Big Award for the KickStart CEO

Submitted by Derek Newberry on April 24, 2008 - 16:17.
Published in:

So it seems KickStart has something else going for it, as if a viral video featuring Maasai rapper Mr. Ebbo weren't enough...

The CEO of the San Francisco-based social enterprise, Martin Fisher, won the Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability this week for his innovative and affordable including the MoneyMaker Pumps, portable and easy-to-use devices that allow farmers to draw water when they need it without having to travel long distances.

Fisher joins a prestigious group of Lemelson-MIT award winners, including Dean Kamen, creator of the Segway and Amy Smith, a creative BoP technology innovator. It's good to see inventors working in the BoP space recognized for their accomplishments - this is an acknowledgement of the priority we should be placing on technologies that benefit the underserved majority. Congratulations to Fisher on this major accomplishment!

Who else would readers flag as a potentially award-winning innovator of BoP technology? I'm leaning toward the folks behind the People's Phone...


Derek Newberry's blog | | printer friendly version | 601 reads
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Great Work!
Submitted by Mike Heiss on May 6, 2008 - 00:08.
I've been following KickStart for a while now, and I'm happy to see their recent recognition. It seems like their pumps are everywhere in East Africa, and now they're expanding into other technologies such as seed presses for oil, sanitation, and transport technologies. It seems to me that these technologies are focused on building the local economy, increasing productivity and adding value to locally sold goods.

My question is: Is this model actually growing the local economy, or is it simply redistributing money to the few entrepreneurs from an already small pool? Do there need to be exports to bring in foreign capital to grow the local economy? I realize that a local economy can work based on circulation of capital, but will its people remain poor relative to the rest of the world? Overall I want to know if exports are necessary to grow an economy, and if so, should KickStart or another organization try to link producers (who are now producing a surplus with their foot pumps) to consumers overseas?
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Beyond Kickstart
Submitted by Derek Newberry on May 7, 2008 - 16:24.

Hi Mike,

You make a very insightful comment, as one thing we shy away from on NextBillion.net is BoP technology that may have a "cool" or "feel-good" aspect to it, but is not fundamentally designed for the actual needs of people at the base of the pyramid. Products like KickStart really do increase the productivity of farmers who use them, but of course these pumps are not a silver bullet poverty solution.

Now that those farmers have the technology to increase their productivity the question, as you mention, is where is the market? This is where organizations like mine (New Ventures) come in - we connect these producers to viable markets domestically and internationally. I don't think it's the job of technology makers like KickStart to be able to accomplish this, it just shows that a number of actors are needed to effectively and sustainably connect the poor to the mainstream economy.

-Derek


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