Last week, Raj Kundra and I participated in the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) meeting in Aspen, Colorado. The ANDE group is one comprised of Acumen Fund peers - organizations working to stimulate economic development and social impact through the support of small and growing businesses. While some groups work to develop all kinds of enterprises (e.g., Technoserve, Endeavor), we and others like Root Capital and E+Co have a specific focus on businesses that serve the poor.
Overall, the meeting was very successful. I feel that ANDE could become one of the main convening bodies for this diverse group of organizations working to support small and growing businesses. We are at an interesting inflection point for the sector, as there are a number of things that we could probably do better collectively, but there is still some reluctance around the table on finding just where to contribute, and where to keep things closer to the vest (virtually every group at the table, including Acumen, was making that calculation.)
In the next few months, ANDE will focus on creating a platform for the group to convene, continuing to push on the standard metrics (our Portfolio Data Management System is being lined up as the technology platform to make this work), and thinking about ways to do capital aggregation. There was interest in joint training (huge interest in other talent issues, especially vis a vis the companies we support) and also in bringing together the people responsible for deal documentation to help standardize documents and reduce transaction costs.
One big push in particular is for the network to continue pushing outside of North America. The funders believe (as does the steering committee) that the value of the network will be enhanced if the emerging network of funds like Aavishkaar, TBL-Mirror and Bridgeworks can begin to come together in Nairobi or Hyderabad to understand ways of collaborating (or competing) more effectively.
As we move forward, Acumen will continue to stay involved in the steering committee and find ways to plug more of our team and our work into ANDE, as appropriate. We offered up our new platform with NextBillion.net as a possible communication/knowledge sharing channel, and will continue to support the development of PDMS as a metrics tracking/sharing tool.
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.
It is nice to see the increasingly growing social efforts. I have been researching hundreds of U.S. based social entreprenuers and social backers like Acumen. I am noticing that the poor in the U.S. continues being left behind, and recently I’m noticing more reports of seniors and veterans in the streets. I’m wondering, respectfuly, if we should start wondering how to build a bridge between the U.S. poor and those of under developed countries. We must find a way to prevent our poor people to fall farther into poverty while lift the bottom billion up…
Reply to MaricelaThis is a wonderful idea. There are several funds in India and finding a way to network them with others working in this field in a place like Nairobi or Hyderabad would be a wondeful idea.
Reply to Nachiket MorMaricela, thanks for your comment. I think these connections across geography are important to keep in mind; I have long wondered about “Acumen Fund USA”. There are a range of groups investing in innovative businesses in the US that serve the poor, mostly in the area of community development finance world (like Shorebank in Chicago or Community Enterprises in Maine), but certainly our model could potentially be adapted in the US. It is important for us to think about best practices in serving the poor everywhere, even if our focus remains on emerging market economies.
Nachiket, thanks, we would love to have you join us and will keep you posted on the next meeting, which we hope will be closer to Mumbai than Aspen is!
Reply to Brian Trelstad