Conversation 3: Expanding Horizons: The Next Brilliant Cadre of Women Entrepreneurs
/GES 2015 in Nairobi
Conversation 3: Expanding Horizons: The Next Brilliant Cadre of Women Entrepreneurs
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Moderator: Jean Case; The Case foundation
Panelists: 1. Breanna Zwart, Google, in charge of emerging markets
2. Mark Straub, Kholsa Impact – venture capital fund
3. Nermn Fawazi Sa’d, fonder Handasiyat.net – virtual engineering, Saudi Arabia
4. Isis Nyong’o, founder Mums village
Estimated no of participants: 90 people
Jean: No better investment idea than investing in women
• Kenya has remarkable women investors that have broken barriers
• Women-owned and run business are stable and more secure for investors
• Women-owned business is not about women but about the business. Women should endeavor to position themselves as equal to the task
• Women investment should be about changing the world, focusing on big goals
Breanna:
• Improving visible of small business
• Reaching out to emerging market
• Investing in broadband to enable women entrepreneurs to access information better
• Reach less visible clients and women-owned business to expose to investors
Mark:
• Venture capital fund focused on social impact. Keen to empower entrepreneurs aiming to improve social impact, providing capital to change agents and resolving development challenges
• Focus on ecosystem health; have diversity in your portfolio
• Focusing on emerging market
• When investing, hire people with different skills set than yourself
• Choose managers who have interest in different sectors, have networks beyond yours and have other experience
Nermin:
• As woman engineer from Saudi Arabia, I wanted to practice my specialty yet observe the cultural norms of my country
• Do not put barriers on yourself. As a qualified engineer, I set up a virtual company that provided engineering opportunities in Saudi Arabia to outside world
• Women entrepreneur can change the perspective of their clients by not emphasizing on their gender; focus on providing superior service to clients
• Win trust, don’t compete
Isis:
• Isis started media technology company to build platforms for women entrepreneurs
• Strike a balance between self-promotion. Sometimes frowned upon in certain cultures, and reaching target markets
• Do research to understand potential clients
• Get advice from successful women entrepreneurs,
• Get visibility for your products online
• Produce goods and service that are relevant for local environment
Challenges and opportunities
• With technology, you can build brands for their entire world market
• Technology is a leveler – it removes challenges that are peculiar to women or to emerging markets
• Limited capital leads to risk averseness
• Use technology to identify gaps and to present your products to large audiences
• There are few or no talented women mentors and businesses insulators in emerging markets
Conclusion
• We are what we can imagine ourselves to be
• Banking with people with lower income can be profitable
• Technology is a major enabler of medium and small enterprises
• Kenya is major hub of technology innovations, invest in emerging markets
• Look out for investment opportunities with social impact
• You will meet dream makers and dream breakers, consider failure as an option
• Risk taking is step one. How you weather the risks builds your resilience