After a longer-than-anticipated delay, I am pleased to bring you the third installment in the series of interviews about Lapdesk, an Endeavor company based in South Africa that provides portable desks to school children who need them, all 4.2 million to be exact.

If you'll recall, I had a great conversation with Harvard Business School Professor Dan Isenberg back in February about what inspired him to write a case about Lapdesk (this is the first case that HBS MBAs encounter). After chatting Professor Isenberg, I probed Lapdesk founder Shane Immelman about the birth and evolution of the company. Now, after a number of near misses, I am happy to share the Lapdesk story from the perspective of Greg Durst, the Managing Director of Endeavor South Africa. How's that for 360 degrees of coverage? Anderson Cooper, eat your heart out.

So, let's get to it.

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net: 
What made you select Lapdesk as an Endeavor company and Shane Immelman as an Endeavor entrepreneur?

Greg Durst, Managing Director, Endeavor South Africa:
Lapdesk has an innovative business model with powerful social applications. We particularly appreciate Shane's belief that it is critical for the business to be profitable while preserving its social mission.

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Want to lull me to sleep?  First, start your event at 6:30 and go until 8:00 in the evening; I get to work early, so I'm often exhausted by the end of the day.  Second, draw the blinds to keep out natural light; exacerbate the soporific effect by dimming the lights (so I can see the PowerPoint slides, sure).  Third, serve food – especially heavy, rich food like meat and cheese – before the presentation starts.  Between these three, you're guaranteed to have me – and at least 75 percent of your audience – asleep by the 20 minute mark.

Or not.  To my surprise, there's an antidote to this sedative trio – and his name is Nachiket Mor.  Last night, along with 150 or so others, I sat in rapt attention while Nachiket described his latest thinking on banking at the base of the pyramid in a talk entitled The Next Big Step: Revolutionizing Financial Services Distribution in Rural India.  Yes, the event started at 6:30, and they served delicious (but heavy) hors d'oeuvres.  And since the auditorium was bright in the late-day sun, the organizers drew the blinds and dimmed the lights.  But for the duration of Nachiket's presentation and through the Q&A, the entire audience sat and stood at attention.  It was that good.

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