Final Kickstarter Campaign Day

We’re coming up to the close of our Kickstarter campaign. So far we’ve raised 80% of the $8000 we need to be able to pay for transcripts, editing and music. For all those who backed us on Kickstarter, we greatly appreciate all your support. One YWI backer says:

“I have no connection to this project, other than I think it is very cool and the goals are near to my heart. I pledged $125, did a favor for someone and they pledged $100; posted it on Facebook and said this is what I wanted for my birthday and people pledged various amounts. My birthday wish was to be a funding “angel” and I hope you’ll join me….every little bit helps….money not charged if goal not reached.”

Thanks again for all your support! We still have 24 hours left on our Kickstarter campaign, so if you haven’t please give us a hand and help us keep the project going. If we don’t raise the entire $8,000, we lose it all!

On the Ground: Updates from Rwanda & Tanzania

I just left Kigali after a busy time videotaping HeHe Ltd, a mobile phone app provider team that started business just  nine months ago.  They told me about challenges like losing a major client and losing a team member.  They’ve been asked to talk about teamwork challenges to an international student group in Kigali organized by Cambridge University, U.K. They have riveting insights about how a team stays creative and bonded.

I also got to talk with a government agency in Kigali who are eager to take story episodes of this young HeHe team to inspire others in rural areas to start their own enterprises in high tech projects!  We will do some planning via Skpe in August and think about radio, web and live events to tell insider story segments about Clarisse, Amiri, Diane and Richard who competed at the Pivot25 mobile developer conference in June and had more twitter traffic than any of the other teams. It was Richard’s first trip out of Rwanda and he plans to be first in the next competition.

I also got to meet a Frenchman at the airport who’s doing development work in Sudan.  He thinks stories of young innovators should be easy to fund and wants to help!

Tomorrow I will follow Jodie Wu around Dar Es Salaam in meetings about funding, websites and advice for Global Cycle Solutions. Then we travel by bus to Morogoro to talk to sales reps for GCS.

Jodie is eager to get into the field to see how products are being received and she’s developing another side business in Arusha to provide affordable housing to visitors like me and the fellow who’s coming from the US to shoot a story about what makes an enterpreneur tick — for an ebook written by an educator at harvard. I’ll meet with him in August to learn more.