Thanks for sharing about Ayllu here. I got a few questions:
You key service seems to be mapping the soc sector/ soc enterprises. I wonder about your answer to "the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?" Isn't your key audience Investors/ and social enterprises rather then any local community? All your data and services are B2B, rather then working with the local community.
Its interesting that you take one year to map India, but also the same time to map a) the whole rest of Africa and b) the whole rest of Asia. How realistic is that?
You are writing (there might be small typo in your text) that you will fundraise '$509,800 from donors, and will earn $695,700 revenue". What is your total budget?
You are currently working with a very small team + MBA students + volunteers. How realistic is it to complete all the global mapping, the numerous (58) consultancy projects + 300 paying clients within 3 years?
Thanks for your clarification and keep up your good work!
Hi Andrea, Thanks for taking the time to write this comment and so thoroughly reading our entry.
- About monthly income, you are right; Ayllu is a service provider. Our purpose is to help social enterprises reach millions more of the world's poor. The change we want to see in the world is lowering global poverty through market solutions, so the ultimate beneficiary is the global poor, not social enterprises. In the end, a social enterprise in itself isn't inherently a good thing so at Ayllu we always ask ourselves 'even though we are one degree removed, how do we make sure the poor are actually benefiting from social enterprise in the first place?' Our value is the data produced by mapping, and we use our knowledge in a very hands on way, helping with on-the-ground execution. In Brazil, we spend a lot of time in communities with our local partner, Alianca Empreendedora to make sure we can see how the population is affected by the social ventures. I responded $100-1000 because we look for social enterprises that target a specific demographic: people in BOP markets who are not the poorest, but who are unable to break out of the cycle.
- Ayllu is a startup and global mapping has to do with our capacity and scaling plans. We constantly populate the map with new social enterprises and their supporters (such as companies, specific regulation, and nonprofits that further social enterprise). The idea is to know who the important players are, so that if we do a project in a specific location we know who to go to first. For instance if Visionspring wanted to enter a South American country and asked Ayllu to analyze 3 options, we would know who to go to in those countries as a starting point. It is actually not difficult for us to map (if we had the capacity, we could map everything this year). Social enterprise is still a small market with only a few hundred businesses in each region. When the Regional Directors are hired, we expect to have already mapped at least 50% of those ecosystems since the social enterprise sphere is so small. The reason it will take 3 years is not because it is difficult to map, it is because we need time to build our capacity so that we can maintain those maps. For instance, 25% of the social enterprises we've mapped are in India alone, and we form relationships with organizations like Milaap, who know India's social enterprise climate well and can help us map it. I actually just had a conversation with Milaap’s Founder, Anoj, and he suggested we map India this year, since it would be possible to do so quickly. The problem is that Ayllu does not have the capacity to hire an Analyst focused only on India, and we want to make sure that once we map a location, we have the capacity to maintain that information.
- Our budget is not a typo – our total 3 year budget is $1,205,500.
Our primary customers are social enterprises and funders, but we can also sell to academics and companies (such as multinationals entering bop markets). The challenges of operating in these markets are the same globally, so we use our expertise of how to operate in these markets to advise various clients. Annually, we will sell a Report as well as a Directory for funders that profiles different hybrids (both profitable and unprofitable). On a sliding scale, we may also charge membership fees for portions of the public map (but it will be free for the first 1-2 years).
Our primary revenue stream is consulting, which takes 3 forms:
1. Market Assessment (Global to Local) For social enterprises entering new markets, uses ecosystem maps to assess local social enterprise climates. It recommends target markets and brokers local collaborations and funding opportunities.
2. Cross-Learning (Local to Global)- For local ventures seeking global knowledge & collaboration. Connecting hybrid business models in emerging markets to global information, good practices, potential partners, funders, and opportunities.
3. Targeted Search & Networking
For social enterprises, funders, and academics seeking customized information, Ayllu sends regular updates based on their needs. For social enterprises this information is on best practices, opportunities, and new relationships. For funders and academics the information is on data, investment recommendations, and due diligence.
- Ayllu’s structure most closely resembles a consulting firm. A good company to check out that has the most similar business model is Gartner. We have a small paid staff but rely on cross-sector support for our daily operations such as legal support, probono consultants, funders, etc (you can see our Advisory Board at aylluinitiative.org/team). When we do consulting projects, depending on the theme, we would bring on an independent contractor specialized in that theme. As we grow, we will hire full-time analysts who have both regional specialization and/or thematic specialization. We have 2 paid staff on our team, myself and my business partner Nate. We have worked with MBA students but do not currently work with them. We have 3 unpaid consultants on our team - Mike, Shital, and Monica. Mike and Shital are professional consultants and Monica is a business analyst. We also work with 2 undergraduate students at University of Pennsylvania, who update our database. This spring, they worked with a professor at Wharton to create an analytical tool to measure franchise potential. Locally, we work in the offices of our partner, Alianca Empreendedora, where we rely on their staff for operational support such as marketing and local relationship building. In total, we receive 50 hours in unpaid support per week.
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Hi Melissa,
Thanks for sharing about Ayllu here. I got a few questions:
You key service seems to be mapping the soc sector/ soc enterprises. I wonder about your answer to "the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?" Isn't your key audience Investors/ and social enterprises rather then any local community? All your data and services are B2B, rather then working with the local community.
Its interesting that you take one year to map India, but also the same time to map a) the whole rest of Africa and b) the whole rest of Asia. How realistic is that?
You are writing (there might be small typo in your text) that you will fundraise '$509,800 from donors, and will earn $695,700 revenue". What is your total budget?
You are currently working with a very small team + MBA students + volunteers. How realistic is it to complete all the global mapping, the numerous (58) consultancy projects + 300 paying clients within 3 years?
Thanks for your clarification and keep up your good work!
Hi Andrea, Thanks for taking the time to write this comment and so thoroughly reading our entry.
- About monthly income, you are right; Ayllu is a service provider. Our purpose is to help social enterprises reach millions more of the world's poor. The change we want to see in the world is lowering global poverty through market solutions, so the ultimate beneficiary is the global poor, not social enterprises. In the end, a social enterprise in itself isn't inherently a good thing so at Ayllu we always ask ourselves 'even though we are one degree removed, how do we make sure the poor are actually benefiting from social enterprise in the first place?' Our value is the data produced by mapping, and we use our knowledge in a very hands on way, helping with on-the-ground execution. In Brazil, we spend a lot of time in communities with our local partner, Alianca Empreendedora to make sure we can see how the population is affected by the social ventures. I responded $100-1000 because we look for social enterprises that target a specific demographic: people in BOP markets who are not the poorest, but who are unable to break out of the cycle.
- Ayllu is a startup and global mapping has to do with our capacity and scaling plans. We constantly populate the map with new social enterprises and their supporters (such as companies, specific regulation, and nonprofits that further social enterprise). The idea is to know who the important players are, so that if we do a project in a specific location we know who to go to first. For instance if Visionspring wanted to enter a South American country and asked Ayllu to analyze 3 options, we would know who to go to in those countries as a starting point. It is actually not difficult for us to map (if we had the capacity, we could map everything this year). Social enterprise is still a small market with only a few hundred businesses in each region. When the Regional Directors are hired, we expect to have already mapped at least 50% of those ecosystems since the social enterprise sphere is so small. The reason it will take 3 years is not because it is difficult to map, it is because we need time to build our capacity so that we can maintain those maps. For instance, 25% of the social enterprises we've mapped are in India alone, and we form relationships with organizations like Milaap, who know India's social enterprise climate well and can help us map it. I actually just had a conversation with Milaap’s Founder, Anoj, and he suggested we map India this year, since it would be possible to do so quickly. The problem is that Ayllu does not have the capacity to hire an Analyst focused only on India, and we want to make sure that once we map a location, we have the capacity to maintain that information.
- Our budget is not a typo – our total 3 year budget is $1,205,500.
Our primary customers are social enterprises and funders, but we can also sell to academics and companies (such as multinationals entering bop markets). The challenges of operating in these markets are the same globally, so we use our expertise of how to operate in these markets to advise various clients. Annually, we will sell a Report as well as a Directory for funders that profiles different hybrids (both profitable and unprofitable). On a sliding scale, we may also charge membership fees for portions of the public map (but it will be free for the first 1-2 years).
Our primary revenue stream is consulting, which takes 3 forms:
1. Market Assessment (Global to Local) For social enterprises entering new markets, uses ecosystem maps to assess local social enterprise climates. It recommends target markets and brokers local collaborations and funding opportunities.
2. Cross-Learning (Local to Global)- For local ventures seeking global knowledge & collaboration. Connecting hybrid business models in emerging markets to global information, good practices, potential partners, funders, and opportunities.
3. Targeted Search & Networking
For social enterprises, funders, and academics seeking customized information, Ayllu sends regular updates based on their needs. For social enterprises this information is on best practices, opportunities, and new relationships. For funders and academics the information is on data, investment recommendations, and due diligence.
- Ayllu’s structure most closely resembles a consulting firm. A good company to check out that has the most similar business model is Gartner. We have a small paid staff but rely on cross-sector support for our daily operations such as legal support, probono consultants, funders, etc (you can see our Advisory Board at aylluinitiative.org/team). When we do consulting projects, depending on the theme, we would bring on an independent contractor specialized in that theme. As we grow, we will hire full-time analysts who have both regional specialization and/or thematic specialization. We have 2 paid staff on our team, myself and my business partner Nate. We have worked with MBA students but do not currently work with them. We have 3 unpaid consultants on our team - Mike, Shital, and Monica. Mike and Shital are professional consultants and Monica is a business analyst. We also work with 2 undergraduate students at University of Pennsylvania, who update our database. This spring, they worked with a professor at Wharton to create an analytical tool to measure franchise potential. Locally, we work in the offices of our partner, Alianca Empreendedora, where we rely on their staff for operational support such as marketing and local relationship building. In total, we receive 50 hours in unpaid support per week.
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