Post #4: Our Second Mentoring Call
Learn about Apps and Girls, and the Social Sector Franchise Accelerator in our Get To Know Us post, here! And read about our UNH Student Research Fellow Gina Occhipinti’s experience in Tanzania here, and our first mentoring call here!
Big News for Apps and Girls
There’s been a huge win for those narrowing the gender gap in tech in Tanzania. Apps and Girls is partnering with Tigo, an African telecomm company owned by Milcom International, who has announced they will provided computers and internet to 58 schools across the country. Apps and girls will teach coding and digital literacy to 5000 girls in those respective schools and provide mentorship to interested students through their online virtual incubator “CODE Galaxy”. To cope with this exciting new supply, Apps and Girls needs more trainers to teach coding. Originally, it was thought that girls who’ve been in the coding game for a while could fill this role because they have the most experience. Having these coding “pros” train newcomers would inspire new members and give them confidence. It was decided that the girls would lead the trainings in the boot camps alongside the master trainers, and then the school teachers will later continue to run the coding clubs and train the new students who enroll in the program. They believed structuring it this way would drive a stronger impact. So, Carolyne is sending out her team of master trainers to get this done.
This initiative will involve two master trainers going to five major regions where there are four to six schools. Secondary school teachers in charge of the ICT labs are invited to attend a 3-day workshop, but only if they go back to their schools and teach what they learned to their students. The ultimate goal is to scale Apps and Girls’ programs to more areas, using capital from Tigo. They need to train at least one teacher from each school who can go back and run a coding hub, sustaining the project even in rural areas. All this is planned to happen following six months of support towards the annual Girls in Entrepreneurship Summit. The master trainer team has to somehow reach over 30 regions, and some regions only have one school, so it might be costly to achieve this. If it means more girls get access to coding as Apps and Girls expands their reach beyond HQ, it may be well worth the investment. With the help of donations from local and international supporters, the company can sustain their business while helping young girls in East Africa transform their lives through code.
Speaking of HQ…
Most of Carolyne’s attention recently is devoted to establishing a new headquarters location, accessible to students and corporate staff alike. The goal is to leverage projects where Apps and Girls works with a partner donating goods and services. Through these projects, they can generate revenue when the girls pay to participate and use that towards saving enough to cover rent for a year for a space costing 350 USD a month. A new and improved space could be used as an incubator with potential to generate revenue. Carolyne’s vision is that once the girls are trained in their respective code clubs in schools, they can benefit from the virtual incubator “CODE Galaxy” and also participate in events like Girls Entrepreneurship Summit and Girls in ICT Day. The girls currently access free services in school, because law prohibits paying to receive any services while in school. This is why it’s so important Apps and Girls is able to obtain an official coding hub space, where girls can pay a fee for a few months to Apps and Girls to use the incubator and return for additional support if they need help. Carolyne also sees revenue coming from the new project with Tigo. The more the girls participate, perhaps even the more they involve their parents, more money will pour into the programs that make their daughters successful. Revenue may also come when partners get their name out for supporting these great initiatives helping local girls, like when Apps and Girls hosted a hackathon with over 1000 students. The community saw their success and the companies donating were recognized for it.
Partnerships Update
Tigo has been a great partner, and with continue business success, Apps and Girls can tap other partnerships to grow their network and expand. After speaking with Jumia, a company resembling an African version of Amazon, they agreed this past Christmas to donate meals to the girls in the coding program whenever someone bought items designated to support Apps and Girls on their website. In just three days, they were able to raise enough to supply meals to 44 girls. This small success is a step in the right direction towards more positive interactions with African companies who believe and show support in the Apps and Girls mission. Deals with other African companies like Uber and Boomplay have yet to happen but may be in the works.
Staying True to Self
Lori and Carolyne talked about the importance of spending more time building up current projects rather than starting new projects with unproven financial sustainability. Carolyne has been offered many fabulous opportunities, but it’s important Lori stressed, to consider how projects like “train the trainers” will affect other projects. Otherwise, they may devote time to activities that don’t bring revenue, when that’s a critical issue Apps and Girls wants to solve. With help from Lori, they can restructure and package the Apps and Girls business and solve this problem. The goal is to create a marketable business to sell when reaching out to partner with tech giants like Facebook or Google.
Some hard questions to answer are, “which projects are right to pursue?”, “which partnerships bring the most value? and “how can Apps and Girls avoid spending too much time where revenue isn’t earned?” Lori noted how in-kind relationships are great because they increase visibility; however, they don’t directly generate revenue. While having many opportunities is good news, Apps and Girls could make the classic business mistake of being too many things to too many people. Lori and Carolyne will need to organize her options to make sure Apps and Girls is safely moving towards its long-term goal of establishing an HQ space and having a sellable product that will teach more girls ICT skills all across the world, with the funds to make it happen! In the next call, Lori and Carolyne will evaluate her current and prospective projects on the table and see which ones should take priority if they bring in income, and which they aren’t ready for yet at this time.
