Grit & Growth

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on talent — finding it and keeping it — featuring Claudia Salvischiani, an expert on all things HR. From workforce trends and interview techniques to structuring incentives and performance evaluations, Salvischiani gives candid advice and insights on how to attract and retain the best people to help your business thrive.It takes people to run a business, and the better they are, the better your business. So what can you do to not just get, but also keep, the very best? Claudia Salvischiani has a lot of strong opinions on how to do just that, grounded in real-world experience helping companies across India and Africa for over 25 years. Salvischiani believes that leaders play an essential role in keeping people happy. “When people leave, they are actually leaving their boss, not their organization,” she explains. “Your task as a leader is to develop people. Leaders are the ones who give meaning to your work. They explain to you why things happen.”Top Seven Masterclass Takeaways Create a sense of community, especially with remote workers. Salvischiani believes that having a sense of belonging is especially important for remote workers. Organizations need to change and she recommends communicating a lot and not just one-on-one. To find the best candidate, you need to prepare. “Be very systematic about what you're looking for in all aspects,” she advises. It’s extremely important to have the right profile for the position before you start sorting through resumes or else you’ll waste everyone’s time.When interviewing, don't let the candidate speak too much. “At the beginning, you speak, you set the tone, you set the structure, you explain how it's gonna be,” Salvischiani recommends. “You steer the interview, so you're not steered by the candidates.”Be honest when hiring. Salvischiani suggests being extremely honest about the context the person is going to be working in. Recruiting is a selling process, but you still have to be very clear about the challenges ahead.Higher salaries don’t earn you higher loyalty. While compensation is key, “you are not keeping people with the money. You're just postponing their leaving,” Salvischiani says. And she believes creating a salary structure is “absolutely necessary” for transparency, equity, and morale.Don’t incentivize individual performance. Incentivizing organizational performance over individual performance gets the entire department or organization to collaborate and intervene if others don’t perform. Give feedback honestly and frequently. Even though it’s one of the hardest things for managers and leaders to do, giving frequent feedback, even if it’s bad news, is essential. People actually feel valued when you give them feedback. According to Salvischiani, quick quarterly check-ins help with retention. Listen to Salvischiani’s recommendations and strategies for acquiring and retaining talent. It’s a delicate balance of understanding what you need as an employer and what your employee needs to develop and grow.The following music was used for this media project:Music: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Kevin MacLeodLicense (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://incompetech.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Jon Levin, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, economics professor, and eternal optimist. Hear his thoughts on the business world, innovation in emerging economies, the role of big tech, and how the GSB is preparing students to meet the challenges of the global economy — from climate change to inequality.Jon Levin grew up in an academic family, but he never imagined he’d be leading one of the most prestigious business schools in the country. An economics professor by training with degrees from Stanford, Oxford, and MIT, he became dean of the Graduate School of Business in 2016. From this unique vantage point and with his researcher mindset, he believes that businesses have both a significant opportunity to develop and deploy technology to improve people's lives as well as a responsibility to mitigate its potential harm.“If you look at the history of the last 150 years, it's the most extraordinary period in human history with standards of living doubling every 30 years, every generation,” Levin explains. “Today you look at the pace of change in innovation and it's happening everywhere in the world. The opportunity for businesses, for business leaders, to help use that technology in ways that will continue to double and increase people's standards of living is extraordinary.”Levin also believes that emerging economies with digital infrastructures in place have opportunities to leapfrog the developed world by going straight to the consumers and their cell phones without having to overcome existing institutions and infrastructure. Levin says, “If you think about areas like finance or education, you don't have all of the legacy businesses in emerging markets, and so there’s an opportunity to go in and provide services to people that just go straight to digital.”It's no surprise that Dean Levin is a huge proponent of getting an MBA based on his fundamental belief that business can be a force for good in the world and the school’s mission to instill students with a broader sense of responsibility to society beyond just doing well in their careers. “An MBA program is just the most amazing thing to do because you get all these different skills that enable you to be successful in many things,” says Levin says. “It's like having 20 jobs in two years, you get to see what it would be like to be an operator, an entrepreneur, an investor, to work in a nonprofit, to go into a social venture, to work on energy, real estate, every industry you see all of that.”Listen to Dean Levin’s perspectives on the future of business and business education, both on the Stanford campus and around the world with programs like Stanford Seed.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Franchises are taking over the world, from fast-food restaurants to furniture outlets. While they may seem like a simple, risk-free way to expand your footprint and revenue, franchising is tricky business. Vijay Kapoor learned firsthand how difficult it is to create a successful franchise in India for his fashion brand Derby Responsible Menswear. Hear his roller coaster of a success story and get strategic advice on if, when, and how to franchise your own business. Vijay Kapoor learned the importance of dressing for success early in his career when he was barred from a building because he wasn’t dressed right. Kapoor turned that experience into a business. He explains, ”I decided I'd get into clothing and help people dress well because if you're dressed well, you're confident, your inner strength and your talent comes out, and you can go out and succeed.”After 14 years of building his fashion brand in Southern India with 30 company-owned stores, Kapoor wanted to go national. But expanding would be expensive. So, he turned to franchising in 2008 — and by 2012 he deemed it a complete failure. But Kapoor didn’t give up, learning from his mistakes, strengthening his brand, and switching to a franchise-first mindset where everyone wins.Kapoor reflects on that time, “When we had these losses and when I had to sell away everything and bring everything back to the drawing board is when I realized the fundamental mistake or flaw in my whole thought process. The business model was successful in south India. But the way it was operated and expanded was absolutely flawed. Entrepreneurship is about sharing and growing together. Only when everybody wins in your value chain, will you succeed.”Today, Derby Responsible is 95 percent franchise, and Kapoor has created over 1,000 successful entrepreneurs in the process by focusing on the brand, location, talent, training, data, and communication. Listen to Kapoor’s setbacks and winning strategies and hear how he’s setting a new standard for franchising across India.Share your anonymous story about how corruption or ethical challenges have affected your business for a future episode. Send a VOICE MEMO via WhatsApp to +1(650) 206-3055. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s retrospective on a topic that’s on every entrepreneur’s mind: money! Hear from startup and early stage investors in Africa and South Asia about what investors are really looking for, how to vet potential backers, pitching advice, and more. These experts provide practical guidance and strategies on how to secure funding for your venture.Money, money, money. Entrepreneurs can’t stop thinking about it. Which explains why fundraising is such a critical — and ongoing — aspect of their job description.We turned to five experts for their wisdom on all things related to funding:Andreata Muforo, partner at Nairobi-based venture capital firm TLCom CapitalIdo Sum, partner at TLCom CapitalZach George, managing partner at Launch Africa VenturesSandeep Singhal, managing director of Nexus Venture Partners in IndiaPranav Pai, founding partner of 3One4 Capital in IndiaTop Seven Masterclass Takeaways Fundraising should be active, not passive. Andreata Muforo says “It’s something an entrepreneur does, not something that happens to them—which means you can get better with practice.” Cast a wide net when looking for investors. Zach George has a great strategy for getting valuable facetime with busy VCs: “ask for advice and you may get some money, ask for money and you may get some advice.”Early on, it’s less about the numbers, more about the people. According to Sandeep Singh, Seed and Series A funders invest just as much in founders as they do in ideas. “There are many people that want to solve problems, but these are people who are saying, I want to solve a problem at scale. I want to solve a problem with a group of people. I want to have people around me that are equally passionate about building things.”Don’t get too attached to your ideas. Be willing to listen and adapt. Singh looks for founders who are passionate and flexible “if you don't listen, then you are stubborn. And the risk of being stubborn is you can hit your head on the wall and never be able to get across it.”Scale can’t be achieved alone. Pranav Pai advocates for the importance of team. “If the human capital side doesn't keep up, you're almost always going to fail to meet expectations.”Due diligence goes both ways. Ido Sum urges entrepreneurs to do their homework on potential investors. “If you know what we're, after what we're investing in, how could you be relevant to what we have already invested in or to spaces we have looked at, this is extremely beneficial for us to see that you spent this time.”Know how you plan to grow. Be specific. Zach George wants the founder to have the details. “If you give me the, let me talk to my CFO, you've lost me. Like immediately, I've switched off, good founders will say, this is how I get to a hundred million dollars.”Listen to these funding experts and gain valuable insights, advice, and strategies for how to navigate the fundraising journey and establish successful relationships along the way.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Creating a startup is challenging enough. So, when you want that startup to also address social problems, the pressure on entrepreneurs to succeed and scale can be even more intense. Meet Sadaf Rehman of codeschool.pk in Pakistan and Sarika Kulkarni Pathak of Cresa GreenTech in India, and hear how these two women entrepreneurs are struggling and striving to make the world a better place.Many of the challenges faced by social entrepreneurs are no different than those of for-profit startups. Understanding who your customers are, the problems they face, and how you’re going to solve them — known as your value proposition — remain the same. But when you set out to improve children’s literacy and women’s health, the stakes are higher.For Sadaf Rehman, the failing education system in Pakistan drove her to create a coding school to prepare kids for the modern job force. Rehman believes that “the education system has to prepare children to think. We have to retool how and what we are teaching our kids and who is teaching our kids as well. And so what code school is trying to do is introduce a programming curriculum for young children at primary and secondary school.”Rehman reflects on the tensions of scaling to create impact vs. revenue: “I don't think that as an entrepreneur or as a person, I would feel like I was successful if all I wanted to do is make money. If you want to scale really fast, an easy way to do that is to lower your revenue. But there are always these forces and tensions pulling you in different directions as an organization.”Sarika Pathak’s master’s study and work with Johnson & Johnson led her to make a 100 percent chemical-free and biodegradable sanitary napkin which dissolves immediately in hot water. Pathak explains why she’s so passionate about her business: “According to a survey, around 23 percent of girls drop out of school just after starting their period, just because of unavailability of menstrual hygiene products. And 56 percent of girls face urinary tract infections due to unhygienic conditions in the washrooms and toilets. And because of the social and cultural taboo, people are not ready to talk about it. If they don't talk about it, how are these problems getting solved?” Her business idea has an environmental impact as well. “India has 12 billion sanitary napkins to take care of every year,” she explains “and it's very difficult to biodegrade any single sanitary napkin that takes 800 years to decompose. So, imagine the kind of waste that has been generated over the years.”Listen to some of the obstacles Rehman and Pathak are facing — from targeting customers to managing supply chains — as they seek to build and scale their social enterprises.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To submit a story for our episode on corruption, send a voice memo to Stanford Seed via WhatsApp at +1(650) 206-3055.Women represent about 50% of the global population yet own only ⅓ of the world’s businesses and still get paid 37% less than men. Georgette Barnes, a Ghanian entrepreneur, and Stanford professors Dr. Deborah Gruenfeld and Margaret Neale share experiences, advice, and strategies for navigating the workforce as a woman — from power dynamics and negotiations to gender expectations and harassment.The challenges women face working in a man’s world keep stacking up, even as female entrepreneurs like Georgette Barnes learn how to overcome them. As a supplier of mining support services in West Africa, Barnes faced resistance from her very first interview, “I said nobody wants to give me opportunities. Nobody wants to give me the experience that you are asking for.”Dr. Deborah Gruenfeld is not surprised. She has been researching women and power at Stanford Graduate School of Business and says Barnes’ experience reflects a broader trend of who gets opportunities and why. Gruenfeld says “We tend to think a leader looks like a man. And so it's very easy to see leadership potential in a man because a man looks like what we expect to see. But a woman doesn't actually look to us like what we think a leader is supposed to look like. So, that's a way in which women are sometimes held back and not chosen first for leadership roles.”Gender expectations also impact the way women negotiate, according to Professor Margaret Neale. Her research shows that women negotiating face more challenges than their male counterparts because there is a societal expectation about how women should be in society. And to make matters worse, Neale says “women have systematically lower expectations for what they can achieve in negotiations than their male counterparts.”Barnes experienced this self-doubt when she explored the idea of starting her own business. “I knew I wanted to set up my own company,” Barnes reflected, “but I didn't think I could do it. And I didn't think that a young African Ghanaian woman should have that dream.”Barnes prevailed but Dr. Gruenfeld suggests women need to develop their personal power to “deal with the narrative in your head…to make sure that you take charge of how you interpret the situation that you’re in.”Listen to Barnes’ firsthand experience on the stereotypes and obstacles she contends with every day and hear Gruenfeld’s and Neale’s advice on how women — and men — can shift the paradigm for themselves and future generations.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Negotiation is at the heart of almost every business transaction — whether working on terms with potential investors or communicating with colleagues. Listen to Ghanian educational entrepreneur Charles Yeboah as he shares his real-world negotiation challenges and get surprising tips and insights from Stanford professor Margaret Neale on how to turn your next negotiation into a win-win.Charles Yeboah never imagined he’d be in the business of education. But after searching for a school for his daughter, necessity became the mother of invention. Today, International Community School is educating over 2000 students across Ghana with plans to expand to other countries. When it came time to expand, Yeboah needed to put his negotiation skills to the test with potential investors. He learned firsthand what Professor Neale researches and teaches: that walking away from a deal is sometimes the best outcome…even when a $20 million dollar investment is on the line.Professor Neale believes that negotiators require a different mindset, moving from the idea of negotiation as a battle to an opportunity for collaborative problem-solving. She advises to never begin a negotiation without understanding what your alternatives are or what happens to you in the case of an impasse? “If I have a really good alternative, then you're going to have to pay a premium for me to stay and play in this interaction. Otherwise, I can just walk” says Neale.Yeboah followed that advice in his own negotiations. “Whether it's talking to a banker or talking to a potential equity investor, you think about what you want to achieve with that investment and what they want to achieve with that investment. And then you want to make sure that you marry the two aspirations,” he says. Listen to Yeboah’s real-world experiences of sticking to his values when negotiating and get Professor Neale’s practical tips for preparing well and negotiating better.To find out more, or apply for Professor Neale's Influence and Negotiation Strategies Program, visit: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/exec-ed/programs/influence-negotiation-strategies-program See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The deadline to apply for our 2023 Seed Transformation Program is June 1st! To find out more, visit: stanfordseed.co/applyMeet Tony Elumelu, a Nigerian businessman, billionaire, investor, philanthropist, champion of African entrepreneurs, and steadfast believer in luck. Hear how and why he’s committed to catalyzing entrepreneurship across the African continent.Ask almost any entrepreneur about their secret to success and more than likely they’ll credit a combination of hard work and luck. Tony Elumelu is no exception. After an illustrious career running Africa’s largest bank, United Bank of Africa, and currently serving as its chairman, Elumelu says he decided “to commit the second phase of my life to helping, to impact humanity, to helping democratize the luck that I had growing up to help expand access to opportunities.” And he has done just that, funding thousands of early stage startups and empowering over 15,000 entrepreneurs across 54 African countries to solve the continent’s biggest problems.Elumelu says “I've come to appreciate the significance and importance of entrepreneurship in transforming families, in transforming communities, in transforming countries, societies, and humanity.” He strongly believes that the private sector has a role to play in developing the continent and making that transformation possible. Listen as Stanford student Chisom Obi-Okoye interviews Tony Elumelu about his career path, philosophy of African capitalism, and vision for the future of the continent.View From The Top is Stanford Graduate School of Business' premier speaker series. To hear more of their amazing line-up, subscribe to their podcast or visit their YouTube page.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on corporate governance, featuring Alexey Volynets of International Finance Corporation. From what structures make sense to employ, and when in the life cycle of your business you should use them, Volynets provides advice and insights on how corporate governance can be a powerful tool for your business.While many entrepreneurs fear corporate governance because they believe it means more legal constraints and less control, Volynets wants to change the way founders of small to medium-size enterprises think about governance. He has been researching and teaching companies about the ins and outs of corporate governance for years and understands why it’s  so challenging. “It's really hard to let go. It's hard to delegate. It's hard to allow people from outside the company to make huge strategic decisions on what it should do,” he acknowledges. But Volynets believes there comes a time in every company’s journey when leaders have to delegate and formalize systems and structures to support growth.Top Six Masterclass Takeaways Corporate governance goes beyond boards. Volynets defines it quite simply: it’s about how companies are directed and controlled. And second, it’s when companies have created structured policies that “mean you can take a vacation for three weeks and not be afraid your business will fall apart while you’re away.”The stage of your business makes a difference. You don’t have to have all your corporate governance structures done on day one. What makes sense for a mature, expanding business is far different than an early stage startup.Don’t be afraid to ask for external advice. And the earlier you start thinking about it, the better. It can be formal or informal, but relying on others with expertise you don’t have in-house is essential.Build a good management team, too. A good board of directors needs to have a partner in the company beyond the CEO. And realistically,  in the early days when resources are strapped, your management team can perform many of the functions you’ll later assign to a board. Don’t wait to create an organizational chart. While you’re focusing on growth, adding people and units, you need to start formalizing your organization’s key functions, and what those key functions actually do. And it might just come in handy for succession if one of your key people suddenly leaves. Ease into corporate governance with an advisory board. It can be a great stepping-stone as you formalize governance structures.Listen to Volynets’ insights, advice, timing, and strategies for how you can ease into and ultimately formalize and manage a board when the time is right.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is it time to consider an advisory board? And if so, why? What skills do you need? And how do you find the right people who are willing to help? Aashish Agarwaal, founder and chairman of the Enerji Group, and Alexey Volynets of the International Finance Corporation share entrepreneurial perspectives and corporate governance advice to help you figure out what’s right for your company.Rare is the entrepreneur who is an expert at everything. Turning to others outside your company for advice can be essential for success. Formalizing that process with an advisory board is helping Aashish Agarwaal strategically transform Enerji Group, the digital publishing enterprise he founded in India. But it took awhile to figure out exactly what he needed, who could help, and how to run the board effectively.Alexey Volynets understands what Agarwaal had to go through to create the ideal advisory board. As an expert in corporate governance at the International Finance Corporation, he has been teaching companies about corporate governance  for years.The most common manifestation of corporate governance is a board — fiduciary or advisory. Whereas fiduciary boards have financial liabilities, advisory boards are simply there to provide expertise that you may be lacking. “As you are growing, and when you are on the top of the world, it's important to have a check,” Volynets explains. “External advisors, especially very independent voices will ask you the right questions and will challenge your assumptions.”Agarwaal figured out who he needed by first identifying the skill gaps in his company and what strategic initiatives he needed help with and how often. He suggests “I would say first what are the gaps, and second, do you need that help on a consistent basis or intermittent basis? Because again, you have to decide how much investment you're going to make in it.” Finding the right people isn’t easy, either. Volynets suggests the best place to look is your own networks to find the business people you trust with the criteria you need. But Volynets cautions entrepreneurs to avoid adding friends, suppliers, contractors, etc. to an advisory board, even if they have the requisite skills. He says “The most important characteristic is emotional independence.”  Listen to Aashish’s first hand experience on creating an advisory board and Alexey’s insights on how to do it strategically and successfully when it’s time to tap into the experience and expertise of other business leaders.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on power, featuring Dr. Deborah Gruenfeld, Stanford Graduate School of Business professor of organizational behavior. From the body language of power to the authority vs. authenticity debate, Gruenfeld provides insights on how and when to use your power to gain the trust and respect of others.Professor Gruenfeld is a psychologist by training and she’s been researching and teaching about the psychology of power and powerlessness for decades. So, she has a deep understanding of why this invisible force can have such a profound social and business impact.There are plenty of myths and misconceptions about power, starting with the fact that most people believe that only other people have power and that power corrupts. Gruenfeld says the research disproves this idea, explaining, “It’s having power while feeling powerless that leads people to behave badly.”So, how do people in positions of power use it as a force for good? If you want to have a positive impact on others and on your organization, Gruenfeld suggests there’s no advantage career-wise to being a jerk. Instead, she recommends “behaving in a way that leads others to trust you more.”Top Five Masterclass Takeaways Your body language can communicate power … or powerlessness. Gruenfeld advises entrepreneurs to imagine putting on a headdress or crown before you walk in a room full of strangers. The stillness and physical expansiveness you convey will provide nonverbal cues that you’re comfortable and in charge.Sometimes it’s better to lead with deference than dominance. While dominance tends to look more authoritative, deferential behaviors are more approachable, show respect for others, and help build relationships.Effective leaders need to balance authority and approachability. You need to be equally capable of behaving in a way that commands respect and shows respect to others because people will need different things from you in different situations. Leaders need to practice types of power that may not come naturally. More than likely, you’ll be more comfortable with either an authoritative or approachable style. Use this as an opportunity for growth so you can be the leader whom others need you to be.Often the best way to use your power is to empower others. While not intuitive for most leaders, showing vulnerability and asking for help can be highly motivating for teams.Listen to Dr. Gruenfeld’s insights, advice, and strategies for how entrepreneurs can use power more effectively as you manage growing teams, pitch investors, and negotiate deals.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What are the unique challenges facing the African entrepreneurial ecosystem? How is the rapid growth of fintech startups impacting the Nigerian economy? And what does it take to become a modern business leader? Hakeem Belo-Osagie, accomplished businessman, philanthropist, and educator, has the experience and expertise to tackle all three.Few business leaders understand the systemic challenges facing African finance as well as Hakeem Belo-Osagie. For three decades, he’s been a driving force in the Nigerian economy, working across the energy, finance, and telecom sectors. He left a decade-long career in the Nigerian government for the life of an entrepreneur — and he hasn’t looked back. But it didn’t start well, as Belo-Osagie explains:“I think I mightily over-estimated my abilities, and my first entrepreneurial venture in finance was a complete failure, the bulk of which was entirely my own fault. It was a wonderful lesson. And I was able to pick myself up. The second venture of mine, which was a securities trading company, went very well. Subsequent to that, I staged the takeover of a large government-owned bank that I realized after buying was effectively bankrupt.”Managing a hostile workforce at that bank, UBA, and working with seemingly hostile government regulators has taught Belo-Osagie about the importance of empathy, patience, and courage. Being aware of how much your employees and regulators really understand about the situation is key to success. As he explains about the bureaucratic mindset, when government officials don’t understand something, the instinctive reaction is to say no.Ultimately, Belo-Osagie defines success, especially in Africa, this way:“We have to measure how well we're doing, not by how many people are on the Forbes cover, or by how many billionaires Africa has, but basically what has happened to the bottom 40 percent. Business success has to enable people to make good sums of money, but it also has to be a system that lifts people out of poverty, large proportions of the overall population.”Listen to Belo-Osagie’s turnaround story at UBA, his thoughts on the role of regulation in the future of fintech, and what it takes to be an effective leader … in Africa and beyond.As we said at the beginning of the episode, the Seed Transformation Program will open applications for the 2023 class on April 1st, 2020. Founders and CEOs of companies based in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with annual revenue of at least $300,000 are eligible to apply. To apply or find out more, visit: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/seed/transformation-program/admissionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back to Grit & Growth from Stanford Graduate School of Business. We’re tackling the complex issues facing entrepreneurs who are building businesses in Africa and South Asia. These emerging markets are exploding with opportunity and obstacles. And you’ll hear firsthand from entrepreneurs about their trials and triumphs, along with insights from Stanford faculty and global experts on how to overcome challenges and achieve success. We dig deep on product innovation, negotiation, corporate governance, regulation, and retention. We hear stories about corruption, women in business, and the role of power. Listen in and learn from entrepreneurs and experts on Grit & Growth Season 2.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After a year of Grit & Growth podcasts, Darius Teter, our host and executive director of Stanford Seed, looks back on his conversations with intrepid entrepreneurs from Africa and India. He not only shares powerful moments but also some of the lessons he’s learned along the way about the struggles and opportunities of entrepreneurship in emerging markets. It’s hard to pick favorites, but some stories held special resonance and, in retrospect, revealed key themes about the long, often lonely, yet rewarding journey of entrepreneurship. No surprise, grit is one of the qualities that stood out in the entrepreneurs Teter spoke with, especially in the face of unprecedented adversity. Kwami Williams, whose company suffered from two fires, the pandemic lockdown, and personal tragedy, talked about the importance of taking one step at a time to stay resilient and recover.Working to solve important problems is a red thread throughout many of the conversations. “It got me thinking that much of what we take for granted are really fundamental human rights — access to food, water, basic health care, and information,” Teter explains. “The phrase ‘purpose and profit’ may be overused, but these remarkable people are solving important problems as a business, not a charity.”Teter points to Dr. Shuchin Bajaj, who built a network of affordable yet sophisticated hospitals across India and staffed a 1,000-bed hospital in weeks during the darkest days of the pandemic, and Samuel Appenteng, whose company brings drinking water to seven countries in Africa. Often, just doing business in some of these markets is a problem worth solving, from providing access to markets or using machine learning to providing short term financing.From creating dignified work and highlighting the importance of mission to considering the role of governance and securing financing to scale their businesses, these entrepreneurs showed true grit and growth.As Teter looks back and to the future of entrepreneurship in the region, he says, “What I have learned through my association with these incredible people is that the locus of innovation is rapidly shifting to these emerging markets, where a combination of necessity, untapped consumer demand, network penetration, and new technologies is leading to an explosion of business activity. And I learned that being an entrepreneur in these markets can be a lonely journey, and they value the opportunity to network and learn from each other.”Listen to highlights and observations from our first season, tune in to the full stories of these amazing entrepreneurs, and get ready for Season Two.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Profile of Purpose: A Tough Nut to CrackMeet Frank Omondi, wildlife biologist turned entrepreneur. As CEO, he took Ten Senses Africa, a Kenyan producer and distributor of macadamia nuts, from the brink of bankruptcy to a modern, sustainable, and successful venture that satisfies customers and supports farmers.Frank Omondi approaches business differently than most entrepreneurs: “I look at business in a way that helps uplift more people. I think the future of Africa's food production lies in the hands of the small-holders.” This belief influences every decision that Omondi makes for Ten Senses.  “Ten years ago, we set it up as a company that is going to be fair to farmers. We found small-holders were being taken advantage of,” Omondi explained. Instead, Ten Senses developed long-term relationships with farmers, committing to buy all their products and pay them a fair price. And they brought in technology to facilitate mobile payments and farm-to-shelf traceability.“We're able to pay farmers directly on mobile phones,” Omondi said. “Instantly, each person can move nearly $2,000 to $3,000 on their phone. You don't get that anywhere else.”Ten Senses is not only doing right by farmers. The company is also helping to combat climate change and deforestation. To date, Ten Senses has provided over one million seedlings to farmers. And it has doubled its sales in the past five years, too, proving that success and sustainability can go hand in hand. Omondi explained, “We are not only helping vulnerable farmers to get income, but also giving them climate change resiliency.”Listen to Omondi’s mini profile to hear how his company is cracking the nut on sustainability, traceability, and profitability for small farmers in Kenya and soon Tanzania and Ethiopia. Bonus: Two of our future guests, Dr. Deborah Gruenfeld and Dr. Margaret Neale, are the faculty directors of Stanford’s executive program in women’s leadership. This intensive, one-week workshop will take place on campus from May 1–6, and it will transform the way you negotiate, manage teams, and lead. The deadline to apply to the program is March 18, so don’t wait. Learn more and apply here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Samuel Appenteng, managing director of Joissam Ghana, a company working to make clean water more accessible to rural communities in West Africa. By collaborating with the communities his firm serves, Appenteng is pumping hope and health into the people who need it most.Unfortunately, the scale of the problem is immense. Appenteng explained, “In sub-Saharan Africa, over 320 million people have no access to potable water. As we went more and more into the rural communities and saw the kind of deprivation and denials of a decent living, I began to realize that we need to bring relief to people.”From groundwater exploration and research drilling to water quality analysis and water treatment, Joissam is changing lives with clean water. Joissam began its work in Ghana, but the company has already expanded to seven more countries: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Togo, and Gabon in Central Africa. Its approach is unique: to involve the community in the clean water effort from the very beginning. “They will all come around and help you as you go and pass the lines to be able to start sending electrical charges into the earth,” Appenteng said. And once drilling starts, he continued, “You will have everybody in, down there observing, and there's a lot of tension. And then the technical team was saying, we are getting there. We're getting there. You start getting a lot of excitement. Believe you me, as soon as you hit water, and it starts gushing out, women and children start jubilating like it's a football game with a lot of goals.”Listen to Appenteng’s mini profile to hear how his company is increasing its impact across Africa and providing health and economic benefits to millions.And for more information on the Executive Program in Women’s Leadership mentioned at the top of the episode, visit https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/exec-ed/programs/executive-program-womens-leadership See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Afolabi Abiodun, founder and CEO of SB Telecoms and Devices, a company creating HR solutions for small and medium businesses in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa. From street hawker to debtor to entrepreneur, Afolabi is proof positive that a boy from the streets can find success.No one ever doubted that Afolabi had the drive to succeed. But his lack of business knowledge often got him into hot water…and lots of debt. After incurring millions in debt, he actually ran away from home to avoid embarrassment and move on to a new life.To make matters worse, Abiodun explains “it was actually my grandma's property that was used as collateral for my business. The banking office went straight to my grandmother and told her ‘your property will be sold’”.A message from his brother changed his course. “He said: you can run fast as long as you want, but the problem that you've left behind will haunt you for the rest of your life.” Abiodun came back and the rest is history in the making.The problems Abiodun faced running his own businesses — recruitment, payroll, and other HR tasks — led him to create SB Telecoms, an easy-to-use HR application that handles everything from recruitment to retirement and hire to fire.“When people talk about problems. I say to people, yes. It's easy to say. We don't have infrastructure in Africa. Power is a problem, but I mean, for me, this is a way of life for me all my life, the road has always been bad. This is the world I know. I try not to complain about it. I try to solve it.”Listen to his mini profile to hear how street smarts and business smarts can help propel entrepreneurs on their journey forward.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Lerang Selolwane, co-founder of Lucient Engineering, a company that’s bringing water, power, roads, and rail to the people of Botswana. By constructing and maintaining the essential infrastructure his country and people need, Lerang is also creating pathways out of poverty.Selolwane is not your typical 20-something entrepreneur. He began his career working for the largest diamond mining company in the world — a job that literally took him around the world. It was an exciting time, but he realized that his priorities were somewhere else … specifically, back in Botswana. “These experiences I'm having are great, but what about my people? Who's going to build a London for my people? And after a while, it goes from being a great experience to not being so great because you realize that this isn't yours. Your people, people who look like you, don't get to have this,” he said.So, he came back home to build a business that would make an impact on his country and people. He started by focusing on the basics — roads, water, power, and transportation.Selolwane explains why:“When you don't have access to clean, reliable water … when you don't have access to transportation that can get goods to market … when you don't have power that allows you to even dream about building a tech or an IT company … everything else just doesn't happen.”While Selolwane has recently transitioned out of Lucient Engineering, the company’s work continues. And, in true entrepreneurial spirit, he’s involved in two new ventures designed to drive further economic development in Botswana.Listen to his mini profile to hear how a strong purpose can drive both value and impact for mission-minded entrepreneurs.To participate in Grit & Growth’s paid focus group, visit http://stanfordseed.co/podcastsurveySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Sriram Gopal, founder and CEO of Future Farms, a hydroponics company on a mission to deliver clean, healthy food to all Indians. With a trillion dollar market potential and a vision to make clean food a fundamental right, not a privilege, Sriram is growing his company for a greater good.Sriram always wanted to be an entrepreneur because his father was one, too. Motivated by his role model, Sriram set out to build a business that would also create an impact. Hydroponic farming seemed to be a perfect solution, saving 90% more water than traditional farming and protecting people from pesticides, bio toxicity, and heavy metal contaminants. “The main reason why we do this is because in India there are no mechanisms to check where the food comes from and it can be very, very, contaminated. People can choose organic food, but they're paying like three times more. What it actually means is only people who can afford to pay three times more, can actually have access to clean food. And to me that just feels wrong because I think clean food is not a privilege. If anything, it should be a fundamental right.”Future Farms didn’t become the largest hydroponic and controlled-environment agriculture technology company in India overnight. Like most startups, it happened one small step at a time — from building small hobby kits with his father to creating rooftop farms and quarter acre commercial farms. Sriram has set his sights beyond India, expanding his greenhouses and technology to Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, and Singapore…so far. “I want to grow a company that is global and that creates a lot of good. And if our technology works in India, I'm pretty sure it will work in all the other parts of the world where people are still struggling.”Listen to Sriram’s mini profile to learn how doing the right thing for people can be the right thing for your  business, too.To participate in Grit & Growth’s paid focus group, visit http://stanfordseed.co/podcastsurveySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Wandia Gichuru, CEO and co-founder of Vivo Activewear, a Kenya-based fashion brand made for the modern African woman. In an industry dominated by imports, Wandia is creating clothing that instills confidence and makes a difference in the lives of both her customers and her employees.Wandia didn’t dream of being a designer all her life. But she has always been passionate about making an  impact. Now she’s doing that one dress at a time —creating clothes made in Africa, for African women that “takes into account our different body shapes, sizes, skin tones, lifestyles, and style preferences. Women haven't known what it feels like to wear something that was made with you in mind. It’s more than just clothing and style. It's about what makes you feel more confident, appreciated, or accepted.”Empowering women extends to her company as well. She strives to create work- life balance for her employees, 70% of whom are women. Vivo provides meals everyday, health insurance, training, and no one works more than five days a week, which is uncommon in Kenya. While it hasn’t been easy, the struggles are turning into successes — Vivo is increasing its revenue, employing more women, raised capital, launched an e-commerce fashion platform, and expanded to Rwanda.Wandia does it all for the women. “What drives me for sure, and hopefully the business as a whole, is the opportunity that we have to inspire women and change the way we see ourselves.”Listen to Wandia’s mini profile to learn how one entrepreneur’s passion can make a world of difference.To participate in Grit & Growth’s paid focus group, visit http://stanfordseed.co/podcastsurveySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How do you convince Africans — both buyers and sellers — to move from informal outdoor markets to e-commerce? Juliet Anammah of Jumia Group is up for the challenge. Listen to her interview for the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series to learn how Jumia is breaking down traditional barriers with technology.Jumia operates in 11 countries. It’s the largest e-commerce platform on the African continent and the first African tech startup to be listed on the NYSE. But e-commerce still represents less than 5% of total retail, which means there is tremendous upside if the company can overcome all the obstacles. Jumia is seeking to do just that by creating a marketplace that connects buyers with sellers, integrating with third-party providers, building trust with buyers, providing training and data analytics to sellers, and engaging with regulators. The ultimate goal: to improve lives on the continent using the power of the internet.As former CEO and now chairwoman of Jumia Nigeria and chief sustainability officer of Jumia Group, Anammah has her hands in all of it, as she explained at the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series event.Jumia’s strategy is to integrate with existing third-party solutions to handle everything from logistics to delivery to payments, creating a full digital ecosystem. “It's an asset-light model. You have people who have tricycles and vans and so on, but what was lacking was always the technology to integrate that together and to use the data to make quality decisions.” Anammah continues, “The real value you bring to consumers is not limiting them to your own solution — it is actually giving them a platform through which they could use whatever payment method methodology that they have.”Jumia is breaking down more than just trade barriers, but gender ones as well. ​​“At least in Nigeria and Kenya, which are key markets, about 51% of our sellers are actually women. It’s a gender agnostic environment. You could be a fashion seller, you could be an electronic seller, and you know you don't have a lot of physical markets where someone can make those kinds of gender-related decisions that could be forbidden.”Anammah believes that the power of the platform extends far beyond commerce, driving development and creating jobs across the continent. “In the end, reducing inequality is so critical and is a big part of how we create value. And how we create sustainable improvement in quality of lives on the continent is by asking ourselves: What more can we do?”Listen to Anammah’s entrepreneurial journey as a guide for your own. Hear about the challenges of building a marketplace business, competition, expansion plans, sustainability efforts, and more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How can small businesses gain access to the working capital they need? Zach Bijesse of Payhippo and Tunde Kehinde of Lidya are trying to figure it out. Hear how new technologies are changing the future of lending for small businesses in Nigeria, Africa, and the world.With over 200 million people and 40 million small businesses, Nigeria is the perfect spot to launch a fintech company that’s trying to push the boundaries of how businesses get capital. Both Zach Bijesse and Tunde Kehinde saw a huge market opportunity in Nigeria with its sheer size and strong startup culture. Their companies, Payhippo and Lidya, respectively, are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to make lending faster and more accessible for entrepreneurs, and in turn, more successful for this new breed of lender.Zach makes the problem clear: “Businesses can’t get money in Nigeria when they need it. It’s that simple.” Tunde believes that artificial — and human — intelligence are key to filling the small business lending gap. “Humans are involved in setting the rules. I think on average per loan, we have close to a thousand data points we look at. And so humans are looking to say, based on our assessment criteria, is it working or not working? And if it's not working, how do we tweak the rules to make sure the recollection is done properly?” Likewise Zach’s Payhippo endorses ongoing experimentation and the importance of training their algorithms to get better over time. “People forget that you can only train your machine learning algorithm based on your data set. So, you know, we have a few defaults in our loan portfolio. That's not a bad thing. You just have to give loans and figure out what works.”Unlike most entrepreneurs, these two aren’t intimidated by competition, even from banks themselves. Instead, they’re always looking for opportunities to collaborate and partner. As Zach explains, “there's a $46 billion opportunity for small business lending in Nigeria. Why would Payhippo need to take one hundred percent of the market? Let's keep growing and do what we do. And then once we get a little bit of bandwidth, it'd be great to empower the other guys and collaborate with them. That's really exciting to us because then the whole financial infrastructure develops and it's better for everyone.”Listen to Zach and Tunde’s story to learn how technology and new ways of thinking can impact how you approach and solve your specific business and market challenges.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Ankit Agarwal, Founder of Phool, a flower recycling business based in Kanpur, India. By collecting waste flowers from temples and converting them into eco-friendly products, the company is making an impact on both the women they employ who live near the sacred yet polluted Ganges River and the river itself. Ankit’s entrepreneurial journey began with a question from a friend who was visiting the Ganges:  “If this river is so sacred, why is it so polluted? And why don't you do something about it?” Ankit did just that.“Every year, we, Indians, put in about eight million tons of waste flowers in the waters. All the pesticides that are used to grow these flowers mixes with the river water, making it highly toxic. That is the leading cause of diarrhea, hepatitis and severe cholera across India and Bangladesh, where the water flows. Finally, I decided to form a company where we can collect waste flowers and do some products.”Ankit believes real change will not happen in this generation...but he is hopeful. ”It will happen in the next generation, when the kids of the women that we're able to employ start going to school: their next generation will be liberated from scavenging.” Listen to Ankit’s mini profile to learn how a great business idea can change lives for generations.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Linda Ampah, founder of KAD Manufacturing and a fashion brand called Cadling Fashions based in Ghana. Linda’s entrepreneurial journey has had all the typical hurdles plus the extra challenges of being a female business owner in Africa. That’s why providing job opportunities for women is central to her mission.Linda has always loved the sound of sewing machines. Now she gets to hear them all the time in her factories where she manufactures school uniforms and makes garments for U.S. brands like Anthropologie and Brooklyn Industries. “In Ghana, in the marketplaces there are women and girls who sleep on the streets. We went out asking them whether they'll be interested to come and train? And the response we got was just amazing. We invited them over and then we started training them. Now the challenge though was that because they didn't have a place to stay, they get raped. We decided we'll add housing to it. And usually after a year, they are able to rent their own place then they move from the hostel.”Listen to Linda’s mini-profile to learn how employing women in need can have a ripple effect on an entire community.Please take a few moments and provide us with your feedback on Grit & Growth. We would love to hear what you’re interested in learning about and how we can make the content we create relevant to your growth journey. Resources:Pieces of the Portrait: An Autobiography by Linda AmpahSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on communicating with confidence, featuring Matt Abrahams, Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer in strategic communications. Whether pitching to investors, reporting to your board, or motivating employees, Abrahams has tips and tricks for managing anxiety and making an impact with both what you say and how you say it.Abrahams knows a thing or two about communicating. Whether he’s teaching MBAs at Stanford GSB or hosting his podcast “Think Fast, Talk Smart,” he advises entrepreneurs on the value of “Speaking Up Without Freaking Out” — which is also the title of his best-selling book.Abrahams believes confidence and mindset can be developed to alleviate anxiety and improve almost any pitch or meeting. He’s also on a personal mission to stop entrepreneurs from beginning their presentations with “Hi, my name is _______, and today we're going to talk about_________.”“That is boring. It's silly because you're showing a slide that has your name and your topic on it. I like to joke that every good pitch should start like a James Bond movie. No, not with sex and violence, but with action, get people participating and focused … and that's what will help people get interested in what you're saying.”Top Seven Masterclass Takeaways Some anxiety is a good thing. It can give you energy and focus. Abrahams suggests using cognitive reframing to use your excitement about your business and vision to manage your fear of pitching.Use nonverbal cues to convey confidence … even if you’re not feeling it. Gesture more slowly, make direct eye contact, take deep breaths to slow your speech rate down. These nonverbal cues will make people think you’re confident, which will actually make you feel more confident.Record yourself and watch it. Rather than judge and evaluate based upon your own internal dialogue, try to see what others will see in the pitch or presentation.Mindfulness can help you manage anxiety. Give yourself permission to be nervous — it’s only human. And forgive yourself if you’re nervous or make a mistake. That’s human, too.Create a compelling hook. Make sure it grabs people’s attention and is relevant. Abrahams explains, “If you do something different, you automatically stand out. You've got my attention just because you did something different.”Learn to tell your story fast and slow. Have a two-minute, 10-minute, and 30-minute version to deliver depending upon the situation.Consider cultural differences and pay attention to social status. Low context and high context cultures require different approaches. And hierarchy and social status should impact how you communicate.Listen to Abrahams’ insights, advice, and strategies for how entrepreneurs can communicate with greater confidence and learn how you can improve your next pitch, board meeting, or presentation.Please take a few moments and provide us with your feedback on Grit & Growth. We would love to hear what you’re interested in learning about and how we can make the content we create relevant to your growth journey. ResourcesPodcast SurveyThink Fast Talk Smart podcastNo Freaking Speaking See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Martin Stimela, CEO of Botswana-based Brastorne Enterprises, and Matt Abrahams, Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer and communications expert. As Martin prepares to pitch his business expansion plan, hear Matt’s tips on how to grab attention, harness emotions, and create a lasting connection with your audience. Then listen in on Martin’s actual pitch...and Matt’s feedback. Almost every entrepreneur eventually needs to make a pitch to capture attention...and dollars. Martin Stimela is no exception. As CEO of Brastorne Enterprises, he’s looking to raise capital to scale his growing technology company to 19 more countries, starting with Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, and Mali. His vision: to connect the unconnected by enabling Internet access without the need for expensive data plans or smartphones. Matt Abrahams shares some tips and then listens in on Martin’s pitch. Matt Abrahams is a Stanford lecturer and host of the podcast "Think Fast, Talk Smart," and he has plenty of strategic communications advice and techniques for both Martin and fellow entrepreneurs. Before you even write the first word of your pitch, Matt suggests you need to think first about who your audience is and what they need from you.“A fundamental mistake people make is they start by saying, here are the things I want to say. Rather, you need to focus on What do I want them to know? How do I want them to feel? And what do I want them to do?”Here are a few pitch-worthy pieces of advice:Create a good hook to capture people’s attention“You know, 99% of people start with: Hi, my name is_______. Today, I'm going to talk about______. If you do something different, you automatically stand out as different.”Introduce a character“Think about leveraging testimonials, examples of how people are benefiting from your particular set of offerings. If we become familiar with a particular person and their situation, it makes it much more real for us than simply talking in generality.”Be conversational“Avoid reading word for word from a script or slides. Instead, focus on the structure of your message and the key ideas you want to get across.”Practice by teachingLike most things in business and life, practice makes perfect. And Matt encourages practicing by teaching.“Something that I find very useful for entrepreneurs to do is when they're working on pitches, I invite them to actually think about how would they teach somebody else to pitch their business. So bringing on a co-founder or a colleague, how would you teach them to pitch the business by putting themselves in the role of teacher, it helps them see things that we don't typically see.”Listen to Matt’s advice and Martin’s pitch to learn new strategies and techniques to improve your own pitch.Think Fast Talk Smart podcastNo Freaking Speaking Stanford SeedStanford Graduate School of BusinessSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on crisis management and mindset, featuring Baba Shiv, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor of Marketing. From mental to physical preparation, Baba provides insights on cultivating an innovative mindset to help you survive and thrive in challenging times.Professor Shiv is an expert in neuroeconomics and decision making. He works with entrepreneurs—from Silicon Valley to emerging markets—on the practice of innovation and how to build a risk-tolerant mindset. Which he believes is especially important in times of crisis.Baba explains that there are two types of mindsets. Type one is a fear of failure or risk-averse mindset. Type two is a fear of missing out on opportunities or risk-tolerant mindset. In times of crisis or stress, it’s harder to switch between the two if you haven’t prepared.“What the rational brain is good at is simply rational...listing what the emotional brain has already decided to do, which means if you're stuck in a risk-averse mindset, the rational brain will come in and say, these are the reasons why you have to be risk-averse. These are the reasons why you should not innovate, etc. Whereas if you're in a type two mindset, the rational brain will come in and say, here are the reasons why you should take some chances.”And Baba believes that taking chances, especially in times of crisis when your competitors aren’t, is how leaders and companies can succeed. Baba has seen firsthand that entrepreneurs from emerging economies are particularly innovative, “they’re facing constraints all the time and as a result are more resourceful, not in spite of their situations, but because of them.”Top Six Masterclass Takeaways1. Sleep. Without it, you’re more likely to wake up feeling risk-averse...the antithesis to innovation.2. Calm your mind and the rest will follow -- develop a meditation, yoga, or tai chi practice to make your breath and brain more resilient to stress.3. Pay attention to your heart—actually your heart rate variability—so you know if it’s a good time to make an important decision.4. Innovation = creativity multiplied by execution divided by constraints. Don’t forget to think about your constraints in the design process.5. Focus on building your collaborative advantage (not just competitive advantage) by developing meaningful connections with suppliers, customers, partners, even competitors. You’ll make more progress with relationships based on trust than just transactions.6. Instill an innovative mindset throughout your company — survival is going to come from teamwork.Listen to Baba’s insights, advice, and strategies for developing an innovative, risk-tolerant mindset and how working together can help leaders and their teams handle and overcome crises.ResourcesLearn more about Professor Baba ShivThinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel KahnemanStanford SeedSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Kwami Williams, co-founder and CEO of MoringaConnect, and Brian Lowery, Stanford Graduate School of Business professor, to learn how one Ghanaian entrepreneur overcame fires, floods, theft, and COVID to build a more resilient and successful company.Kwami’s path to co-founding a social agriculture venture in Ghana based on the native Moringa tree was anything but straightforward. As a Ghanaian-American MIT graduate in aerospace engineering, his first love was flight. But on a trip back to Ghana, after 10 years in the U.S., he decided to focus his life on improving the lives of the people in his home country and continent.Five years into running the business, they were helping smallholder farmers plant Moringa trees and then adding value to the raw materials with a flagship consumer brand. Everything started to unravel in 2019, starting with a wildfire that burned over 15,000 trees, then a factory fire, floods, and a robbery. 2020 only added fuel to the fire with COVID.Kwami knew he needed help to tackle these back-to-back crises, and chose honesty over pride.“If I could give one piece of advice to an early-stage entrepreneur, I would tell them to build an amazing team of people who they could go to war with because the hard days, the bad days, the battles will come.”“I just acknowledged the fact that I have no idea how to bounce back from this. So I just committed to vulnerability from the get-go. And I committed to communicating as much as possible from the get-go.”Brian Lowery agrees that vulnerability is vital to both personal and professional growth. As a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, he is an expert on the psychology of leadership and training future leaders like Kwami. According to Brian:“The leader is not the person with the answers. The leader is the person who brings people together to help figure out what the best answers are around a range of issues.”Kwami and his team found ways to overcome adversity by taking one slow, intentional step at a time and asking themselves:“Why is this happening? What can we learn from it? Let's also pause and ask ourselves. Okay. What can we start? What can we stop and what should continue? And once those ideas materialize, we just say, what is the smallest version of that we can commit to and be consistent with?”And, despite facing a 90% reduction in revenue, the team stayed true to their mission of giving back to the community with give-back campaigns supporting COVID health workers and racial justice organizations. Today, the True Moringa brand has taken off and is poised to raise its first equity round in the second half of 2021. And most importantly to Kwami, they’ve planted over 2 million trees and are serving over 5,000 women and family farmers across Ghana.Listen to Kwami’s inspiring story and Brian’s insights to learn how to build resiliency in yourself and your company so you can handle whatever life throws at you.Resources:Know What You See with Brian Lowery Podcast on Apple PodcastsKnow What You See with Brian Lowery Podcast on SpotifyThe Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on the ins & outs of mergers & acquisitions in Africa, featuring Victor Basta CEO of DAI Magister. From attracting potential buyers to navigating due diligence, Victor provides practical, tactical advice based on 30 years of experience shepherding M&A deals in Europe, the Middle East and across Africa.Victor Basta has facilitated deals and strategic exits for founders of fast-growing, tech-enabled companies across Africa. And he truly considers it a privilege to be a part of these life-changing events for entrepreneurs, companies, and the continent as a whole.“Everything we work on is more than an inflection point, more than a pivot point for a company. It sometimes is make or break whether they survive or not. ”Investing in frontier markets like Africa has both increased perils and possibilities. Which is all the more reason why Victor advises founders to prepare from day one for that eventual life-changing deal. Because, as Victor says, you don’t really get to choose your moment, know when the exit window might open, or control the events.So, what does success look like? According to Victor it's having to make only small compromises in the final stages of the deal because you’ve prepared and listened during due diligence to know what’s most important to the buyer. “When you have the least leverage possible, success is that you know it, and you live to fight another day. What I try to do is plan ahead for compromises that seem bigger than they really are.”Top Seven Masterclass TakeawaysSet your sights on being bought -- not sold.Develop strategic relationships with likely buyers years ahead of when they actually might buy.Get on the radar screen by proactively broadcasting your message and demonstrating your expertise and viability.Support your own team's growth so you can show buyers that you’ve got people who are ready to take the reins.Always behave as if you’re open to discussions with potential buyers, even if you’re not emotionally ready to sell.Before due diligence starts, make sure your entire senior team has rehearsed the message.Prepare to make compromises at the end stages of the deal -- the smaller the better.Listen to Victor’s insights, advice, and strategies to help prepare for your own successful merger or acquisition.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Caroline Wanjiku, cofounder of Daproim Africa, and Victor Basta, CEO of DAI Magister, and learn how one intrepid Kenyan entrepreneur overcame adversity to transform her bootstrapped social enterprise into a strategic acquisition.Caroline’s entrepreneurial journey began like most other ambitious founders. She and her business partner (and eventual husband) created Daproim in 2006 with a vision to make Kenya a destination for IT outsourcing. A chance encounter with the Rockefeller Foundation in 2011 led to a grant and a realization that the business they were building was also a social enterprise. Caroline explains:“We were employing friends, women, mainly people who were from underprivileged backgrounds. So, when we bumped into Rockefeller Foundation they were quick to tell us that what you are doing is actually called social impact. You know, we didn't have a word for it until then.”A few years and 500 employees later, a tragic turn of events changed everything. On the day she was giving birth to her first child, her husband and co-founder also entered the hospital with a life-threatening disease. Caroline had no choice but to take on the role of CEO.“My first reaction was like, I can't do this. And one of my mentors came and visited me and told me, "You know what? You need to do it for your child. Find a way to gather yourself, take as much time as you need, but the goal is to make sure that this business continues."Victor Basta also believes in the power of mentorship, especially in an ecosystem like Africa where “hardly anybody’s done an exit...the playbook hasn’t been written.” Victor helps fast-growing, tech-enabled businesses like Daiprom do everything from raising capital to acquisitions. And when Caroline was approached by StepWise, an American outsourcing company, she sought out mentors again to help her understand the deal on the table and keep her emotions in check.Victor advises “don't talk to very many people about it because you are going to be in sell mode because of the lack of experience. It would be useful to be able to find somebody in your broader orbit that has actually gone through it. You know, they may help you at least avoid going what I would call guardrail to guardrail with your emotions.”In February 2020, the day before the lockdown, StepWise acquired Daproim. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing and Caroline admits to mistakes and misunderstandings, namely assuming that she would remain as CEO after the acquisition.“So in my mind, I thought automatically I'd remain as CEO. So, I didn't have any doubts. I didn't think I needed to bring it up until later. I'd advise anyone to just make sure you talk about everything and not to assume.”When Caroline eventually decided to move on from Daproim, it was not without the advice of her trusted mentors. Listen to Caroline’s amazing story and Victor’s insights to learn how to prepare for the unexpected and avoid potential pitfalls—before, during and after an acquisition.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on the investment landscape in India, featuring Sandeep Singhal, Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners. A pioneer of venture capital in India, Sandeep shares practical tips for entrepreneurs seeking early-stage funding.After working in Silicon Valley and at McKinsey, Sandeep cofounded one of India’s first incubators in the 1990s. Over the last several decades, he has witnessed the tremendous growth of entrepreneurship and investment in India. Today, he works at Nexus Venture Partners, one of the first India-US venture funds that invests in global technology products and technology-led businesses for India.In this episode, Sandeep explores the evolving market trends in India, and shares how he evaluates investment opportunities. He also discusses the most common mistakes that entrepreneurs make during early fundraising stages. Top Six Takeaways:The Indian market is evolving from a value or discount based market towards one of convenience.Familiarize yourself with the investor ecosystem: identify potential investment partners and their areas of interest in advance.To attract early-stage investors, you need to demonstrate passion and a strong focus on product-market fit with a scalable go-to-market strategy.Don’t go-to-market stating a valuation expectation ― have the market tell you what it thinks is a fair valuation.It’s important to have clarity on the risks your business faces.To attract strong partners, you need to demonstrate real insight into the competitive landscape of their market.Listen to Sandeep’s advice to help you raise capital and grow your business.Resources:Nexus Venture Partners: https://nexusvp.com/ Stanford Seed: http://stanfordseed.co/GritSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Aditi Shrivastava, Cofounder and CEO of digital entertainment company Pocket Aces, and learn how the company identified investors to support them on their journey to entertain hundreds of millions of Indians in a rapidly shifting media landscape. Early on in 2013, Pocket Aces identified a huge gap in the market: content specifically designed for India’s youth, where they wanted to consume it—on a smartphone. Fast forward to 2021, and the company is now one of the country’s largest mobile content producers and distributors, with popular media brands FilterCopy and Dice Media, shows like Operation MBBS, and partnerships with the likes of Netflix and Facebook. How did Aditi and her cofounders build such a successful digital entertainment company, so quickly?It wasn’t easy—Pocket Aces was raising capital where capital hadn't been raised before, and some investors either didn't understand the opportunity or were not confident that the supporting ecosystem would get there. In this episode, learn how Aditi and her cofounders found the right partners to grow the company, from their first angel investor to seed, Series A, bridge financing and Series B rounds. You’ll also hear from a few investors about how they assessed this opportunity, including Sandeep Singhal of Nexus Venture Partners, and Pranav Pai of 3one4 Capital.Resources:Pocket Aces: https://pocketaces.in/ 3one4capital: https://3one4capital.com/Nexus Venture Partners: https://nexusvp.com/Stanford Seed: https://seed.stanford.eduSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Elo Umeh, Managing Director and CEO of Terragon Group, a Nigerian digital marketing and data insights company, and Andreata Muforo and Ido Sum from TLcom Capital, and learn how to make the most of your fundraising efforts to successfully grow your business in Africa.Elo never intended to formally raise money—he initially relied on friends and family to launch Terragon. But as the business grew, so did his vision, and he needed to find an investor that understood the enormous opportunity in a rapidly growing sector. Since 2016, he’s led Terragon through two funding rounds: a $5 million series A round and a bridge round of $4 million. Now a leader in Africa’s data and marketing technology space, Terragon is currently raising another $16 million for its Series B. Elo shares his fundraising journey, explaining that it’s not just about the money, but who provides the capital is also key. He ended up working with Andreata Muforo and Ido Sum from TLcom, a venture capital firm with experience investing in tech-enabled businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa. Their relationship demonstrates how the right investors can help your business grow and actually enhance—not dampen—the quality of your decisions as a CEO.Andreata and Ido of TLcom also share what they look for in a company and provide tips for how you can approach your next fundraising round.Listen to Elo’s journey and Andreata and Ido’s insights to learn how to maximize the value of your firm’s next fundraising round.Resources:Terragon Group: https://terragongroup.com/ TLcom Capital: https://tlcomcapital.com/ Stanford Seed: http://stanfordseed.co/GritSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Adam Abate and Tayo Oviosu from Paga, and Victor Basta, CEO of DAI Magister, and hear about the hurdles and high points of an East-meets-West African fintech acquisition.Adam’s entrepreneurial journey began when he and two fellow Ethiopians started Apposit, a consulting firm building technology that would work in African contexts — low bandwidth, low human capital, and affordable. Turns out that was exactly what Tayo needed to create Paga, now the leading payments platform in Nigeria. What started as a simple consulting agreement turned into a long-term, strategic relationship and ultimately paved the way for Paga’s acquisition of Apposit in 2020.Victor Basta says while this isn’t the norm for acquisitions, it’s a wise strategy to develop relationships with the people you might acquire or be acquired by. Victor helps fast-growing, tech-enabled businesses like Paga do everything from raising capital to acquisitions. He says one of the keys to getting bought, not sold, is “developing relationships with companies that are likely buyers years ahead of when they actually might buy. You can always go search for companies, but people buy people they know or people they've heard of, and there's a degree of comfort and confidence with that.”The two entrepreneurs learned a lot in the process about the importance of trust, talent, and having a shared vision that will make both sides of the acquisition feel right about the decision.According to Adam “A lot of it came down to gut and how you really felt about it inside. Did all the pieces fit together? Did you wake up every day thinking, yes, this is the right decision despite the difficulties in negotiation? Even now, almost two years down the line with all the little problems we faced along the way I often asked myself, "was it the right decision?" and overwhelmingly it comes back to yes because the fundamental principles of why we got into discussion in the first place...are still there. They haven't changed.”Listen to Adam and Tayo’s story and Victor’s insights to learn how to set your own business up for buying or selling to the right partner.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on the complexities and opportunities of running a family business, featuring Peter Francis, Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer. Peter provides practical strategies, tactics, and firsthand experiences of effective family business management.Peter Francis’ expertise in family businesses goes far beyond the theoretical — he invests in them, teaches a class on them, and is also the former CEO of a sixth-generation family business. So he understands both the advantages and complexities that come with families working together and transitioning from one generation to the next.Peter believes, and the statistics confirm, that family businesses have some significant advantages over their public counterparts, namely patient capital, speed of decision making, the ability to pursue unconventional strategies, and pride of ownership. But the complexities of family relationships and emotions can be challenging.Creating a culture that encompasses both family and business is essential. “ It's not what you say with your mouth, it's what you do with your feet. And so early on family leadership needs to make it crystal clear that that's the way it's going to operate, and then they need to operate that way. And I will tell you, what you do will outweigh what you say.”Top Six Masterclass TakeawaysMake sure to understand your ownership model, clearly defining who are your active vs. passive owners (you want more of the former.)Education, transparency, and communication are the top three “universal” antidotes for handling many of the issues that show up in family businesses, especially during times of transition.Separating business and family is essential — don’t bring business problems home and try to solve them in the “family room”.Bringing in an outside voice/advisor can be a huge help in matters of transition, especially when things get emotional. Which they almost always do.Getting independent directors is key to growth and success. Actually listening to what they have to say is even more important.Thinking ahead, before you’re actually ready for a transition, will be a big help, especially in the event of an unintended consequence, such as the death of a founder.Listen to Peter’s insights, advice, and strategies to help manage everything from success to succession in your family-run business.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Naomi Kipkorir and Annette Kimitei, the mother-daughter team leading Senaca East Africa, and Peter Francis, lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and hear about finding success and navigating succession in a family run business.Family dynamics can be challenging, not to mention, emotional. But when you add in a business, things can get even more complicated. Especially when the entire family is involved. That’s the story behind Senaca EA, a private security company headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Founded by Naomi’s husband, an ex-policeman, the business started in 2002 as a side hustle and now it’s a full-time, all-in-the-family-of five affair.After a failed merger with a European company, the family literally came together to pull their company back from the brink. Thinking about family succession came next. And as Annette learned, “succession is not one event, it’s a process.” Formalizing corporate governance is key to that process, which for Senaca begins with introducing advisory board members that have skill sets the business is missing, and eventually independent directors.Peter Francis fully supports that plan. And he knows from experience; his family run business has been going for six generations. Peter uses that firsthand knowledge to teach a class called The Yin and Yang of Family Business Transition at Stanford. Because issues that arise in a family business can often turn emotional, Peter advises seeking outside expertise, and relying on education, transparency, and communication to handle tough issues.“If you're having a conversation about the business at home you might say, "you know what, we're home, we should be wearing our family hat, not our business hat". And then communication... I don't mean just communicating, but also learning how to communicate. That is a muscle that we can strengthen in the family.”Listen to Naomi and Annette’s family story and Peter’s business insights to help think about your own company’s succession and governance plans.Links:Senaca East Africa: https://senacaworld.comAnnette Kimitei: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annette-kimitei-70594249/?originalSubdomain=kePeter Francis: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/peter-t-francisStanford Seed: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/seedResources:Poza, E. & Daugherty, M. (2014). Family Business, 4th Edition. Mason, OH: South-Western Centage Learning,Gersick, K., Davis, J., Hampton, M. & Lansberg, I. (1999). Succeeding Generations: Realizing the Dream of Families in Business, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School PressWard, J. L. (2004), Perpetuating the Family Business: 50 Lessons Learned from Long-Lasting Successful Families in Business, New York, NY: Palgrave MacmillanMontemerlo, D. & Ward, J. (2011). The Family Constitution: Agreements to Secure and Perpetuate Your Family and Your Business. Family Business Leadership Series, No. 20, Marietta, GA: Family Enterprise PublishersSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hear the story of Dr. Shuchin Bajaj, a doctor, and entrepreneur who set out to provide affordable, quality health care in rural India and found himself on the front lines of the pandemic through his network of 15 hospitals. From encountering multiple supply chain disruptions to motivating his team and building a 1,000-bed, no-cost, Covid treatment center in a matter of weeks, Dr. Bajaj has moved mountains to save lives. Leaders across India and in emerging markets globally will find his reflections valuable, both now, and when/if they find themselves at the center of a second or third wave.  Resources:Volunteer for Project StepOne: https://projectstepone.org/join-us/Donate to Project StepOne: https://projectstepone.org/donate/#Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health: https://globalhealth.stanford.edu/covid-19/resources-for-the-covid-19-crisis-in-india.html/Stanford Seed: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/seedSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on raising capital, featuring Zach George, general partner at Launch Africa Ventures and co-founder of Startup Bootcamp Africa. Zach provides honest, practical advice on what founders really need to focus on to attract and secure the right investors.Zach George has been investing on the African continent for over 10 years, but his advice to entrepreneurs at any stage of the funding journey — from pre-seed to Series C — is universal.After earning a master's at Stanford University, a short holiday to see the World Cup in 2010 led Zach to make Capetown, South Africa his home. Today, he is a general partner at one of the largest Pan-African specialist seed venture capital funds with $15 million in funding and investments in 50 - 60 of the largest or most prominent tech founders in the continent. So, he understands what investors are looking for and what makes founders stand out from the crowd.Top Six Masterclass Takeaways1. Ask for advice early, while you’re building the business. As the old adage goes: if you ask for advice you may get some money; if you ask for money, you may get some advice.2. Know your market and your competition really, really well.3. Articulate your value proposition. Before you even think about asking for money.4. Perform due diligence on potential investors. Know their mandate, strategy, portfolio performance, and how you can add value.5. Look for investors who add significantly more than just capital, including help with customer acquisition, recruitment, and talent sourcing. “Smart founders have learned to say no to investors that don't add any of that value.”6. Spend more time on operations than raising funds. Especially in the early rounds.Listen to Zach’s investor insights, founder advice, and capital-raising strategies to help grow and fund your own company.Resources:Launch Africa Ventures: https://www.launchafrica.vc/Zach George: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachariahgeorge/?originalSubdomain=zaCrossing the Chasm (book): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_ChasmStanford Seed: http://stanfordseed.co/GritSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Faraz Ramji, founder of Norda Industries and Mindfulness Coach, and Dr. Leah Weiss, Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer, to hear why mindfulness and emotional intelligence should be part of every entrepreneur’s skillset.In 2017 a factory fire changed everything for Faraz and his team at Norda, a snack food company based in Nairobi, Kenya. Rebuilding the business required more than Faraz ever imagined, most importantly bringing his personal mindfulness practice to work.“I don't want to make it sound like mindfulness is a panacea for everything. I just think it helped me personally, as a leader to be more grounded, to be more objective, to genuinely acknowledge the emotion which was coming up and not suppress or deny it, but genuinely feel it and then be able to use some of that data to drive my decision-making.”Dr. Weiss spends a lot of her time thinking about mindfulness as a researcher, lecturer, consultant, entrepreneur, and author. She teaches “Leading with Mindfulness and Compassion” at Stanford Graduate School of Business and is founding faculty at Stanford’s Compassion Institute. But Dr. Weiss advises that mindfulness isn’t’ simply about meditation, it’s about the intentional use of attention which is essential for leaders. Listen to Faraz’s story and Dr. Weiss’s guidance so you can breathe easier.Resources:Faraz Ramji: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faraz-ramji-01700a25Stanford Seed: http://stanfordseed.co/GritSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Arun Iyer, CEO of Alpha Direct Insurance Company, and Zach George, general partner at Launch Africa Ventures, and learn what it takes to transition your funding from friends and family to angel investors and venture capital.Like most entrepreneurs, Arun relied on friends and family to get his Botswana-based insurtech company off the ground. But bringing insurance to the masses — both within Botswana and across the region — required more substantial sums. And thinking small was preventing him from making it big.“I believed that only these three people would finance my business. Today, I'm raising money from funds that are located across the world. You know, part of our pre-series A was a fund from Switzerland, Launch Africa Ventures is in. So, now the whole world has been opened up. And technically you can do that at any stage, there's nothing preventing you. The only thing that was preventing us from doing it was my mindset. And once I removed that self-doubt, now the world became my oyster.”Arun learned that building relationships based on mutual trust is key to securing capital. And Zach George agrees … along with what he calls the ‘napkin test’. Zach looks for founders who can explain in just a few minutes how they plan to get to $100 million. “The majority of founders can never do that. They fail miserably at it, or they'll say, "hey, can I open up my spreadsheet or I'll talk to my CFO". If you give me the, 'let me talk to my CFO', you've lost me.”Listen to Arun’s capital raising strategies and Zach’s investor insights to help fund and grow your own company.Resources:Alpha Direct, Botswana: https://www.alphadirect.co.bw/Stanford Seed: http://stanfordseed.co/GritSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Likitha Maddukuri, CEO and co-founder of Terra Greens, and Baba Shiv, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor of Marketing, and hear how unprecedented adversity can create incredible opportunity … when you have the right mindset.Running an organic produce business in India could be seen by many as challenging enough, but the pandemic of 2020 had other plans. With a national lockdown, supply chain disruptions, and a limited labor force, Likitha had to quickly figure out how to create a culture that would motivate and inspire her employees to not just survive, but to thrive.Creating a culture of gratitude, constant communication, and showing up for each other were her keys to success. “For the first time I had to sell the business and the vision to my people and make them believe that we will emerge stronger.”Professor Shiv, an expert in neuroeconomics and decision making, discusses how Likitha’s innovative mindset made all the difference — approaching challenges with a desire for opportunity rather than a fear of failure. Listen to Likitha’s story and Professor Shiv’s guidance and get inspired.Resources:Stanford Seed: http://stanfordseed.co/GritSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Introducing: Grit & Growth with Stanford Graduate School of BusinessIn this new podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business, travel across Africa and South Asia to meet some of the region’s most intrepid and inspiring entrepreneurs as they share stories of trial and triumph.Host Darius Teter also interviews Stanford University faculty and global business experts who provide insights, guidance, and practical tips to help you succeed on your own entrepreneurial journey.Learn more at: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/seedSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.