Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Last night I had the pleasure of co-hosting a dinner presentation for ~50 forward-thinking friends in the Silicon Valley entrepreneur community to learn more about the microfinance revolution, and about the incredible global impact it's having on eradicating poverty in developing economies.
After a brief welcome & intro by yours truly, a presentation on microfinance was given by Unitus CEO Geoff Davis (ex-Grameen Foundation pioneer) and Chairman Mike Murray (ex-Microsoft VP). Briefly, Unitus is a "venture accelerator" that helps identify, fund, and grow promising microfinance institutions ("MFIs") around the world. They're a terrific organization, and they're helping MFIs in India, Africa, and Latin America do some amazing things.
It was a great opportunity to get a bunch of old friends together, and explain how this new industry can really make a significant & substantial difference in people's lives. At the same time, Unitus presents some attractive investment alternatives for those who'd like to see their donation dollars put to work in a more focused, market-measured way.
And finally, it was a fun opportunity for me to get passionately excited about something not so technology-related, and to help spread the word about what Unitus is doing... my pleasure :)
Dave "evangelizing microfinance" to famished attendees at Zibibbo in Palo Alto
Dave mugs with the wonderful folks from Unitus: Kate Cochran, Mike Murray, Keanan Jacobson, [DMc], Kylie Charlton, Geoff Davis, Johanna Posada
posted by Dave 1/19/2005 10:01:00 PM
