This is a First Look: It's the first time any news outlet or blog has covered this startup. You can read more First Looks here. (We do this a lot.)
In the U.S., our perception of entrepreneurship is often deeply associated with images of high-tech, VC funding and startup incubators. However, in developing parts of the world, being an entrepreneur isn’t necessarily the same.
For example, for female entrepreneurs in India - who are often trying to run small seamstress or spice businesses - entrepreneurship is an entirely different game. The obstacles they face include cultural attitudes and the inability to purchase simple tools like sewing machines - without raising a million-dollar round of capital. So an upcoming microfinance nonprofit - Womentum- is looking to allow donors to back women running businesses in impoverished areas, follow these female successes and see how their dollars spur on a cycle of paying it forward.
"We really believe it would be a model that would be beneficial to forming a sustainable, supportive community of women helping one another."
Last summer, Prabha Dublish - a student at Babson - spent time in India, speaking to female entrepreneurs in rural areas. Oftentimes, these women were trying to make a difference in their lives by running modest businesses, but didn’t have the financial or moral support that they need from their communities.
“As much as I enjoyed spending time with these women and getting to know them, I felt like I did nothing substantial to actually help them,” Dublish told me. “They’re lacking money and community support.”
Inspired by her interaction there, Dublish decided to do something that would make a real impact on these women’s livelihoods. She teamed up with fellow Babson sophomore Derek Tu and Aaron Leon, a student at Northwestern, to found Womentum.
“Some of the best cases we’ve seen have been nonprofits that operate as startups ... That’s the model and approach we’re taking, as well,” Tu said. “The flexibility and hustler mentality that embody what startups stand for, that’s embedded in our DNA and that’s what we plan on using in our nonprofit.”
With that startup grit, the Womentum team took to their personal networks and beyond to find partnerships and supporters for their nonprofit. It paid off. As of now, Womentum already has partners in Malawi, India and California. But, as Dublish clarified, when the site officially launches in a couple of weeks, it will first focus on female entrepreneurs in India before branching out.
It’s that mission of building a community that has driven many of Womentum’s operational choices - and not just its nonprofit status. It has intentionally differentiated itself from other major microfinance organizations, such as Kiva, so it can ensure cyclical success for the women involved with their site. As Dublish put it:
We’re not a micro-loan platform. When people donate, they don’t get their money back. I think that with other platforms, by having women make short-term payments back to donors, that doesn’t let them accomplish anything. We want them to continue to invest into their businesses to generate more income. And when they end up having more income, we want them to pay it forward and give some of their profits to another woman entrepreneur in need. We really believe it would be a model that would be beneficial to forming a sustainable, supportive community of women helping one another.
Images via Womentum.
