NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - NextBillion Announces Partnership With Acumen Fund - Comments

NextBillion's independence

Rob Katz — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:50:02 -0400

This is a very insightful comment. I'm biased - but I have been since I co-founded the site as a staff member working for WRI. Now, I work for Acumen Fund. Does that mean I won't be critical of Acumen?

Maybe I won't be critical, but that doesn't mean the site will lose its independence. In fact, I think that the recent series of posts and guest posts about transformative sector strategies and scaling base of the pyramid approaches demonstrates NextBillion.net's commitment to editorial independence. We solicited independent feedback from respected voices in the field, and have published their comments with no content editing whatsoever.

Is this enough? Perhaps not. But we are aware of the importance of editorial independence, and really appreciate when commenters remind us of it. Keep us honest! (We will not intentionally try to be biased, of course...)

congrats, but be true to your voice

Anonymous — Mon, 19 May 2008 01:23:08 -0400

This is great, but at the same time, I'm concerned that NExtBillion won't just become a voice for Acumen. Or let me be clear---will you ever be able to be critical of Acumen?

More is better...

Anonymous — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:49:09 -0400

Looking forward to learning more about strategies we can use to share the planet equitably, profitably, and in an environmentally sustainable manner. Thanks to all of you for your commitment!

Outstanding Collaboration

Bill Stevenson — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:31:01 -0400

Congratulations! I look forward to what this collaboration will yield!

Congrats, sounds fun. Would

Pablo H. — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:41:19 -0400

Congrats, sounds fun. Would be great to get more stories from out in the field as well.

NextBillion Announces Partnership With Acumen Fund

Rob Katz — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:17:39 -0400

By Derek Newberry and Rob Katz

NextBillion.net is happy to announce that, as of today, the site will be co-owned and co-managed by World Resources Institute and its newest partner, Acumen Fund. Since NextBillion.net's launch in 2005, we have admired Acumen Fund's innovative approach to investing in "base of the pyramid" enterprises and its willingness to share what it has learned along the way. We're thrilled and honored to be working with them.

What does this mean for the site? At first, not much will change. NextBillion.net will continue to post the latest base of the pyramid (BoP) news, events, research and analysis. WRI and Acumen Fund will co-manage the site, spearheaded by Derek Newberry on the WRI side and Rob Katz for the Acumen Fund team. Staff Writers will continue contributing, as will guests and other special authors.

In the coming months, NextBillion.net will add both WRI and Acumen Fund staff contributors and commentators to share the stories, lessons and BoP business ideas these groups have accumulated over the past several years. More importantly, WRI and Acumen Fund have committed resources to re-design and re-launch NextBillion.net later this year. We hope this re-design will make the site more user-friendly, enabling smoother subscription, sharing, commenting, story suggestion and a range of other features. Despite all the coming change, however, NextBillion.net will remain focused on bringing you the most relevant, up-to-date information related to the base of the pyramid space.

Adding Acumen Fund as a partner to NextBillion.net will allow the site to deepen that focus and bring in fresh perspectives. We hope that you – our community – will find this to be the case. We're happy to take questions on the partnership or about the site in general – please use the comment field below.

(Yes, we'll be making comments MUCH easier in the coming redesign!)