The global world is amazing.  I just got back from a trip into rural Uttar Pradesh, India, and I’m amazed to see how computers, internet, and cell phones are flourishing despite the absence of reliable electricity, and furthermore how these instruments are truly democratizing the flow of information!  Its getting harder and harder to pull one over on anybody these days – even if they are semi-literate and live in an unelectrified village. AND, its getting easy and easy for people to do business and improve their lives.

That said, I am beginning to think that the legal profession is one of the last big barriers to democratizing business and allowing small and micro entrepreneurs to play on a level field with the corporates.  I would never have thought that over the last month I would spend 50% of my time dealing with legal and bureaucratic issues, nor, that one of d.light’s biggest expenses in the past few months would be legal. Ouch! Every time I get another monstrous bill, I keep asking myself, 'what is going on' – and 'why is it costing literally thousands and thousands of dollars to complete this paperwork, especially when that money could better be put into manufacturing lights and delivered into the hands of families?'

I was brainstorming with my friend Jeff Gupta-Smith, about how the legal profession is structured in such a way that ordinary people like ourselves are intimidated, scared, and unsure in making our own legal documents.  However, for the most part – all those documents are fairly simple/standard, except that so much weight is put on saying things in just the right manner (and unintelligible form) – that it becomes almost impossible for somebody without extensive training to feel confident.  It seems that we/lawyers/systems of justice have created a legal forms that generates billions of dollars of value (mostly for itself) essentially propogating a language that is indicepherable to the masses.  Wouldn't it be amazing if we could do a revision of the legal language (just like every other language) and make it accessible to all?  I'm dreaming of a day when anybody can go on-line, regardless of the language they speak or how fluently, and get access to great legal templates, and file and share all these docs/forms for free and instantly.  It can't be that hard...

On a more personal level, I can't stand distracting myself with legal details, and I want to rush out and build a great business.  Neverthess I am stuck.  So I am wondering if anybody has any suggestions as to when in a companies growth they need to worry about legal, and how important is it to set a company and legal foundation up perfectly from  the get-go? I ask and am simultaneously empathisizing will all who have passed before me in setting up global entities.

There is a reason I've been writing so little lately.  and its because I'm so busy learning the hard way.  I was caught in a bubble of relative ease during my childhood and then MBA at Stanford.  Arriving in India, and in New Delhi in particular, to set up a global company, I have been battling with a different set of circumstances, and with a new culture that doesn't understand or value social entrepreneurship the way I want it to, and certainly not compared with its 5,000 year old history. I think this would be a challenge in any environment, but without corporate budgets and their extensive resources, I salute and want to learn from all the social entrepreneurs who are out building global companies in new countries!  I am looking for YOU and for your advice :)

Challenge Numero Uno: Housing/Office:  Moving is supposed to be fun. New. Exciting.  But I've found it to be extremely exhausting.  I grew up in a USAID household where we moved countries every 3-5yrs.  When we touched down in a capitol, there would be a driver who whisked us to our new fully furnished house, with a little spiral bound booklet of what the city had to offer, where to get good drinks and food, and what to do for fun on the weekend.  A cook would most likely be at the house and a generator at the ready in case the power went off. If we needed anything, or anything was broken, somebody would help us out.  oh - so nice. it seems a bit like a dream now.

My experience:  I got a pre-paid taxi to a $5 hotel because there is nothing really in between a 5 star $200/night and 1 star $5/night.  There was no hot water and the sheets smelled but that was fine - I was on an mission.  I didn't have internet but could get basic email on a little USB key I bought.  It was impossible to hold team meetings or make calls because my cell phone kept getting shut down.  But none of that bothered me, I had a huge network to reach out to, and I really only needed a 2 bdrm house and a couple hundred feet of office space to put some desks.  How hard could it be? Meanwhile, I could set up the legal structure for our company, deal with distributors, launch some products, and start hiring the team.

HA.. I was definitely operating on America time not India time.  The reality of India for me is that everything seems so easy and seems so possible and straightforward.. but then in reality it always, always, takes 10 times longer and is never simple.  I now budget 4 times what anybody tells me, whether its a consultant, lawyer, taxi driver, or dinner invite.  The best advice I got was from my girlfriend, who has never even been to India, who told me that I needed to start operating on India time, and stop trying to force India to operate on Sam time.

Thinking back on our first d.light office outside Stanford - It took me 15mins and a template I grabbed off the internet to sign our office lease, and within one day we had moved in, furnished the place off craigslist, and painted and changed the locks at wal-mart.  wow.  It took me 8 weeks to find a house here that would accept a private lease from a foreigner, 2 weeks to get my house lease squared away, and a full day of waiting in 10 different lines, and signing and thumb printing the back and front of tens of pages, just to move into a house that had nothing.. not even a refrigerator. 

I was just not prepared for India - and I should have paid a consultant, friend, initial hire, somebody ANYBODY to help with this.  I always was pushing it off saying i'll hire somebody when i have an office, or I don't want to spend all the money on a consultant, but the lesson I learned is HIRE EARLY somebody who is local and help me get set up as fast as possible.  it will save tons of time in the long run. 

The good news is that I have a great guest-room so one thing I can do, that is culturally appropriate, is host guests!

JOB DESCRIPTION: CONSUMER RESEARCH | HUMAN FACTORS SPECIALIST

US

d.light design is hiring a consumer research and human factors specialist to research and synthesize deep consumer, market, and distribution insights which can be developed into meaningful products & services.  This position will report directly to the CEO-India and operates out of our new headquarters in Noida.  The candidate must also be ready to join a rapidly growing startup and tackle multiple responsibilities, including product design, brainstorming, managing office logistics, and performing admin support as needed.

This is an incredible opportunity to work with a high growth Silicon Valley social enterprise funded by both US and Indian investors including Mahindra & Mahindra, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Acumen Fund, Nexus India Capital, Gray Matters Capital and Garage Technology Ventures.  Our goal is simple – to eradicate kerosene lanterns from the face of the earth.  To do this we will become the market leader in delivering safe and affordable lighting solutions to over 1.6 billion people who currently do not have access to electricity.  Our initial focus is India, where we will provide modern lighting to the 78 million families still using kerosene lanterns.

YOU

You are a self-starter.  You can formulate and execute research plans independently, and you are able to offer creative solutions to problems.  You are curious, patient and eager to spend multiple weeks at a time in rural & semi-urban UP, MP, Bihar, etc. sleeping in villages houses, building relationships and learning about our customer’s needs through observations, interviews and spending quality time experiencing their lifestyle.  You are outgoing, have a hands-on prototyping mindset, and you are comfortable with brainstorming multiple solutions and ideas with teammates. You are adaptive and excited to join a start-up, and willing to take on a myriad of roles, which will initially include coordinating logistics, setting up our design office and assisting the CEO.  Most importantly, you are a budding social entrepreneur, with the desire to empower the underserved and positively impact the lives of others.  These are the things that drive you through the long hours of work and extensive travel required.  Your role is to:

RESEARCH & ANALYZE

• Spend days and weeks interviewing and observing rural and semi-urban customers in order to build empathy and understand their true needs & context, i.e. needfinding
• Organize customer research data & draw insights and build frameworks from which d.light will make strategic & product design decisions
• Extensively research current market space, including competitor products, electronics & consumer goods markets, and rural & base-of-the-pyramid markets
• Spend quality time with multiple members of d.light’s supply chain in order to draw insights and innovate on d.light’s processes
• Actively prototype viable product & service ideas, packaging, instruction manuals, and marketing strategies in order to gain insights and develop strategies
• Synthesize customer data and effectively communicate insights and research summaries clearly to d.light team via powerpoint, creative visuals & diagrams, prototypes, emails/teleconferences, etc.
• Offer design advice and guidance as the leading ‘Customer Expert’

MANAGE & COORDINATE (until Office Manager is recruited)

• Organize & supervise day-to-day administrative activities for the CEO.  Take charge of IT related issues & challenges.
• Provide logistics support especially travel & accommodation

QUALIFICATIONS

• University degree; Engineering and/or social sciences degrees a bonus
• Hindi & English fluency required, other north Indian languages a bonus
• General know-how of Indian business procedures.  Extensive familiarity with Delhi/Noida a bonus
• Strong communication skills:
  • Able to communicate respectfully with rural customers
  • Able to properly coordinate & communicate with local & international businesses
  • Able to clearly present research findings via written and visual documentation to d.light team
• 2-3 years consumer product/customer/market research
• Engineering, Product Design, Graphic Design, and Web experience a bonus

COMPENSATION

Compensation is commensurate with experience.  The Human Factors Specialist position is an integral part of creating our India team and product portfolio and will have a competitive salary. 

INTERVIEWS

You will favorably impress us by contacting India@dlightdesign.com and including your CV and either:

A description of a project where you used the human-centered design process to bring something new to the world—especially as it relates to product design.

OR

Your response to this exercise: Find an environment where you can watch people who you believe are earning less than Rs. 150 per day going through daily life (such as a park, a restaurant, a transit station or vehicle, etc.)  Spend time observing activities and interactions, documenting what you notice (in photos or diagrams for instance) and share with us your thoughts about how people’s experiences there could be enhanced, and what resulting opportunities there might be for a viable market offering.

Following successful phone interviews, Erica Estrada (Product Engineer and VP Customer Research) will conduct personal interviews in Noida.

JOB DESCRIPTION: VP SALES INDIA

US

d.light design is hiring a VP Sales Executive who will report directly to the CEO and build sales and distribution in India. This position is based in Delhi and is an incredible opportunity to work with a high growth Silicon Valley social enterprise funded by both US and Indian investors including Mahindra & Mahindra, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Acumen Fund, Nexus India Capital, Gray Matters Capital and Garage Technology Ventures. Our goal is simple – to eradicate kerosene lanterns from the face of the earth. To do this we will become the market leader in delivering safe and affordable lighting solutions to over 1.6 billion people who currently do not have access to electricity.  Our initial focus is India, where we will provide modern lighting to the 78 million families still using kerosene lanterns.

YOU

You are passionate social entrepreneur, driven to create change and improve the lives of millions of Indian families. You are a great salesmen, with a successful track record and at least seven years experience executing sales and marketing initiatives in India. You are extremely entrepreneurial and creative in acquiring partners and leveraging resources. You are driven to succeed and willing to travel extensively and work long hours to propel d.light. Finally, you are a team builder, ready to build increasingly sophisticated sales teams and a leader that inspires others and acts with the utmost honesty and integrity.  Your role is to :

Lead

·         Create sales and distribution strategies for rural and peri-urban environments

·         Build the d.light brand by managing a national distribution network and sales force

·         Measure distributor and sales team progress against leading indicators

Sell

·         Market test products new to the Indian market and consumer

·         Hit high volume targets in 18 months for d.light’s first five products

·         Engage a range of distribution partners, including multi-national corporations, regional distributors, non-governmental organizations, and government offices

·         Manage key accounts including negotiating pricing and terms with distributors

Plan

·         Forecast sales volumes, profit margins, and net profit and achieve clearly defined, mutually agreed upon revenue/gross profit targets

·         Manage and meet marketing expense budgets

Innovate

·         Develop and continuously evaluate promotional and advertising activities

·         Deliver innovative business models, branding, and marketing approaches

·         Work closely with d.light design’s manufacturing and design officers to consistently improve our product line

Qualifications

·         Masters Level Degree

·         Strong direct and remote sales skills. Extremely comfortable dealing at senior levels. Must bring strong negotiating skills and ability to close

·         Intimate knowledge of rural Indian customer needs.  Hindi fluency required.

·         At least seven years direct experience marketing, selling, and building distribution networks in rural and peri-urban India

·         Knowledge and experience working with distributor networks in India

·         Excellent communications skills: Must have experience crafting and presenting effective proposals, and bring strong demonstrations skills

·         Responsible and resourceful manager who operates effectively without supervision

Compensation

Compensation is commensurate with experience. The VP Sales position is an integral part of our team and will have a competitive combination of salary and equity. The candidate is joining a pre-Series A start-up and should expect a modest base salary and high equity upside. As entrepreneurs, we earn our salary through results which convert into big returns!

Interviews

Interested parties should contact india@dlightdesign.com and include their CV and a statement off interest. Following successful phone interviews, the CEO, Sam Goldman, will  conduct personal interviews in Delhi.

Are you excited? Are you ready to sell millions of lights?

One of d.light’s all-star engineers, Erica Estrada, visited villages in MP during January and February, and shared the story below.  The story is relevant because I recently met with the founder and executive director of Gram Vikas, an innovative NGO and pioneer in sanitation work in east India.  They took over the government contract for providing biogas stoves to villages in Orissa and did an incredible job, building over 54,000 biogas plants with an astonishingly high rate of operation.  Hearing Erica’s story reconfirmed my convictions that we need to move quickly to provide private sources of lighting to families, because the switch from kerosene to electricity, both of which are controlled by the government will be slow in the coming.  This is especially true in Northern India.

***

While touring a very "off-the-beaten-path" village in MP, we kept noticing these huge concrete structures near people's houses.  The structures came in threes: One concrete dome approximately 5ft in diameter, and 2 concrete tubs each about the size of a western bath tub.  The building materials seemed like an anomaly among the earthen essence of the village houses.  

We asked one of the villagers about the structures, and what their use was.  She explained that it was part of a 'government scheme' to bring bio-gas to villages.  It was a breath of fresh air after seeing the lack in availability of kerosene and the prohibitive price of diesel.  Biofuel--what a great idea!  We started asking the lady how the system worked, and were eager to work our way to finding out the impact it's had on her life.  

The conversation starting dying when we realized that she had no idea how the system worked, and that it had been sitting in her yard for about 5 years.  She explained that this was of no use to her because she doesn't own any kind of gas-lamp or gas-stove!  A few years back the head minister of the state was coming for a visit, and so some thought that it would be a great idea to show-off the 'great work' that they are doing for the local villages.  They started the 'scheme,' the minister came and went, and the work for the scheme ended at about the time the minister was getting back into his car to move to his next stop.   Somewhere in this whirlwind of politics and scheming, they forgot to talk to the villagers and find out whether or not they owned any gas-operated appliances.

And so now these giant concrete structures sit--in the graveyard of government schemes.

The Good

First off - It feels GOOD to ship containers of our own d.light manufactured lights. We shipped a container to India, and container orders are coming in from other countries as the pace of adoption picks up. After one and half years of 18hr days, we are starting to see some results!!!  That said, life is busy.  Last week I returned to the US for a few days to say goodbye to friends and family, and I am currently in Europe for a few days on my way to India.  Next week I’ll start searching for my new house in India.  I am really excited to move.  I love all the bustle and growth around Delhi, people’s faces seem full of expectation and anticipation of a more prosperous future, and it’s a great mix side-by-side with India’s abundance of culture and history. 

The Bad

It is sad leaving California and my great friends there. Living in Delhi is also terrible on my lungs and its hard to work off the 18hr days without any meaningful exercise.  Stepping off the plane is a little like opening the door to one of those smoking rooms in the airport and just never coming out.  When I arrived in San Francisco last week it was a dream – the sun so bright I had to squint and the air so light and pure.  But, I am ready for the transition back. Of course, even the delhi air is nothing compared to what the villagers put up with at night, when the women cook over cow dung fires, and the children cluster around fires and kerosene lanterns for warm, inhaling the noxious fumes.

And The Fruitful

Last month, we had 7 people staff in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for a couple weeks.  They spent time interviewing families, sleeping in villages, demonstrating products to distributors, and learning about how goods make it from Delhi, or Bombay, or Chennai (the port towns) through India’s web of intermediaries and freight forwarders, and into the very discriminating hands of small town shopkeepers and rural customers.  We will have some great stories and photos up on our new website soon (www.dlightdesign.com), and some new products are coming out of these explorations. 

One thing is certain, there is absolutely nothing in Delhi that compares with sleeping in the villages.  I LOVED it.  Peace and quiet.  No horns. Great food. Generosity.  It was really important for me to reconnect with rural families making a hard living farming, and to understand what is front and center on their minds (ie agriculture and getting water for their fields).  It was also sad to help young children out with their homework by the light of dung fires.  I could barely see their books and the smoke made my eyes sting and water.  They seemed used to it, but when I broke down and provided one of our lights to see how behavior would change all the students migrated below it.  Now the eternal challenge - how to make it affordable to these families.  That’s what we are going to figure out.

Back at Stanford in Jan 2006 I strolled into my favorite class, ‘Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability’, and like the other students, I was eager to learn how to make affordable products for underserved populations.  In the last few months, I have learned that many of the answers are already out there – they are just framed far differently.

--------------------------

In November I was in the tiny village of Rajugela, in Mathura, UP, visiting the India Schoolhouse Fund.  I also took time to learn about the villages improving infrastructure.  A paved road, some electrical lines that have been working mostly of late, but sometimes go off for 18 days at a time, and their hopes for pumped water soon.  That evening I visited a tailor to ask him about light.  He tried out our new light, the NOVA, and loved it.  He then explained that when the power is out he seldom does work, but when he does, he uses a little pen light to thread the needle, and then a couple kerosene lanterns for general lighting.  He loved our light and said he could easily sew with it.
 

I paused and asked him about the pen he has showed me.  My guide that night, a teacher at the school, was using the same little pen light to show me around the unlit dirt and cobblestones alleys weaving between the houses.  It was a faint bluish light, a joke really compared to the NOVA, which I was using on its lowest setting.  I hadn’t thought much the pen light when we were walking.  The tailor said, “ I replace the pen about every 3 weeks and it costs 5 Rs each time.”
 

I asked to buy the pen.  An incredible story was becoming clear.  Everything that I had been taught in the Stanford course was being done, right here before my eyes, without any of my lofty intentions, and in a much much MUCH less expensive way than any of us students could have imagined or designed.  Somehow, the tailor in a village that’s a train ride, bus, and donkey cart from Delhi, was able to purchase a working pen that seemed at the outset to beat out a Bic in quality and looks, with a working LED penlight on top, for 12 cents, made, delivered, marked-up, and retailed.  I challenge anybody anywhere to beat that.

I was taught that poorer families heavily discount future earnings, and they much prefer to payout less now and sacrifice future savings, even at the expense of quality.  I don’t think anyone can beat a 12 cent pen and working light.  Even though its minimal, and less bright than a candle, it still works.  You can buy a new one every week for months and months before they would cost the same as the average flashlight, which by the way, would only last about 1yr anyway 

As a designer, I cannot help my own bias’s.  I would have been hard pressed to imagine that a faint, almost pathetic single LED blue light, with a lifetime of a few hours, would be a substitute for flashlights.  I would be ashamed to have it under my ‘brand’ and I would be comfortable selling millions less lights, but selling lights of ‘quality.’  And yet, it was evident, even for better-of families, like the gentleman showing me around, who could easily have afforded much more, that this pen was ENOUGH.  I am learning that I still don’t know what is GOOD ENOUGH, and what is not good enough, and how pennies affect that decision.  I say it and say it but I am having a hard time practicing it – perfect is the enemy of the good.

I am also committed to scale.  The kind of impact I want to have on the world is measured in tens of millions.  Those pen lights are entrepreneurial design for extreme affordability in every sense of the words.  They must be manufacturing them for about 6 cents in China.  That means they have cost reduced every micrometer of that product, and shipped gazillions around the world to get economies of scale.  And they will continue to do so, and I would never have previously thought of them as social entrepreneurs.  And they probably aren’t doing it so that tailors can stay up a little later and make a little more money, or villagers can save money on bad flashlights and batteries and put their savings elsewhere…. But they are doing millions of people a great service.  Tata gets so much acknowledgement for a $2500 car… but what about these guys?  Maybe they should be blogging not me.  Or perhaps I should go find that factory and learn from their designers. 

In the meantime, lets help a few villages.  Please don’t forget to support www.DLIGHTDESIGN.ORG and the Dalit communities of Karnataka!

If you want to make a tax deductible donation and provide improved lighting please visit WWW.DLIGHTDESIGN.ORG. 

We will be improving the website over the next week to make the donation process easier but I wanted to blog about d.light.ORG because many of our families and friends want to donate during the holidays.  In fact, on Friday, the donations from a generous foundation will provide several hundred Dalit families in Karataka with improved lighting!  I am looking forward to visiting those families in 2008 to witness the impact lights are having on their lives.

Dlightdesign.org came about after I visited REDS twice during my trips to India.  I wrote about one trip to the Dalit community in an earlier blog.  I visited families their who are living by the light of little whisky bottles they fill with kerosene, and I heard stories about how they would wake up in the morning and wipe black soot off their faces where the carbon would settle from the lanterns they left burning dimly at night.  Their children can't study at night easily, and the kerosene costs a significant fraction of their total income, especially for the families who were living under plastic tarps or grass huts.  We at d.light were determined to help REDS deliver improved lighting to the most needy families they worked with.

Meanwhile, I was familiar with One World's Children Fund (OWCF) and the terrific work they have done championing projects overseas and allowing US donors to provide tax deductible assitance to international projects.  It has truly been a pleasure to work with the inspirational founders and staff at both REDS and OWCF.  

Meanwhile, we are very proud to provide solar lighting to these families in Karnataka.  Erica is just back from 20 days visiting families in UP who were using our lights.  She observed first hand that their children are studying on average 1.5 hours per night with our lights, a huge improvement, and both farmers and tailors told her they are saving up to 25Rs a week (over 50cents/week) using the lights to water their fields, tend to buffalos and other animals, and sow crops.  Finally, women are using the lights both to prepare meals in the morning and at nighttime, and the family usually eats and socializes by the d.light.  All the families she met wanted to buy a 2nd light which is great!

Something that's less important to the families, but very important to d.light and many donors, is that each solar lantern not only provides a huge increase in standard of living, but also dramatically reduces carbon emissions which would otherwise be emitted by the dim but polluting kerosene lanterns.  Therefore, donating solar lanterns also plays a needed role in reducing global warming.

Please do spread the word and donate a light for a family by visiting www.dlightdesign.org!