Good news for our social venture

It’s a good day today. This afternoon I learned that my team was selected for the semi-finals for the KIN Global Prize. An opportunity to win $100k for our new social venture!

Three of my friends and I want to start a non-profit in India. It will be a micro-insurance business that helps poor farmers through rough times. Many farmers commit suicide when their crop fails. We want to change this by providing them very cheap insurance. We have some great ideas to undercut current market pricing.

One of my courses this quarter enables us to work on this idea with assistance of a very talented Kellogg professor. She knows the non-profit world inside out. This is great, because not only does it help us with content, it also allowed us to make some incredibly valuable contacts. The CEO of a large insurance company committed to be our mentor, and just spent several hours with us brainstorming on how to execute our idea. This is amazing!

Our team consists of an Indian consultant, an American entrepreneur, a Korean brand manager, and me, a Dutch consultant. It’s a fun bunch. We laugh a lot.

Today we got a step closer to our goal. One step at a time.