Staff blogger Brendan McNulty discusses challenges facing entrepreneurs at the base of the pyramid, using the example of a Liberian business owner he knows.
Nothing about owning a small business in the developing world is easy.
I received some bad news the other day from Anyaa, a woman I advised while I was in grad school. She founded a bamboo furniture company in the conflict-wracked nation of Liberia in West Africa, and for several months I worked with her to increase sales and attract investors.
Staff blogger Brendan McNulty shares his observations about the kind of investment and investors needed to bring BoP projects to scale.
What developing countries lack in resources, access and formal institutions, their entrepreneurs compensate for with clever and effective business activity. Constraints often breed creativity. But underdeveloped capital markets, geographical barriers and little regulatory support make scaling up operations nearly impossible for most of these entrepreneurs.
