I'm leaving the airport in Hong Kong and reflecting on the last week.  In my last entry I spoke about a visit to rural UP.  The villages we went to were both on-grid with sporadic electricity, and completely off-grid (and these two cases were often just a 15min walk apart).  One thing I now know for sure - families love our lights.  I had not intended to sell them, as this was more of an exploratory visit - however, when it was time to go, there was a small crowd around our car wanting to purchase lights.  We had  2 models in the car - a  solar only version, and a model that could be powered by either solar or grid electricity.  We agreed to start selling and before we knew it there were motorcycles coming in from surrounding villages and even the local brick-making baron sent one of his 'men' to collect us and bring us to his office because he wanted to buy one.  It was incredible.  In a matter of 30mins word must have traveled 30km.  So that was awesome and powerful, and boy did it feel great to sell.

On the other hand - it was a troubling moment.  In case you were like me, and didn't use to check yahoo finance on a daily basis (now I do).. you can take a look at this chart.. http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=USD&to=INR&submit=Convert and you'll see something that makes my heart pound and frustrates me to no end.  The world is certainly in a state of unbelievable flux and increasingly unstable markets.  The Rupee/$ exchange rate is completely gone crazy in the last 3 weeks.  Now - d.light is a small and growing company - and one of the things we haven't, until now, prioritized, is how to hedge literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of inventory that are being ordered and made in one currency, booked in a different currency  and sitting on boats for weeks, and then shipped to retailers and sold in a third currency.  Yikes.  Any forex hedging experts PLEASE we want to talk with you.  As we grow this adds a huge amount of risk to our company and we want to master it in our favor.

Lastly - in terms of the value for money equation we want to provide our customers - i couple the currency fluctuations with a 7%+ and growing inflation rate (a 42 month high for India!!!!) http://www.actionforex.com/latest-news/asian-economy/india's-inflation-rate-climbs-to-42%11month-high-of-7.61%25-2008050945440/ and we've got a situation where prices must go up. That's exactly the opposite of what I want to do for customers - many of whom are extremely value conscious.  Its tough. but its life.  We'll  just need to deal with it and if any of you readers have suggestions pls do share.

These are the wonders of a manufacturing business.  I really never thought in my life I would be so concerned about for-ex and inflation rates!  Now - if i can figure out how to upload pictures I can show some of our customers and their houses.  hopefully by next week that will be sorted -- it says access forbidden.....

I'll be up at 5:30am tomorrow morning to meet with our European partners, a young doctor who used to work in Mathura district, UP and has seen first hand the after-effects of kerosene burns, and Aarthi - an amazing young women who recently joined our team full-time.  We'll be driving into rural UP for many hours into some pretty interesting small towns, district headquarters, and small villages.  Last time we went out - it was like a different world.  These small towns are way more crowded, alive, and full of the completely wonderful chaos of India than anything I've seen in Delhi.  I was also shocked to see so many guns  - something i've hardly thought about in India.  There were young men standing around in trios with holsters, and even when we got to the hotel the receptionist had a shotgun and two of the guys on a couch drinking tea were packing pistols.  I'm told this is quite a political state - and these are fairly 'wild west' areas - but I had never seen it first hand.  At one point we were going past the local police station so we stopped to ask if there were any NGO's in the town who worked in rural areas and might give us some advice.  The police said that there weren't even an NGO's registered in the whole district!  Yikes. 

That said - besides just a show of bravado and potentially irresponsible behavior on our part, we do feel completely safe in the villages and perfectly comfortable as long as we are off the roads before dark.  The reality is that these areas are perhaps the worst governed, and as a result, the hardest hit by basic infrastructural failures.  and of course - electricity is one of them.  most of these families are without electricity for between 18-20hrs/day.  And the thing that really excites me about working here is the same reason that we came to india in the first place: namely- India is what i consider the hardest place in the world to succeed as a product company.  We have to be extremely low priced, while delivering high quality with extended warranties - or else we can't out compete the small scale manufacturers, black market, or established players. 

When I eliminate India's southern most states from the d.light picture - where electricity is better, civic organization is better, and where a lot of other  organizations focus their ramp up - we are  left with the toughest of the toughest areas to operate.  These are  communities that need our products the most, but have the lowest ability to pay.  If we can succeed in these communities - then we can succeed in sierra leone, in Nigeria, in the heart of the congo, in ethiopia, in myanmar, in sudan, in whatever countries might come our way.  I'm not saying its sensible - and it certainly isn't our only strategy - but its  one approach that I like.  Hopefully we'll be back in a few days, in one piece, and ready to give you a download :)

I am in good spirits lately as our Indian office and company 'set-up' chores decline and selling begins!  The last year has been a struggle no doubt.  Sometimes I feel like my d.light path resembles a long mountain climb.  I keep seeing the top of false peaks.  However - I know the summit is up there - and we're only getting closer each day.

The greatest joy is that after months of interviews we are starting to form a killer d.light team.  I know our investors and supporters have invested in us as individuals and a team - and not just in 'the idea'.  I am glad to be bringing on teammates who complement, improve upon, and strengthen our ability to communicate with customers, design products, build out distribution channels, and market our products.  Its been really interesting to see how d.lights HR needs have shifted in the last year - and I feel my greatest challenge is going to be transitioning from 'doing-it-all' to being able to best manage, encourage, and entice current and new talent.  I am indeed excited to be working with high performers.

On another note: I'm deeply troubled by Myanmar and the stream of worsening news.  Our whole d.light team has previously traveled in the hardest hit areas, and we have good friends and supporters who live and work amongst the population.  I personally spent several weeks in Dec/Jan 2006/7 in villages in the Ayerwaddy Delta, which is the region directly struck by the cyclones.  The families there remain embedded in my mind and I am dearly hoping they survived.  These families were in such stark poverty and drastic need even back then for basic housing, water, food, etc, and I am desperately worried that the current destruction is going to require serious international efforts to reconcile.  They were by far and away some of the nicest, most gentle, honest and endearing communities I have ever met.  At d.light we are looking for partners who can help us provide mini solar lights to groups of families in need.  We can do this at cost once we find the right implementing partners.  I realize that food, water, and shelter are the immediate order of the day - but having seen the electricity situation pre-cyclone (almost none) I am sure that even for many months ahead the skys will be dark - and many families will be eager to illuminate their nights as they plan for the future.  Light is a very important part of the cultural and religious life of the families I visited - and I'm hoping d.light can, at least, provide a positive tool there.