Fernando ApaezJournal #1
My third week at Frogtek starts tomorrow and so far it has been a very exciting experience. In April I spent my first day with Frogtek at their office in Tribecca. This was a great opportunity to meet the team and to have an overview of what the summer would be like.
After the break I formally started my summer in Mexico City, where I got deeply involved with Frogtek and the summer timeline, for my internship and for the company. These months are critical for the company as we are getting started with customers, both CPGs and “tenderos”, through the pilot program. During my first week I met with the owner of one of the largest distributors of a mobile phone operator in Mexico. The meeting was a great chance to show what Frogtek is about and a first step to build a business relationship with them.
After spending this first week in Mexico I traveled to Bogotá, where I will take part of the pilot program. I am working with “mom & pop” shops, learning from their daily challenges and spending lots of time with them. Actually, this week we will be at the shops as if we were the shopkeeper or as they are called here in Colombia “tendero”. Another big part of my internship is focused on meeting with large CPGs in order to show the about Frogtek and about how can they improve their business through our services. Around one fourth of the retail sales in Latin America take place in “mom and pop” shops so this is a very important distribution challenge for CPGs.
I’m looking forward to help Frogtek getting started, attracting the interest of large CPG companies and investors that will help Frogtek improve the lives of thousands of low income families in developing countries.
Journal #2
I am now at the midpoint of my internship at Frogtek in Bogota and I have spent most of my time on two main tasks: (1) working with “tenderos” to improve the usability of Frogtek’s application and (2) visiting potential business partners with whom we can launch a large scale pilot program.
Working closely with tenderos, have allowed me to understand the challenges they face as shopkeepers and as individuals. We have officially become part of their lives—both personally and professionally.
Natalia, one of our star shopkeepers is getting married next month and we will most likely take part in the event. Natalia is a proactive woman in her late 20’s who will graduate from college by the end of this year. She is planning to work as an IT engineer after college, so she will sell her store soon, because her mother is too old to manage the store by herself.
Boris, a Colombian Industrial Engineer who migrated several years ago to the US looking for better life standards before having to come back to Colombia because of immigration restrictions, is planning to move to Canada and work at a meat packing company. He has now obtained the employment he was looking for and is “only” waiting for the visa authorization. We all hope that he receives the visa authorization, as the shop profits are not enough to cover his family expenses.
Working for a social enterprise doesn’t only mean you must work with the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). Actually, in order to have a real impact on the BOP it is necessary to get large companies and influential people “on the boat”. We believe that the best way to do so is by offering them some value that exceeds their investment and that’s what I’ve been doing throughout half of my internship. As part of Frogtek’s team, I have been looking for opportunities to pitch our services to large CPG’s, government officials, and other relevant parties. In order to do so successfully, we have to deeply analyze each player and we have taken any opportunity we can to get in touch with potential “connections”.
Working for a social enterprise doesn’t only mean you must work with the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). Actually, in order to have a real impact on the BOP it is necessary to get large companies and influential people “on the boat”. We believe that the best way to do so is by offering them some value that exceeds their investment and that’s what I’ve been doing throughout half of my internship. As part of Frogtek’s team, I have been looking for opportunities to pitch our services to large CPG’s, government officials, and other relevant parties. In order to do so successfully, we have to deeply analyze each player and we have taken any opportunity we can to get in touch with potential “connections”.
Today was a particularly interesting day as I had the opportunity to meet with a presidential pre-candidate and the campaign team. We made a brief presentation of our project and they did so as well. After both introductions, we discussed ways in which our platform to reach shops could be useful for the government and for the different political parties. After that, the team offered to put us in touch with different individuals at various government agencies. In the upcoming weeks we expect to further research this opportunity to improve the life at the BOP and are hopeful to do so with some government support.
Journal #3
It has been two months since I started my internship and it has come to an end.
I spent my very last weeks of my internship focused, mainly, in finding the right partner for our venture, as well as setting the road for the upcoming tasks regarding the application optimization.
At this point Frogtek is ready to get started in a large pilot program. It is just matter of days to decide which partner (s) is the best one and the terms of the collaboration. Our top 3 choices now are: (1) a large CPG company that is very interested in the remote learning capabilities of our platform, (2) a non for-profit standards organization and (3) a very unexpected use of our platform, coordinating the job of a couple of thousands illiterate flower growers at one of the largest flower producing companies in the world. I am very sad to leave Frogtek at this exciting moment, I would love to be involved in any of the pilot programs… but it is time to go back to school.
This was a great experience because I was able to get into the thick of things in terms of starting a new venture where social development and for-profit purposes blend. I was able to get involved in understanding the lives of low-income families, to see how the company was valued by an investor and to ‘almost’ secure business partners to bring the company forward.
I want to thank all Frogtek’s team and all the people involved for this great opportunity!
