Getting Funded

Sometime in 2007, me and Mike were in collaboration on a web 2.0-ish media for social entrepreneurs. As both of us had existing businesses, it was a little project that we worked at on the sides.

A few months later, we stumbled upon the MDeC Pre-Seed Fund Programme which offered conditional funding of up to RM 150,000 for tech-based business ideas. The deadline was only a few days away, and while Mike thought we could wait until the next batch, I decided that we would just submit our application and “see what happens”.

It was a challenge that I was interested in, as the funding was geared towards IT-based businesses – while our plan revolved around social and community elements which rode on technology as an enabling platform rather than an end by itself.

The application process was a revealing one – as we had to be clear on the business model, barriers to entry, market opportunities, etc. We spent days on the research, writing up cost estimations, working out the minutest details and filling in the business plans.

Our application got us through, where we had to present to a board of industry professionals who will eventually make recommendations to MDeC on whether the idea was worth funding (or not).

We were hit, of course, with a number of challenging and thought-provoking questions. At this stage, I cannot emphasize enough just how important it is to make sure that your plan is solid enough.

We managed to get through to the final round where we had to present to the MDeC panellists themselves. We received the good news on the very same evening.

In all, it was a really good experience that shored up our knowledge of our own business idea. Meeting other technopreneurs in the programme also reflected on me a generation full of ideas, who knew what they wanted and weren’t afraid to go after it.

This funding will go a long way towards helping us realize our ideas – and I’d strongly recommend any budding entrepreneurs to look into these grants. For Malaysian entrepreneurs, there are a few that I know of:

• MDeC Pre-Seed Fund
• Cradle Investment Programme
• Global Knowledge Partnership (for social entrepreneurs)

Social Enterprises in Malaysia

I was reading an article recently on Ms Chong Sheau Ching, a Malaysian social entrepreneur who founded e-Homemakers, a web based platform for home bound women to market their own products and services.

There were some interesting points she brought up in the article (click here or here to view full article).

Social entreprise is very new in Malaysia. Many think that an organisation should either be profit making or an NGO, anything in between is too suspicious. Even if it is to earn revenue to sustain your staff.

Apart from those involved with children and enviroment, enterprises focusing on other areas have a hard time securing funding, unlike NGOs.

An idea she mentioned was for legislation to change to give social entreprises tax free status like the US 301 for non profit entities.

It seems to me, many people find frameworks or philosophies to live by and try fit their understanding of the world in this. Meaning, when something new appears, they have a hard time appreciating it’s usefulness, if it’s outside their box.

Rather than change their philosophy, organizations like Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) are doing a good job marketing the idea of social business organizing events and pitches for seed funding.

With working examples in KIVA and Grameen Bank, a Malaysian example will inspire people to re – look at how business are run.

These 2 things I hope will go someway to make the idea of social entrepreneurship less new, but a realistic alternative.

Freeconomy or Freakconomy?

Saoirse, the founder of justfortheloveofit.org, is a believer in the philosophy of free economics. That is, moving from a money based but community-less society to one that focuses more on the community itself.

A moneyless society in which no money changes and there is no duality between giving or receiving. One that’s about helping others and providing an opportunity for others to help you.

It’s about sharing the skills you have learnt through your life and learning those you haven’t.

It’s about sharing the land you don’t need in order to facilitate a local food community.

It’s about using any free space you have to benefit positive local projects.

It’s about keeping money out of the equation, and the soul back into society, just for the love-of-it.

Saoirse, is carrying his message, after quiting his comfortable IT job, walking from Bristol in UK to Porbandar in India without any form of money or technology.   So now, can it work?

Unlike barter trade, where I exchange my IT services for a computer, in this case, I give my IT services for free based on how much time I can afford to. A week later, I can borrow a physical space for a month from someone else in my locale.

So, it’s a shared realization that if there are enough people involved, then there are somethings I can give for free and others I can learn for free.

Well, a brief check on the website, justfortheloveofit.org, shows that there are close to 4,200 members offering free services for close to 1,000 skills, 63 spaces and almost 17,000 tools.

The way I see it, it does not have to be a global movement to be successful. Nor, does everything we use or offer have to be free. If within a certain locality, there are a few hundred people who are offering free services, tools, land or space some of the time, then it might mean a small chunk of spendings don’t exist any more.

Then, that’s success.

Earthship Call Home

The Earthship project, a reaction to the increasing waste generated by consumers, is a self sustainable house. It’s a concept similar to where spaceships needs to be self sustainable to survive. There are several key elements to the earthship.

1. Power generation
2. Water harvesting. No wells are used, instead rain water is recycled and filtered for drinking, growing vegetables and fruit trees, flushing and back out to the garden.
3. Heating and cooling without fuel
4. Containing and treating sewage on site
5. In home food production
6. Building with recycled materials such as tyres, aluminium cans or water bottles

One offshoot of this project that I like is that it puts housing back into the hands of the individual, which really is a basic right that does not have to be outsourced to a housing developer and paid for by bank loans.

Check out the video below as Michael Reynolds the founder of Earthship takes it to the world called “Garbage Warrior” .

What Kills More Than 8 Million People Every Year?

Over 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. Unsafe water kills 15 people every minute in the world. Lend your support by signing the petition.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC)

After years in development, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has finally started mass production and is now available to the public.

Residents of the US or Canada can get involved in the project through the Give One Get One program – where they get 2 laptops for the price of USD 399. One will be kept by the buyer, and the other is donated to one of OLPC`s partner countries.

To learn more about the One Laptop Per Child program, this TED video makes for an excellent viewing.

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OLPC official website: http://www.laptop.org/
Give One Get One: http://www.laptopgiving.org/

Why Elevyn, by co-founder Devan Singaram

I’ve always wanted to do something on my own as an entrepreneur and in 2004, I had set up an IT business involved in the Portal Services market (a term used liberally to do anything I could get my hands on..) where I launched a business tool called CODENAVIA.

At first it was all about survival, with it own ups and downers, but as things improved (rent got paid on time..), I started to get more interested in how my business made an impact on the communities around me.

Did the tools i had developed make business clients more efficient and as a result, have a negative impact on the environment where they operated? Or did it allow for a more transparent culture? Did my services have a direct impact on the environment?

I faced a big stumbling block, there were no manuals to refer to and the other entrepreneurs I talked to, had no idea what I was going on about.

So, I started by approaching a few NGOs to see how I could help using the tools and expertise I had. One of the projects launched was coac.org.my, a website for an organisation working with Indigenous Peoples in West Malaysia.

However, the effort felt like a drop in the ocean, and I started looking around for people who have used innovative business models to improve entire communities making a profit in the process keeping the project sustainable and free from charity.

In the process of learning the stories of social entrepreneurs, I was inspired to re – evaluate how i looked at the world and what I had in my hands to change it.

Tracey Ford; formerly homeless from Australia

While posting up the video on the Homeless World Cup, I was interested to know the stories of some of the players themselves who were homeless.

In this posting, Tracey Ford talks about her experiences in the World Cup: Tracey started training with Street Socceroos in Melbourne, January 2005.

“I was homeless for four years after losing my house as a result of drug addiction and mixing with the wrong people. I also lost friends and family, basically everything. I was literally in the gutter and felt depressed, suicidal and at the end of my life.”

Team training sessions became a regular part of Tracey’s Wednesday afternoons. As well as feeling physically and mentally healthier, Tracey also noticed her self-esteem and confidence improve.

“The Homeless World Cup made me ecstatic, proud, I wanted to tell everyone, tell the whole world. It was the first time in my life that they would be proud of me. I felt a great sense of achievement and pride as there is nothing better that representing your country. My old life doesn’t exist anymore because of this.”

Tracey’s children were very proud to have a mum who went overseas to play for Australia!  She now has a lovely two-bedroom home where her children sometimes stay with her. She has also started a part- time job in a laundrette and continues soccer training.

“I’m more confident and see the world differently. I have almost finished my drug rehab program and now see where I am heading in life. That is a life I enjoy with a house, a job and the trust of my family back.”

Ronnie Miller, Brooklyn, New York

After a bit of searching, I found an amazing story posted by a player for team USA in the Homeless World Cup. The full story is taken from http://www.orato.com/node/3454?page=1 (a website featuring FIRST PERSON, citizen journalism from around the world) and written by Ronnie Miller himself.

This is Ronnie Miller’s story:

I’m from Brooklyn, New York. I lived there my whole life. I’m not really comfortable with telling you how I ended up on the street.

I have no experience playing soccer. I just came out there and started playing down at the Urban Ministry, and I just stuck with it. A buddy of mine was already playing soccer there, and he introduced me. I wound up joining in the practices and then I just stuck with it.

It helped me to be more of a people person, interacting with others. On the team, you meet so many other people with different backgrounds and you have to learn how to adapt to these people. The coaches there are also a great help, as far as getting things done, helping you set up interviews – right now, I got steady work and a steady place to stay, so everything has been positive. It’s been a good turn around.

Once you take a blow like that and you’re down to nothing, you gotta build your self-esteem back up. It’s all about building your confidence, with your teammates cheering you on, giving you different pointers on and off the field. Being out on the street, I’ve seen a lot of things. There are a lot of young people that are homeless, and some that just have nothing to do with their time. If they get involved something like this and it’s positive and will build them up to be a better person, no matter what they’ve been in the past, then I think it’s very much needed.

This year, we traveled to Denmark, Copenhagen for the Homeless World Cup. When you’re homeless, you don’t think about flying thousands of miles to somewhere else to play some soccer – that’s not the first thing that hits. It’s far fetched from the mind at that time.

We had 48 other countries out there. It’s really about trying to bring awareness about homelessness and trying to give motivation and show that you can do better with your life. For me, I felt great out there, trying to break the stereotype of what” homeless” is. We’re more than just what everybody is brought up to think.

I was representing the USA team, and I went out there and played my best. I just enjoyed the camaraderie of all the other teams, meeting other people from different places, knowing that you’re not the only one struggling out there. These guys all have good stories – they’ve turned their lives around, so all that is an inspiration to you to say you can get back on your feet.

It was a wonderful feeling just to be able to go out there – the shock didn’t hit until we came back that we just went across the world and played in a world cup. I don’t even know how to really put it. It was a great experience meeting people from different nationalities and being able to converse with them and swap stories. It was about more than just playing soccer. When you’re out here on the street, you build your own little communities – you’re networking within the homeless community that you’re in, sometimes to get ahead.

I got my job and I got a place to stay, and if a dude that I know looked out for me, showed me where to go, how to get there, what agency does what – if he needs to come take a shower, or he’s fatigued and he needs to get some rest because he needs to go to work, then my door’s open. I love my kids. I always got to give them a nice shout out. She’s only two and he’s one, but I have brought them to soccer practice before – and that’s my motivation right now.

Solving the Elephant-Man Conflict Through Shit

Mike and myself, met up recently with Thusita Ranasinghe, an entrepreneur from Sri Lanka, and had an interesting conversation with him. He runs a company called Eco Maximus which prints recycled products made from elephant dung.

Eco Maximus is innovative, in that it`s business model depends on protecting wild elephants that are being killed simply because they interfere with agriculture. As people cleared more land for their use in rural Sri Lanka, the wild elephants reacted with increasing violence.

In this tragic circumstances, Thusita, who had a background in the printing business, remembers reading an article on how elephant dung was used in the old days as writing material due to its fibrous nature when processed. Going through the drama of not having the blessings of his parents and mortgaging his house, he researched into the viability of using elephant dung and came out with a patent at the end of it.

He was only halfway through his project, he then set his company up with only seven employees and started printing greeting cards line made from elephant dung. Once he established a market for his product, he went about working on his vision to improve the socio – economic situation of underpriviledged rural villagers, and to bring them closer together with the wild elephants whose land was in conflict.

He started Project Peace Paper, a process to achieve that vision. This is where self sustaning recycling plants have been set up, villagers themselves are employed to manage and wild elephant dung are used creating an inter – dependent relationship between elephants, land, villagers and the business itself.

Since then Thusita has won awards for entrepreneurship and social work outside of Sri Lanka. My question is, could Thusita has been as successful if he didn`t include the social element in his business model?