Regenerative Business
During the first dot.com boom of the late 1990s, I was working for the Aspen Institute having recently moved from Washington, DC to Palo Alto, California. I had spent years focused on microentrepreneurs and microfinance, in the U.S. and in conflict-affected countries around the world. But landing in the epicenter of Silicon Valley during that exuberant era when everything seemed full of possibility blew my worldview open. I wanted the same for those brave individuals using self-employment as a pathway out of poverty.
I had interviewed many low-income entrepreneurs over the years and knew that they understood their markets and their businesses deeply; the support they needed most was direct advice and mentoring from other entrepreneurs. This kind of guidance was readily available to privileged and wealthy start-up owners, but poor entrepreneurs were cut off from the very social capital that can mean success or failure for new businesses.
I envisioned an online universe where trust between entrepreneurs would be the lifeblood of the platform. Soon, MicroMentor was born, first in California and later across the United States, thanks to a $750,000 grant from the federal Technology Opportunities Program and $250,000 from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. In 2007, the Aspen Institute transferred MicroMentor to my new team at Mercy Corps, allowing the service to expand to other countries. Mercy Corps’ field teams in 44 countries helped MicroMentor to launch its services in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. Today, MicroMentor.org is an independent platform of over 1 million entrepreneurs and mentors served by an immensely dedicated global team led by CEO, Anita Ramachandran.
To me, MicroMentor is a beautiful example of a regenerative business. The underlying essence of the organization emerged out of a classical yoga philosophy of the Himalayas and the very modern ethos of innovation from Silicon Valley. Both places inspired the seeds of inspiration for MicroMentor’s system of tech-enabled human connection. Mentors volunteer their time and expertise and receive more benefits than they expected from their engagements with entrepreneurs — from learning about a new culture or international context to gaining new insights about how new businesses are impacted by the mega forces of climate change, AI, or political upheaval. The microentrepreneurs learn from someone who has experienced what they are going through and get invaluable support to keep dreaming and striving. Corporations and governments who launch their own mentoring services via MicroMentor’s “mentoring as a service” solution help employees to sharpen their own professional skills while increasing capacity in another part of their organization’s value chain.
As we build a new world out of today’s rubble, we need more models and systems that add value to our ecological, economic, and human systems. Join MicroMentor as a donor or mentor and be a part of but one of the growing examples of regenerative business. Let’s consider what is possible when we remain aligned with our original intentions, but boldly evolve and innovate for the good of customers and society.