recognize. Novel solutions to problems are developed every day and everywhere by necessity.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- incubators, product design