Agora Partnerships is a start-up NGO and Venture Fund that provides business consulting to small businesses in Nicaragua that have high growth potential. At the end of a 6-week consulting period, Agora Venture Fund then decides whether to invest in a given company utilizing a variety of debt and equity instruments. My internship
involved consulting with four entrepreneurs and participating in the investment decision/deal structuring process for two.

This internship was such a tremendous experience on so many levels. I spent a lot of my time “in the field” studying the operations and finances of these fledgling companies. I think I drew something from almost every class I took during my first year at Duke with substantial contributions coming from operations, managerial accounting and corporate finance.

Possibly the best part of this experience was cultivating really strong relationships with the entrepreneurs. We not only invested in these companies financially, but also emotionally to a certain extent. Here is a synopsis of my two largest projects.

1. Calzado Reyes

Santos Reyes has a degree from ULAM (Universidad de las Americas) in International Business. Prior to returning to school, he worked for 10 years in shoe factories in Mexico and Honduras. In 1995 he started a shoe-making shop in Nicaragua with a Honduran partner and in 1998 became the sole owner of Calzado Reyes. Along with his wife and business partner Jacquelin, Santos has partnered with the second largest shoe distributor in Nicaragua and is looking to triple his volume of sales. With Agora’s investment, he will have one of the most industrialized shoe operations in Nicaragua.

2. Bambucasa
If you google Jan Van Bilsen, you will not find anything about bamboo housing. After a brief stint as a philosophy professor in his native country Belgium, van Bilsen came to Nicaragua to document the revolution as a freelance filmmaker. He is perhaps most well-known for his footage of what is now called “the wedding day massacre.” when Van Bilsen risked his life to ensure some of the greatest atrocities of the war were broadcast to the world.

While van Bilsen was filming a documentary in Ecuador after the devastating 1998 earthquake, he noticed that overnight local priests had erected forty shelters out of bamboo. “I was amazed at how fast they came up. I visited the same houses two years later and they were still there. These bamboo houses that had been put up as temporary shelter were still standing. I asked the people, do you like the houses? They said yes, they are part of our culture. People had planted flowers around them and little trees. They became real homes.”

Inspired and intrigued by what he saw, Van Bilsen began to educate himself on the properties of bamboo and talk with biologists, architects and experts. His findings were promising on many levels. Bamboo is the earth’s fastest growing plant and serves an important ecological role maintaining the balance between oxygen and carbon. Bamboo’s flexible fibers make it ideal for construction and allows for great resistance to heavy winds and earthquakes. This is especially relevant in Nicaragua which is nestled on top of a fault line and is victim to frequent hurricanes, the most devastating of which left 800,000 homeless. As Van Bilsen came to learn, many countries in the developing world, like Colombia and Thailand, were already relying on bamboo construction to solve their housing crises and he saw great potential to promote these ideas at home.

You can see pictures on my very outdated blog: http://gitarebba.livejournal.com

I am having a great summer – I started it on the Southern Africa GATE, which was amazing, and now am interning with Common Good Ventures in Maine. They have assigned me to a very challenging project – the development of a growth strategy for the Alzheimer’s Association, Maine Chapter. It includes the development of a project plan, both internal and external research, including 20+ interviews, cost analysis, and drafting a final report to deliver at their Board Meeting in August. I have enjoyed the work, especially with 1 year of an MBA under my belt.  Like Jenny, I was reflecting on what classes or experiences have been invaluable to me as well as my regrets.  Besides computer skills (thanks, Paula!), here are my thoughts:

A.  I was lucky to be involved in the CASE Consulting Practicum, which included a three-term consulting project for a local non-profit, TROSA.  I learned a lot about developing a project plan and how to synthesize research into a meaningful report.  Plus, Matt Nash oversees the program and, as a former consultant, just being around him taught me a lot.

B.  I took Lynch/Carlson’s Market Intelligence elective class – it not only taught me a number of great tools for my arsenal going into my internship (structure of interviews & surveys), but it taught me how to think differently about competition and market analysis.

C.  I took Managerial Accounting (it was required, but will be an elective for 1st years) and it has been invaluable.  It helped me look critically at numbers and having that context has made all the difference in my cost analysis. 

D.  I also think that anyone going to Common Good Ventures in the future should have at least 3-5 years of non-profit experience.  Both Jenny and I do.  It has made the internship better for us and the organizations.  My previous experience at the American Heart Assocation has been invaluable.

E.  I wish I took one of the classes through the Ford Library on “how to research.”  I’ve been doing a lot of external research.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/mba/article2058993.ece

Hey everyone – wanted to make sure you saw the article in the London Times about the recent trend of more social sector professionals going back to get their MBAs. Greg Dees was interviewed; I also got a chance to chat with the reporter, Emily Ford. She was really cool. It is amazing how a 30-minute interview turns into 2 soundbites!

Last night, Suzanne and I attended Common Good Ventures Springboard event. Springboard is a program that brings together local business leaders to contribute their expertise to benefit nonprofit organizations in an energetic brainstorming session. Selected nonprofits present a specific challenge to the Springboard participants. Following the presentation, participants engage in a facilitated interactive brainstorming session to develop and promote solutions.

About 40 business professionals spanning every discipline from banking to venture capital to marketing to operations and everything in between listened to employees from Jobs for Maine’s Grads present. JMG Maine’s affiliate of the national organization Jobs for America’s Graduates. They identify middle and high school students that exhibit at least 4 barriers to higher education and help them develop core competencies in areas such as leadership, communications, job attainment and career development. JMG spent about 10 minutes giving an overview of their organization including mission, population served, and program impact before proposing the following question: How can JMG cost-effectively reach more youth through additional products/programs and/or distribution partnerships?

Attendees then spent 25 minutes brainstorming ideas. Craig Larrabee, JMG’s CEO and seen in the photo below, said that Springboard events not only produce great ideas for the nonprofit involved but when the business volunteers come up with ideas the nonprofit is already pursuing, it validates that effort for the nonprofit. I also found out that many of the business volunteers like attending Springboards for the networking opportunity. So Springboards seem to be a win for everyone involved.

When packing for my summer internship, I grabbed materials from some of my first year courses…stats, managerial writing, marketing…and for some crazy reason, I decided to leave my computer skills stuff behind. And now I’m kicking myself. I can picture the binder sitting on my dining room table. Let this be your first lesson in packing for your summer internship: TAKE YOUR COMPUTER SKILLS BINDER! You won’t be sorry.

I’ve already emailed the great Paula Ecklund for some guidance. She was amazing and so helpful. Now I’m in the middle of building this crazy spreadsheet in order for my partner organization. The Leadership School is going to be able to not only track the impact their curriculum is having on the kids, they are going to be able to track a lot of other things such as parent participation, financial goals, and school retention and also correlate things like teacher involvement with student impact.

Luckily for me, Chad is an Excel genius and has offered to point me in the right direction. Stay tuned for the final spreadsheet. I’m really excited about it.

Pictures soon. I promise.

Hi everyone!

I’m so excited to have the SIC blog up and running! A big thanks to our tech guru Seth Groener for setting it up!

Well, after an amazing East Asia GATE, I packed my bags and headed north to the lovely state of Maine. I am a summer associate with Common Good Ventures, a venture philanthropy based in Brunswick. CGV has been a great friend of Fuqua for years and I’m so happy to spend my summer with them. Not only has CGV had Fuqua interns in the past, Chad Sclove (Fuqua ‘03) works there full-time as a Portfolio Director and fellow rising second year Suzanne Steffens is here this summer as well.

CGV’s model is to partner with Maine nonprofits through long-term business coaching partnerships (3-5 years). By focusing on accountability and results, asking the probing strategic questions and providing managment tools and resources, CGV shows their partners a path to greater impact and self-sufficiency. Often, this work results in nonprofit partners creating – or improving upon – a business venture or social enterprise, generating income for themselves.

This summer, I am working with CGV’s partner The Leadership School at Kieve Wavus, Inc. The Leadership School runs experiential learning programs for over a quarter of Maine’s middle schools. The curriculum teaches students to make healthy decisions about risky behaviors, relationships and peer pressure. My specific focus is on the school’s evaluation and reporting tools. This past year is the first time the school has really started to prove their impact. So I’m trying to help them make that process efficient, meaningful, and user friendly. I wish I had photos to show you. Hopefully I can get some uploaded soon. I can’t imagine a better place to spend the summer!

I start the second half of my internship tomorrow. So I’ll write again soon. In the mean time, I hope you’re all having great summers and if anyone has experience creating a reporting tool for a youth organization, let me know!

-Jenny

Hello! At the SIC blog you’ll find links, stories and information about the Duke MBA’s Social Impact Club’s members activities and adventures. If you have something to share, just contact me and I’ll create an account so that you can post your photo, story or link! Thanks! Seth.