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Each eJournal is published in English, followed by electronic versions in French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Selected editions also appear in Arabic, Chinese and Persian. Each journal is catalogued by volume and number.
ENTREPRENEURS
The Next Generation
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE • BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION PROGRAMS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE • BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION PROGRAMS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE • BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION PROGRAMS
eJOURNAL USA
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
VOLUME 16 / NUMBER 1
Published July 2011
International Information Programs:
Coordinator Dawn L. McCall
Executive Editor Nicholas Namba
Director of Publications Michael Jay Friedman
Editorial Director Mary T. Chunko
Managing Editor Andrzej Zwaniecki
Associate Editor Phillip Kurata
Production Manager Janine Perry
Designer Sylvia Scott
Cover Designer David Hamill
Illustrations (pages 10–11) Chris Piers
Front cover image © Stock Illustration Source
Leon Zernitsky
The Bureau of International Information Programs of
the U.S. Department of State publishes eJournal USA.
Each journal examines a major issue facing the United
States and the international community, and informs
international readers about U.S. society, values, thought,
and institutions.
Each eJournal is published in English, followed by
electronic versions in French, Portuguese, Russian and
Spanish. Selected editions also appear in Arabic, Chinese
and Persian. Each journal is catalogued by volume and
number.
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reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government. The
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journal.
Editor, eJournal USA
IIP/PUBJ
U.S. Department of State
2200 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20522-0501
USA
E-mail: [email protected]
T
oday’s young people are more connected
to each other and to the wider world than
any previous generation. Many reject the
status quo because they see alternatives, know
that a better life is within grasp, and are willing
to reach for it. That’s how U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton described the youth of the Middle
East and North Africa on April 12, 2011. But
this description can be applied to youth almost
anywhere.
Many young people around the world share
the belief that becoming an entrepreneur is the
most effective and exciting way to make their
dreams and ideas a reality. Entrepreneurship gives
young people an opportunity to improve their
own lives and those of their families. And, as the
founder of an organization of young entrepreneurs
writes in this issue, it also gives young people
freedom to transform their communities and
change the world for the better.
To be sure — entrepreneurs, whether young
or adult — face daunting obstacles, particularly in
countries with underdeveloped financial systems,
overdeveloped bureaucracies and inadequate
infrastructures. Yet today is a better time than ever
to start a business. The Internet offers access to a
variety of resources for potential business owners,
and many governments are making it easier to
do business in order to create jobs and encourage
economic growth.
This publication discusses many of
the opportunities and challenges of being
an entrepreneur today. It also discusses —
and debunks — persistent myths about
entrepreneurship.
If you are a young person interested in
exploring the path of entrepreneur, you can read
about how some of your peers have started their
ventures and, in so doing, have set off on a new
path in life.
About This Issue
eJOURNAL USA 1
An exchange student from Japan sells drinks as part of her
entrepreneurship class at a high school in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
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Sixth grade students from a Houston school dance to promote their
handcrafted goods for sale.
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In 2007, Marcello Orizi left a good job in Switzerland to start a high-tech company — Prossima Isola — in his native Sardinia, Italy, together
with his friend Daniele Idini.
Young Entrepreneurs Remake
The World
ANKUR JAIN, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF THE
KAIROS SOCIETY
This is the perfect time for young people to
experiment with entrepreneurial ventures.
Taking on Google in Egypt
The ElFadeel brothers want to make their Web
search engine outshine the Library of Alexandria.
Comic Strip
Google: A Startup That Roared!
CHRIS PIERS
An investor wrote a fat check to a company that
didn't have a bank account.
What Makes Someone
an Entrepreneur?
JEANNE HOLDEN
Creativity, flexibility and dedication are just
few of the personality traits of successful
entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs Press Ahead,
Despite Obstacles
Small business owners in developing markets
need more determination and resilience to
overcome hurdles.
Telecom Dials “Biz”
for Development
Somali Nasra Malin and her partners bet that
both bad and good guys need phones.
Debunking the Myths
What you think about entrepreneurs may not
be true.
A $25 Solar Lamp for Millions
In India, Amit Chugh and Matt Scott aim to
“ give back to society” and make their enterprise
commercially viable.
Art and Money Mix for China’s Neocha
Sean Leow and Adam Schokora promote young
Chinese artists and have fun in the process.
Dancing in the Online Marketplace
Ideas are exploding in Brazilian Roberto
Fermino’s head.
Teenager Takes Charge of Events
Palestinian Waed al Taweel didn’t know what
entrepreneurship was when she started her company.
Turkish Connection
Fatih Isbecer has made the mobile phone much
more than a gadget.
Why Did You Become
an Entrepreneur?
Founders of 10 enterprises had different reasons.
Additional Resources
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Entrepreneurs: The Next Generation
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Jonathan Shriftman, right, and Jake Medwell ride high on their Solé Bicycles.
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Ankur Jain is the founder and chairman of the Kairos
Society, an organization that helps top young entrepreneurs
from around the world start high-impact, high-growth
companies. Jain graduated in May 2011 from the Wharton
School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and
subsequently launched a new venture to help startups expand
their business into foreign markets.
E
ntrepreneurship can launch you on a path
to change the world. But closer to home,
entrepreneurship can give you the freedom to
transform the lives of your family and people in your
community. What better reasons are there to start your
own business, except, maybe, the satisfaction of being
your own boss?
I know what you’re thinking: Entrepreneurship isn’t
easy. It takes a high-powered education, lots of money,
and lots of top-level connections. But in my experience
launching the Kairos Society, a foundation that provides
support for student entrepreneurs, I’ve seen that every
day, all over the world, young people without any of
the advantages considered crucial to success are starting
businesses big and small. What they do have is the
passion and determination to make their business dreams
happen and to change the world, no matter how many
roadblocks they run into and how often they’re told
“That’s impossible!”
Hemant Sahal, a 22-year-old student at Vellore
Institute of Technology in Vellore, India, is moving
ahead with a business idea that came to him while riding
his bicycle through poor villages near his home. Sahal
noticed that villagers were suffering from heavy metal
poisoning caused by tainted drinking water. Most existing
water filters did not remove these metals, and those that
did were too expensive for local people. Through his new
company, CALLMAT, Sahal is developing inexpensive
treatments for removing toxic chemicals from the water
supply.
TIME IS NOW
In many ways, this is the perfect time for young
people like Sahal to experiment with entrepreneurial
ventures. Governments of emerging economies are
seeing the value of helping citizens realize their dreams
of business success. More efficiently than governments,
entrepreneurs create jobs and increase prosperity, when
they are free to do so. The Internet has collapsed time
and distance barriers. And young people everywhere,
no matter where they are on the economic or education
ladder, can take their part in the entrepreneurial
revolution.
On the face of it, becoming an entrepreneur can
sound scary. I won’t lie to you: It’s the hardest work
I’ve ever done, yet also the most exhilarating. There is
nothing like working for yourself, being in charge of your
destiny, and making life better for yourself and the people
around you. In many ways, entrepreneurship is one of
the least risky things you can do — because control is in
your hands.
If you’re fired up about the idea of becoming an
entrepreneur — perhaps you already have an idea for a
business — don’t get discouraged by the obstacles you
believe are in front of you. For instance, your age. You
or those around you may think that you’re too young to
be taken seriously in business. But that attitude devalues
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Young Entrepreneurs Remake the World
Ankur Jain
Ankur Jain of the Kairos Society
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what young people can bring to the business world:
namely, fresh ideas and open viewpoints.
In 2010, the X Prize Foundation, which rewards
people who create smart ideas for solving tough technical
and scientific challenges, ran a
competition to develop street-ready
vehicles that would average more
than 100 miles on a gallon of gas.
In the group of finalists was a team
from a Pennsylvania high school
— the students submitted a hybrid
gasoline-electric car using lithium-ion
batteries based on a modified Ford
Focus. These teens didn’t need years of
training in automobile mechanics — they had passion for
the project, and they had the desire to make it happen.
SOLVING A PROBLEM
Money, or lack thereof, can be an imagined obstacle
to starting a business. While startup capital is great if
you can get it, plenty of businesses are launched without
it. For instance, businesses based solely on the Internet
don’t need office space, supply chains or other things that
normally require startup money.
If you need startup capital, there may be financial
resources from your local or national
governments that you’re not aware
of, so it’s smart to ask around. Start-
Up Chile is one such resource. It
funds and supports entrepreneurs
from all over the world who come to
Chile to get their companies off the
ground. As governments see how
important entrepreneurship is to
the success of their local economies,
they are setting up programs to guide and even fund
startups.
You may believe that you can’t launch a business
because you don’t have partners or mentors. Thanks to
the Internet, you no longer have to worry about finding
people at home to team up with you or give you advice.
You have a wealth of advice, support, and potential
partners at your fingertips. You can build a team, find
Entrepreneurial ideas can help provide clean water to the poor.
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Entrepreneurship is one of
the least risky things you
can do — because control
is in your hands.
eJOURNAL USA 7
suppliers and manufacturers, and do other things online.
So it doesn’t matter whether the proper talent or partner
is nearby.
As for what it takes to start a business, think about
it this way: Entrepreneurship is about solving a problem,
not starting a company. A couple of years ago, two
friends attending the University of Southern California
saw that other students were buying fixed-gear bicycles,
which were very expensive — typically US$1,000. The
two friends, Jonathan Shriftman and Jake Medwell,
were convinced the bikes could be
made more cheaply, but they had no
manufacturing experience. In fact, they
had no experience running a business,
creating a business plan, or any of the
elements you think you’d need to start a
company.
Nevertheless, they searched the
Internet and emailed companies around
the world, asking if they could manufacture similar bikes
at lower cost. They discovered that they could have the
bikes made for US$310, and a business was born. They
placed orders and started selling bikes from their new
company, Solé Bicycles. In March 2011, Inc. magazine
named Jonathan and Jake to its list of “America’s Coolest
College Start-Ups.” Pretty amazing for two guys just
barely into their 20s.
DON'T TAKE "NO" FOR AN ANSWER
Jonathan and Jake asked a lot of questions before
finding the right partners for the business. You need
to get into the same frame of mind to become an
entrepreneur. Don’t be shy about asking people — many
people — for information or connections. Sometimes
we are afraid to ask for favors but, trust me, the
entrepreneurial world is built on people helping each
other.
You also need to believe in your idea and lose your
fear of being told “no,” because you’re going to hear “no”
a lot. That’s OK — it’s part of the process of starting a
business. You can expect to be told “no” about a hundred
times before someone actually says “yes.” Find a few
people that believe in you and
keep them close — they can
support you when you’ve heard
nothing but a flurry of “no’s.”
Most importantly, don’t ever
let hearing “no” stop you from
dreaming big and setting your
goals high. When we first started
the Kairos Society, we were a
small group of 18-year-old students at the University
of Pennsylvania with a desire to create a new culture of
entrepreneurship. We had a vision of being the most
influential entrepreneurship group in the United States.
Everyone told us we were wasting our time. But six
months later, we had 500 student entrepreneurs on
the historic USS Intrepid aircraft carrier listening and
talking to former President Clinton and Bill Gates Sr. We
persisted day in and day out, and this relentless execution
of our plans has now allowed Kairos to expand around
the world. In Greek, the word kairos means the “right
moment,” and, for each one of you, there truly couldn’t
be a better moment to become an entrepreneur. ?
A Philadelphia high school team turns a Ford Focus auto into a plug-in hybrid vehicle.
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Don’t ever let hearing “no”
stop you from dreaming
big and setting your goals
high.
eJOURNAL USA 8
T
echnology is in my DNA, Code Optimizer
is my name, research and innovation is
my work.” That’s how Haytham ElFadeel
introduces himself on Facebook. And you can believe
him. Before the future Egyptian entrepreneur was 10
years old, he had devoured stacks of computer magazines
and had taught himself computer programming.
“I simply fell in love with these machines,” he said.
HOME SCHOOLING
While studying economics at the Higher Institute
of Management and Commerce in Damietta, he taught
himself computer science at home. When he graduated,
he got a job as a software engineer at a large Egyptian
company and later at a large multinational firm.
ElFadeel was so fast at finishing his work at the first
company that he had plenty of time left to work on what
he was really interested in — the Semantic Web, a “web
of data” that describes things and relationships among
them on the World Wide Web in a way that computers
can understand and that enables getting more meaningful
and accurate search results.
“I would borrow equipment from my office and
work more on semantic searches at home,” ElFadeel said.
“This was so far from what the company was doing that
nobody minded.”
In 2008, he started working on a semantic search
engine that collects data from different sources and gives
answers to direct questions and queries. For example,
such an engine can tie together different types of
information — blogs, photos, audio interviews — from
different sources on a movie star or historic event and
present it in a user-friendly way.
Two years ago, when the work started bringing
results, ElFadeel invited his brother Ashraf to join him.
Ashraf has a background in software development
and network infrastructure. They named their
Taking On Google in Egypt
“
The Internet may spark an entrepreneurial transformation in Egypt.
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venture Kngine, meaning
“knowledge engine,” and
headquartered it in Giza, the
home of the pyramids.
A NEW LIBRARY OF
ALEXANDRIA
A popular U.S. technology
blog, TechCrunch, views
Kngine as “a direct assault on
Google.” But the ElFadeel
brothers — while not shy
about their ambitions —
see themselves more in
the context of Egypt and its history. Kngine is “a new
Library of Alexandria,” they declared on the company’s
website. The Library of Alexandria was a vast collection
considered by historians the largest and most significant
library of the ancient world.
“If we succeed, our engine will be actually better
and more useful than the Library of Alexandria because
Kngine’s users will get answers quickly and won’t need
to peek into many volumes or pore through numerous
pages,” Haytham said.
Haytham said he and Ashraf like working on
something that matters to them personally and to
humanity.
“We feel that we are
part of something bigger
than ourselves, we are
willing to try as hard as
we can, and nothing can
stand in our way,” they
write in their blog.
And try hard they
did, working 12 hours a
day with meager funding.
The Nile valley is not
Silicon Valley, at least not
yet, and venture capital is
scarce. It took them a year
to secure adequate capital
from a private investor. Recently they won a cash prize in
a business plan competition sponsored by the U.S. State
Department.
Haytham said he and Ashraf are part of a new
generation of technology entrepreneurs that has emerged
in Egypt in the past few years. They would like Kngine
to become “a platform for innovation because it would
inspire more people.” But whether it actually becomes
one or not, “I would still love these machines,” Haytham
said. ?
— Andrzej Zwaniecki
Will Kngine be a new Google?
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Ashraf ElFadeel, left, and Haytham ElFadeel, right, meet their major
investor, Ahmed Alfi, in Giza.
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Google
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Chris Piers
A S t a r t u p t h a t
Roared!
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Steve Jobs is characterized as forward thinking, passionate and charismatic. It's hard to imagine a world without
his creations.
Enthusiasm, honesty and
toughness helped Mohamed
"Mo" Ibrahim make his Celtel,
a telecom company, a great
success in Africa.
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Richard Branson is an action taker, not a day dreamer. The businesses he started have
made him a billionaire.
The personal attributes helped Shai Agassi, center,
sell his plan for electric cars to Hawaii Governor
Linda Lingle, right.
eJOURNAL USA 13
Jeanne Holden is a freelance writer with expertise in
economic issues.
E
ntrepreneurs are many types of people. Successful
entrepreneurs come in various ages, income levels,
genders and races. They have different types
of education and experience and come from different
cultures and countries. But research shows that most
successful entrepreneurs share certain personality traits,
including creativity, dedication, determination, ?exibility,
leadership, passion, self-con?dence and “smarts.”
• CREATIVITY drives the development of new
products or services. It makes the entrepreneur improve
constantly. It is learning, asking questions, and thinking
in new ways.
• DEDICATION makes the entrepreneur work
hard, 12 hours a day or more, often seven days a week,
especially in the beginning. Planning and ideas must have
support from hard work to succeed.
• DETERMINATION means you really want to
succeed. If something bad happens, you don’t give up.
Determination persuades the entrepreneur to make
another phone call, or knock on another door. For the
true entrepreneur, money is the reward, but seeing the
product or service actually work is more exciting.
• FLEXIBILITY is the ability to move quickly
when things change. An entrepreneur should be ready
to modify his or her original idea if customers push for
something else.
• LEADERSHIP is the ability to create rules and set
goals. Good leaders ?nish everything they start and make
sure everyone follows the rules.
• PASSION is what gives entrepreneurs energy.
Passionate entrepreneurs can convince others to believe in
their idea. Passion helps entrepreneurs stay focused and
gets others to take their plans seriously.
• SELF-CONFIDENCE comes from planning,
experience and what you know. Self-con?dent
entrepreneurs can listen to others without giving up their
own point of view.
• “SMARTS” is an American term. It describes skills
based on common sense and intelligence. Common
sense gives a person good instincts; intelligence makes
him or her an expert. Many people have smarts but don’t
recognize them. For example, a person who successfully
keeps a family budget has organizational and ?nancial
skills. Employment, education and life experience all
contribute to smarts.
Every entrepreneur has some of these qualities. If
he or she doesn’t, he or she can hire someone who has
them. The most important thing is to be aware of your
strengths and to build on them. ?
What Makes Someone an Entrepreneur?
By Jeanne Holden
American educator Ed Sobey, center, at an innovation center in Bangalore, India. He wants to make these kids into
entrepreneurs.
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W
hen 24-year-old Mathew Kiilu launched a
sunflower oil-pressing business in 2007, he
had to overcome unexpected obstacles. To
avoid high rents in his hometown Nairobi, he located
his plant in a far-off village. But a power company took
10 months to provide electricity to his business, and
post-election violence cut him off from sunflower seed
suppliers. He survived by finding a power generator for
electricity and alternate sources of sunflower seeds.
The challenges Kiilu faced are familiar to
entrepreneurs in developing countries.
HEADS AGAINST A WALL?
The general rules for small businesses to succeed in
the developing world are not that different from those in
the developed world. What is different is the much higher
level of energy and perseverance required of entrepreneurs
in developing markets in which institutional and
infrastructure hurdles often are daunting and persistent.
These hurdles range from onerous government regulations
to poor infrastructure to weak law enforcement.
“It takes a great willpower to do business in my
country,” said Kneeyee Alex, founder of ESTREET, a
foundation promoting entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
Many policymakers and development experts in
wealthy countries view entrepreneurship as a way of
providing self-employment and creating jobs in markets
that offer limited opportunities for wage employment,
according to Wim Naudé of United Nations University
in Helsinki, Finland. Entrepreneurship also increases
social mobility and empowers marginalized groups such
as women or migrants, Naudé said. Self-employment
is often the only option for young people who lack
experience and connections necessary to secure jobs.
But in countries with less-than-friendly business
climates, showing persistence and gaining entrepreneurial
experience counts more than anywhere else, Naudé said.
“To be successful, budding entrepreneurs should
try, try again after failure, [and in effect] become serial
entrepreneurs,” he said.
Entrepreneurs Press Ahead, Despite Obstacles
Will they win Calcutta’s government licenses? Only if they pull hard enough.
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LOOKING FOR A MENTOR
For young people, Naudé said, the lack of experience
makes it particularly difficult to see and seize business
opportunities. In the United States or United Kingdom,
aspiring entrepreneurs can benefit from entrepreneurship
programs and courses, which rarely are available in
developing countries. In addition, young people usually
lack the collateral necessary to get a bank loan and are
more susceptible to being side-tracked, for instance, into
illegal activities, according to Naudé.
Having a mentor with some
business experience or knowledge
often helps. Kiilu got helpful advice
from his father, who also runs a
business.
Alex recommends that
entrepreneurial novices connect and
share their stories with each other.
“Usually there will be someone with
a solution,” he said.
Another advantage of networking is that other
entrepreneurs or business experts, either local or
international, may offer vital contacts or other forms of
support. Such mentors can eventually become investors
or customers, said Ayman El Tarabishy of George
Washington University in Washington.
The Internet equalizes chances to succeed for
entrepreneurs in the developing world who understand
technology well. Young entrepreneurs with small
businesses often survive by street smarts, as illustrated
by Kiilu, who learned to fix his equipment when he
couldn’t find anyone to do it for him. Small business
owners also resort to finding public-sector “patrons”
or building their businesses “under the radar” without
government registration. A public sector patron might
be a government official who does favors for a young
entrepreneur.
AGAINST CORRUPTION
However, the lack of official approval, a title
to property or an enforceable contract limits small
businesses’ ability to grow. Informal businesses have
higher capital and transportation costs, more storage
problems, greater difficulty hiring quality staff and less
ability to enforce contracts, according to Julio De Castro
of Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
For these reasons, more ambitious entrepreneurs
often bend over backwards to register their firms and
obtain necessary licenses.
Whatever they do, they must resist corruption
and establish a reputation for high ethics, according to
experts. “Stand firm on ethics and radiate it around you
and simply be persistent,” said Shaffi Mather, a social
entrepreneur in Kerala, India.
As governments recognize the importance of
entrepreneurship to economic development and growth,
they slowly are loosening regulations and implementing
programs to support entrepreneurs, said Kenneth Morse,
an entrepreneur and visiting professor at ESADE Business
School in Barcelona, Spain. He
noticed positive changes in attitudes
toward entrepreneurship in Jordan,
Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates
and Pakistan. In 2010, Kazakhstan,
Rwanda, Peru, Vietnam, Cape Verde,
Tajikistan, and Zambia were among
economies that improved the most in
the ease of doing business, according
to the World Bank report.
As to Kiilu’s business, he is encountering new
obstacles as it grows. But the Kenyan entrepreneur
is optimistic about the future. He told East Africa in
Focus, a regional information website, that he is already
planning his next move: flour milling. ?
— A.Z. and Katherine Lewis, a contributor
Potters in Bat Trang village near Hanoi ply their trade under relaxed
government regulations.
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“Stand firm on ethics and
radiate it around you and
simply be persistent.”
eJOURNAL USA 16
I
n Somalia, many services do not
exist because of the civil war. But
telephone connections work very
well, thanks to entrepreneurs like Nasra
Malin.
BUSY SIGNAL
In 1997, she was one of six
entrepreneurs who founded NationLink,
a telecom operator, in Mogadishu. This
is the capital city and center of violence
in her country. Malin and her partners
thought they could break into the
market against all odds, competing with
three established companies and dealing
with security challenges. They were
right.
NationLink has become a
successful telecom operator. They
offer wireless and ?xed-line services to
300,000 customers and employ more
than 1,500 people.
But Malin and her partners can’t
take their company’s market position
for granted — the telecom industry
is growing fast and there is a lot of
competition. Somalia has no strong
government, so NationLink must
make an extra effort to protect its
business. Around 40 percent of the
employees work on ensuring security
Telecom Dials “Biz” For Development
So many potential customers, so much instability.
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Nasra Malin
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at the company. If someone asks for a bribe, she said, “we
usually pay, because if we ?ght them, someone may get
killed.”
The company is growing despite violence and lack
of security. Malin said she and her
employees hope to “bring peace and
development to our country.” In
2000, NationLink partnered with
two other companies to start the
Somali Internet Company to provide
Internet access in Somalia and some
other African countries.
ONE CALL AT A TIME
In Atlanta, Georgia, Jennifer Bunting-Graden
understands Malin and her goals. Bunting-Graden, who
is a lawyer, has tried to start a business venture in her
native country, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone also went
through a period of civil war. She said NationLink helps
bring peace and development by creating jobs, providing
access to information and improving quality of life.
For Malin, NationLink is also about self-con?dence
and status. Her family has bred entrepreneurs for many
generations. Before the civil war, they owned many
businesses worth millions of dollars. Malin studied in
Somalia and the United States, where
she received a degree in business
administration and ?nance. Working
with her father and uncles was also
important: They taught her to “think
and act independently,” she said.
At NationLink, to prove her
worth, Malin tried to achieve better
results than her male co-workers.
Now she is the ?nance chief and the only woman among
its leaders; at home she is a wife to a medical doctor and
mother to four daughters. So she understands both
family and business. Malin believes more women can
be leaders in her company. She supports them. Those
women care for their families, but also search for
opportunities as entrepreneurs. ?
— A.Z.
Thanks to telecom operators a volunteer doctor could receive a call.
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Around 40 percent of the
employees work on ensuring
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eJOURNAL USA 18
Debunking The Myths
Entrepreneurs Are Born, Not Made
Far from the truth. An entrepreneurial mindset can be
nurtured in business-friendly and risk-rewarding climates, and
entrepreneurial skills can be taught. You can hardly become
an entrepreneur if you don’t have an idea for a new product
or service, or if you lack an initiative to go on your own. But
if you have both, you can acquire the necessary skills. Just
go out, start a company, fail and learn from your mistakes.
Well, that’s a tough way. You can take an easier route by
taking entrepreneurship courses offered in some countries
by an increasing number of universities and some secondary
schools. You can also seek expert advice from local and
national entrepreneurship organizations on how to develop
and implement business ideas. Finally, you can approach
an experienced entrepreneur or plug into a network of
entrepreneurship mentors on the Web to discuss your startup
project.
Entrepreneurs Are Solo Players
Some are. But often potential entrepreneurs rely on a
partner or partners to start or grow a company. For example,
in the United Kingdom, 40 percent of business startups have
more than one founder, and partnerships have a 15 percent
higher rate of return than solo startups. Even Steve Jobs
worked with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne before going
on his own. A partner — a family member or friend — can
bring in skills or experience you lack and provide moral
support during a crunch time. Building the company up is
even more of a social activity as it entails hiring employees,
pursuing investors, and persuading customers to buy from
you. You can do all these on your own as long as you don’t
sleep, don’t eat and don’t wash. But you don’t want to scare off
key people with your miserable looks and bad smell. So you
can be better off taking on a partner and dividing work and
responsibilities between you two.
eJOURNAL USA 19
Entrepreneurs Are Driven Solely by Desire for Pro?ts
Not really! A ?nancial gain may be an ultimate goal, but it rarely is the only
one. Some entrepreneurs are driven by passion to realize their dreams or ideas or by
determination to seize a market opportunity. The majority of U.S. small business
owners say they were motivated to start up a company by desire for independence
— to do what they like, in the way they like. Elsewhere, people resort to
entrepreneurship because they have limited options. Where employers and jobs are
scarce, you can become your own employer and indirectly contribute to society by
giving consumers more choices, creating jobs or making the world a better place
in other ways. Socially conscious entrepreneurs pursue social goals while keeping
their eyes on the bottom line. Their priority is to increase the social impact of their
ventures rather than pro?ts.
Entrepreneurs Need a Lot of Money to Start a Business
Nonsense! In the United States you can start a basic business, for
example a janitorial service or fruit stand, with a couple of hundred
dollars. In less developed countries, the upfront cost can be much less.
Creativity can help you lower it. For example, you can rely on guerilla
marketing rather than on costly ads to reach your potential customers. Free
or inexpensive startup resources on the Web offer another opportunity to
go cheap. In general, the capital required to launch and sustain a venture
depends on what kind of business you want to go into. A home-based
company with no employees will require less capital than a venture located
in a rental of?ce or retail space that needs a crew of hired hands or brains.
Estimating up-front and operational capital needs is one of the toughest
challenges for a budding entrepreneur. So don’t blame yourself too much
when you realize that you underestimated such costs. Multimillion dollar
ventures that rely on an army of consultants do too.
Real Entrepreneurs Always Succeed
Baloney! Only those who never take any risks never fail. In the United States,
about half of startups go down in the ?rst four years. But real entrepreneurs
have a hard time giving up on their ideas even after their ?rst attempt ends in
failure. Many bounce back to try again. Those who learn from past mistakes are
most likely to succeed on the second, third or nth try. Startups fail because of an
insuf?cient or ill-de?ned market, lack of planning, inadequate funding, or other
reasons. So if you fail the ?rst time, you should look at what went wrong and
draw appropriate conclusions for the future. Such an analysis may prompt you to
revise your business plan or its execution, to think about a completely different
business or to apply for a regular job. Whatever you do, get rid of “the shame” of
losing and move on. You’ll be in a good company: Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Bill
Gates and Soichiro Honda experienced failures before achieving success. ?
eJOURNAL USA 20
H
ow many people does it take to replace a 19th-
century kerosene lantern with a 21st-century
solar lamp?
Cosmos Ignite Innovations proves it takes two.
One, Matthew Scott, led the design and development
of a solar lamp when he was a student at the Stanford
Business School in 2003. The lamp is based on light-
emitting diode (LED) technology, which uses much less
electricity than incandescent bulbs or ?uorescent tubes.
Scott initially intended for the lamps to be used in
commercial buildings or aircraft. Then he read The Fortune
at the Bottom of the Pyramid and shifted his approach.
The book by C.K. Prahalad describes the commercial
opportunities offered by the 2.5 billion people in the world
who live on less than $2.50 per day. Scott wanted to reach
some of them with his lamp.
That’s when his old Stanford friend, Amit Chugh,
came into the picture. Scott asked Chugh, who had
A $25 Solar Lamp for Millions
She might find some use for electricity.
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Buying wares by the light of a kerosene lamp in Lagos? Look but don’t
inhale.
eJOURNAL USA 21
business-management experience, to help him redesign
the lamp for the poor in Chugh’s home country, India,
where millions of people rely on hazardous, polluting
kerosene lanterns for light. Scott and Chugh formed a
joint venture, Cosmos Ignite Innovations, with of?ces
in the Silicon Valley in California and New Delhi.
Scott secured ?nancial backing from a veteran venture
capitalist in Silicon Valley, and Chugh went to local
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in India to test
the lamp.
MIGHTY LIGHTS FOR THE MASSES
“It was a bridge between a high-
tech hub and market of millions of
poor craving a better life,” Chugh
said.
The lamp, named MightyLight,
is a multifunctional, water-proof,
shock-proof, solar LED lamp capable
of holding an eight-hour charge and designed to last
100,000 hours. Cosmos Ignite started selling it in India at
$50 a unit in 2006.
Chugh said he and Scott were driven by the desire
to “give back to the society and feel good about it in
the process.” They sold MightyLights through NGOs,
international agencies, the Indian government and
commercial distributors. They chose not to follow the
traditional path of aid and development groups that
depend on charities and private foundations for ?nancial
resources, which sometimes dry out, leaving technology
providers in limbo. “What we wanted instead was a
commercial enterprise that would make our venture
sustainable over time,” he said.
Chugh established design and assembly operations in
Gurgaon, India, and has worked with Scott to make their
lamp cheaper because many Indian poor couldn’t afford
it at the original price. Now an improved, brighter model
sells for $25.
EXPANDING THE LIGHT
So far Cosmos Ignite has
sold 150,000 MightyLights in
18 countries. The company has
expanded the product line to seven
items, which include solar home
lighting and street lights.
“The idea is to increase social
impact rather than pro?ts,” Chugh
said. “But from the outset you have to realize that you’re
not going to be a millionaire.”
When ?shermen and weavers started using
MightyLights to extend their work hours, Chugh knew
he and Scott were on the right track. “And when you
know that, every challenge is exciting,” he said. ?
— A.Z.
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With social goals in mind,
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MightyLight inventor Matt Scott with MightyLight. Amit Chugh with MightyLight.
eJOURNAL USA 22
A street art installation in Shanghai.
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An illustration by the young Chinese artist who calls himself "I Am White."
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N
ot many entrepreneurs start their businesses
with such razzle-dazzle as Sean Leow did. In
2007, he hosted a lavish party in Shanghai
to launch Neocha, an online community of alternative
Chinese artists and musicians. The event, which featured
62 designer groups and eight independent rock bands and
DJs, drew more than 10,000 people.
Leow, a California native, had studied international
relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of
Advanced International Studies in Nanjing, China.
While in the country of his grandparents, he had
become fascinated and inspired by young Chinese artists
and musicians. He noticed they were “pursuing their
passion with far too few resources and garnering little
recognition.” Leow decided to do something about it.
AFTER THE PARTY
The launch of Neocha created a buzz that was felt
beyond the creative communities in China. But, to
Leow’s surprise, revenue from ad and mobile payments
on which the business plan was based never really
materialized.
The plan turned out to be “irrelevant,” Leow
recalled. He downsized Neocha staff, moved its office
to a smaller space, and switched to a less expensive
Web-hosting service. “I always knew there was value in
alternative Chinese art and music,” he said. The challenge
was to find the business model that would help the artists
sell their works while creating revenue for the company.
The turnaround came when the global market
research consultancy Flamingo International approached
Leow to canvass young Chinese artists for an advertising
Art and Money Mix for China’s Neocha
Adam Schokora, far left, and Sean Leow, far right, with Neocha EDGE crew/artists.
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campaign for Nike, Inc. Mining Neocha’s database, the
company compiled a report on youth cultural trends in
China and produced related photo and video materials.
The quality of the work done in a relatively short time
impressed the consultancy.
FROM A FAN TO PARTNER
As Neocha was attracting more consulting business,
one of the company’s fans, Adam Schokora, who had
a background in marketing, joined the company and
came to play a prominent role
in managing consulting projects.
In 2009, he and Leow launched
NeochaEDGE, a creative agency
focused on content production,
market research and events
planning that is based on the talents of more than 30,000
Neocha users. NeochaEDGE has helped to organize
events that featured a graffiti exhibition, slipmat (a piece
of cloth used by DJs) art and live music, and done other
projects for clients such as PepsiCo and the Absolut
Vodka brand.
“We realized the tremendous value that these artists
can bring to companies that are looking to create cutting-
edge, creative content for their marketing efforts,” Leow
said. The new model has proved profitable, he said.
Leow said he and Schokora want to “continue to
make a difference in the creative industry.” In 2010, they
launched the EDGE Creative Collective, as part of the
existing company, to represent artists associated with
Neocha in the business world. In China, competition in
this business segment is not strong yet, and few rivals have
as well developed relationships with hip artists as does
NeochaEDGE.
The business has become serious,
Leow said, but he and Schokora still
have a lot of fun.
“We get to work with super
creative people and the type of content
we create is not your run-of-the-mill boring advertising,”
Leow said. A fashion shoot with a hip photography/stylist
duo, anyone? ?
— A.Z.
Young Chinese artists turn even tattoos into art.
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“We get to work with super
creative people.”
eJOURNAL USA 25
R
oberto Fermino became a DJ when he was 16.
He would grab his audio equipment and go to
people’s places to play tunes for them to dance to.
“That was pretty easy,” Fermino recalled. Five years later,
he stepped up the pace, starting a party club. He wanted to
popularize electronic dance music as much as he wanted to
make some money.
Getting people to enjoy his musical offerings proved
dif?cult, though. The residents of the low-income area of
São Paulo where he lived preferred more traditional tunes.
“Changing culture and cultural preferences is really hard,”
he sighed. “So it didn’t work that well.” But Fermino
doesn’t regret the experience: It taught him that a business
venture doesn’t fare well unless customers want its services
or products.
In 2010, he joined his cousin Jefferson Soares, who ran
a company that designed Web pages. The Soares’ business
was struggling. Fermino helped him create a Web platform
that allowed the company’s clients to build their sites
gradually at less expense. By the time the business took off,
Fermino already had something new on his mind — an
online marketplace for local services. Small businesses that
needed to hire photographers, designers, window dressers
and other service providers often didn’t know where to go
to ?nd them.
BUILDING AN ONLINE MARKETPLACE
Fermino ?gured that a Web-based platform would
be a good way to help both sides connect and facilitate
transactions between them. His company would charge
small intermediation fees. Fermino and his partners have
been exploring the idea over the past months, talking to
lawyers, fellow entrepreneurs and others. “We revise it,
improve it and re?ne related plans almost every day,”
he said.
Dancing in the Online Marketplace
How do you run a dance club when there is so much dancing in the streets?
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eJOURNAL USA 26
Funding is the greatest problem
because in Brazil angel investors
generally back only businesses they
know, and only few angel investors
understand online ventures, especially
early-stage companies. But Fermino
doesn’t take “no” for an answer in
his search for capital. One avenue
he is exploring is business-plan
competitions, which give budding
entrepreneurs a chance to win not
only startup funds, but also publicity.
THE CENTER OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Fermino, now 26, studies
engineering at Universidade de São
Paulo, where he runs an entrepreneurship center on
campus and online. At the center, student entrepreneurs
exchange ideas and experiences with each other and
with established business owners who come to talk to
them. It has become a popular
place among students who run
their own ventures or are thinking
about starting one. The center
also is working on developing an
entrepreneurship program that
would expand on a basic business
class offered by the university.
Fermino and his colleagues are
drawing on similar programs
at U.S. and Latin American
universities for best practices.
But Fermino’s entrepreneurial
drive never stops. “Ideas are
exploding in my head,” he said. He
picks one with the most promise
and works on it. The others he
shares with friends and fellow entrepreneurs. If you need
an idea, just give him a call. ?
— A.Z.
An online marketplace allows people like this Brazilian mother to conduct business from anywhere.
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W
hen Waed al Taweel started a business, she
had no idea what entrepreneurship was. But
that didn't stop the 18-year-old secondary
school student from entering a contest open to all
students in the Palestinian Territories to plan and launch
a full-?edged business.
Al Taweel started a company that planned and
managed special events and called it Teen Touch. She
hired 28 classmates to send out invitations, rent facilities
and arrange for catered food. Teen Touch organized
children’s birthday parties, decorated private houses
and buildings in the West Bank city of Ramallah for
Christmas and opened a store to sell gifts for Valentine’s
Day.
“We took care of all the arrangements from A to Z,”
al Taweel said.
RECOGNITION ABOUNDS
Teen Touch won a prize as the best student company
in the Palestinian Territories. It was also recognized as
the 2007 best student company in the Arab world in the
annual INJAZ al-Arab Regional Company Competition.
During the competition al Taweel was chosen as 2007’s
best student executive in the Arab world.
She sold her business after six months and
distributed pro?ts to investors in accordance with
competition rules. When al Taweel went to college at
Birzeit University, she already had other ideas.
“I started having dreams of my future business,” she
said. “I discovered that I could be a leader of a company.”
In 2010, President Obama invited al Taweel
to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in
Washington. She was the youngest participant and
Teenager Takes Charge of Events
Christmas decorations in Manger Square in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
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a speaker on the panel on
youth entrepreneurship.
Babson College President Len
Schlesinger was so impressed
with her that he offered
her a scholarship to study
in the master of business
administration program at his
school.
At that time, al Taweel
had an idea for a recreation
and entertainment center for
young Palestinians in the West
Bank. “I want it to be a unique
gathering place, to combine
fun and personal growth,” al
Taweel said. Her plan includes
a bowling alley, a skating rink,
a miniature golf course and a
library. “Young Palestinians
need a place like this because
they have dif?cult lives,” she
said. Al Taweel also hopes to
create jobs for her peers, who
don’t have many employment opportunities. In 2010,
close to 40 percent of young people in the West Bank
and Gaza were unemployed, according to the Palestinian
Central Bureau of Statistics.
REALITY BITES
Al Taweel knows that it
will be dif?cult to implement
her idea. So after talking to
Babson professors, she decided
to focus on her studies ?rst.
“They told me I would
be better prepared to develop
the idea for the center when I
complete my undergraduate
studies,” she said. The
21-year-old entrepreneur
is studying hard at Birzeit
to ?nish her undergraduate
work and be ready to
enroll in Babson’s graduate
program. “What happened
in the last three years was
overwhelming,” she said. “It
has helped me realize what
I want to do in the future.”
And what she wants to do
is to be an entrepreneur.
Because she believes that this way she can achieve her full
potential.
“But I am still at the beginning of the
entrepreneurial path,” al Taweel said. ?
— A.Z.
Waed al Taweel speaks at the 2010 Presidential Summit on
Entrepreneurship in Washington.
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A graduation ceremony at Birzeit University.
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S
tudying at a secondary school
in Daytona Beach, Florida,
in the early 1990s was a
memorable experience for Fatih
Isbecer, an exchange student from
Istanbul. He was enthralled by the
technology revolution in the United
States at the time, Isbecer said.
TECHNOLOGY BUG
“I was ?lled with an
entrepreneurial spirit and loaded
with different technology ideas,” he
recalled. “I felt that change would
eventually affect Turkey.”
At the time Isbecer was in
secondary school in Florida, Turkey
was way behind the United States
and other developed countries in
telecommunications. Residential
telephones were rare in rural areas.
To make a phone call a person
generally had to go to a local post
of?ce and wait for a connection.
Thanks to Turkish entrepreneurs
such as Isbecer, the situation has
changed dramatically.
In the late 1990s, Isbecer and
some classmates from Istanbul
Technical University started a small
business that focused on Internet
projects. “It was a kind of techies’
playground,” he said.
In 2000, Isbecer launched a
more serious business, Pozitron, a
Turkish Connection
It's not a promotional event. It's the 2006 solar eclipse over Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul.
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Fatih Isbecer
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?rm that develops enterprise, networking and security
software for telecommunications applications. Challenges
were many, including recruiting experienced senior
managers who were in short supply in Turkey, Isbecer
said.
CURTAIN GOES UP
One of Pozitron’s ?rst hits was
a mobile-phone application for
the country’s only of?cial sports
betting game, IDDAA. A few years
later came a major breakthrough:
Pozitron entered international
?nancial markets with mobile-phone
banking applications developed for
Turkey’s largest private bank, Turkiye Is Bankasi AS. The
applications allow users to transfer money, trade stocks,
pay bills and check balances anywhere in the world.
In 2007, Isbecer was selected a “high-impact
entrepreneur” by Endeavor, a U.S.-based nonpro?t that
promotes entrepreneurship. A year later, Pozitron won
the Global Business Plan Contest organized by Harvard
Business School for an integrated, mobile-banking
product.
“Launching this product in the
same month that a large U.S.-based
multinational bank released its own
version gave me a huge satisfaction,”
Isbecer said.
He said his ambition is to
participate in shaping the future of
the wireless industry and, together
with his Turkish friends and rivals,
dispel the myth that the high-tech
sector in Turkey doesn’t exist.
Elmira Bayrasli of Endeavor
said Pozitron’s success “worked not only to create jobs,
but also to inspire other Turks to see themselves as
innovators.” ?
— A.Z.
She tries to make sure that the next generation of cell phones will come from Turkey.
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He was particularly
satisfied when his product
hit the U.S. market the
same month as a similar
U.S. product.
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The sign of days gone by in Istanbul.
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Craig Newmark
I’m an accidental entrepreneur,
having started Craigslist around 16
years ago as a hobby. The deal was
to give back to the nascent online
community, since [Internet users]
were very helpful even back then.
However, in 1999, it was clear that
my thing was very important to
millions of people and that I had
to become a serious business guy
to ful?ll my commitment to my
community.
Craig Newmark is the founder of Craigslist, a community-based network primarily focused on free
online classi?ed advertisements. Since 1995 it has grown into one of the most popular websites in the
United States.
Why Did You Become an Entrepreneur?
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Rajiv Mehrotra
Back in school, I used to assemble and sell
transistor radios so I think that I always have
had the entrepreneurial spirit within me. Later,
I trained as an engineer but knew that I wanted
to be involved in all aspects of business — from
product development to ?nancing to marketing.
Being an entrepreneur is a way of life, which I
love!
Rajiv Mehrotra has founded many successful
telecommunications companies in India. He has
been named as a person who will change “your
life” by Time magazine and as a technology
pioneer by the World Economic Forum.
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Mike Moradian
I became an entrepreneur because I believed in my
idea and believed I could help create change. As an
entrepreneur, you get to take your own vision, dreams
and ambitions, and mold them into something great.
There is no better thrill than creating something that
works, and no more rewarding dollar earned than the
one you earned yourself.
Mike Moradian started the Los Angeles-based
CampusBuddy, a company that publishes data on grade
distributions at 250 U.S. public colleges.
Bilel Bouraoui
An entrepreneur is someone who dares to dream, who
trusts himself and his team to turn unconventional ideas into
extraordinary projects. An entrepreneur believes the sky is the
limit and sees an opportunity where others see a problem.
I have been very much inspired by great people who shared
these values, and for a long time I have known this is the
kind of person I would like to be.
Bilel Bouraoui is a co-founder and chief executive of AWS,
an online social media business in Tunisia.
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Ewa Wojkowska
I don’t think one ever plans to become an
entrepreneur — it is a result of continuous attempts
to do things better. But looking back, I believe I have
always had ideas to do things differently. Kopernik is
the result of my belief that development assistance can
be much more tangible and effective.
Ewa Wojkowska is a co-founder of Kopernik, a non-
pro?t enterprise that distributes simple, inexpensive
technologies in the developing world.
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Sandiaga Uno
I became an entrepreneur by accident with no
family history of entrepreneurship. After the ?nancial
crisis hit in 1997, I was laid off and left with no
choice but to take my future in my own hands. Being
an entrepreneur gives me the power to positively
change society through idealism and creativity.
Sandiaga Uno co-founded Saratoga Capital, an
investment ?rm. Since 1998 it has grown into one of
Indonesia’s largest investment companies.
Charles Bogoian
I’ve always felt entrepreneurship provides a great
opportunity to make a tangible and positive impact on the
world. While facing the challenge of “building something
from nothing,” I’ve learned invaluable skills and lessons that
normally would have taken much longer for me to experience.
Phil Tepfer
Entrepreneurship is
the ultimate form of self-
expression: It’s the challenge
to create a product or service
that is uniquely your own
and have other people like
it. Seeing the community
accept that creation is one
of the single most gratifying
things I have ever done. It’s a
vehicle to change the world,
affect countless lives and
build a life knowing you’ve
done something — hard
to top in a standard 9-to-5
[job].
Phil Tepfer and Charles
Bogoian are founders of
LiveProud, a Boston-based
business that sells jackets and
shirts made of fabrics from
recycled materials.
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Phil Tepfer, left, and Charles Bogoian.
eJOURNAL USA 35
Marcello Orizi
When I was a child and played pickup soccer, I always opted for the lesser team. It was so
awesome to win against the favorites! I always have liked challenges. And I always have wanted to
have a real in?uence over my life and create something helpful for others. To seek challenges, to
shape the future and to give back to society are the reasons I became an entrepreneur.
Marcello Orizi is a co-founder of Prossima Isola, an information and communication technologies
company, and two other startups in Sardinia, Italy.
Selima Abbou
Do you dream to create beautiful things? Do you dream
to create tasty things? Do you dream to create products
that would please many? Do you dream to create a brand
that would re?ect all the values you have imagined for your
business?
I have dreamt all these dreams and that’s why I decided
to start TYPIK.
Selima Abbou founded TYPIK in 2004 to sell traditional
Tunisian products both online and through traditional stores.
Tomer Dvir
I became an
entrepreneur because I
wanted to take action
to ?x the things that
bothered me, not just
complain about them.
Becoming an entrepreneur
has given me the power
to create change; not only
to improve my own PC
experience, but to improve
the experience of hundreds of millions of PC users the
world over.
Tomer Dvir is a co-founder and chief executive of Soluto,
an Israel-based software company that makes personal
computers run better.
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Tyler Galganski, a finalist in the "2010 America's Best Young Entrepreneurs" competition organized by Bloomberg Businessweek magazine,
co-founded a business selling undershirts with hoods.
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GenX Startup and Idea Café, a forum for young people
on business ideas and startup advice.http://www.businessownersideacafe.com/genx/
Global Entrepreneurship Week, an annual event
celebrating and promoting entrepreneurship among
young people around the world.http://www.unleashingideas.org/
Junior Achievement Worldwide, the world’s largest
organization dedicated to educating students about
workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial
literacy.http://www.ja.org/
Kairos Society, a student organization that aims to
foster the next generation of global leaders through
entrepreneurship.http://kairossociety.com/
Teen Business Link, the U.S. Small Business
Administration’s information resource for potential young
entrepreneurs.http://archive.sba.gov/teens/
Additional Resources
Websites on youth business and young entrepreneurs
It's never too early to become an entrepreneur. Beck Johnson opened his ice cream stand in Sunapee, New Hampshire, when he was 10 years old.
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doc_953324827.pdf
Each eJournal is published in English, followed by electronic versions in French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Selected editions also appear in Arabic, Chinese and Persian. Each journal is catalogued by volume and number.
ENTREPRENEURS
The Next Generation
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE • BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION PROGRAMS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE • BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION PROGRAMS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE • BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION PROGRAMS
eJOURNAL USA
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
VOLUME 16 / NUMBER 1
Published July 2011
International Information Programs:
Coordinator Dawn L. McCall
Executive Editor Nicholas Namba
Director of Publications Michael Jay Friedman
Editorial Director Mary T. Chunko
Managing Editor Andrzej Zwaniecki
Associate Editor Phillip Kurata
Production Manager Janine Perry
Designer Sylvia Scott
Cover Designer David Hamill
Illustrations (pages 10–11) Chris Piers
Front cover image © Stock Illustration Source
Leon Zernitsky
The Bureau of International Information Programs of
the U.S. Department of State publishes eJournal USA.
Each journal examines a major issue facing the United
States and the international community, and informs
international readers about U.S. society, values, thought,
and institutions.
Each eJournal is published in English, followed by
electronic versions in French, Portuguese, Russian and
Spanish. Selected editions also appear in Arabic, Chinese
and Persian. Each journal is catalogued by volume and
number.
The opinions expressed in the journals do not necessarily
reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government. The
U.S. Department of State assumes no responsibility for
the content and continued accessibility of Internet sites
to which the journals link; such responsibility resides
solely with the publishers of those sites. Journal articles,
photographs, and illustrations may be reproduced and
translated outside the United States unless they carry
explicit copyright restrictions, in which case permission
must be sought from the copyright holders noted in the
journal.
Editor, eJournal USA
IIP/PUBJ
U.S. Department of State
2200 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20522-0501
USA
E-mail: [email protected]
T
oday’s young people are more connected
to each other and to the wider world than
any previous generation. Many reject the
status quo because they see alternatives, know
that a better life is within grasp, and are willing
to reach for it. That’s how U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton described the youth of the Middle
East and North Africa on April 12, 2011. But
this description can be applied to youth almost
anywhere.
Many young people around the world share
the belief that becoming an entrepreneur is the
most effective and exciting way to make their
dreams and ideas a reality. Entrepreneurship gives
young people an opportunity to improve their
own lives and those of their families. And, as the
founder of an organization of young entrepreneurs
writes in this issue, it also gives young people
freedom to transform their communities and
change the world for the better.
To be sure — entrepreneurs, whether young
or adult — face daunting obstacles, particularly in
countries with underdeveloped financial systems,
overdeveloped bureaucracies and inadequate
infrastructures. Yet today is a better time than ever
to start a business. The Internet offers access to a
variety of resources for potential business owners,
and many governments are making it easier to
do business in order to create jobs and encourage
economic growth.
This publication discusses many of
the opportunities and challenges of being
an entrepreneur today. It also discusses —
and debunks — persistent myths about
entrepreneurship.
If you are a young person interested in
exploring the path of entrepreneur, you can read
about how some of your peers have started their
ventures and, in so doing, have set off on a new
path in life.
About This Issue
eJOURNAL USA 1
An exchange student from Japan sells drinks as part of her
entrepreneurship class at a high school in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
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Sixth grade students from a Houston school dance to promote their
handcrafted goods for sale.
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In 2007, Marcello Orizi left a good job in Switzerland to start a high-tech company — Prossima Isola — in his native Sardinia, Italy, together
with his friend Daniele Idini.
Young Entrepreneurs Remake
The World
ANKUR JAIN, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF THE
KAIROS SOCIETY
This is the perfect time for young people to
experiment with entrepreneurial ventures.
Taking on Google in Egypt
The ElFadeel brothers want to make their Web
search engine outshine the Library of Alexandria.
Comic Strip
Google: A Startup That Roared!
CHRIS PIERS
An investor wrote a fat check to a company that
didn't have a bank account.
What Makes Someone
an Entrepreneur?
JEANNE HOLDEN
Creativity, flexibility and dedication are just
few of the personality traits of successful
entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs Press Ahead,
Despite Obstacles
Small business owners in developing markets
need more determination and resilience to
overcome hurdles.
Telecom Dials “Biz”
for Development
Somali Nasra Malin and her partners bet that
both bad and good guys need phones.
Debunking the Myths
What you think about entrepreneurs may not
be true.
A $25 Solar Lamp for Millions
In India, Amit Chugh and Matt Scott aim to
“ give back to society” and make their enterprise
commercially viable.
Art and Money Mix for China’s Neocha
Sean Leow and Adam Schokora promote young
Chinese artists and have fun in the process.
Dancing in the Online Marketplace
Ideas are exploding in Brazilian Roberto
Fermino’s head.
Teenager Takes Charge of Events
Palestinian Waed al Taweel didn’t know what
entrepreneurship was when she started her company.
Turkish Connection
Fatih Isbecer has made the mobile phone much
more than a gadget.
Why Did You Become
an Entrepreneur?
Founders of 10 enterprises had different reasons.
Additional Resources
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Entrepreneurs: The Next Generation
eJOURNAL USA 4
Jonathan Shriftman, right, and Jake Medwell ride high on their Solé Bicycles.
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Ankur Jain is the founder and chairman of the Kairos
Society, an organization that helps top young entrepreneurs
from around the world start high-impact, high-growth
companies. Jain graduated in May 2011 from the Wharton
School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and
subsequently launched a new venture to help startups expand
their business into foreign markets.
E
ntrepreneurship can launch you on a path
to change the world. But closer to home,
entrepreneurship can give you the freedom to
transform the lives of your family and people in your
community. What better reasons are there to start your
own business, except, maybe, the satisfaction of being
your own boss?
I know what you’re thinking: Entrepreneurship isn’t
easy. It takes a high-powered education, lots of money,
and lots of top-level connections. But in my experience
launching the Kairos Society, a foundation that provides
support for student entrepreneurs, I’ve seen that every
day, all over the world, young people without any of
the advantages considered crucial to success are starting
businesses big and small. What they do have is the
passion and determination to make their business dreams
happen and to change the world, no matter how many
roadblocks they run into and how often they’re told
“That’s impossible!”
Hemant Sahal, a 22-year-old student at Vellore
Institute of Technology in Vellore, India, is moving
ahead with a business idea that came to him while riding
his bicycle through poor villages near his home. Sahal
noticed that villagers were suffering from heavy metal
poisoning caused by tainted drinking water. Most existing
water filters did not remove these metals, and those that
did were too expensive for local people. Through his new
company, CALLMAT, Sahal is developing inexpensive
treatments for removing toxic chemicals from the water
supply.
TIME IS NOW
In many ways, this is the perfect time for young
people like Sahal to experiment with entrepreneurial
ventures. Governments of emerging economies are
seeing the value of helping citizens realize their dreams
of business success. More efficiently than governments,
entrepreneurs create jobs and increase prosperity, when
they are free to do so. The Internet has collapsed time
and distance barriers. And young people everywhere,
no matter where they are on the economic or education
ladder, can take their part in the entrepreneurial
revolution.
On the face of it, becoming an entrepreneur can
sound scary. I won’t lie to you: It’s the hardest work
I’ve ever done, yet also the most exhilarating. There is
nothing like working for yourself, being in charge of your
destiny, and making life better for yourself and the people
around you. In many ways, entrepreneurship is one of
the least risky things you can do — because control is in
your hands.
If you’re fired up about the idea of becoming an
entrepreneur — perhaps you already have an idea for a
business — don’t get discouraged by the obstacles you
believe are in front of you. For instance, your age. You
or those around you may think that you’re too young to
be taken seriously in business. But that attitude devalues
eJOURNAL USA 5
Young Entrepreneurs Remake the World
Ankur Jain
Ankur Jain of the Kairos Society
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what young people can bring to the business world:
namely, fresh ideas and open viewpoints.
In 2010, the X Prize Foundation, which rewards
people who create smart ideas for solving tough technical
and scientific challenges, ran a
competition to develop street-ready
vehicles that would average more
than 100 miles on a gallon of gas.
In the group of finalists was a team
from a Pennsylvania high school
— the students submitted a hybrid
gasoline-electric car using lithium-ion
batteries based on a modified Ford
Focus. These teens didn’t need years of
training in automobile mechanics — they had passion for
the project, and they had the desire to make it happen.
SOLVING A PROBLEM
Money, or lack thereof, can be an imagined obstacle
to starting a business. While startup capital is great if
you can get it, plenty of businesses are launched without
it. For instance, businesses based solely on the Internet
don’t need office space, supply chains or other things that
normally require startup money.
If you need startup capital, there may be financial
resources from your local or national
governments that you’re not aware
of, so it’s smart to ask around. Start-
Up Chile is one such resource. It
funds and supports entrepreneurs
from all over the world who come to
Chile to get their companies off the
ground. As governments see how
important entrepreneurship is to
the success of their local economies,
they are setting up programs to guide and even fund
startups.
You may believe that you can’t launch a business
because you don’t have partners or mentors. Thanks to
the Internet, you no longer have to worry about finding
people at home to team up with you or give you advice.
You have a wealth of advice, support, and potential
partners at your fingertips. You can build a team, find
Entrepreneurial ideas can help provide clean water to the poor.
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Entrepreneurship is one of
the least risky things you
can do — because control
is in your hands.
eJOURNAL USA 7
suppliers and manufacturers, and do other things online.
So it doesn’t matter whether the proper talent or partner
is nearby.
As for what it takes to start a business, think about
it this way: Entrepreneurship is about solving a problem,
not starting a company. A couple of years ago, two
friends attending the University of Southern California
saw that other students were buying fixed-gear bicycles,
which were very expensive — typically US$1,000. The
two friends, Jonathan Shriftman and Jake Medwell,
were convinced the bikes could be
made more cheaply, but they had no
manufacturing experience. In fact, they
had no experience running a business,
creating a business plan, or any of the
elements you think you’d need to start a
company.
Nevertheless, they searched the
Internet and emailed companies around
the world, asking if they could manufacture similar bikes
at lower cost. They discovered that they could have the
bikes made for US$310, and a business was born. They
placed orders and started selling bikes from their new
company, Solé Bicycles. In March 2011, Inc. magazine
named Jonathan and Jake to its list of “America’s Coolest
College Start-Ups.” Pretty amazing for two guys just
barely into their 20s.
DON'T TAKE "NO" FOR AN ANSWER
Jonathan and Jake asked a lot of questions before
finding the right partners for the business. You need
to get into the same frame of mind to become an
entrepreneur. Don’t be shy about asking people — many
people — for information or connections. Sometimes
we are afraid to ask for favors but, trust me, the
entrepreneurial world is built on people helping each
other.
You also need to believe in your idea and lose your
fear of being told “no,” because you’re going to hear “no”
a lot. That’s OK — it’s part of the process of starting a
business. You can expect to be told “no” about a hundred
times before someone actually says “yes.” Find a few
people that believe in you and
keep them close — they can
support you when you’ve heard
nothing but a flurry of “no’s.”
Most importantly, don’t ever
let hearing “no” stop you from
dreaming big and setting your
goals high. When we first started
the Kairos Society, we were a
small group of 18-year-old students at the University
of Pennsylvania with a desire to create a new culture of
entrepreneurship. We had a vision of being the most
influential entrepreneurship group in the United States.
Everyone told us we were wasting our time. But six
months later, we had 500 student entrepreneurs on
the historic USS Intrepid aircraft carrier listening and
talking to former President Clinton and Bill Gates Sr. We
persisted day in and day out, and this relentless execution
of our plans has now allowed Kairos to expand around
the world. In Greek, the word kairos means the “right
moment,” and, for each one of you, there truly couldn’t
be a better moment to become an entrepreneur. ?
A Philadelphia high school team turns a Ford Focus auto into a plug-in hybrid vehicle.
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Don’t ever let hearing “no”
stop you from dreaming
big and setting your goals
high.
eJOURNAL USA 8
T
echnology is in my DNA, Code Optimizer
is my name, research and innovation is
my work.” That’s how Haytham ElFadeel
introduces himself on Facebook. And you can believe
him. Before the future Egyptian entrepreneur was 10
years old, he had devoured stacks of computer magazines
and had taught himself computer programming.
“I simply fell in love with these machines,” he said.
HOME SCHOOLING
While studying economics at the Higher Institute
of Management and Commerce in Damietta, he taught
himself computer science at home. When he graduated,
he got a job as a software engineer at a large Egyptian
company and later at a large multinational firm.
ElFadeel was so fast at finishing his work at the first
company that he had plenty of time left to work on what
he was really interested in — the Semantic Web, a “web
of data” that describes things and relationships among
them on the World Wide Web in a way that computers
can understand and that enables getting more meaningful
and accurate search results.
“I would borrow equipment from my office and
work more on semantic searches at home,” ElFadeel said.
“This was so far from what the company was doing that
nobody minded.”
In 2008, he started working on a semantic search
engine that collects data from different sources and gives
answers to direct questions and queries. For example,
such an engine can tie together different types of
information — blogs, photos, audio interviews — from
different sources on a movie star or historic event and
present it in a user-friendly way.
Two years ago, when the work started bringing
results, ElFadeel invited his brother Ashraf to join him.
Ashraf has a background in software development
and network infrastructure. They named their
Taking On Google in Egypt
“
The Internet may spark an entrepreneurial transformation in Egypt.
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venture Kngine, meaning
“knowledge engine,” and
headquartered it in Giza, the
home of the pyramids.
A NEW LIBRARY OF
ALEXANDRIA
A popular U.S. technology
blog, TechCrunch, views
Kngine as “a direct assault on
Google.” But the ElFadeel
brothers — while not shy
about their ambitions —
see themselves more in
the context of Egypt and its history. Kngine is “a new
Library of Alexandria,” they declared on the company’s
website. The Library of Alexandria was a vast collection
considered by historians the largest and most significant
library of the ancient world.
“If we succeed, our engine will be actually better
and more useful than the Library of Alexandria because
Kngine’s users will get answers quickly and won’t need
to peek into many volumes or pore through numerous
pages,” Haytham said.
Haytham said he and Ashraf like working on
something that matters to them personally and to
humanity.
“We feel that we are
part of something bigger
than ourselves, we are
willing to try as hard as
we can, and nothing can
stand in our way,” they
write in their blog.
And try hard they
did, working 12 hours a
day with meager funding.
The Nile valley is not
Silicon Valley, at least not
yet, and venture capital is
scarce. It took them a year
to secure adequate capital
from a private investor. Recently they won a cash prize in
a business plan competition sponsored by the U.S. State
Department.
Haytham said he and Ashraf are part of a new
generation of technology entrepreneurs that has emerged
in Egypt in the past few years. They would like Kngine
to become “a platform for innovation because it would
inspire more people.” But whether it actually becomes
one or not, “I would still love these machines,” Haytham
said. ?
— Andrzej Zwaniecki
Will Kngine be a new Google?
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Ashraf ElFadeel, left, and Haytham ElFadeel, right, meet their major
investor, Ahmed Alfi, in Giza.
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Chris Piers
A S t a r t u p t h a t
Roared!
eJOURNAL USA 12
Steve Jobs is characterized as forward thinking, passionate and charismatic. It's hard to imagine a world without
his creations.
Enthusiasm, honesty and
toughness helped Mohamed
"Mo" Ibrahim make his Celtel,
a telecom company, a great
success in Africa.
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Richard Branson is an action taker, not a day dreamer. The businesses he started have
made him a billionaire.
The personal attributes helped Shai Agassi, center,
sell his plan for electric cars to Hawaii Governor
Linda Lingle, right.
eJOURNAL USA 13
Jeanne Holden is a freelance writer with expertise in
economic issues.
E
ntrepreneurs are many types of people. Successful
entrepreneurs come in various ages, income levels,
genders and races. They have different types
of education and experience and come from different
cultures and countries. But research shows that most
successful entrepreneurs share certain personality traits,
including creativity, dedication, determination, ?exibility,
leadership, passion, self-con?dence and “smarts.”
• CREATIVITY drives the development of new
products or services. It makes the entrepreneur improve
constantly. It is learning, asking questions, and thinking
in new ways.
• DEDICATION makes the entrepreneur work
hard, 12 hours a day or more, often seven days a week,
especially in the beginning. Planning and ideas must have
support from hard work to succeed.
• DETERMINATION means you really want to
succeed. If something bad happens, you don’t give up.
Determination persuades the entrepreneur to make
another phone call, or knock on another door. For the
true entrepreneur, money is the reward, but seeing the
product or service actually work is more exciting.
• FLEXIBILITY is the ability to move quickly
when things change. An entrepreneur should be ready
to modify his or her original idea if customers push for
something else.
• LEADERSHIP is the ability to create rules and set
goals. Good leaders ?nish everything they start and make
sure everyone follows the rules.
• PASSION is what gives entrepreneurs energy.
Passionate entrepreneurs can convince others to believe in
their idea. Passion helps entrepreneurs stay focused and
gets others to take their plans seriously.
• SELF-CONFIDENCE comes from planning,
experience and what you know. Self-con?dent
entrepreneurs can listen to others without giving up their
own point of view.
• “SMARTS” is an American term. It describes skills
based on common sense and intelligence. Common
sense gives a person good instincts; intelligence makes
him or her an expert. Many people have smarts but don’t
recognize them. For example, a person who successfully
keeps a family budget has organizational and ?nancial
skills. Employment, education and life experience all
contribute to smarts.
Every entrepreneur has some of these qualities. If
he or she doesn’t, he or she can hire someone who has
them. The most important thing is to be aware of your
strengths and to build on them. ?
What Makes Someone an Entrepreneur?
By Jeanne Holden
American educator Ed Sobey, center, at an innovation center in Bangalore, India. He wants to make these kids into
entrepreneurs.
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W
hen 24-year-old Mathew Kiilu launched a
sunflower oil-pressing business in 2007, he
had to overcome unexpected obstacles. To
avoid high rents in his hometown Nairobi, he located
his plant in a far-off village. But a power company took
10 months to provide electricity to his business, and
post-election violence cut him off from sunflower seed
suppliers. He survived by finding a power generator for
electricity and alternate sources of sunflower seeds.
The challenges Kiilu faced are familiar to
entrepreneurs in developing countries.
HEADS AGAINST A WALL?
The general rules for small businesses to succeed in
the developing world are not that different from those in
the developed world. What is different is the much higher
level of energy and perseverance required of entrepreneurs
in developing markets in which institutional and
infrastructure hurdles often are daunting and persistent.
These hurdles range from onerous government regulations
to poor infrastructure to weak law enforcement.
“It takes a great willpower to do business in my
country,” said Kneeyee Alex, founder of ESTREET, a
foundation promoting entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
Many policymakers and development experts in
wealthy countries view entrepreneurship as a way of
providing self-employment and creating jobs in markets
that offer limited opportunities for wage employment,
according to Wim Naudé of United Nations University
in Helsinki, Finland. Entrepreneurship also increases
social mobility and empowers marginalized groups such
as women or migrants, Naudé said. Self-employment
is often the only option for young people who lack
experience and connections necessary to secure jobs.
But in countries with less-than-friendly business
climates, showing persistence and gaining entrepreneurial
experience counts more than anywhere else, Naudé said.
“To be successful, budding entrepreneurs should
try, try again after failure, [and in effect] become serial
entrepreneurs,” he said.
Entrepreneurs Press Ahead, Despite Obstacles
Will they win Calcutta’s government licenses? Only if they pull hard enough.
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LOOKING FOR A MENTOR
For young people, Naudé said, the lack of experience
makes it particularly difficult to see and seize business
opportunities. In the United States or United Kingdom,
aspiring entrepreneurs can benefit from entrepreneurship
programs and courses, which rarely are available in
developing countries. In addition, young people usually
lack the collateral necessary to get a bank loan and are
more susceptible to being side-tracked, for instance, into
illegal activities, according to Naudé.
Having a mentor with some
business experience or knowledge
often helps. Kiilu got helpful advice
from his father, who also runs a
business.
Alex recommends that
entrepreneurial novices connect and
share their stories with each other.
“Usually there will be someone with
a solution,” he said.
Another advantage of networking is that other
entrepreneurs or business experts, either local or
international, may offer vital contacts or other forms of
support. Such mentors can eventually become investors
or customers, said Ayman El Tarabishy of George
Washington University in Washington.
The Internet equalizes chances to succeed for
entrepreneurs in the developing world who understand
technology well. Young entrepreneurs with small
businesses often survive by street smarts, as illustrated
by Kiilu, who learned to fix his equipment when he
couldn’t find anyone to do it for him. Small business
owners also resort to finding public-sector “patrons”
or building their businesses “under the radar” without
government registration. A public sector patron might
be a government official who does favors for a young
entrepreneur.
AGAINST CORRUPTION
However, the lack of official approval, a title
to property or an enforceable contract limits small
businesses’ ability to grow. Informal businesses have
higher capital and transportation costs, more storage
problems, greater difficulty hiring quality staff and less
ability to enforce contracts, according to Julio De Castro
of Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
For these reasons, more ambitious entrepreneurs
often bend over backwards to register their firms and
obtain necessary licenses.
Whatever they do, they must resist corruption
and establish a reputation for high ethics, according to
experts. “Stand firm on ethics and radiate it around you
and simply be persistent,” said Shaffi Mather, a social
entrepreneur in Kerala, India.
As governments recognize the importance of
entrepreneurship to economic development and growth,
they slowly are loosening regulations and implementing
programs to support entrepreneurs, said Kenneth Morse,
an entrepreneur and visiting professor at ESADE Business
School in Barcelona, Spain. He
noticed positive changes in attitudes
toward entrepreneurship in Jordan,
Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates
and Pakistan. In 2010, Kazakhstan,
Rwanda, Peru, Vietnam, Cape Verde,
Tajikistan, and Zambia were among
economies that improved the most in
the ease of doing business, according
to the World Bank report.
As to Kiilu’s business, he is encountering new
obstacles as it grows. But the Kenyan entrepreneur
is optimistic about the future. He told East Africa in
Focus, a regional information website, that he is already
planning his next move: flour milling. ?
— A.Z. and Katherine Lewis, a contributor
Potters in Bat Trang village near Hanoi ply their trade under relaxed
government regulations.
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“Stand firm on ethics and
radiate it around you and
simply be persistent.”
eJOURNAL USA 16
I
n Somalia, many services do not
exist because of the civil war. But
telephone connections work very
well, thanks to entrepreneurs like Nasra
Malin.
BUSY SIGNAL
In 1997, she was one of six
entrepreneurs who founded NationLink,
a telecom operator, in Mogadishu. This
is the capital city and center of violence
in her country. Malin and her partners
thought they could break into the
market against all odds, competing with
three established companies and dealing
with security challenges. They were
right.
NationLink has become a
successful telecom operator. They
offer wireless and ?xed-line services to
300,000 customers and employ more
than 1,500 people.
But Malin and her partners can’t
take their company’s market position
for granted — the telecom industry
is growing fast and there is a lot of
competition. Somalia has no strong
government, so NationLink must
make an extra effort to protect its
business. Around 40 percent of the
employees work on ensuring security
Telecom Dials “Biz” For Development
So many potential customers, so much instability.
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at the company. If someone asks for a bribe, she said, “we
usually pay, because if we ?ght them, someone may get
killed.”
The company is growing despite violence and lack
of security. Malin said she and her
employees hope to “bring peace and
development to our country.” In
2000, NationLink partnered with
two other companies to start the
Somali Internet Company to provide
Internet access in Somalia and some
other African countries.
ONE CALL AT A TIME
In Atlanta, Georgia, Jennifer Bunting-Graden
understands Malin and her goals. Bunting-Graden, who
is a lawyer, has tried to start a business venture in her
native country, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone also went
through a period of civil war. She said NationLink helps
bring peace and development by creating jobs, providing
access to information and improving quality of life.
For Malin, NationLink is also about self-con?dence
and status. Her family has bred entrepreneurs for many
generations. Before the civil war, they owned many
businesses worth millions of dollars. Malin studied in
Somalia and the United States, where
she received a degree in business
administration and ?nance. Working
with her father and uncles was also
important: They taught her to “think
and act independently,” she said.
At NationLink, to prove her
worth, Malin tried to achieve better
results than her male co-workers.
Now she is the ?nance chief and the only woman among
its leaders; at home she is a wife to a medical doctor and
mother to four daughters. So she understands both
family and business. Malin believes more women can
be leaders in her company. She supports them. Those
women care for their families, but also search for
opportunities as entrepreneurs. ?
— A.Z.
Thanks to telecom operators a volunteer doctor could receive a call.
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Around 40 percent of the
employees work on ensuring
security at the company.
eJOURNAL USA 18
Debunking The Myths
Entrepreneurs Are Born, Not Made
Far from the truth. An entrepreneurial mindset can be
nurtured in business-friendly and risk-rewarding climates, and
entrepreneurial skills can be taught. You can hardly become
an entrepreneur if you don’t have an idea for a new product
or service, or if you lack an initiative to go on your own. But
if you have both, you can acquire the necessary skills. Just
go out, start a company, fail and learn from your mistakes.
Well, that’s a tough way. You can take an easier route by
taking entrepreneurship courses offered in some countries
by an increasing number of universities and some secondary
schools. You can also seek expert advice from local and
national entrepreneurship organizations on how to develop
and implement business ideas. Finally, you can approach
an experienced entrepreneur or plug into a network of
entrepreneurship mentors on the Web to discuss your startup
project.
Entrepreneurs Are Solo Players
Some are. But often potential entrepreneurs rely on a
partner or partners to start or grow a company. For example,
in the United Kingdom, 40 percent of business startups have
more than one founder, and partnerships have a 15 percent
higher rate of return than solo startups. Even Steve Jobs
worked with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne before going
on his own. A partner — a family member or friend — can
bring in skills or experience you lack and provide moral
support during a crunch time. Building the company up is
even more of a social activity as it entails hiring employees,
pursuing investors, and persuading customers to buy from
you. You can do all these on your own as long as you don’t
sleep, don’t eat and don’t wash. But you don’t want to scare off
key people with your miserable looks and bad smell. So you
can be better off taking on a partner and dividing work and
responsibilities between you two.
eJOURNAL USA 19
Entrepreneurs Are Driven Solely by Desire for Pro?ts
Not really! A ?nancial gain may be an ultimate goal, but it rarely is the only
one. Some entrepreneurs are driven by passion to realize their dreams or ideas or by
determination to seize a market opportunity. The majority of U.S. small business
owners say they were motivated to start up a company by desire for independence
— to do what they like, in the way they like. Elsewhere, people resort to
entrepreneurship because they have limited options. Where employers and jobs are
scarce, you can become your own employer and indirectly contribute to society by
giving consumers more choices, creating jobs or making the world a better place
in other ways. Socially conscious entrepreneurs pursue social goals while keeping
their eyes on the bottom line. Their priority is to increase the social impact of their
ventures rather than pro?ts.
Entrepreneurs Need a Lot of Money to Start a Business
Nonsense! In the United States you can start a basic business, for
example a janitorial service or fruit stand, with a couple of hundred
dollars. In less developed countries, the upfront cost can be much less.
Creativity can help you lower it. For example, you can rely on guerilla
marketing rather than on costly ads to reach your potential customers. Free
or inexpensive startup resources on the Web offer another opportunity to
go cheap. In general, the capital required to launch and sustain a venture
depends on what kind of business you want to go into. A home-based
company with no employees will require less capital than a venture located
in a rental of?ce or retail space that needs a crew of hired hands or brains.
Estimating up-front and operational capital needs is one of the toughest
challenges for a budding entrepreneur. So don’t blame yourself too much
when you realize that you underestimated such costs. Multimillion dollar
ventures that rely on an army of consultants do too.
Real Entrepreneurs Always Succeed
Baloney! Only those who never take any risks never fail. In the United States,
about half of startups go down in the ?rst four years. But real entrepreneurs
have a hard time giving up on their ideas even after their ?rst attempt ends in
failure. Many bounce back to try again. Those who learn from past mistakes are
most likely to succeed on the second, third or nth try. Startups fail because of an
insuf?cient or ill-de?ned market, lack of planning, inadequate funding, or other
reasons. So if you fail the ?rst time, you should look at what went wrong and
draw appropriate conclusions for the future. Such an analysis may prompt you to
revise your business plan or its execution, to think about a completely different
business or to apply for a regular job. Whatever you do, get rid of “the shame” of
losing and move on. You’ll be in a good company: Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Bill
Gates and Soichiro Honda experienced failures before achieving success. ?
eJOURNAL USA 20
H
ow many people does it take to replace a 19th-
century kerosene lantern with a 21st-century
solar lamp?
Cosmos Ignite Innovations proves it takes two.
One, Matthew Scott, led the design and development
of a solar lamp when he was a student at the Stanford
Business School in 2003. The lamp is based on light-
emitting diode (LED) technology, which uses much less
electricity than incandescent bulbs or ?uorescent tubes.
Scott initially intended for the lamps to be used in
commercial buildings or aircraft. Then he read The Fortune
at the Bottom of the Pyramid and shifted his approach.
The book by C.K. Prahalad describes the commercial
opportunities offered by the 2.5 billion people in the world
who live on less than $2.50 per day. Scott wanted to reach
some of them with his lamp.
That’s when his old Stanford friend, Amit Chugh,
came into the picture. Scott asked Chugh, who had
A $25 Solar Lamp for Millions
She might find some use for electricity.
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Buying wares by the light of a kerosene lamp in Lagos? Look but don’t
inhale.
eJOURNAL USA 21
business-management experience, to help him redesign
the lamp for the poor in Chugh’s home country, India,
where millions of people rely on hazardous, polluting
kerosene lanterns for light. Scott and Chugh formed a
joint venture, Cosmos Ignite Innovations, with of?ces
in the Silicon Valley in California and New Delhi.
Scott secured ?nancial backing from a veteran venture
capitalist in Silicon Valley, and Chugh went to local
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in India to test
the lamp.
MIGHTY LIGHTS FOR THE MASSES
“It was a bridge between a high-
tech hub and market of millions of
poor craving a better life,” Chugh
said.
The lamp, named MightyLight,
is a multifunctional, water-proof,
shock-proof, solar LED lamp capable
of holding an eight-hour charge and designed to last
100,000 hours. Cosmos Ignite started selling it in India at
$50 a unit in 2006.
Chugh said he and Scott were driven by the desire
to “give back to the society and feel good about it in
the process.” They sold MightyLights through NGOs,
international agencies, the Indian government and
commercial distributors. They chose not to follow the
traditional path of aid and development groups that
depend on charities and private foundations for ?nancial
resources, which sometimes dry out, leaving technology
providers in limbo. “What we wanted instead was a
commercial enterprise that would make our venture
sustainable over time,” he said.
Chugh established design and assembly operations in
Gurgaon, India, and has worked with Scott to make their
lamp cheaper because many Indian poor couldn’t afford
it at the original price. Now an improved, brighter model
sells for $25.
EXPANDING THE LIGHT
So far Cosmos Ignite has
sold 150,000 MightyLights in
18 countries. The company has
expanded the product line to seven
items, which include solar home
lighting and street lights.
“The idea is to increase social
impact rather than pro?ts,” Chugh
said. “But from the outset you have to realize that you’re
not going to be a millionaire.”
When ?shermen and weavers started using
MightyLights to extend their work hours, Chugh knew
he and Scott were on the right track. “And when you
know that, every challenge is exciting,” he said. ?
— A.Z.
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MightyLight inventor Matt Scott with MightyLight. Amit Chugh with MightyLight.
eJOURNAL USA 22
A street art installation in Shanghai.
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N
ot many entrepreneurs start their businesses
with such razzle-dazzle as Sean Leow did. In
2007, he hosted a lavish party in Shanghai
to launch Neocha, an online community of alternative
Chinese artists and musicians. The event, which featured
62 designer groups and eight independent rock bands and
DJs, drew more than 10,000 people.
Leow, a California native, had studied international
relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of
Advanced International Studies in Nanjing, China.
While in the country of his grandparents, he had
become fascinated and inspired by young Chinese artists
and musicians. He noticed they were “pursuing their
passion with far too few resources and garnering little
recognition.” Leow decided to do something about it.
AFTER THE PARTY
The launch of Neocha created a buzz that was felt
beyond the creative communities in China. But, to
Leow’s surprise, revenue from ad and mobile payments
on which the business plan was based never really
materialized.
The plan turned out to be “irrelevant,” Leow
recalled. He downsized Neocha staff, moved its office
to a smaller space, and switched to a less expensive
Web-hosting service. “I always knew there was value in
alternative Chinese art and music,” he said. The challenge
was to find the business model that would help the artists
sell their works while creating revenue for the company.
The turnaround came when the global market
research consultancy Flamingo International approached
Leow to canvass young Chinese artists for an advertising
Art and Money Mix for China’s Neocha
Adam Schokora, far left, and Sean Leow, far right, with Neocha EDGE crew/artists.
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campaign for Nike, Inc. Mining Neocha’s database, the
company compiled a report on youth cultural trends in
China and produced related photo and video materials.
The quality of the work done in a relatively short time
impressed the consultancy.
FROM A FAN TO PARTNER
As Neocha was attracting more consulting business,
one of the company’s fans, Adam Schokora, who had
a background in marketing, joined the company and
came to play a prominent role
in managing consulting projects.
In 2009, he and Leow launched
NeochaEDGE, a creative agency
focused on content production,
market research and events
planning that is based on the talents of more than 30,000
Neocha users. NeochaEDGE has helped to organize
events that featured a graffiti exhibition, slipmat (a piece
of cloth used by DJs) art and live music, and done other
projects for clients such as PepsiCo and the Absolut
Vodka brand.
“We realized the tremendous value that these artists
can bring to companies that are looking to create cutting-
edge, creative content for their marketing efforts,” Leow
said. The new model has proved profitable, he said.
Leow said he and Schokora want to “continue to
make a difference in the creative industry.” In 2010, they
launched the EDGE Creative Collective, as part of the
existing company, to represent artists associated with
Neocha in the business world. In China, competition in
this business segment is not strong yet, and few rivals have
as well developed relationships with hip artists as does
NeochaEDGE.
The business has become serious,
Leow said, but he and Schokora still
have a lot of fun.
“We get to work with super
creative people and the type of content
we create is not your run-of-the-mill boring advertising,”
Leow said. A fashion shoot with a hip photography/stylist
duo, anyone? ?
— A.Z.
Young Chinese artists turn even tattoos into art.
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“We get to work with super
creative people.”
eJOURNAL USA 25
R
oberto Fermino became a DJ when he was 16.
He would grab his audio equipment and go to
people’s places to play tunes for them to dance to.
“That was pretty easy,” Fermino recalled. Five years later,
he stepped up the pace, starting a party club. He wanted to
popularize electronic dance music as much as he wanted to
make some money.
Getting people to enjoy his musical offerings proved
dif?cult, though. The residents of the low-income area of
São Paulo where he lived preferred more traditional tunes.
“Changing culture and cultural preferences is really hard,”
he sighed. “So it didn’t work that well.” But Fermino
doesn’t regret the experience: It taught him that a business
venture doesn’t fare well unless customers want its services
or products.
In 2010, he joined his cousin Jefferson Soares, who ran
a company that designed Web pages. The Soares’ business
was struggling. Fermino helped him create a Web platform
that allowed the company’s clients to build their sites
gradually at less expense. By the time the business took off,
Fermino already had something new on his mind — an
online marketplace for local services. Small businesses that
needed to hire photographers, designers, window dressers
and other service providers often didn’t know where to go
to ?nd them.
BUILDING AN ONLINE MARKETPLACE
Fermino ?gured that a Web-based platform would
be a good way to help both sides connect and facilitate
transactions between them. His company would charge
small intermediation fees. Fermino and his partners have
been exploring the idea over the past months, talking to
lawyers, fellow entrepreneurs and others. “We revise it,
improve it and re?ne related plans almost every day,”
he said.
Dancing in the Online Marketplace
How do you run a dance club when there is so much dancing in the streets?
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eJOURNAL USA 26
Funding is the greatest problem
because in Brazil angel investors
generally back only businesses they
know, and only few angel investors
understand online ventures, especially
early-stage companies. But Fermino
doesn’t take “no” for an answer in
his search for capital. One avenue
he is exploring is business-plan
competitions, which give budding
entrepreneurs a chance to win not
only startup funds, but also publicity.
THE CENTER OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Fermino, now 26, studies
engineering at Universidade de São
Paulo, where he runs an entrepreneurship center on
campus and online. At the center, student entrepreneurs
exchange ideas and experiences with each other and
with established business owners who come to talk to
them. It has become a popular
place among students who run
their own ventures or are thinking
about starting one. The center
also is working on developing an
entrepreneurship program that
would expand on a basic business
class offered by the university.
Fermino and his colleagues are
drawing on similar programs
at U.S. and Latin American
universities for best practices.
But Fermino’s entrepreneurial
drive never stops. “Ideas are
exploding in my head,” he said. He
picks one with the most promise
and works on it. The others he
shares with friends and fellow entrepreneurs. If you need
an idea, just give him a call. ?
— A.Z.
An online marketplace allows people like this Brazilian mother to conduct business from anywhere.
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W
hen Waed al Taweel started a business, she
had no idea what entrepreneurship was. But
that didn't stop the 18-year-old secondary
school student from entering a contest open to all
students in the Palestinian Territories to plan and launch
a full-?edged business.
Al Taweel started a company that planned and
managed special events and called it Teen Touch. She
hired 28 classmates to send out invitations, rent facilities
and arrange for catered food. Teen Touch organized
children’s birthday parties, decorated private houses
and buildings in the West Bank city of Ramallah for
Christmas and opened a store to sell gifts for Valentine’s
Day.
“We took care of all the arrangements from A to Z,”
al Taweel said.
RECOGNITION ABOUNDS
Teen Touch won a prize as the best student company
in the Palestinian Territories. It was also recognized as
the 2007 best student company in the Arab world in the
annual INJAZ al-Arab Regional Company Competition.
During the competition al Taweel was chosen as 2007’s
best student executive in the Arab world.
She sold her business after six months and
distributed pro?ts to investors in accordance with
competition rules. When al Taweel went to college at
Birzeit University, she already had other ideas.
“I started having dreams of my future business,” she
said. “I discovered that I could be a leader of a company.”
In 2010, President Obama invited al Taweel
to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in
Washington. She was the youngest participant and
Teenager Takes Charge of Events
Christmas decorations in Manger Square in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
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a speaker on the panel on
youth entrepreneurship.
Babson College President Len
Schlesinger was so impressed
with her that he offered
her a scholarship to study
in the master of business
administration program at his
school.
At that time, al Taweel
had an idea for a recreation
and entertainment center for
young Palestinians in the West
Bank. “I want it to be a unique
gathering place, to combine
fun and personal growth,” al
Taweel said. Her plan includes
a bowling alley, a skating rink,
a miniature golf course and a
library. “Young Palestinians
need a place like this because
they have dif?cult lives,” she
said. Al Taweel also hopes to
create jobs for her peers, who
don’t have many employment opportunities. In 2010,
close to 40 percent of young people in the West Bank
and Gaza were unemployed, according to the Palestinian
Central Bureau of Statistics.
REALITY BITES
Al Taweel knows that it
will be dif?cult to implement
her idea. So after talking to
Babson professors, she decided
to focus on her studies ?rst.
“They told me I would
be better prepared to develop
the idea for the center when I
complete my undergraduate
studies,” she said. The
21-year-old entrepreneur
is studying hard at Birzeit
to ?nish her undergraduate
work and be ready to
enroll in Babson’s graduate
program. “What happened
in the last three years was
overwhelming,” she said. “It
has helped me realize what
I want to do in the future.”
And what she wants to do
is to be an entrepreneur.
Because she believes that this way she can achieve her full
potential.
“But I am still at the beginning of the
entrepreneurial path,” al Taweel said. ?
— A.Z.
Waed al Taweel speaks at the 2010 Presidential Summit on
Entrepreneurship in Washington.
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S
tudying at a secondary school
in Daytona Beach, Florida,
in the early 1990s was a
memorable experience for Fatih
Isbecer, an exchange student from
Istanbul. He was enthralled by the
technology revolution in the United
States at the time, Isbecer said.
TECHNOLOGY BUG
“I was ?lled with an
entrepreneurial spirit and loaded
with different technology ideas,” he
recalled. “I felt that change would
eventually affect Turkey.”
At the time Isbecer was in
secondary school in Florida, Turkey
was way behind the United States
and other developed countries in
telecommunications. Residential
telephones were rare in rural areas.
To make a phone call a person
generally had to go to a local post
of?ce and wait for a connection.
Thanks to Turkish entrepreneurs
such as Isbecer, the situation has
changed dramatically.
In the late 1990s, Isbecer and
some classmates from Istanbul
Technical University started a small
business that focused on Internet
projects. “It was a kind of techies’
playground,” he said.
In 2000, Isbecer launched a
more serious business, Pozitron, a
Turkish Connection
It's not a promotional event. It's the 2006 solar eclipse over Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul.
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Fatih Isbecer
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?rm that develops enterprise, networking and security
software for telecommunications applications. Challenges
were many, including recruiting experienced senior
managers who were in short supply in Turkey, Isbecer
said.
CURTAIN GOES UP
One of Pozitron’s ?rst hits was
a mobile-phone application for
the country’s only of?cial sports
betting game, IDDAA. A few years
later came a major breakthrough:
Pozitron entered international
?nancial markets with mobile-phone
banking applications developed for
Turkey’s largest private bank, Turkiye Is Bankasi AS. The
applications allow users to transfer money, trade stocks,
pay bills and check balances anywhere in the world.
In 2007, Isbecer was selected a “high-impact
entrepreneur” by Endeavor, a U.S.-based nonpro?t that
promotes entrepreneurship. A year later, Pozitron won
the Global Business Plan Contest organized by Harvard
Business School for an integrated, mobile-banking
product.
“Launching this product in the
same month that a large U.S.-based
multinational bank released its own
version gave me a huge satisfaction,”
Isbecer said.
He said his ambition is to
participate in shaping the future of
the wireless industry and, together
with his Turkish friends and rivals,
dispel the myth that the high-tech
sector in Turkey doesn’t exist.
Elmira Bayrasli of Endeavor
said Pozitron’s success “worked not only to create jobs,
but also to inspire other Turks to see themselves as
innovators.” ?
— A.Z.
She tries to make sure that the next generation of cell phones will come from Turkey.
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He was particularly
satisfied when his product
hit the U.S. market the
same month as a similar
U.S. product.
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The sign of days gone by in Istanbul.
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Craig Newmark
I’m an accidental entrepreneur,
having started Craigslist around 16
years ago as a hobby. The deal was
to give back to the nascent online
community, since [Internet users]
were very helpful even back then.
However, in 1999, it was clear that
my thing was very important to
millions of people and that I had
to become a serious business guy
to ful?ll my commitment to my
community.
Craig Newmark is the founder of Craigslist, a community-based network primarily focused on free
online classi?ed advertisements. Since 1995 it has grown into one of the most popular websites in the
United States.
Why Did You Become an Entrepreneur?
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Rajiv Mehrotra
Back in school, I used to assemble and sell
transistor radios so I think that I always have
had the entrepreneurial spirit within me. Later,
I trained as an engineer but knew that I wanted
to be involved in all aspects of business — from
product development to ?nancing to marketing.
Being an entrepreneur is a way of life, which I
love!
Rajiv Mehrotra has founded many successful
telecommunications companies in India. He has
been named as a person who will change “your
life” by Time magazine and as a technology
pioneer by the World Economic Forum.
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eJOURNAL USA 33
Mike Moradian
I became an entrepreneur because I believed in my
idea and believed I could help create change. As an
entrepreneur, you get to take your own vision, dreams
and ambitions, and mold them into something great.
There is no better thrill than creating something that
works, and no more rewarding dollar earned than the
one you earned yourself.
Mike Moradian started the Los Angeles-based
CampusBuddy, a company that publishes data on grade
distributions at 250 U.S. public colleges.
Bilel Bouraoui
An entrepreneur is someone who dares to dream, who
trusts himself and his team to turn unconventional ideas into
extraordinary projects. An entrepreneur believes the sky is the
limit and sees an opportunity where others see a problem.
I have been very much inspired by great people who shared
these values, and for a long time I have known this is the
kind of person I would like to be.
Bilel Bouraoui is a co-founder and chief executive of AWS,
an online social media business in Tunisia.
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Ewa Wojkowska
I don’t think one ever plans to become an
entrepreneur — it is a result of continuous attempts
to do things better. But looking back, I believe I have
always had ideas to do things differently. Kopernik is
the result of my belief that development assistance can
be much more tangible and effective.
Ewa Wojkowska is a co-founder of Kopernik, a non-
pro?t enterprise that distributes simple, inexpensive
technologies in the developing world.
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Sandiaga Uno
I became an entrepreneur by accident with no
family history of entrepreneurship. After the ?nancial
crisis hit in 1997, I was laid off and left with no
choice but to take my future in my own hands. Being
an entrepreneur gives me the power to positively
change society through idealism and creativity.
Sandiaga Uno co-founded Saratoga Capital, an
investment ?rm. Since 1998 it has grown into one of
Indonesia’s largest investment companies.
Charles Bogoian
I’ve always felt entrepreneurship provides a great
opportunity to make a tangible and positive impact on the
world. While facing the challenge of “building something
from nothing,” I’ve learned invaluable skills and lessons that
normally would have taken much longer for me to experience.
Phil Tepfer
Entrepreneurship is
the ultimate form of self-
expression: It’s the challenge
to create a product or service
that is uniquely your own
and have other people like
it. Seeing the community
accept that creation is one
of the single most gratifying
things I have ever done. It’s a
vehicle to change the world,
affect countless lives and
build a life knowing you’ve
done something — hard
to top in a standard 9-to-5
[job].
Phil Tepfer and Charles
Bogoian are founders of
LiveProud, a Boston-based
business that sells jackets and
shirts made of fabrics from
recycled materials.
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Phil Tepfer, left, and Charles Bogoian.
eJOURNAL USA 35
Marcello Orizi
When I was a child and played pickup soccer, I always opted for the lesser team. It was so
awesome to win against the favorites! I always have liked challenges. And I always have wanted to
have a real in?uence over my life and create something helpful for others. To seek challenges, to
shape the future and to give back to society are the reasons I became an entrepreneur.
Marcello Orizi is a co-founder of Prossima Isola, an information and communication technologies
company, and two other startups in Sardinia, Italy.
Selima Abbou
Do you dream to create beautiful things? Do you dream
to create tasty things? Do you dream to create products
that would please many? Do you dream to create a brand
that would re?ect all the values you have imagined for your
business?
I have dreamt all these dreams and that’s why I decided
to start TYPIK.
Selima Abbou founded TYPIK in 2004 to sell traditional
Tunisian products both online and through traditional stores.
Tomer Dvir
I became an
entrepreneur because I
wanted to take action
to ?x the things that
bothered me, not just
complain about them.
Becoming an entrepreneur
has given me the power
to create change; not only
to improve my own PC
experience, but to improve
the experience of hundreds of millions of PC users the
world over.
Tomer Dvir is a co-founder and chief executive of Soluto,
an Israel-based software company that makes personal
computers run better.
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Tyler Galganski, a finalist in the "2010 America's Best Young Entrepreneurs" competition organized by Bloomberg Businessweek magazine,
co-founded a business selling undershirts with hoods.
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eJOURNAL USA 37
GenX Startup and Idea Café, a forum for young people
on business ideas and startup advice.http://www.businessownersideacafe.com/genx/
Global Entrepreneurship Week, an annual event
celebrating and promoting entrepreneurship among
young people around the world.http://www.unleashingideas.org/
Junior Achievement Worldwide, the world’s largest
organization dedicated to educating students about
workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial
literacy.http://www.ja.org/
Kairos Society, a student organization that aims to
foster the next generation of global leaders through
entrepreneurship.http://kairossociety.com/
Teen Business Link, the U.S. Small Business
Administration’s information resource for potential young
entrepreneurs.http://archive.sba.gov/teens/
Additional Resources
Websites on youth business and young entrepreneurs
It's never too early to become an entrepreneur. Beck Johnson opened his ice cream stand in Sunapee, New Hampshire, when he was 10 years old.
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doc_953324827.pdf