Synthesizing the impact of the Entrepreneur Retreat, Agora entrepreneur Tegu  described the experience, saying:

The event has helped me to no longer feel isolated and alone in doing business. It is incredible to see how so many people are investing in the region, not only in business but the entire community.
I see the benefit of being connected with people of this caliber. And I think it will be good to develop our ideas. That transcends our team and now we have a community of 20 people who can provide constructive feedback.

- Chris Haughey of Tegu

Links for more information:

• “An extraordinary event…” - a post by executive coach and speaker at the retreat, Jose Bolaños
• Agora’s Facebook Page includes an album with images from the events
• Agora Co-founder Ben Powell’s post about the retreat
• The Twitter community gathered around Twitter hashtag #agoraretreat

We just wrapped up our first Agora Entrepreneur retreat and I couldn’t be more pleased exhilarated really. From our cabins we could see in the near distance the bay of San Juan del Sur, where Vanderbilt’s ships used to ferry people to San Francisco. Except for holidays when the town pulses with energy, San Juan is normally a pretty sleepy fishing village that attracts surfers, backpackers, and locals from Managua. But the last few days were anything but sleepy. In fact, if there was one thing noticeably missing from the retreat, it was sleep.

Our goal of the conference was to bring the best early stage entrepreneurs in Central America (selected as part of our Accelerator program) together, connect them with the best trainers and coaches we could, and hope we could build a real sense of community. Our theory was that bringing people together was critical to helping the entrepreneurs accelerate their ability to attract investment and increase their impact. What we ended up building went far beyond a sense of community.

The list of reasons why the entrepreneurial sector has been so unsuccessful in Central America is long and fairly well known. Aside from a general lack of good political leadership over many decades, the problem can be boiled down to three things: lack of human, financial and social capital.

Getting to know these entrepreneurs personally, I feel better than I ever have that we have the right human capital in our Accelerator program –these are the kind of men and women that smart impact investors will want to associate with and learn from. Critically, they have the absorptive capacity to take advantage of education and opportunity and put it to work for them. They are also surrounded by additional human capital – our great staff, our fellows, retreat participants like nearly the entire senior leadership of KPMG in Nicaragua or World Economic Forum Young Leader Felix Maradiaga whose own personal journey is worthy of a Hollywood movie. The human capital is there.

We are working hard to get the right impact investors to learn about our first nine Agora entrepreneurs and to help ensure that capital flows where it can make the most impact. We were incredibly fortunate benefit from the participation of world-class impact investors like Morgan Simon from Toniic, Jorge del Castillo from PymeCapital, Ernesto Gallo from MesoAmerica, Jaime Guzman-Fournier from AVINA, Eduardo Argüello from Amzak Capital Management and Sonny Singh, a Silicon Valley investor who took part of his vacation in San Juan to share his insights on the pitch process. We often see people through their labels – investors, entrepreneurs, staff – but ultimately we are all just people trying to do a job and make a difference. At the retreat, it was the people, not their role, that stood out strongest.

These representatives of the impact investment community showed that investing is not about “us versus them” but is a relationship that is built on mutual interest. And, like all good relationships, it’s built on trust, respect and a complete understanding of what each one wants and what makes each one happy.

“The investor process is like a marriage,” said Jorge Castillo, “but with a built-in dissolution clause.” Very few of the entrepreneurs at the retreat have received investment from investors who did not know them personally. Being able to tell their stories clearly, explain what they can do with investment and how they can create social, environmental, and financial returns for investors will be key to their future success. We have a few more months to work on this for our upcoming Investor gathering in July in Granada, and I am optimistic we will be able to help address the lack of investment capital.

The final kind of capital is perhaps the hardest to quantify and to create, but it may have the longest and most important impact. A month ago, at the Draper Richards Kaplan retreat in San Francisco, a phrase that resonated with all of us was this: “Culture eats strategy for lunch.”

How do you build culture? How do you create social capital? And why is it so fundamentally important to creating the change we need? The retreat had a lot of lessons about that. And for me, they were the most important lessons. Stay tuned for more.

Ben Powell
Co-founder

Ben and I wondered where in the world could we find a group of people who would fundamentally understand the power of business as the main engine for prosperity, with the critical belief that it must also play a role in how that prosperity could directly improve both the social and environmental outcomes of the people in the poorest countries?

It was January 2005, and the conversation was a relevant one: We were in the middle of one of the most prosperous eras in our history, yet it was infested with corporate ethics scandals, increasing disparity between rich and poor, and an alarming rate of environmental destruction. Many of these topics were being discussed at the  World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, and Ben and I made a joint promise: We would one day get to Davos, and would convince the most action-oriented world leaders about the power of business for social good. We needed to sculpt a path for entrepreneurs to make a dent in the universe.

About two months ago, I got the news that I had been nominated to the Forum of Young Global Leaders, part of the World Economic Forum, a program consisting of leaders from all around the world under 40 years old. They come from a myriad of disciplines and sectors to discuss the development of global strategies and concrete actions in order to advance towards a better future. I was elated, surprised, and a bit shocked! My first reaction, honestly, was “Is this a typo?!” followed by “SOMEONE messed up!”

I was incredibly honored to even be considered in the same league as entrepreneurs and other leaders who had already contributed enormously to the world, but I also fundamentally understood the opportunity: I was on the threshold of fulfilling the promise Ben and I made. The question now became: ”How to use this huge opportunity to spotlight – and help catalyze -  impact entrepreneurs?”

The answer came quickly after the first few minutes of my first encounter with other YGLs during the Silicon Valley Summit a few weeks ago. So many YGLs immediately offered to help Agora – help think through strategic issues; connect to relevant players, funders, and policy-makers; and with just about anything that would accelerate the growth of impact entrepreneurs and forcefully advance actions oriented to making developing economies more successful and responsible entrepreneurial societies.

Many YGLs were very successful social entrepreneurs in their own right.  David del Ser, founder of Frogtek, had successfully created one of the world’s first platforms to help small shop keepers. Roberto Milk had created one of the most successful artisan marketplaces in the world, NOVICA. And Geoff Davis, using all his brilliance and experience (currently an impact investor and ex-CEO of Unitus among other things) to supporting social entrepreneurs with access to financing and mentorship.

Then there were other hard-core entrepreneurs and thinkers, like Alejando Poma, Jennifer Corriero, Anand Chandrasekaran, and Matias de Tezano. Matias started his first venture in college, almost accidentally and certainly with no business experience, with very little support from traditional friends and family –  a situation faced by millions of aspiring young entrepreneurs in Latin. America. Today, after three very successful (and some not so successful) ventures, Matias is mentoring and guiding other entrepreneurs to success, and putting his money where his mouth is as a “cowboy” angel investor, taking on the kinds of risks no traditional funder would ever take.  More importantly, Matias has seen first hand the power of business for social impact and is now willing to help Agora Entrepreneurs achieve just that.

Did I mention that three of the top entrepreneurial technology minds in the world were also YGLs? Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, and Sheryl Sandburg of Facebook not only spent time with us and gave us some fantastic insights into trends in search, mobile, and social media,, they were kind enough to invite us to lunch over at their respective campuses and give us privileged access to experience firsthand why Google and Facebook are such revolutionary and successful companies. They are developing some of the most democratizing technologies in history to connect people to each other and to opportunities for a better life, like the Google Earth engine and the merging of voice controls with  Google Translator. And, Facebook’s Pages will give small local entrepreneurse worldwide a huge suite of powerful tools to efficiently promote and quickly grow their businesses.

After only a few short months of being a part of the group, being a Young Global Leader already represents so many things to me. It is a privilege and responsibility; it represents opportunity and challenge; it entails contributing and learning. It is a call to action. I feel very humbled and proud to represent Agora and Nicaragua in this amazing group of individuals. I’m very excited about the opportunities to promote Agora’s vision of business as a force for good and scale our impact with the help of other partners and YGLs. I am most excited, though, to meet other amazing YGLs and learn about and from them.

We all have much work to do, so I invite you to comment with your ideas and present your initiatives that may lead to meaningful partnerships in the comments section below. If you are a YGL, an Aspen fellow, an entrepreneur, or just believe the world needs more impact entrepreneur and want to get stuff done, let us know.

Ricardo Teran Teran

CO2 Bambu’s founder, Ben Sandzer-Bell, believes firmly in the mission his organization seeks to solve. He tells us:

“Several years ago, I decided to change my priorities and make environmental impact the heart of my professional work. Furthermore, as a resident in a new country, Nicaragua, with a poverty level higher than the previous countries I’ve lived in, I wanted to have not only an environmental impact – but also a social one.”

For marginalized populations living in Nicaragua’s most remote areas, living conditions are poor and stable housing is difficult to come by. To fill this void of adequate shelter, CO2 Bambu constructs sustainable housing using bamboo as the primary raw material. Maintain bamboo farms as a means of capturing carbon is an integral part of their operations. In doing so, the organization creates a triple-bottom line model, creating economic, social and environmental good.

CO2 Bambu aims for ecological impact by substituting higher carbon footprint materials with sustainable materials (in this case, bamboo) in the reconstruction after natural disasters. Further, it supports reforestation and plantation development, creating fair trade jobs across the full value chain of bamboo processing.

With such a powerful business model proofed out in Nicaragua, Co2 Bambu is expanding to Haiti. The company has already received launched contracts in Haiti, launched a small pilot reforestation project, assembled the first of many future field assembly teams, built a first model house in Leogane, the epicenter of the January 12, 2011 earthquake, and selected a warehouse from which to address the Haiti reconstruction market.

By working with impact entrepreneurs such as the team behind CO2 Bambu, Agora helps unleash their potential for good.

Entrepreneurs and concerned citizens are the key groups that make our work possible. Throughout history, it’s been those two groups that have stepped up when we have needed them most. They have given us most of our staggered march towards more equality and well-being in the world.

Now more than ever, we need both groups and the unique skills and attitudes they bring when faced with a challenge.

Entrepreneurs are key to solving problems. They won’t rest until they figure out how to make something work better. They are impatient, incredibly persistent, and extremely practical, with a strong sense of self-agency and a high comfort with ambiguity. They possess not only an uncanny ability to set the ball in motion, but to create, through imagination and force of will, an entirely new game with that ball. And then actually convince people to play it. They are creative, able to connect the dots and see the future. The very best ones are fortunetellers – they see the future and then they go and make it so. That’s the essence of entrepreneurship – and that’s why entrepreneurs are so crucial to solving the multiple challenges humanity faces, because we need to change the game we have been playing. They are the ones who step up to the challenge when no one else will and throw themselves into the breach with no Plan B. In this blog, you will get to meet some of the best working in incredibly difficult environments.

Concerned citizens are equally important. When I say “concerned citizens”, I mean exactly that – citizens – educated and empowered, who feel part of the global community, who look at our common challenges and conclude: the status quo is not acceptable; we can, must, and will do better.

Concerned citizens are humanity’s saving grace – they are like the soul of the planet. They are aware of what’s happening in the world and the challenges people are facing. They read newspapers, watch TV, and stay informed, as much as their busy days allow them. They care, deeply.

What makes concerned citizens so powerful is that they do simply observe the state of the world with mounting alarm; they feel compelled to act. Whatever it is they can do – change buying habits, donate, volunteer, invest, start a new venture, create a new policy, write a letter to the editor, rally, protest – they do. Genuine desire to improve the human condition in the here and now, awareness that we are all connected to each other and to the planet characterizes this group. People will have different priorities, but if you genuinely want to make life better for everyone and you are blessed with enough education and freedom to act on that – I’m calling you a concerned citizen.

The spirit of the entrepreneur and the soul of the concerned citizen are two of the greatest forces we have at our disposal to fight humanity’s common threats. Entrepreneurs provide the ability to see the future and create it. Concerned citizens help conjure up the vision of what that future should look like so that it can be sustained. To be sustained, it needs to be in balance. All of the pieces need to align so that we can live peacefully and healthfully together. That’s what we mean by sustainability: the ability to grow in a way that, at its very least, does not harm the present and future human condition and, at its very best, improves it in concrete and measurable ways.

I’m hoping our blog can be a place where concerned citizens and entrepreneurs can come and learn and build a community.

The world needs more entrepreneurs and more concerned citizens.

Ben Powell
Founder

I have a lot of stories about City Golf. It was where I cut my teeth as entrepreneur. I made a lot of mistakes, and I also learned a ton — but I learned one lesson above all others: If you want to make a contribution to the world, there are few, if any, better ways than to start a business and turn it into a force for good. If you can’t start one, then invest in one, with your time or money. This insight eventually led, in 2005, to my founding Agora Partnerships at Columbia Business School and then partnering with one of the most relentless and entrepreneurial spirits in Latin America, my co-founder Ricardo Teran.

A few years later, as the global economy was tanking and the punditry was solemnly assigning blame, I decided to put a quotation from Teddy Roosevelt on the back cover of our second Annual Report::

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, all progress is accomplished by the man who does things. 

This blog, which we are re-launching today, is about people who do things, things that improve the world, and how can we help them to do their work better and bigger. Our focus is on a particular type of person — one we call an “impact entrepreneur” — and their particular journey. An impact entrepreneur is a for-profit business entrepreneur who is actually so serious about their business as a force for good that they explicitly imagine, design, and run their business to maximize total impact — for all the key stakeholders. They are the kinds of entrepreneurs in the U.S. who run B Corps or join member organizations like Social Venture Network — and they are absolutely fundamental to solving humanity’s most vicious problems. In developed countries, these entrepreneurs are on the rise. In the world’s poorest places they are under-valued and under-supported. We aim to change that.

We are living at a time of incredible change and opportunity. One of the biggest things we need to change is our own attitudes and understanding about the interplay between early stage impact entrepreneurship, impact investing, and global sustainable development. There’s a lot of buzz about these terms, and our hope is to give you our perspective on this exciting and emerging industry, telling you what we are learning as we work with some of the most remarkable early stage entrepreneurs in Latin America.

Our hope with this blog is to communicate, as best we can, what we and others in this movement are doing, learning, planning, and why. We aim to bring in authentic and thoughtful voices from across our emerging industry — from foundation leaders who are building the field to factory line employees who can tell us how this work has made a difference in their lives. The entrepreneur is at the center of our work and will also be a centerpiece of this blog. Our goal is simple: further knowledge — and action — to advance the cause of sustainable impact entrepreneurship across the globe. Thanks for reading and for being a part of our community and our journey.

Ben Powell
Founder

Please visit http://agorapartnerships2010.eventbrite.com to purchase tickets or tables, or, if you are unable to attend, please visit our website to make a donation.
Any questions, please contact Matthew C. Pietras.

As many of you already know, Agora Partnerships is an organization that is near and dear to my heart. I had the pleasure of working for them last summer in El Salvador, and I’m currently serving on their Young Professionals Board in New York. We’re hosting a summer cocktail event on August 25th at the Plaza Hotel and I really hope that you can join us. The organization’s founder, Ben Powell, will be in attendance and this is a great opportunity to meet him and others from the organization and learn more about their exciting work.

Where: Assouline Boutique, The Plaza Hotel
5th Ave @ Central Park South
Date: Wednesday, August 25th
Time: 6:30PM to 8:30PM

Be sure to purchase tickets soon, as they are limited. Thank you!

-Melissa

by Andrew Zizmor

As the end of the summer draws near, I wanted to share some insight into my summer internship with Agora’s Washington D.C. office. It was only 11 weeks ago, when I first stepped into the Agora office. I was excited to become involved in the small and growing business and social impact investment community and work with Agora on an exciting new initiative, the Accelerator. For me, the opportunity to become involved in this larger community and further develop Agora’s unique approach towards entrepreneurs was an opening that I could not pass up.

During my first week at Agora, I attended the ANDE Orientation Training in New York. This was an incredible experience as I was able to get my “feet wet” within the industry and discover the different business models popular in this sector. Even though, each organization has their own method to success, we all have the same goal: to help develop small and growing businesses. Some organizations focus purely on the investment side, while others provide entrepreneurs in developing countries with socially beneficial products that they can sell. While both these methods can be successful, I believe Agora’s integrated approach is the best way to support entrepreneurs and develop economies.

Over the past summer, I have seen firsthand the impact Agora has in Nicaragua and the approach they have taken towards entrepreneurs. With this experience and knowledge, I have been working with Agora on its new initiative, the Accelerator. The Accelerator is a six month program that will supply impact entrepreneurs with the knowledge, networks, and capital to succeed as a business. The venture capital model, will allow the participants to work one on one with a portfolio manager to develop their businesses and prepare to pitch their businesses to investors at the annual investor conference. The past participants will form a regional network to encourage and assist other impact entrepreneurs within their region. This integrative approach is the best method to develop entrepreneurs in Central America.
In my opinion, small and growing businesses need more than just capital to succeed. They need business skills, and a network to support them. The Accelerator provides business training courses and a community of mentors to guide fellow entrepreneurs in their development. There are many great companies out there that are not yet investment ready but need additional support, the Accelerator will help guide them.

While providing services and products such as glasses and equipment allows entrepreneurs to run socially beneficial business, it does not provide the infrastructure and community to inspire other entrepreneurs. One of the really amazing aspects of the Accelerator is the community that it will create among the entrepreneurs. At the start of the Accelerator, participants will be introduced to their fellow impact entrepreneurs and matched with mentors to guide them through the process. In addition to the networking lunches, entrepreneurs will be trained on how to develop their own communities. This will hopefully create an inspiring and lasting chain reaction within these communities.

With the great work that my co-workers and I have done over the summer and the amazing partners we already have on board, I know that the Accelerator will be a great success. Not only in terms of the entrepreneurs that we will help grow but also in the towns and communities that will reap the benefits of their success.