http://vimeo.com/37386053
Global Cycle Solutions – Transforming the Bicycle into a Vehicle of Innovation in Tanzania
Jodie Wu is re-inventing Global Cycle Solutions, after trying to sell enough bike-powered corn shellers to stay alive during drought. She had to let go not just 13 employees, going to bare bones, but her idea for empowering traveling corn sheller entrepreneurs. Reinventing GCS, she made it a sales and distribution company for bike powered cell phone chargers and maize shellers. She started selling solar lights. She developed a Rafiki (friend in Swahili) sales network. An Echoing Green and TEDx Fellow, she was named a Forbes’ “30 under 30″ fellow. Jodie may be trying the impossible: selling to the poorest customers and staying alive as a for profit company. Now she’s making a deal to distribute cook stoves that are safe for women and children. Ordinary cook stoves create smoke as dangerous as two packs of cigarettes a day. The latest from Jodie and GCS is coming in new videos.
