Our longtime friend and advisor Seth Godin recently returned from India, where he shared his expertise with our India team and some of our investees, as well as visited some pipeline investments. He wrote about some of his experiences on his blog, which is always a great read.

Our first cohort of fellows has finished up their assignments with Acumen Fund investees, and is re-joining us in New York as of today! We are excited to have them with us for the next month as we debrief as a group; collect their insights related to leadership, sustainability and scale for small enterprises serving the poor; and help them prepare for their next steps. You can expect them to share some of their experiences on this blog, as they have done throughout the year.  And as they prepare to leave the fellowship (but certainly not the Acumen Fund community), I’m pleased to announce that we have selected our second cohort of fellows, who will be joining us this fall.

We have certainly learned a lot in the first year of the program, but most importantly, it has reinforced our belief in the need to capture the energy of talent all over the world who can apply skills and imagination to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems. As Jacqueline discussed in last week’s quarterly newsletter, “talent” has become one of the pillars of Acumen Fund’s work – it is thrilling to see the sector moving toward developing not just the next generation of leaders, but the next generation of entrepreneurs and managers with business and operational skills.

Here is an interesting article about the Aga Khan, the Ismaili leader who has used a mix of business and philanthropy to effect significant change around the world. We have real respect for the initiatives of the Aga Khan Foundation, especially in Pakistan and East Africa. What excites me is the number of articles covering leaders who are unafraid to use this necessary combination for change.