On the road with Jackson
So, these past few days have been whirlwind as we’ve been going from office to office trying to complete all the documentation needed for a start-up, from the Tanzania Revenue Authority to the Commissioner’s Office to the Municipal Office to the Immigration Office. Now, all that remains is our business license, and we will now be free to reach out to as many customers as possible.
And so next week, our journey will begin. With our new pick-up, that I purchased as somewhat of joint personal and company investment, we will head to the markets to show off our machine, get customer feedback, and prepare for the sale of our products. It will be tough due to the drought that has swept Tanzania (and therefore, no maize), but we will overcome this challenge. We will just have to think creatively to thoroughly test our product and reach out to farmers who suffered a loss this year, so get ready for some adventurous stories to come.
And so next week, our journey will begin. With our new pick-up, that I purchased as somewhat of joint personal and company investment, we will head to the markets to show off our machine, get customer feedback, and prepare for the sale of our products. It will be tough due to the drought that has swept Tanzania (and therefore, no maize), but we will overcome this challenge. We will just have to think creatively to thoroughly test our product and reach out to farmers who suffered a loss this year, so get ready for some adventurous stories to come.
Hunt for cycles
With today as a holiday, we took this opportunity to go to the villages. It was a fascinating experience, as for the first time, we didn’t bring the bicycle with us, only the machine. This expedition proved more challenging than I would have expected, as the first village we went to, they didn’t have a bicycle available. So, they called a few friends, and they brought a bike without a stand. We unfortunately hadn’t brought a stand with us, so our machine would essentially be nonfunctional.
Despite this challenge, we decided we’d at least try to install it, and much to my disappointment, we found even more difficulties, such as stripped threads on the rear hub, which made it difficult to secure our machine on the bicycle. We installed it anyways, and using ourselves as the stand, we got it to work. I would have loved to leave the machine with them, as I, for the first time, actually witnessed the beating of corn with a stick. We would have left it with them, but we were unfortunately a day late as the tractor with the maize sheller had come just a day earlier. As villagers close to town, technology such as the tractor machine industrial sheller, was locally available.
However, in a village less than a kilometer away, they were all still beating corn with a stick. This time, we had to go on yet another hunt for a bike. And we faced the same issues. One bike was too big, and then the other bike was missing a stand. Again, we ourselves functioned as a stand, and the chairman loved it! He has already offered to arrange a meeting to show all the villagers our machine. The only downside was the bike that we found that worked belonged to the milkman. So, just after installing it, we had to remove it yet again to return the bike. The good news though is that the chairman was prepared to go find another bicycle so he could arrange a meeting to show the village. Unfortunately, he lacked the appropriate tools, so we left a few tools with him to ensure his future assembly of the machine.
So, I guess in the end, we learned that we must provide a stand, and if we want to really make an impression, we need to bring the bicycle, as temporary assembly is no easy task. For future village visits, we will plan accordingly.
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Jodie, Tanzania
Despite this challenge, we decided we’d at least try to install it, and much to my disappointment, we found even more difficulties, such as stripped threads on the rear hub, which made it difficult to secure our machine on the bicycle. We installed it anyways, and using ourselves as the stand, we got it to work. I would have loved to leave the machine with them, as I, for the first time, actually witnessed the beating of corn with a stick. We would have left it with them, but we were unfortunately a day late as the tractor with the maize sheller had come just a day earlier. As villagers close to town, technology such as the tractor machine industrial sheller, was locally available.
However, in a village less than a kilometer away, they were all still beating corn with a stick. This time, we had to go on yet another hunt for a bike. And we faced the same issues. One bike was too big, and then the other bike was missing a stand. Again, we ourselves functioned as a stand, and the chairman loved it! He has already offered to arrange a meeting to show all the villagers our machine. The only downside was the bike that we found that worked belonged to the milkman. So, just after installing it, we had to remove it yet again to return the bike. The good news though is that the chairman was prepared to go find another bicycle so he could arrange a meeting to show the village. Unfortunately, he lacked the appropriate tools, so we left a few tools with him to ensure his future assembly of the machine.
So, I guess in the end, we learned that we must provide a stand, and if we want to really make an impression, we need to bring the bicycle, as temporary assembly is no easy task. For future village visits, we will plan accordingly.
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Jodie, Tanzania
First Village visit with CNFA
On Friday, we went to Manyata for our first village visit with CNFA, and it was an incredible experience! The event itself wasn’t a big deal, but just seeing the crowd’s reaction was amazing. Philemon pitched the products and then ended with a demonstration of our sheller, and the 70 people in attendance went wild! Everyone was seated, and everyone started cheering, and then they came running!
Although we had to take off as soon as the meeting ended due to other obligations of CNFA, the impressions on the farmers were real. We gave them our 100 brochures, and as for the connections, I know that CNFA will be our route to meeting these farmers.
Even more, in presenting our product to the farmers, we also connected to the other dealers and organizations in attendance. One of the ladies of CNFA, who was based in Kenya, told us that she would pass word of our machine to Kenya, so it’ll be interesting to see how this all works out.
As for other things, our company is finally registered! So, now we’ll be heading to the Tanzania Revenue Authority to finally get our TIN and then open our bank account. We also got five new shellers from Karam, and they look fantastic. On Monday, we plan to start visiting villages. More stories to come later.
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Jodie, Tanzania
Although we had to take off as soon as the meeting ended due to other obligations of CNFA, the impressions on the farmers were real. We gave them our 100 brochures, and as for the connections, I know that CNFA will be our route to meeting these farmers.
Even more, in presenting our product to the farmers, we also connected to the other dealers and organizations in attendance. One of the ladies of CNFA, who was based in Kenya, told us that she would pass word of our machine to Kenya, so it’ll be interesting to see how this all works out.
As for other things, our company is finally registered! So, now we’ll be heading to the Tanzania Revenue Authority to finally get our TIN and then open our bank account. We also got five new shellers from Karam, and they look fantastic. On Monday, we plan to start visiting villages. More stories to come later.
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Jodie, Tanzania
Big Week
This week was filled with big events. Beginning with Monday, we finally got our first 5 shellers. We immediately took this opportunity to take two of them to dealers and then the rest out to testing. The machines worked beautifully, with a few kinks in the design here and there.
On Wednesday, we opened our office! We had no power, which was a downside, but it was productive nonetheless, as we finished furnishing our office, with brochures, curtains, our door sign, etc.
On Thursday, our shipment of shellers not only left China, but we made our first sale! Actually, it’s our second sale, but it’s the first one since I’ve been here. I was a bit upset at first, as it was still in its testing phase and I wanted to make sure everything was perfect, but our customer loved it as it was. I think the greatest part of this sale though was that our product sold for nearly full price, AND our customer didn’t already have Phoenix Bike. So, she actually bought a bicycle just so she could use our machine, which I believe is saying a lot.
On Friday, we met with the Manager of Sales and Marketing of the Tanganyika Farmers Association (TFA). This was really eye-opening, as the discussion went from introducing our product to discussing how TFA sells its products and if we would be open to their approach if they decided to distribute our product and if we had the capacity to scale if they sold our product in all 11 branches across Tanzania. We will be continuing our conversation once we have registered as a company (which should be next week as the papers are already off to Dar for approval!).
And on Saturday, we finally had a heart-to-heart with Karam Engineering. From our conversation, I learned a lot about Karam Engineering’s relationship with Kickstart. Eight years ago, Karam started making Kickstart’s pumps, and it took two years for them to finally develop the perfect machine that could last. Since working with Kickstart, they have had no complaints in all their years. This aspect reflects highly on Karam Engineering, but it also says a lot about Kickstart…
As for next week, some places are now harvesting corn in Arusha, so we will be demonstrating our device wherever we go. Moreover, our 25 shellers will be ready, so I’m really looking forward to building our bicycle dealer network. And our company should be registered, so we can now get things moving towards actually generating the revenues.
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Jodie, Tanzania
3rd Design & Bernard
"Wednesday and Thursday, I spent my entire days in Karam’s workshop, helping Roger finish the machines. It was a really long process, as Roger did everything for the machine…the bending, the hammering, the cutting, the drilling, the shearing, and the welding… I really appreciated Roger’s work, as he worked straight through his lunch break on Wednesday (he worked 13 hours straight with myself beside him!)… at the end of the day [Thursday], I had to run off to meet with Bernard.
Who is Bernard? Well, he’s the guy who inspired me to create Global Cycle Solutions. He came to me, asking to help him with his bicycle-powered cell phone charger, and what emerged was Global Cycle Solutions with a family of products. But anyways, I met with Bernard as we were visiting the village, the village he surveyed when we were still in the 100K competition as people kept on asking him about the maize sheller and grinder. So, we went to Nadosoito, which was 12km away via dirt road; it took us about an hour to go.
I had a chance to meet many of the villagers and I promised to return the next day to bring the machine. On our way back, we stopped at Bernard’s house, and for the first time, I got to see his pedal-powered drill press! It was awesome!
So, today, after haggling with Karam in the morning and running some errands to make sure we had everything ready for the office (with a working internet usb and now a printer and receipt book), we finally delivered a sheller to a bicycle dealer and went back to Nadosoito. Everyone loved the machine, but we had the sad realization that this year was a bad growing season. Instead of finding a lot of maize to shell, we found trucks full of maize from the government, to keep the people of Nadosoito from starvation in the coming months. I knew the harvest wasn’t as good as usual, but I thought it led to smaller maize, not no maize at all. So, essentially, many of those stalks weren’t drying, but actually completely empty, having not yielded any maize at all.
Luckily, the church had 4 bags of unshelled maize, so we were able to test Karam’s third iteration in the machine. And there were some issues! So, I’m glad we did some testing. As for our agreement, despite adding more parts (and now getting the bearings directly from China), the price hasn't changed, much to my relief."
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Jodie, Tanzania
The GCS Staff House
"Our weekend was filled with a bunch of odd jobs—finding a secretary to staff our office when we’re off at meetings, finding a sign painter for our office front and road sign, and finding a carpenter to make the doors of our office. We did find a secretary, who had strong recommendations from her former employer, but we soon discovered that she spoke little English and she would need a place to live. Our resolution…she’d live with me…I’d tutor her in English, and she’d tutor me in KiSwahili. The question then was where... The result? I decided to pay a year’s rent to help Philemon finish his [unfinished] house. I would live in the future newly finished part of his house ... not only will these new spaces be for me, but also for his family. In a lot of essences, it’s a win-win situation.
I think the best way to summarize what we were up to, though, I’d have to say that Philemon summarized it perfectly, “It’ll be the Global Cycle Solutions Staff House. We can put a sign outside.” This would really be the Global Cycle Solutions Staff House and I about died laughing…all three GCS Tanzania staff living in the same house.
So, what’s next?
Next week: testing all 5 products... manufacture remaining 25 products...
I think the best way to summarize what we were up to, though, I’d have to say that Philemon summarized it perfectly, “It’ll be the Global Cycle Solutions Staff House. We can put a sign outside.” This would really be the Global Cycle Solutions Staff House and I about died laughing…all three GCS Tanzania staff living in the same house.
So, what’s next?
Next week: testing all 5 products... manufacture remaining 25 products...
Week after next: Distribute shellers [designated for customers]
[Customer options will be to either rent it after paying a deposit or to purchase the sheller]
We’ll see how it all goes!"
---
We’ll see how it all goes!"
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Jodie, Tanzania
Positive Feedback
"Now that we have the product, we can’t find the corn to do full testing of our machine (which has a zero failure rate right now). Although this makes things slow for us, and it means that Philemon and I are searching for things to do, it is a good sign, as that means that the season is later this year, and therefore, when our shellers arrive from China, it won’t be the end of the season, but actually midseason for our shellers.
Anyways, today has been a good day. I did a bit of info gathering, in which I visited a few of the bicycle dealers in town. I soon discovered that they get their bikes from Dar es Salaam and have them delivered to them. In many ways, that means that we’re going to have to bring our shellers to the dealers until we actually create a distribution network, which I believe will come from the bicycle distribution chain.
Afterwards, Philemon and I went to find corn. Much to our disappointment, the corn that was there was not fully dry (this is necessary for optimal shelling), but the good news is I’m fairly sure we just won two customers. They absolutely loved the machine. But, I think the greater thing that I gained was the fact that upon bringing the sheller to another farmer, he immediately recognized the machine. He went inside his home, and returned with the hand version of our machine! I was delighted to see this, as I knew there had been a supply chain of these shellers to Tanzania. I was dying to know how he got this and how he paid for this, and he had gotten it back in 1996 from TFA (Tanganyika Farmers Association) for 5000 shillings. I went into a slightly panic as I was like, 5000 shillings? Why can’t we get this sheller anymore for 5000 shillings? But little did I know how much the value of the shilling had changed in a 13 years. 5000 shillings in 1996 was equivalent to about 70000 shillings today. This reaffirmed our price point, and we will probably try to help this guy convert his hand sheller into a bicycle attachment (since it was essentially identical). TFA no longer sells these shellers.
Later, we swung by the office, and it is nearly finished! We negotiated to get glass doors to allow for more light to enter our office, and much to my surprise, the owner of our office asked us, "Do you have agents?" Apparently, in seeing our device in passing yesterday, his sister was convinced she could sell these devices in another region. I realized, in essence, an agent would be an informal dealer, and why not sell these on commission?
So, it looks like we might get agents coming to us, which is a good sign for us."
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Jodie, Tanzania
Green Hope
"My day started with Philemon coming to pick me up, and then getting
out of the car, and telling me, “Drive.” So, that’s what I learned
today, to drive…backwards. Everything is opposite the regular
direction except for the pedals. I had no problem, except for
shifting the clutch, which was now on my left, and then accidentally
turning on the windshield wipers when I meant to turn on the turn
signal. With our Swahili classes and now my ability to drive in
Tanzania, Philemon and I will be able to start working independently
of one another soon enough.
Our day started at Karam Engineering, where we decided we should hand
test the grinder. The good news was that the grinder worked for
grinding dried corn, but the bad news was that this corn would never
be fine enough for Tanzanian use, where the corn is usually ground
into a fine powder and turned into ugali, the local staple food.
Although a bit disheartening, Karam has helped us solve the most
difficult parts of our products, and though the grinder is not good
for Tanzania, it is still useful for other parts of the world,
especially places like Mexico, where they grind boiled corn to make
some local dishes.
We had envisioned a universal interface, and we’ve solved that
problem. But, for Tanzanians, at least for farmers, their biggest
need is the maize sheller itself. I say this because today we took
our product to our first customer in Arusha. I thought we would be
delivering our product to a farmer, but we soon realized that we were
delivering our product to an NGO called Green Hope, which works with
orphans and vulnerable children all over Tanzania. Meeting them was
really eye-opening for me, as I never really thought of our maize
sheller as a product to improve the lives or orphans and vulnerable
children, but it is indeed so, as these children are the ones usually
shelling the corn, beating the corn in a bag for a small pay at the
end of the day.
We’ll see how Green Hope likes our shellers!"
out of the car, and telling me, “Drive.” So, that’s what I learned
today, to drive…backwards. Everything is opposite the regular
direction except for the pedals. I had no problem, except for
shifting the clutch, which was now on my left, and then accidentally
turning on the windshield wipers when I meant to turn on the turn
signal. With our Swahili classes and now my ability to drive in
Tanzania, Philemon and I will be able to start working independently
of one another soon enough.
Our day started at Karam Engineering, where we decided we should hand
test the grinder. The good news was that the grinder worked for
grinding dried corn, but the bad news was that this corn would never
be fine enough for Tanzanian use, where the corn is usually ground
into a fine powder and turned into ugali, the local staple food.
Although a bit disheartening, Karam has helped us solve the most
difficult parts of our products, and though the grinder is not good
for Tanzania, it is still useful for other parts of the world,
especially places like Mexico, where they grind boiled corn to make
some local dishes.
We had envisioned a universal interface, and we’ve solved that
problem. But, for Tanzanians, at least for farmers, their biggest
need is the maize sheller itself. I say this because today we took
our product to our first customer in Arusha. I thought we would be
delivering our product to a farmer, but we soon realized that we were
delivering our product to an NGO called Green Hope, which works with
orphans and vulnerable children all over Tanzania. Meeting them was
really eye-opening for me, as I never really thought of our maize
sheller as a product to improve the lives or orphans and vulnerable
children, but it is indeed so, as these children are the ones usually
shelling the corn, beating the corn in a bag for a small pay at the
end of the day.
We’ll see how Green Hope likes our shellers!"
--
Jodie, Tanzania
First Test Drive
"Today, we took our product out for a test drive. We started out at Philemon’s neighbor’s farm, where we found a room full of maize. I was planning on just shelling corn all day, just outside the room, but then Philemon had the bright idea that we should take it right outside his shop, which was along the road.
Since we were relocating anyway, we decided to bring out our banner from Nane Nane. It was great fun, and we ended up shelling the entire room of corn in about 4 hours. It was equivalent to about a dozen bags of unshelled corn, which was shelled to become about 4 bags of corn. The machine worked perfectly. We had some interested passersby and a few boys volunteer to ride the bike. We treated them to a soda or two, and the day passed quickly.
At the end of the day, our only problem was some squeaks here and there, but with a little bit of grease and the addition of a spacer between the bicycle and the attachment, it was as quiet as can be.
We’ll have 5 done by the end of the week Our GCS phone is ringing off the hook. And our office should be ready next week. We’re now just waiting for our paperwork to process before we can open up.
Oh, and just a quick note, I just wanted to let you all know that while Philemon is taking English class, I’m taking Kiswahili class…after work, of course. Off to school!"
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Jodie, Tanzania
Setting Up
"So, these two days, we’ve been chugging along. Yesterday, Philemon
and I met with International Fund for Agricultural Development, and we
have their full support. However, as they contribute to a larger
agricultural fund where there are anonymous contributors, they
suggested that we work through the daldos--District Agricultural Land
Development Officers, as they decide how to spend the money they
receive in their district. As soon as we get our first 5 shellers
from Karam, we will start introducing ourselves to both daldos and
saccos to generate demand for our product.
and I met with International Fund for Agricultural Development, and we
have their full support. However, as they contribute to a larger
agricultural fund where there are anonymous contributors, they
suggested that we work through the daldos--District Agricultural Land
Development Officers, as they decide how to spend the money they
receive in their district. As soon as we get our first 5 shellers
from Karam, we will start introducing ourselves to both daldos and
saccos to generate demand for our product.
As for today, we finally found the most ideal office and signed our
office agreement. It was our hope to get an office on the main roads,
but then we soon realized that there is no such thing as offices on
the main roads; rather, there are just stores and hair salons. So,
we made a small compromise of getting a two-room office that’s about
30 meters from the main road. As it is just behind a petrol station,
yet visible in looking down the street we’re on, it makes our location
perfect for people to find us (we can mention that we’re in Kijenge
Mwanama, or just near the Mt. Meru petro station in Kijenge). In
addition to its affordability, because of its location, we are
shielded from the noisy cars and clouds of dust that the cars send up.
Our plan is to stick a huge sign on the side of the road, pointing to
our location, so even if they can’t see our office as they ride by in
a daladala, they can still find us.
We spent the remainder of the day at Karam Engineering, and when I say
rest of the day, I mean till 9pm. They ended up making new sprockets
and toyed with fixing the alignment, and finally at the end of the
night, we had a working machine where the chain wouldn’t fall off.
Next week, we will start immediately going to farms to conduct as many
tests as possible. I’m thinking I might arrange a “bike tour” of
sorts for next week so that we can see how it works not only in
shelling corn, but also in transport. And as we test, we’ll tweak
the design, and the following week, we will head to the areas of
Mwanza, Dodoma, Iringa, Tabora, and Mbeya to put our shellers in the
hands of saccos and district leaders."
office agreement. It was our hope to get an office on the main roads,
but then we soon realized that there is no such thing as offices on
the main roads; rather, there are just stores and hair salons. So,
we made a small compromise of getting a two-room office that’s about
30 meters from the main road. As it is just behind a petrol station,
yet visible in looking down the street we’re on, it makes our location
perfect for people to find us (we can mention that we’re in Kijenge
Mwanama, or just near the Mt. Meru petro station in Kijenge). In
addition to its affordability, because of its location, we are
shielded from the noisy cars and clouds of dust that the cars send up.
Our plan is to stick a huge sign on the side of the road, pointing to
our location, so even if they can’t see our office as they ride by in
a daladala, they can still find us.
We spent the remainder of the day at Karam Engineering, and when I say
rest of the day, I mean till 9pm. They ended up making new sprockets
and toyed with fixing the alignment, and finally at the end of the
night, we had a working machine where the chain wouldn’t fall off.
Next week, we will start immediately going to farms to conduct as many
tests as possible. I’m thinking I might arrange a “bike tour” of
sorts for next week so that we can see how it works not only in
shelling corn, but also in transport. And as we test, we’ll tweak
the design, and the following week, we will head to the areas of
Mwanza, Dodoma, Iringa, Tabora, and Mbeya to put our shellers in the
hands of saccos and district leaders."
--
Jodie, Tanzania
Jodie in Tanzania!
Jodie is now in Tanzania, taking over Semyon's successful efforts over the past couple of weeks. We are working on finalizing the design of our product, the universal adapter and cornsheller, as well as figuring out logistical details for housing and workspace. Bernard, the inventor of the cell phone charger, is making 10 samples of the charger for us over the next week to showcase and raise interest. We have many goals set up for us in the near future- but we are entering a new chapter with the founder, Jodie, permanently in the field and Semyon heading operations in the US. Furthermore, we have recently been chosen for consideration in the second round for the IC Venture Fair. Wish us good luck!
--
Caroline, US
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Caroline, US
Semyon on AFP
Semyon talking about Nane Nane (thank you, Katya of AFP)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42uHgVKhhMk (embedding option disabled by request)
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Alex, USA (soon to be in India)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42uHgVKhhMk (embedding option disabled by request)
--
Alex, USA (soon to be in India)
Visit to Maasai Village
I took one of our demo bikes to a distant Maasai village a few days ago. Everyone loved the bike, and it worked pretty well except for a problem with the lower sprocket, which was the one part Karam didn't re-design yet. Katya got some great footage on tape.
Here are some pictures from that trip:
I'm off to Nairobi soon, exhausted and overloaded with dust from the 6 hour village trip, having forgotten to bring water or to have breakfast, foolishly.
--
Semyon, Tanzania
Here are some pictures from that trip:
I'm off to Nairobi soon, exhausted and overloaded with dust from the 6 hour village trip, having forgotten to bring water or to have breakfast, foolishly.
--
Semyon, Tanzania
Maker Faire in Ghana
Today, Lisa and I found myself among inventors all over the world at Maker Faire Africa. And in the spirit of invention, ingenuity, and innovation, and inspiration, the makers at the fair were invited to present. We had a few "celebrity" figures present, which was awesome, including William Akawamba, the boy who built windmills in Malawi at age 14 and Pat Delaney, this guy from Texas who had made a multi-tool that included functions from drilling to turning to grinding, etc.
When the opportunity was opened to the floor, of course, I took this opportunity to present Global Cycle Solutions where as a maker, I discussed the impact of our technology. It was a fantastic opportunity, especially when people from Peace Corps Ghana, Millenium Villages Tanzania, the Center for Alternative Technology UK, and even the founder of NedSpace US came to chat with me personally about taking this invention to the villages and presenting our adapter and sheller at their respective conferences.
Their feedback was affirmation of the impact that we can have with our attachments. I'm looking forward to working full-time with Global Cycle Solutions! To Tanzania in a few days!
--
Jodie, Ghana
When the opportunity was opened to the floor, of course, I took this opportunity to present Global Cycle Solutions where as a maker, I discussed the impact of our technology. It was a fantastic opportunity, especially when people from Peace Corps Ghana, Millenium Villages Tanzania, the Center for Alternative Technology UK, and even the founder of NedSpace US came to chat with me personally about taking this invention to the villages and presenting our adapter and sheller at their respective conferences.
Their feedback was affirmation of the impact that we can have with our attachments. I'm looking forward to working full-time with Global Cycle Solutions! To Tanzania in a few days!
--
Jodie, Ghana
First Satisfied Customer!
Our first satisfied customer!
"Global Cycle Solutions was the perfect solution for the Byana Mary Hill orphanage in Uganda. The kids harvest a lot of corn and they bruise their hands when they remove the dried corn from the cob. This solution has not only made the process of removing the corn easy and fast, but we are exploring a viable business opportunity by removing other farmers dried corn as well. Global Cycle Solutions is helping make the lives of the Ugandan people better by providing them with entrepreneurial opportunities and solutions.
Thanks,
David Williams
SEEE Operating Director"
"Global Cycle Solutions was the perfect solution for the Byana Mary Hill orphanage in Uganda. The kids harvest a lot of corn and they bruise their hands when they remove the dried corn from the cob. This solution has not only made the process of removing the corn easy and fast, but we are exploring a viable business opportunity by removing other farmers dried corn as well. Global Cycle Solutions is helping make the lives of the Ugandan people better by providing them with entrepreneurial opportunities and solutions.
Thanks,
David Williams
SEEE Operating Director"
2nd Place at Nane Nane!
We won 2nd place at Nane Nane out of hundreds of exhibitors, behind a local chicken breeder project and ahead of a solar panel company, so we're now proud owners of a little metal cup!
The show today was overwhelming, there were hundreds of people crowding in around the tent, it was insane and claustrophobic...and kind of fun.
It was amazing to see Filemon, Oscar, and Chris show up with the trophy, and jump up and down and hug me. I think it was as exciting for them as the 100K was for us.
--
Semyon, Tanzania
The show today was overwhelming, there were hundreds of people crowding in around the tent, it was insane and claustrophobic...and kind of fun.
It was amazing to see Filemon, Oscar, and Chris show up with the trophy, and jump up and down and hug me. I think it was as exciting for them as the 100K was for us.
--
Semyon, Tanzania
New and Improved Device!
The Karam Engineering team have greatly improved upon our current device.
They worked several of their key people for 2 long days, and have completely re-designed the adapter. It's going to be much stronger, much lighter, and much cheaper to manufacture!
They finished making the first one, and the paint will be dry soon. The next one, which will be a grinder, should be ready by Tuesday.
We are extremely grateful for all of Chris’s help, from bush2beach.com Safaris, from helping us locate Tinco's Karam Engineering workshop to asking them to trust us enough to improve our product development both in speed and quality.
--
Semyon, Tanzania
They worked several of their key people for 2 long days, and have completely re-designed the adapter. It's going to be much stronger, much lighter, and much cheaper to manufacture!
They finished making the first one, and the paint will be dry soon. The next one, which will be a grinder, should be ready by Tuesday.
We are extremely grateful for all of Chris’s help, from bush2beach.com Safaris, from helping us locate Tinco's Karam Engineering workshop to asking them to trust us enough to improve our product development both in speed and quality.
--
Semyon, Tanzania
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