Foundry Conversations

In this episode, Foundry members Daisy Rosales and Neel Tamhane interview Nidhi Thachankary and Andres Vera. Nidhi and Andres are members of the Acumen Foundry team tasked with cultivating meaningful connection, collaboration and community across a global network of social change makers. The Foundry is composed of alumni of Acumen Academy’s prestigious Fellowship and Accelerator programs, and is characterized by individuals who are leading meaningful change in their communities.

Nurturing a community that spans time zones, borders, and diverse experiences can be both challenging and rewarding. Nidhi and Andres speak openly about what feels most important to them in this work— especially as the social impact community is now tasked with renewal and restoration in the wake of the Covid era. They offer us lessons they’ve learned from connecting with hundreds of social entrepreneurs, activists, and change leaders across the globe about the pain and possibilities of our time. And finally, they share the values that guide them everyday in our dynamic and changing world. 
Learn more about the Foundry at Acumen Academy.

In this episode of Foundry Conversations, Karina Bhasin speaks to Justine Abuga, founder and CEO of Ecobora, about the challenges of creating innovative, impactful, affordable, and accessible products for last mile people, creating a product for Kenyan schools using 100% solar power. Frustrated by the lack of affordable options, Justine founded Ecobora, a company that equips Kenyan schools with solar cooking boilers to replace traditional firewood cooking— and eventually grew Ecobora to serve not only his community but also other areas in Kenya. Justine shares how his journey discovering a smokeless cooking foil solution for serving his sick mother is expanding to his entire community and he realized the potential for wider impact. From using debt financing to conducting pilot tests, Ecobora's focus on energy service instead of hardware resale has allowed them to diversify their customer base and make significant strides towards social and economic impact. 

Justine's entrepreneurial journey underwent a transformative phase when he became a member of the Acumen Foundry and Ikea Social Entrepreneurship East Africa Accelerator program. Financing has always been a hurdle for social enterprises such as Ecobora. Recognizing this, the Acumen Fellowship program guided Justine in exploring different funding models, including debt financing. This shift allowed Ecobora to finance the development of new products and secure further funding by attracting customer interest and convincing local banks and partners of their business case. Through this program, Justine learned valuable lessons in crisis management, customer validation, and the importance of turning points in an organization. Acumen provided him with support to navigate challenges and turned his focus towards a pay-as-you-go model, making the technology more accessible and affordable for their target customers.
Learn more about the Foundry at Acumen Academy.

Host Neel Tamhane talks with Miranda Phua, an Acumen Foundry member based in Yangon, Myanmar. Miranda is a serial social entrepreneur and the co-founder of ZigWay, a fintech social enterprise aimed at helping low-income families access goods and services. She shares her journey from working in banking and microfinance impact investing to her passion for social entrepreneurship.

Throughout the conversation, Miranda emphasizes the role of technology in addressing development challenges. She shares her experiences leveraging technology to provide solutions for low-income families in Myanmar, such as using blockchain for humanitarian aid distribution during times of crisis, like the military coup and the pandemic.

Miranda also addresses challenges with the expat saviour narrative by emphasizing the importance of building trust with the communities she serves while consistently listening to and collaborating with local communities to identify their needs and design solutions that are contextually relevant and accessible. 

Throughout her journey with Acumen, Miranda learned about adaptive leadership, which has been crucial in navigating the rapidly changing and challenging situations in Myanmar. She believes in being resilient and open to failure as key values in her entrepreneurial journey.
Learn more about the Foundry at Acumen Academy.

In this episode, the host Florentina-Daniela Gheorghe talks to Ayesha Ahmed, an entrepreneur in the agri tech sector in Pakistan and an Acumen Business Accelerator program participant. 

Ayesha co-founded - alongside her husband - the PakAgriMarket, a web-based platform that connects all the key stakeholders in the agricultural value chain in the country. On the platform, farmers in Pakistan have access to both the agricultural input suppliers and to off-takers who buy their produce. The platform ensure price transparency for farmers to check prices before deciding if and to whom they should sell their crops.

Listen in to learn why Ayesha started this impact business and real stories from her struggles and failures as an entrepreneur and a mother.

Learn more about the Foundry at Acumen Academy.

Host Sakia Haque talks with Dorothy Otieno (Awuor), an Acumen Foundry member based in Kenya, who is also a part of The Rockefeller Foundation-Acumen Food Systems Fellowship. Dorothy is a clean cooking entrepreneur who makes efficient cookstoves and charcoal briquettes from locally available raw materials and agro waste products, using locally trained artisans.

She shares how she started this initiative, what struggles she had to endure and how she focused on gender equality issues. Dorothy describes what it looks like to address women’s role in wealth creation and management, in the care and career economy, inclusion in industrial production and dissemination value chains, because she sees all these as chances to alter the narrative of women’s unpaid work, gender norms and cultures that have impoverished women for decades.

During her Acumen Journey, she recognized the importance of gender mainstreaming at all organizational levels to achieve job development, gender sensitivity, and social implications for equity and equality. She also discovered several strategies, including a gender assessment tool kit, a gender action plan document (Value for Women), and skills/knowledge to encourage women to apply for managerial roles.

Learn more about the Foundry at Acumen Academy.

In this episode, Karina Bhasin speaks to Sara Nisar, an Acumen Fellow based in Pakistan, a founding member of the Women of the World Festival in Karachi who is working to amplify the voices of marginalized communities and work towards inclusivity and justice. The conversation delves into the intersection of multiple systems in complex challenges and the importance of collaborative solutions. The episode also covers the use of design for social change and inclusive discourse, as well as the concept of moral leadership and how it relates to serving something bigger than oneself. She recalls growing up in a South Asian family as one of four sisters, and how she felt alienated and alone in her journey to understand the world during her teenage years, until she stumbled upon the Second Floor, and Salt Art, a creative space that focused on arts advocacy, technology, and activism. Through this community, Sara found a group of misfits who shared her ideas and values, regardless of their backgrounds, lines of difference, religions, and ages. This experience helped Sara understand the importance of being a part of community and supporting others.The conversation also focuses on the significant role of Acumen Fellowship in her journey. 

The program has shifted her perception of design as a limited set of tools to the fundamental principles of communication and structure that can be applied across sectors and professions and encouraging conversations and understanding across lines of differences. As a member of the Acumen Fellowship community, Sara has found strength and support in a network of like-minded individuals who are striving to make a positive difference in the world. She shares the values of the community, such as justice and a rebellious spirit, understanding the lines of difference in the conversation and other issues,  which fuel her commitment to her work.

Learn more about the Foundry at Acumen Academy.

In this episode, Neel Tamhane speaks with Ian Hrovatin, an Acumen Foundry member based in Mexico City. He is currently a part of the Rockefeller Foundation-Acumen Food Systems Fellowship. Ian talks about how as an Italian citizen he ended up selling Colombian fruit in Mexico. His organization, Vero Amore supports smallholder farmers in conflict-prone regions of Mexico and Colombia to transition from a vicious loop of chemical fertilizer-induced land degradation towards a more sustainable biodiverse alternative. 

The conversation explores how Ian developed a keen interest in how food shapes individual health ecosystems, rural communities and the climate. He emphasizes the importance of adaptive leadership, breaking away from traditional authority, and promoting stakeholders' involvement in creating change.

He reflects on what motivates him to address the challenges associated with building resilient food systems that create value across the value chain. He shares his vision to create a more inclusive stakeholder-led system that creates value for everyone involved across the value chain — farmers, retailers and people within the company are all a part of a system that perpetuates itself and creates value as it does.

Learn more about the Foundry at Acumen Academy.

In this episode, Daisy Rosales interviews Tharma Pillai, an Acumen Fellow in Malaysia, on the transformative role of young voters in a growing democracy. Tharma is the founder of Undi18, an advocacy organization that worked collaboratively to expand the voting age in Malaysia in a landmark victory. Tharma shares about how to build consensus around political change, the importance of social and political learning, and the wisdom he has drawn from fellow members of the Acumen community. 

The conversation also covers complex themes around nation building and civil society: Should there be a balance of rights and responsibility? How do we lead with progressive values in a conservative environment? Why is the authentic involvement of young people critical to society’s rejuvenation? Listen in and discover what civic engagement looks like for Tharma, and maybe for you, too.

Learn more about the Foundry at Acumen Academy.

In this episode, Karina Bhasin speaks with Adebayo Okyowo, a West Africa 2022 Acumen Fellow and human rights lawyer. Adebayo discusses how visual advocacy can help raise awareness and achieve justice for victims of human rights abuses. As an advocate for truth and justice, Adebayo emphasized the importance of confronting lies with the truth. His experience during the  movement in Nigeria highlighted the danger of disinformation campaigns and the manipulation of media.

The conversation also delves into the increasing use of disinformation campaigns and manipulated media to cover up atrocities, requiring regulation to ensure the authenticity of video evidence. Adebayo understood that silence in the face of lies can perpetuate falsehoods and prevent accountability. He also shared in detail how the concept of Moral Leadership has been transformational during his Acumen Fellowship Journey. Adebayo came to understand that leaders must lead by example, displaying moral accountability regardless of their position of power. This principle transcends professions and positions, as leaders cannot demand behaviors from their followers that they cannot exemplify themselves without being seen as hypocritical. Inspired by this concept, Adebayo began infusing visual advocacy into his work as a human rights lawyer. Leveraging visuals, he sought innovative ways to amplify the voices of marginalized communities and expose human rights abuses. By doing so, he found that visual advocacy had the potential to raise awareness, inspire solidarity, and effect meaningful change on both local and global scales.

Learn more about the Foundry at Acumen Academy.

In this episode, Florentina-Daniela Gheorghe interviews Arancha Martinez, an Acumen Fellow in Spain and an EU Woman Innovator 2020. 

Arancha's work in India inspired her to start The Common Good Chain (also known as “Comgo”), a global blockchain backed platform to trace aid and accurately report social impact. In the past 3 years, Comgo engaged more than 140 NGOs and more than 15 big donors around the world. 

Arancha raises the issue of donors expecting 'big numbers in beautiful reports' from small nonprofits or social businesses who lack the tools to show the depth of their impact on the ground. The conversation also covers Arancha's leadership challenges through founding and running an early stage tech startup. 

Listen in and discover what Comgo can do for you if you run an impact organization.

To learn more and read the transcripts in English (click here) and Spanish (click here).

The artwork for Foundry Conversations was created by the talented Sara Nisar - member of the Foundry from the Acumen Fellows program in Pakistan. View more of Sara's illustrations and artwork at @ekthisara on Instagram.

The music for Foundry Conversations was composed by Amadeus Foundation and recorded by Amadeus String Youth Orchestra in Bello, Colombia.