I'm not that Innocentive

I have always been a fan of Innocentive, but they just keep getting better.

Innocentive is a open innovation marketplace where seekers (often large corporations like Eli Lilly and Proctor & Gamble) post challenges with monetary awards. For instance, seekers are currently looking for technology to preserve bread texture ($40,000), a grain moisture/ wetness sensor system ($20,000), and an outdoor mobile wireless network ($25,000).

The innovation model is interesting enough for these science and technology applications, but Innocentive has recently embraced the non-profit and social innovation crowd (see this article in Fast Company). For instance, the Rockefeller Foundation supports a whole list of challenges related to development for poor and vulnerable populations. Last fall a 31-year-old Texan won $20,000 for his idea for a solar-powered router. The seeking organization, ASSET, breaks the cycle of the sex industry by providing training for children of sex workers and girls rescued from trafficking in India. The training focuses on technology and computer skills, but unreliable electricity in some areas makes operations difficult. The solar-powered router will provide more hours for training.

Full disclosure: I also love Innocentive because I recently participated in my first challenge and won $3,000!

Green Mango

I’ve decided to spend a couple of months working with Green Mango, a for-profit Hyderabad firm seeking to connect service providers, like tailors and plumbers, with customers using their pilot web platform (see screenshot below). The co-founders, who came from Women’s World Bank, saw that access to capital was not enough to get BOP entrepreneurs off the ground. They also needed access to markets and important information (like pricing). I’ll be working on their volunteer capacity, public relations, and other projects I’ll dream up. I’m excited to dig into an interesting problem and live in an up-and-coming city. Many of my favorite organizations have offices in Hyderabad, including Acumen Fund and Vision Spring, as well as some of the larger Indian microfinance institutions. It is also located in a region known for the level of spice in their food, so we’ll see how that goes.

In preparation I’ve been thinking about similar models where a business is built to connect buyers and sellers. Some examples I could think of were ebay, Kiva, TripAdvisor, craigslist, Angie’s List, and Innocentive, What do these intermediaries provide? One thing is a marketplace, a connection that these buyers and sellers might not have otherwise found. Where else are you going to sell your used TV other than craigslist? But in addition some provide information: ebay ranks buyers and sellers, TripAdvisor presents hotel reviews, and Kiva puts a face on microloans. Green Mango seems to be heading in the right direction, with user rankings and shopper networks already built into their platform. I am very interested to see how Green Mango applies lessons from these other models in the areas of revenue models, customer experience, and network effects in their unique environment, where their “seller” segment will not likely have internet access at home.

Innovation for the Subcontinent

Here’s a quick list of technologies and companies in India that serve the average Indian:

• A Little World/ Zero Foundation: This company and its foundation intend to use technology to bring low-cost solutions to the bottom of the pyramid. Their most recent success is Go Mumbai, a system they developed (and subsequently sold off) which uses smart cards to replace paper tickets for Mumbai trains and buses.
• Solar-powered Routers: A 31-year old Texan came up with the winning design in a recent Innocentive challenge sponsored by ASSET India, a non-profit using technology for children of sex workers to connect them to better opportunities. Zacary Brown’s Linux-based solution met all the challenge requirements, including using low-cost readily-available hardware. (I learned about this through the ThinkChangeIndia blog.)
• Drishtee Kiosks: Drishtree has been providing kiosks in rural India for 8 years. Current services provided include access to government records, spoken English training, youth education, certificate filing, banking, and reports of commodity prices at different markets, but I believe this is just the beginning of what could be offered through this platform. As for a business model, Drishtree has a fixed revenue sharing agreement with each kiosk owner and a variable revenue agreement with the service providers.