1. Describe at least 5 partnerships with individuals and/or organizations that have been formed, or could be formed, to advance your venture. Please identify partnerships at the individual, team, and Lehigh / SIF level.

Partner #1: Momoh Street Bakery

• What constituted the partnership?
  1. To bake and sell the muffins wholesale to salespeople for enough profit to fund more ingredients and have SuperCakes sold in the marketplace through a self-sustaining business model. The availability of nutrient-dense muffins in the market from the bakery’s SuperCake production will contribute to our fight against malnutrition. 
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
  1. Momoh Street let us use their ovens throughout our fieldwork and has continued to make our products for the past month which has allowed our products and awareness to be spread around the city. We provided them with the starting ingredients, micronutrients, and the recipe for the muffins.
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
  1. The SuperCakes business through the bakeries is symbiotic because their production would not be able to continue without the micronutrients and we are the bakery’s connection to the supplements. As long as the bakeries continue to make the muffins and we continue to provide the micronutrient supplements both groups benefit. 
• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
  1. We could try to strengthen this partnership by improving our weekly communications with them so that we have a better idea of what’s going on.

Partner #2: Mantakoh Street Bakery

• What constituted the partnership?
  1. To bake and sell the muffins wholesale to salespeople for enough profit to fund more ingredients and have SuperCakes sold in the marketplace through a self-sustaining business model. The availability of nutrient-dense muffins in the market from the bakery’s SuperCake production will contribute to our fight against malnutrition. 
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
  1. Mantakoh Street let us use their ovens throughout our fieldwork and has continued to make our products for the past month which has allowed our products and awareness to be spread around the city. We provided them with the starting ingredients, micronutrients, and the recipe for the muffins.
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
  1. The SuperCakes business through the bakeries is symbiotic because production would not be able to continue without the micronutrients and we are the bakery’s connection to the supplements. As long as the bakeries continue to make the muffins and we continue to provide the micronutrient supplements both groups benefit. 
• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
  1. We could try to strengthen this partnership by improving our weekly communications with them so that we have a better idea of what’s going on.

Partner #3: MEWODA

• What constituted the partnership?
  1. Menna Women’s Development Associates (MEWODA) is a nonprofit that helps women fight poverty, as well as mothers of malnourished children in rural areas around Makeni. They work to provide women with business opportunities and help them with financial investment as they make money from these businesses. A partnership with them is beneficial because we need people who are willing to sell the SuperCakes in the marketplace and have a good understanding of the health benefits of our muffins. 
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
  1. MEWODA helped us to find 20 local saleswomen who were willing to sell our SuperCakes. We were able to educate the women through seminars and, in theory, would have provided them with business opportunities. 
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
  1. This was not a symbiotic relationship because neither group was reliant on the other to continue with their operations. Even if they did not help us to find the saleswomen we could have found them elsewhere, and the nonprofit was already functioning very well without our input.
• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
  1. To make this partnership more equitable we could have worked with MEWODA to find saleswomen in the particular districts that we were working in so that there was a greater chance they would have the opportunity to sell our muffins. This would have helped MEWODA get closer to achieving its goal of getting women out of poverty and helped us to begin selling our muffins faster.

Partner #4: Daily Fresh Water Factory 

• What constituted the partnership?
  1. We are looking to implement a nutritious drink in the marketplace called SuperSip. Bakar, the owner of Daily Fresh Water Factory has the technology and equipment to create purified water sachets in bulk that could eventually be reworked to fill up the sachets with our product.
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
  1. Bakar’s machinery helped us have a better understanding of how it might be possible to implement our SuperSip in the marketplace. We were able to experiment with running the nutrient-dense flavored water through the equipment and made a preliminary prototype of our product. This is beneficial for Bakar because if we are able to create a tasty and nutritious flavored powder with his sachet packaging techniques, he will be able to make a profit.  
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
  1. This is not necessarily a symbiotic relationship. Bakar has a very successful business on his own and implementing this product is just an addition to what he has already created. However, the SuperSip is reliant on Bakar’s input and factory with our addition of the micronutrients and the recipe. 
• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
  1. To strengthen this partnership, we could find a way to kickstart the SuperSip production process by providing Bakar with the funds to package some of our SuperSip product. This would require paying for the first round of plastic rolls, so we are taking a financial risk. The risk that Bakar would be taking is losing time to create his own, already successful product to produce ours and get it into the marketplace. 

Partner #5: Jawara 

• What constituted the partnership?
  1. After our fieldwork, we have asked Jawara to help hold the bakeries accountable to ensure the muffin production continues. We made this partnership upon our departure and have been in contact with him frequently. 
• How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
  1. Jawara has been in close communication with the bakeries and has collected data about muffin production/sales that is beneficial for the team. He has also gone to schools to present the SuperCakes and ask if it would be possible for the saleswomen to sell the product on and around school grounds. This helps Jawara because we will be paying him monthly so it provides another source of income. 
• Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
  1. This relationship could be considered symbiotic because both parties are benefitting from the relationship. The NewTrition team benefits because they are able to keep close tabs on the bakeries’ muffin production while they are no longer in-country, and Jawara is able to make an additional income from doing the tasks asked of him. On the contrary, one could argue that the relationship is not completely symbiotic because Jawara is employed on the side and is still not reliant on this partnership for his total income.  
• What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
  1. Making sure that we are in strong communication and having evidence that Jawara is actually performing the tasks we are paying him for would strengthen the partnership. It is also important that both partners remain transparent, and that adjustments to the partnership (i.e. payment or tasks) are made if necessary.

2. Types of Organizations Slides

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RSR7kL2_OsKcqB22E-0Tcr_LbLr_ThPo0v1_dKEkfw0/edit?usp=sharing