By Matt Landau | Project Leader
You may have thought I forgot.
But when an individual from one aspect of my life (in this case, the vacation rental industry) voluntarily chooses to support another pillar of my values (in this case, gang intervention and reintegration) it is something I take very seriously.
So I wanted to share very briefly the impact that your support in this Global Giving campaign has had to date in the development of what I'm calling one of the world's most innovative social venture capital funds.
The goal: To launch a pilot fund with the help of MITs Sloan School of Management that would allow former gang members to leverage their strengths of hustle, street-smarts, and ingenuity in a pro-social way (aka. becoming entrepreneurs). With the money raised, my goal was to hire staff, invest in training, and provide seed capital for up to three new businesses.
The hope was that this infrastructure would evolve into a small business incubator, allowing young men to realize their entrepreneurial dreams. And this may sound crazy, but the results exceeded our wildest expectations. Here's a summary of everything that's happened since:
1. Fund Model Complete
With the help of Ben and Nick (our geniuses from MIT) we charted out what this fund would look like. The goal of this step was to make the model so simple that anyone -- from an investor to a neighbor to one of our graduates -- could understand it quickly (Attached).
2. Small Business Incubator Complete
In order to hold our soon-to-be entrepreneurs accountable and to help them embrace "the process" that goes into starting a new business, we hired a young Chilean named Dulce Romero. Dulce has vast experience helping young people start businesses and after several months of tinkering, we developed a methodology geared specifically towards former gang members. This process includes expected components (such as identifying a competitive advantage, learning some Excel/Powerpoint, building a project proposal) as well as some unexpected tweaks to leverage our graduates' former "strengths." (More on this strange-yet-awesome philosophy to come...)
3. Three New Businesses Launched
Inspired by the format of the popular TV show Shark Tank, the business incubation process for each entrepreneur culminated in a presentation before a panel of judges (business leaders from the community) and neighbors eagerly looking to support the new business. Each of the three new businesses were "approved" for funding and things were in motion...
4. And The Results Are In!
Fast-forward to today when all three businesses are actively operating. Attached you will find our first official fund report which shows the amounts distributed, weekly repayments, and summaries of each business. We figured this would help you see the impact of every dollar you donated.
5. BONUS!!!
Seeing the tremendous power of this new model and the success it had on the lives of three aspiring entrepreneurs, we decided to kick things up a notch and begin the process for three new graduates. With the infrastructure in place and the momentum rolling, I'm excited to announce THREE MORE business launches:
> Luis: Lava Autos Plaza Amador Summary
> Josue & Alexis: GuariQuiteo & Elektron Summary
Conclusion
As you can tell, your gift towards the lives of young men who otherwise had no chance...this means to world to me. As a direct result of that gesture, we are now seeing in each graduate the demise of a vicious cycle, and the start of a beautiful cycle: one in which they can feel proud about who they are and what they do for a living.
Thanks again for your support in this initiative.
I look forward to carrying this same fleet of values, innovation, and careful measurement over to the vacation rental space where we can all become pioneers in a world-changing trend.
If you know anyone else who is looking to support our movement, please share with them this link:
http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/from-street-gang-to-service-industry-in-panama/
Sincerely,
Your fearless vacation rental marketing leader,
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
