Interview With Jerry Nicholson And Fiona Nicholson of Tindercapital & OPEN Accelerator [Part 01]
Jerry Nicholson and Fiona Nicholson are the husband wife duo behind the wonderful impact investment firm Tindercapital and awesome accelerator program called OPEN Accelerator for rural entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. Jerry & Fiona came to Bangladesh four years ago to pursue their dream: supporting people with dreams of making ideas happen, especially in under-served communities of Bangladesh. We, at Future Startup, are immensely dazzled and incurably inspired by their initiatives.
One fine morning, a few months ago, we sat with Jerry and Fiona at a local coffee shop to discuss, understand and bring you the story of there fantastic work
Note: This interview was first published in Future Startup and re-published here under a collaboration between Future Startup and The Practitioner Hub
Tell us about yourself and your passion
Jerry: We are from the UK and moved to Bangladesh with our family 4 years ago. We are passionate about supporting capable but under-served entrepreneurs. We want to assist them to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. The way we do it is by linking them with investors, mentors and other people who can help them.
Fiona: My passion is to bridge the gap between rich and poor whether that’s through communication, access to finance or any other way. That’s actually what we are doing at Tindercapital.
Tell us briefly about your journey, about your path to becoming what you are doing today
Fiona: Nine years ago we went to Tajikistan in central Asia and we looked at micro credit and how it was impacting lives of people. That’s how we came to know about Grameen Bank and got interested. We read ‘Banker To the Poor’ by Professor Yunis and we got interested to understand it more. From central Asia we came to Bangladesh.
We saw people were coming out from micro-credit and building small businesses out of good ideas. We had the idea of starting something like Tindercapital but not exactly in Bangladesh. But when we saw this trend we realized actually Bangladesh could be the best place to start in.
So, we went back to the UK for the next four years. During those four years we conceived the idea of Tindercapital and its concept but we did not consider how it might work. We waited to arrive here four years later.
In our first year we tried to learn the language which we are still learning. Then we made a small investment in Oasis Coffin that became a really interesting case study for us. After that a few impact investors got interested in our work. We realized that we could really make a difference. We could find potential entrepreneurs with proven business models and help them to have access to finance and maybe we can help in other ways to grow their business like mentoring and market access, and making connections.
Jerry: We thought about whether we wanted to get involved with one or two entrepreneurs or if we wanted to create and build a platform where we can serve a large number of entrepreneurs. That’s how we conceived the idea of OPEN Accelerator to build a platform for capable and potential, but under-served, entrepreneurs and to link them with investors, mentors and more to help them to grow.
Briefly tell us about Tindercapital and OPEN Accelerator Program
Jerry: We spent two years working with Oasis Coffin to develop their business. Then we thought we can create a platform to serve more entrepreneurs with similar problems. That’s how the idea of OPEN Accelerator came about. The idea of OPEN evolved and changed pretty much from what it was at the very start.
At the beginning we thought it to be a business plan competition and then it morphed into an accelerator program. We are refining and changing and adapting it every day. Its focus is to help high potential rural businesses to prepare a business plan and then to introduce them to relevant investors.
Fiona: We are trying to find entrepreneurs who have potential to do more but are failing to reach their potential because of lack of investment, opportunity or education. At Tindercapital we are very keen to see how we can better serve this group of entrepreneurs.
There is already lots of work going on in this area (entrepreneurship development) but you have chosen a particular segment of entrepreneurs who are not in the scene, and nobody is especially talking about them. Moreover, many people think working with them is difficult or even impossible at times.
Jerry: Yes, we are working with rural entrepreneurs and businesses but as we said we are not working with all rural businesses. We are working with fast growing rural entrepreneurs who have potential to grow big but could not due to limitations that are solvable. We aim to work with this segment of rural entrepreneurs and help them to grow. We are not working with rural businesses that are bumping along and don’t have a clear vision. We are working with rural businesses that are established, proven in market and have significant ambition and potential to grow.
We could have worked with entrepreneurs from Dhaka which might be the easiest way to do it. But we deliberately chose to be an accelerator program for rural businesses and all of our programs are specially designed and customized for their needs.
What do you look for when you invest in a company or in a founder?
Fiona: I look at how passionate the entrepreneur is. His/her potential to grow as a person. To me the entrepreneur is more important, his/her character, passion etc. Jerry of course looks for his own things.
Jerry: I agree with Fiona about the character of an entrepreneur. We also look at the business model whether business model is sustainable, scale-able, and realistic.
What do you mean by 'character'?
Jerry: People who are going to operate their businesses well, going to do it transparently, and respectfully. We like entrepreneurs who look after the interest of all their stakeholders not only care about quick bucks. These are the businesses that are going to create opportunities for people.
Fiona: An idea with the right entrepreneur is extremely powerful. Someone who really has a good idea and also cares about the people he works and lives with is an excellent person to bet on. We believe caring for people is really important and we even have a name for it. We call it compassionate business-when a business becomes passionate about serving its people well.
A business that cares for its people and country at large is something that has a way greater possibility of success. This kind of entrepreneur and business really motivates us. It has to be a really good business but you know there are lots of good businesses. A business with an extra edge really helps in decision making.
OPEN Accelerator
Image by Open Accelerator
How does the OPEN Accelerator program work?
Jerry: First of all, this is a pilot year. We are doing it for the first time. We are learning lots of new lessons. At the start we had to find rural entrepreneurs, we worked with three organizations which are Drik, Team Engine and Venture Investment Partners Bangladesh to find entrepreneurs for the program. We trained a team of scouts from these three organizations. We briefed them about OPEN and its purpose and were able to find 150 rural entrepreneurs for the program.
After that we went through a very rigorous selection process and selected 19 entrepreneurs to work with. Training camp happened in May 2014. We had 5 trainers in the camp including a lead trainer from the Netherlands. We have 15 experienced men and women coaches to coach the entrepreneurs.
Now we are in the networking phase where we are seeking to link them with investors and other people who can help them to grow.
Even though we started off by investing in a company, we don't do that now. We are a match-making service where we connect entrepreneurs that we mentor with investors.
Samantha of Hathay Bunano coaching Entrepreneurs at Open Dhaka Meetup
What is the revenue model for OPEN then?
Jerry: Revenue model for OPEN for this moment is a sponsorship revenue model. This Pilot for OPEN is largely funded by a Dutch Impact investment firm called Incluvest. Their reason for funding is they want to see and invest in potential and sustainable rural businesses in Bangladesh. They are trying to find opportunities for themselves.
We are also looking for other sponsors. We are looking for more philanthropic sponsors because it’s still in a R&D stage.
But once we really move forward and show the model is proven we would bring in large Bangladeshi Corporate partners and probably a bank. Their reason for engaging in and sponsoring would be new business opportunities, an opportunity to highlight their support for fast growing rural business. That’s how we are planning to monetize. And also if we can make the connection, investment or new market access, we are also expecting to get referral fees or match making fees. That so far is the plan.
There are two serious questions: one is whether OPEN can link rural entrepreneurs to investors. The other thing is can we actually finance OPEN Accelerator, so that it becomes a sustainable project.
An interesting aspect of OPEN is that we are also trying to involve Bangladeshi expatriates living in the States who want to invest, mentor and help rural entrepreneurs with market access and also hoping to fund development of OPEN accelerator. So that’s another possible source of funding.