Back from the Ashoka Future Forum in Pune!

Sriram and I went to the Ashoka Future Forum namely to network with the Ashoka Fellows doing amazing work in their field. From there, we'd figure out ways to support their initiative. Though the conference was 3 days, we were invited to the one that opened the event to guests on the 28th. 

In my very selfish dream world, all of the fellows would have been divided by their general field and we'd all listen to a short pitch of what they do. Then we'd narrow down the list, collect contact information, and figure out if KC is a good match for working with the Fellow. 

But of course, this didn't quite happen. 

The conference taught us a few important lessons:

1) We're not a good match for what some Ashoka Fellows and social entrepreneurs need. Simply put, many are at either advanced stages of their mission, or their projects require much more money than what we can give. 

2) Some may find project facilitation more trouble than it's worth. Bringing someone onboard takes a lot of work--the recipient must introduce the outsider to the project, align them with the goals, and then make everyone see eye to eye about the project's direction. One Ashoka Fellow chuckled when he heard how much we'd contribute to a project and said, "it'd cost us five times more in time and HR just to bring on a facilitator."

3) We're a perfect match for what other Ashoka Fellows and social entrepreneurs need. On one panel, we listened to a "reverse pitch," or, investors explaining why it's a good idea to accept money from them. Some investors were willing to issue sizable sums to proven, for-profit models that can scale easily and quickly. This model excludes the mission of several entrepreneurs who are doing great work, but have no intentions to scale and whose profitability will never be enticing to these types of investors. 

For example, there's very little scalability or profit incentive to a Fellow whose main work is providing after school programs in rural Gujarat in an effort to reduce drug use amongst kids. And yet, these are great initiatives. 

4) Proven models are often the most expensive from an investor perspective. Simply put, a lakh goes a long way for someone trying to develop a concept, but doesn't make a dent for those who are up and running with a good model. It's sort of like the stock market--new, unproven companies have cheap stocks, whereas established companies have costlier stocks. 

Likewise, KC investing small sums in new-ish initiatives carries risk: the idea could fail, lose momentum, the entrepreneur could find that the market's saturated... while failures are valuable, they don't look very good when we have to publish those glossy brochures indicating what we've achieved. 

5) Partnerships have a lot in common with marriage. Learning about the needs of the Ashoka Fellows was humbling--after hearing about the needs of a few groups, we realized some of them would be a poor fit. Personality differences, budget needs, scale and scope, and location are just a few impediments.

6) One can do a lot on very little. Often in your own backyard. Trite phrases, perhaps, but it's a damn important thing to remember when you feel overwhelmed by the needs (and subsequent price tags) of the community. When wondering where to start, we see that we don't have to go very far. In fact, it was only by going to this conference that we found out there was a social entrepreneurship network taking place in Auroville by one fellow. And so we begin!