Project summary
Note: I have another Manifund project that complements, but does not duplicate, the project described here. That project dovetails with what I’ve described here by creating content assets that are a key pillar of the program (whereas this project/funding is a self-sustaining way to fund delivery of the program itself).
There are close to 300 million migrants in the world (46mm in the US) – and this number is expected to increase explosively over coming years, as a result of global instability and climate change related movements of people.
From an EA standpoint, I believe the opportunity presented by migrants is substantial (and perhaps underrecognized as a lever for large lifts in economic status and human development):
Because migrants aren’t citizens of their new country, they are denied the foundational opportunities that native-born citizens enjoy. This can include the ability to work legally, get a driver’s license, receive tax credits and other public benefits, access credit, get permits for key things, etc. It’s a socially accepted denial of rights to a very large (and growing) group of people.
From a prosocial perpsective, migrants tend to function better than native born people: immigrants commit crimes at rates of a quarter to half of those of native born people; they pay more in taxes than they receive in public benefits; and they’re more entrepreneurial than US born folks.
Supporting migrants in achieving economic stability has large positive impacts on the health, achievement, and development of their entire family, their new community, and even (due to remittances) on their communities of origin.
So how do you support migrants in achieving economic stability (which of course is the crux of their ability to thrive)?
In my experience, supporting migrants in starting microbusinesses is an incredibly effective, fast, high ROI way to consistently support migrants in creating a thriving livelihood. The paths that citizens use for upward mobility (education, better career) often aren’t practical because migrants face such extreme obstacles to working legally, getting funding for education, etc. Microbusiness is an interesting leverage point because anyone, of any immigration status, can legally start a business in the US – if they know the right ways to go about it and have the crucial support to reach profitability. Most migrants have some existing skill from wage work (ranging from making tortillas to installing drywall) that can be turned into a microbusiness – often bringing them out of risky illegal wage work, increasing hourly rates by 2x-5x, and giving them pathways to ongoing income increases.
Surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of good global models for supporting entrepreneurship, especially for microbusinesses and lower literacy populations. As an example, providing a 15-week workshop, writing a business plan, and getting ready to access capital is a standard – but the randomized controlled trials around this, across multiple countries, prove it to be entirely ineffective, not to mention expensive to deliver.
So I’ve spent the last 14 months doing fast iterations to find the best and most effective ways to support new immigrants in starting microbusinesses. My goal here isn’t to help a few special individuals pursue a great business idea — rather it is to build a system that almost any new immigrant can use to start a profitable business in less than 30 days and less than $500 investment. And while there are still aspects of the model that need clarifying, it is clear that we can support any motivated new immigrant in starting a business in 10-30 days, with ~$200 of investment, that nets them $2,000-$6,000/month or more.
One example that is notable because it’s common, not because it’s exceptional: Omar and Muhammed fled Mauritania fearing for their lives, risking an overland journey through Latin America, and turning themselves in at the US border. Just three months after their arrival, they started their car detailing business with our help - profitably - in less than 10 days. They saw a 5x in their hourly income.
The biggest vision is to create a model that would be a reliable, trusted vehicle for hundreds of thousands of migrants in the US to thrive. And then to adapt that model to work in other geographies (Europe, etc.) As migration increases, we’ll build this model in parallel so that it can be a go-to mechanism to mitigate the potential-destroying effects of migration on humanity.
Over the past ~14 months, I’ve learned a lot about what does and does not work to provide that support, what the key leverage points are to make profit quickly, how to provide meaningful training, what types of businesses are best, how people want to pay/reciprocate for the services, what skills and assets can be leveraged and translated to a new context, and more.
A quick peek inside how the project works: our program is delivered on a one-on-one basis, daily for three weeks. Each participant has their own coach who chats with them via WhatsApp, serving as an expert consultant, project manager for the startup process, and trainer. Each day, the participant gets nuggets of key information (via short videos in their language) and some small tasks they need to do. Our team also delivers key things at the right times (e.g., completing key paperwork for them) and is a sounding board for questions. Upon completion of the program, the participant has: a DBA or LLC, an EIN, business insurance, basic brand and marketing materials, a website, clear pricing and service offerings, an understanding of all the key levers in their business and how to grow, and a functioning system (e.g., Google Local Ads plus a booking system) that is bringing clients into them. In other words, they are making money and know how to grow.
That said, there is still a lot to learn. We still need clarity around: the best top-of-funnel participant acquisition strategies; the best ways to apply our program to a larger cohort of people, and how to execute a self-sustaining funding model. We have strong, evidence-supported hypotheses around each of these but need funding to test them. Our expectation is that the funding we receive to test these hypotheses will actually be self-sustaining (more on that below.)
What are this project's goals and how will you achieve them?
Our goals with the project at this point are as follows:
Experiment with top-of-funnel participant acquisition strategies so we can find those that work best. We need to learn how to efficiently find the right people at the right time for the program.
Run enough people through the program so that we’re crystal clear on precisely who we can help, how, and the most important levers for doing it quickly. I do have broader experience in my career with larger numbers of people (having worked with ~2,000 small business owners to grow) but this specific program has only been tested in its current iteration with handfuls of people.
Test and refine a largely self-sustaining funding model so that we can use that model for long-term growth and impact.
The funding I’m requesting will allow us to accomplish all three goals in a way that allows the funding to be self-sustaining:
This funding will pay for 50 people to successfully complete our microbusiness program. These participants will enroll in the program for free, plus get $200 to cover startup costs.
In exchange, participants will commit to repaying/contributing 1% of revenue for their first year. If successful, those 50 people would fund 25-100 other people in going through the program.
This would mean that the funding that you invest could not only be regranted on Manifund but would also (ideally) be multiplied within the program – 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.
So my intention is to prove that every dollar invested in the program is multiplied 50-100x in terms of revenue to a migrant family.
How will this funding be used?
$25,000 funds 50 people to successfully go through microbusiness incubation and cover $200 of their startup costs. That money goes to:
$3K. Top-of-funnel outreach (ads, outreach, and partnerships with microinfluencers within each cultural community.)
$12K. Program expenses for each participant (largely covering my time and that of a part-time contractor)
$10K. Cash coverage of participant startup costs ($200 per person.)
One note on how this project’s funding complements the funding raised in our other Manifund project. The other project raised funds primarily to produce training videos in several languages It dovetails with what I’ve described here by creating content assets that are a key pillar of the program (whereas this project/funding is a self-sustaining way to fund delivery of the program itself).
If we don’t reach our full funding goal, it is certainly possible to simply scale down the number of people we work with proportionately. That said, I do hope to get as close to the $25K goal as possible because part of the function of this project is to test the funding and program model with a larger cohort.
Who is on your team and what's your track record on similar projects?
So far, I've been working solo on this project. I’m a mission-driven social entrepreneur that has focused extensively on immigrant and Latin American communities and entrepreneurship. I’ve supported ~2,000 people in starting and growing small businesses and developed innovative microenterprise models in Colorado, NYC, and Latin America.
I’m the founder at Wholesale In a Box and Briico. I was also Founder & CEO of Liga Masiva, a "global farmers' market" connecting organic farmers in Latin America directly to consumers in the US (and doubling farmer incomes in the process.) So I have a demonstrated ability to start and grow impactful social enterprises. My approach to business has been featured by Fast Company, O: The Oprah Magazine, Forbes, Bloomberg, and Entrepreneur Magazine. I’m an Unreasonable Institute Fellow and was chosen as the Young Presidents' Organization's Top Four Young Social Innovators.
I also have both corporate and government experience to complement the entrepreneurial perspective. I ran Latin America Special projects for a financial services consulting firm and helped optimize operations at the largest low-income mortgage servicer in the world, based in Mexico. Finally, I’ve served as a Business Advisor to immigrant businesses at the US Small Business Development Center in New York City.
What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails? (premortem)
The most likely causes of failure may be:
An inability to reach a broader migrant community, at scale (top of funnel.)
An inability to convert success with hundreds of immigrant microbusiness to success with thousands or millions. Perhaps there are ways that the people we’ve worked with thus far are different in terms of goals/behavior/demographics than a broader and more randomized group of people.
The model could work too well and a burgeoning community of microbusinesses would start cannibalizing each other’s revenues.
The program could end up being more expensive to deliver than it has been so far.
As we scale, we could run into ceilings on what percentage of immigrants are interested in microbusiness as a path forward.
There are other execution-related potential causes of failure but they seem less likely as many of those have been proven at this point.
What other funding are you or your project getting?
In 2023, the project was largely self-funded through my own unpaid time and financial contributions. We did receive a small amount from our local county government (to pay for “seats” for the program in the county.)
There is another Manifund project posted that has raised $4000 to cover immigrant-led video production (hiring new immigrants on a freelance basis to help us produce our free training videos in more languages, with professional editors, featuring more concrete case studies from microbusinesses around the country).