How I came to start Bindaas Social Ventures

  I've been a “business” person over the last 20 years and in 2006 found myself in the position of having had enough of working in the large corporate environment and went out to discover what else there was for me.   I left my corporate role in 2006 at Fidelity Investments because I had come to a point of not being fulfilled by the work I was doing. I took the next half year to travel and drove from Boston to Guatemala to learn Spanish and determine my immediate next steps.  Upon returning to Boston I started a construction company and pursued my MBA at Babson College. I worked the company until August 2009 when I was able to sell it.  The timing worked out as planned and I was able to spend more time establishing myself in a new career direction. One with a social mission.   I had my first exposure to a cause related venture in Guatemala at Camino Seguro school for children in 2006. I was able to see first hand the need of these children and families and lack of opportunity and knew I wanted to do something when the time was right. I continued to learn about social enterprise ventures over the next few years, completed the MBA and spent a few weeks in Ghana teaching business skills and taking part in a business plan competition with the Babson College program (in Sekondi, Ghana). My experience in Ghana further fueled my desire to work in a cause related venture. I saw first hand how these brilliant children and young adults had no opportunity to practice what they learned upon graduation. For sure there was a better way.   Over the past year I have organized myself to take advantage of opportunities to volunteer in Kenya working for the social enterprise SamaSource. The experience was instrumental in my starting Bindaas Social Ventures.    Bindaas Social Ventures aims to achieve our goals through the creation of scalable, replicable, efficient, and impactful social enterprises.
  • SCALABLE - to reach as many people as possible • REPLICABLE - Designed to allow others to copy what we have accomplished and to learn from our success and failures • EFFICIENT - Utilize our resources of time, money, and people as effectively as possible providing as much value as we are capable within our limited means • IMPACTFUL - We are not trying to deliver a certain number of meals to needy children, or provide job readiness for a fixed number of teenage girls. We are aiming to provide sustainable lasting impact that lives within each person we touch. Our goal is not to simply meet arbitrary goals to please a board but to effectively drive change that will allow individuals to succeed on their own with tools of skills and education and empowerment they now embody after being a part of our program  • Lastly RESPECTFUL - We are not dealing with statistics. We are dealing with individual people who are capable, smart, and willing who lack access to education, opportunities and capital. Without which it is easy to lose hope and to allow a system of handouts to thrive. We aim to change that just a little with each program developed.
  Our Values are comprised of a number of core constructs to allow us to create an environment of respect and prosperity. Reducing poverty, creating hope, and developing communities that work together to achieve a greater life will allow these communities to flourish and to persevere in times of trouble. Through our learnings that come from our work we will be able to incorporate coping and social skills to reduce violence and increase thoughtful and acceptable methods to dealing with adversity. First, We believe in not providing “hand-outs”.

Bindaas Social Ventures is about developing amazing programs that will help people under poverty in a sustainable way – teaching people how to fish rather than giving them a fish to eat. We believe that an educated (wo)man will thrive when opportunity is present. That through the creation of business and through community development and improvement to the infrastructure of of existing organizations that we can impact the existing methods by which aid is provided, carried out, and measured.  We also want to establish solid community role models. Through the development of individuals we will enable the masses to prosper. By putting opportunities to improve ones ability to earn a living within reach of the common person, Bindaas Social Ventures will enable others to benefit through education and matriculation of the individuals through the system.
Further, we want to invest in community development through the creation of education and opportunity. In order to best serve the community Bindaas will work with partner NGOs and non-profits to improve their impact and leverage their skills. We do not believe in replicating existing programs that are effective in the community. We further aim to extend the reach of our work through community development events such as the Bindaas Business Plan Competition. Everything that Bindaas Social Ventures accomplishes will be done to maximize impact to the greatest number of people. Our learnings will be freely shared so that our efforts may be replicated globally.
  Each program will be developed from the ground up incorporating best practices and with a mind to replication and efficient operation to allow scaling of our programs through number of individuals served locally and geographic replication of our programs in a systematic and effective manner.  Our US base is in San Francisco and our operational base is in Nairobi. Bindaas Social Ventures aims to expand to Central America via Guatemala when the time is right.