Kesha CashJournal #1
I’ve been working with the Majora Carter Group, a green economic consulting firm based in the South Bronx, for over four weeks now. My primary responsibility is to assist Majora Carter and her team with structuring an investment vehicle that targets economically and environmentally challenged communities. This internship perfectly aligns with my long-term career goal (what I wrote in my b-school essay) to launch a market rate venture capital firm that invests in economically deprived communities.
Before telling you how amazing it is to work hand-in-hand with Majora Carter, and her diverse and energetic team, I want to rehash how this internship came to be. While working on a consulting project in D.C. in 2007, I met a random guy on the metro who struck up conversation and suggested I google Majora Carter, founder and ex-executive director of Sustainable South Bronx. I googled Majora and was overwhelmed by her passion and accomplishments, and decided I needed to contribute to the cause and somehow work with this lady. If you don’t know who Majora Carter is, be sure to google her!!
As a member of the Bernstein Student Leadership and Ethics Board, I organized a Montrone student/faculty dinner with Majora Carter in the South Bronx during the fall 2008 semester. This dinner was the beginning of what I hope will become a long and fruitful relationship with Majora. I followed up with Majora a couple of weeks after the dinner to schedule some time to chat about her work and to share some ideas. I was very happy to find that we were on the same page with many of our thoughts and had a natural chemistry. A couple of months later, Majora invited me to a party she and her husband hosted to celebrate the conclusion of her successful speaking tour. That night, we continued our discussions and she said she had been thinking about how she could to afford to pay me to work with her during the summer. I informed her about the Social Enterprise Fund and here I am.
The Majora Carter Group office is located in the South Bronx and sits on top of a car mechanic garage. It is a little tough to find but the men working in the garage are very helpful in pointing you around the corner to the red door that opens up steps that lead to an airy and creative office space.
During my fist day on the job, I was invited to an office potluck for lunch. We ate at a round conference table and shared homemade Indian food, salad, pasta, and rhubarb apple pie, and talked like family would at Thanksgiving dinner. After lunch, while discussing our work plans, Majora told me they had received resumes from over 80 students interested in interning with her firm. We decided to bring in a SIPA student, Miya, to assist with the project. During the past 4 weeks, the team has relied on me to map out the work plan and manage the execution of tasks we need to complete to help us better understand the social venture capital space and write a preliminary strategic plan for the investment fund. Highlights of our activities include:
- 1.) Conducted research and created approximately 15-20 detailed profiles of leading social venture capital firms and top foundations with social enterprise missions.
- 2.) Attended a Green Economy conference sponsored by SJF Venture in Raleigh, NC for 3 days.
- 3.) Mapped out our goals, political climate, constituents, power bases, and strategy relating to MCG’s current position and desire to establish an investment firm.
- 4.) Attended a Women in Fund Management event at the Bloomberg office in NY sponsored by The National Council for Research in Women
- 5.) Meeting with established funds and foundations in the industry including Acumen Fund, Highbridge Capital, First Capital, Robin Hood Foundation, Kresge Foundation to help refine our thoughts, collect more data, and identify potential funding sources.
- 6.) Working with lawyers and other advisors to understand legal issues and potential corporate structures for the fund.
- 7.) Developing a list of potential investments and thinking about how to assist entrepreneurs with developing more business acumen to better manage and scale their businesses.
We are well on our way to figuring out the best structure for this fund and solicit seed funding to implement the structure and search for initial investment opportunities. As the only MBA on the team, I am responsible for leading this project and making sure the team understands the business jargon. In the process, I am learning a tremendous amount about managing a project of this sort and the importance of seeking various opinions and ideas to build innovative solutions. Of all the handy MBA tools I’m using, the ”soft” people and organization skills are key to managing the team and executing our tasks in a relatively short period of time.
