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microfinance
The Vision of MicroFranchising
By David Stoker, Guest Author MicroFranchising is a development tool that seeks to apply the proven marketing and operational concepts of traditional franchising to small businesses in the developing world. The primary feature of a MicroFranchise is its ability to be streamlined and replicated. The businesses are designed for microentreprenuers and usually target development issues
Micro-Franchise For Venture Investment
For those of you who have read my discussion with Prof. Raj Reddy at Carnegie Mellon, you are familiar with our debate over MicroFinance, MicroEquity and MicroFranchise. We continued drilling down on this topic last weekend, following Sequoia’s investment in Micro-Finance company, SKS. I also wrote a piece referring back to some ideas from 2
MicroFinance and Rural Development
When I first started writing this blog, I wrote a series of pieces on MicroEntrepreneurship. Today, as the world is making giant leaps in embracing the entrepreneurship potential buried in the lowest rung of the poverty pyramid, I want to showcase a few of those pieces for your reading. Tier 4 Market Definition : I
Sequoia Enters Micro Finance
Those of you who read this blog regularly, know that I am a huge proponent of MicroFinance. Last week, an important piece of news item surfaced: Sequoia Capital has invested $11.5 Million in a Microfinance company called SKS. At the heels of Dr. Yunus’ Nobel Prize, this is a great development for the advancement of
The Education Problem: Raj Reddy (Part 15)
I conclude my conversation with Raj discussing some theoretical benefits of his plan to take high speed network access to the villages. Additionally, Raj explains what he feels is necessary for this vision to come to reality. SM: Anything that improves or provides their livelihood can be the killer app. RR: Yes, that is the
The Education Problem: Raj Reddy (Part 14)
Raj and I engage in a conversation debating the potential uses and benefits of providing high speed network connectivity to rural areas. In the process, we have some disagreements on microfinance models, but agree on the end goal of the killer app: providing a livelihood to the poor population. SM: The question is, by selling
The Education Problem: Raj Reddy (Part 13)
Raj continues to address his concept of taking bandwidth to underdeveloped populations. SM: It is just sunk costs, that should be OK. RR: They just need to bite their tongues and assume it is all lost, and it will come back via economic growth. So, that is the first problem I would like to solve;
Palm’s Turnaround Formula
With the iPhone announcement, we enter an era when all the other smartphone providers need to now sit up and define their own clear positioning and path forward. With Steve Jobs working his PR machine, and the media lapping up the show and tell, it is imperative that Palm, for instance, decides where it goes
