Future Here Now: Who knows the real opportunities? And who has them wrong?

Local Learnings / Do Now

Experts of every stripe like to tell us they Know The Answers, and when they can claim to have made Big Money off of their insight, we’re even more likely to believe them. But in a situation where of sources of value are pretty well tapped out, that Knowledge can prevent the Expert from seeing the potential. Or capitalizing on it. But others, who see from a different perspective, can.

Take a close look at this article on Chipper Cash, a US-based startup that is solving a real problem for African consumers. And look at how their first VC pitch went:

Then came a question from one of the partners: “Why don’t you go look for donations and grants to fund this?” Because, Serunjogi replied, this will be a profit-making business. The clueless partner persisted: “Why don’t you talk to Unicef or an impact investing firm?” Serunjogi discreetly declines to name the firm, or to say which VC later told him that “regardless of what the metrics are, I have to apply a discount to this business becau…