life of 80

This is my third week at GreenMango and I’m loving it. I’ve had a chance to go out “in the field” and see our sales staff recruit vendors for the website. These sales associates go down every narrow street and alley in their territories. One of the biggest hurdles is gaining the trust of these vendors, as they are initially skeptical of any new model. It is also difficult for some of these vendors to understand the nature of a web search; they don’t see how customers will find them using the GreenMango platform. As the GreenMango brand becomes more recognized, this will be less of a problem.

I’ve recently learned about a fascinating Nepalese company that is making the most of the NRN population (Non Resident Nepalese- those living outside of Nepal). Most NRN have family back home they want to take good care of and so the company, Thamel, provides a way to send gifts and transfer money from abroad to Nepal. Some gifts are VERY local, like these gifts for the Tihar festival. You can purchase an online puja, but I’m not sure what that means (puja is a Hindu ritual showing reverence). I’m not sure if they still offer this, but originally you could purchase a gift certificate for your family to pick up a goat at the local market. Thamel had $30,000 of goat revenue the first year they offered this service. Some gifts are more universal, like holidays at resorts and flat-screen TVs. A newly added service allows you to arrange for financing of a home, a car, or an education in Nepal.

Most of their customers are Nepalese living in the US, Canada, and the UK, but there is a significant untapped diaspora population in both Hong Kong and Japan. Purchase of the items on the Thamel website usually includes delivery, which is provided by each specific vendor in their network. This allows Thamel to avoid a developing world issue of distribution with poor infrastructure and allow locals to take care of it. Thamel has become quite a local brand through marketing strategies like offering a picture of your family member receiving their gift. This helps to build trust in their service, which can be a significant hurdle for a service that is totally new. In fact, gaining the trust of potential vendors was a challenge when they were first starting. It is easier now because locals can see Thamel vendors are getting 5-10% of their revenue through the e-commerce platform – a number that rises to 50% during holidays and festivals. Thamel is profitable, with $1.3 million in revenue in 2004. The World Resources Institute/ NextBillion.Net did a case study on them, where I got a lot of this information and these fantastic pictures.






Thamel utilizes several of the characteristics of developing markets laid forth in The 86% Solution, which I’ve paraphrased here:

• Remember those who have emigrated
• Tap into regional communities to build your brand
• Build your own infrastructure
• Take the market to the people

This year’s blog action day topic is POVERTY. Since I am living in a developing country, I thought I’d participate. Here are some facts comparing the US (where I’m from) and India (where I am currently). All figures are 2007 Worldbank unless otherwise noted.

While I find these figures interesting, I also find it interesting how accustomed I’ve become to poor conditions. I’ve spent only a few days in different “slums” and seen the backside of many communities from a train. I don’t really notice the trash on the streets or the pollution/ dirt on buildings like I did when I first arrived. I was in a “slum area” today (it was really like a lower class neighborhood), and I found myself saying how nice the houses were. I don’t think they had running water or anything, but they looked new and well-kept. I am wondering, am I becoming blind to poverty because I’ve been exposed to it quite a bit lately? Or am I learning to look past the blemishes and see the good parts of these lives? I’m just not sure.

I have officially moved to Hyderabad, India, and am almost settled in at GreenMango. This picture is the view from the balcony of my first hotel room. I’ve spent a couple of (really hot) days in the field getting locals to give their information to be put on our website. I also took a little time out to sightsee at Charminar and buy bangles. Hyderabad is interesting. It is considered a 1st tier city by most (on the same level with Mumbai and Delhi and Bangalore), but its growth is fairly recent and its official population at a mere 8 million. Supposedly it has overtaken Bangalore as the tech hub. Luckily for me, my suspicions that it is also the Indian social enterprise hub appear to be correct (e.g. SKS Microfinance is across the street from my guest house). I now have to find a decent furnished short term apartment, a formidable challenge in a city where most expats can afford luxury at a level I cannot, but most Indians live more modestly than I would prefer.

I’ve decided to spend a couple of months working with Green Mango, a for-profit Hyderabad firm seeking to connect service providers, like tailors and plumbers, with customers using their pilot web platform (see screenshot below). The co-founders, who came from Women’s World Bank, saw that access to capital was not enough to get BOP entrepreneurs off the ground. They also needed access to markets and important information (like pricing). I’ll be working on their volunteer capacity, public relations, and other projects I’ll dream up. I’m excited to dig into an interesting problem and live in an up-and-coming city. Many of my favorite organizations have offices in Hyderabad, including Acumen Fund and Vision Spring, as well as some of the larger Indian microfinance institutions. It is also located in a region known for the level of spice in their food, so we’ll see how that goes.

In preparation I’ve been thinking about similar models where a business is built to connect buyers and sellers. Some examples I could think of were ebay, Kiva, TripAdvisor, craigslist, Angie’s List, and Innocentive, What do these intermediaries provide? One thing is a marketplace, a connection that these buyers and sellers might not have otherwise found. Where else are you going to sell your used TV other than craigslist? But in addition some provide information: ebay ranks buyers and sellers, TripAdvisor presents hotel reviews, and Kiva puts a face on microloans. Green Mango seems to be heading in the right direction, with user rankings and shopper networks already built into their platform. I am very interested to see how Green Mango applies lessons from these other models in the areas of revenue models, customer experience, and network effects in their unique environment, where their “seller” segment will not likely have internet access at home.