Happy Summer! Here are some updates from Briico's work over the last couple of months:

1. Everyone in the program got their businesses started in the 21 days of the program and almost everyone got to profitability during that time. We're working hard on program iteration now... but the early success is inspiring. If you want to see more: 

   • Writeup: Anyone Really Can Start a Microbusiness (And These People Just Did)

   • Fun informal little video: https://youtube.com/shorts/ytIsFK6hItE?feature=share

2. We're still developing our video case studies and trainings. This is a much more iterative process than I was expecting. We are still learning so much about the best ways of handling language, literacy, and training -- and I'm glad we didn't invest all of our Manifund funds in our first iteration.

3. I feel like we're seeing some good results, and gaining momentum with the actual program but that funding is starting to become a limitation. If you have any advice in terms of foundations or people that might be interested in supporting our work financially, I'd love to hear it.

Thank you for your support! More updates to come : )

Happy Summer! Here are some updates from Briico's work over the last couple of months:

1. Everyone in the program got their businesses started in the 21 days of the program and almost everyone got to profitability during that time. We're working hard on program iteration now... but the early success is inspiring. If you want to see more: 

   • Writeup: Anyone Really Can Start a Microbusiness (And These People Just Did)

   • Fun informal little video: https://youtube.com/shorts/ytIsFK6hItE?feature=share

2. We're still developing our video case studies and trainings. This is a much more iterative process than I was expecting. We are still learning so much about the best ways of handling language, literacy, and training -- and I'm glad we didn't invest all of our Manifund funds in our first iteration.

3. I feel like we're seeing some good results, and gaining momentum with the actual program but that funding is starting to become a limitation. If you have any advice in terms of foundations or people that might be interested in supporting our work financially, I'd love to hear it.

Thank you for your support! More updates to come : )

@Jason I see! Thank you for explaining more fully what you were asking about.

Even at this small scale, I'm committed to using this money to deliver the program to 1 person for each $500 invested, even down to the minimum funding level of $1K (which would cover two people). So $7.5K will let 15 people start microbusinesses (with all the accompanying positive impacts for each of those people/families, as I describe above.) It's possible that things will become even more cost effective over time -- but even at this scale, I can and will deliver it for $500/person (including covering $200 of their startup costs, effectively a cash transfer.) So I don't think the cost effectiveness calculation needs to include a promise of future efficiency.

Another important piece of the way I look at cost effectiveness is that once these new business owners are profitable (within 6 months), they'll pay for others to go through the program. So the $7.5K could, if I'm successful, fund 15 people immediately and then (hopefully) fund many more people than that with that repayment model.

The way I explain that above is -- each dollar isn’t “burned” but rather funds an ongoing (and hopefully even >1x) multiplier of the funds. And it’s reasonable to expect a 50-100x revenue yield for the migrant in just 12 months (for example, if the program costs $500 and he has revenues of $25K-$50K in his first year. )

It almost sounds too good to be true -- a $500 investment can 2x-5x a person's income within 30 days and give them a business they can grow over time -- and then that person will turn around and fund that same income lift for the next person in line. But these are the impacts I'm seeing (and why I'm devoting these years of my work life to the project, despite the opportunity costs.)

Thanks again for talking it over. I'm still working on the clearest ways to explain/conceptualize all of this and your questions help me refine that!

@Jason Thank you for the offer and for the thoughts here. That's true about scale and costs. I think that dynamic (in terms of things not working quite as well when serve 5 or even 50 people) continue. My ambition for this project is that we're serving large numbers of people (on the scale of at least tens of thousands of people per year) -- and I envision some very helpful network effects and economies at that scale. That said, I'm pretty determined to get over the "hump" of working with small numbers of people in less economically efficient ways since that's always a step towards those larger numbers.

A couple of updates:

1. I’m excited to share that we’re opening a second project/proposal (partially based on feedback from funders and advisors here on Manifund). The new proposal incorporates a lot of the learnings/clarity we’ve gained over the past few months and is a compelling pitch because we expect each dollar of funding to be self-sustaining and multiplied in terms of impact by 50-100x. (I know, sounds crazy, but give it a read and see if you agree.) You can find that here: https://manifund.org/projects/self-perpetuating-funding-for-migrant-livelihoods

2. On this project, because we raised $4K out of a total goal of $20K, we’re going to use that funding solely on the video production (and sideline the in-person incubator days for now.) This works well because in the months since we originally wrote this proposal, we’ve focused less on in-person incubation and more on a model that’s online, one-on-one and delivered via WhatsApp. Because of that, the video production actually becomes even more important because those short videos serve as bite-sized training pieces alongside other deliverables. This has been working well and the video production funds should help amplify that success further.

I’ll be posting updates as we go! Thank you again to everyone who commented, advised, and offered funds.

If you want more of a peek behind the scenes of this project, and our curious about the concrete things that have worked and not worked on along the way... here is and article I wrote up with all the experiments we've run (17 of them!), and learnings we've generated, over the past 14 months: https://open.substack.com/pub/emilykerrfinell/p/17-migrant-microbusiness-projects

@Wormhole That's a good question. Something I've been experimenting with for sure -- the idea of a "micro-VC" or "pay it forward" model in which we provide the program for free -- and then once the entrepreneur is profitable, they contribute a small percentage of profits to pay for others to go through the program.

@AntonMakiievskyi Ok great. Thanks for your thoughtful response -- and I'll be sure to post updates as we go.

@AntonMakiievskyi Thank you for your support of this project. I noticed you've invested fairly widely throughout the platform so I have a question for you. In the months since I put together this proposal, I have evolved how I'd like to use the funds raised -- but I wasn't sure if it's OK to update that, at this point (since a handful of people have already made offers.)

In the project above, I say I will use the funds for video production and for in-person microbusiness incubators. Those were needs we had a few months ago, but we're iterating quickly and I see a better opportunity to use these funds in a way that will multiply them, rather than just use them up.

I'm seeing a lot of success with a remote (not in-person) 3-week program that helps new migrants start a profitable microbusiness in 3 weeks. And I'm seeing some promising things around a "pay it forward" model in which we provide the program for free -- and then once the entrepreneur is profitable, they contribute a small percentage of profits to pay for others to go through the program. So I'd like to use the Manifund funding to "seed" that pay-it-forward model (paying for the program, delivered one-on-one via WhatsApp) for about 50 people... and then have those 50 people fund the next cohort of ~75 people.

Does it feel consistent with the ethos of this platform... and OK to you as an investor... if I were to go ahead and update that "uses of funds" section with that updated intention?

@Jason Hey Jason! This is a great comment. The short answer is that continued success and expansion is contingent on covering the time and costs related to delivering the model. We run very lean and can support folks in starting profitable microbusinesses really efficiently, so that's good. But we certainly can't reach the scale we want to (tens of thousands of microbusinesses formed per year) with just my unpaid time. (And on a personal level, I'm not able to continue indefinitely in that way.) It's worked well to just jump in with, as you said, my sweat equity -- but my intention is to iterate to where we have a consistently successful program and funding model. There are two revenue sources that seem promising. First, our local county is sponsoring "seats" to our program -- and I think that county/state government sponsorship is something that could work as a funding mechanism more broadly. Also, and most excitingly, I'm seeing some promising things around a "pay it forward" model in which we provide the program for free -- and then once the entrepreneur is profitable, they contribute a small percentage of profits to pay for others to go through the program. Curious to hear any other thoughts you have. And thank you also for offering funds! It's great to be connected.

@nontyn Thank you so much. It's nice to hear from someone thinking along similar lines. And interesting to think about applying the model (eventually) to people getting out of prison. A lot of times, I think about the migrant folks we serve as "people with high potential and high obstacles" -- where there are a lot of problems to move past but the potential reward (for them and for their country/community) is very high. That description may apply to some/many people getting out of prison as well. Thanks again for your kind support and for touching base.