Funding:

Design Phase (These are two grants for the design phase. We have two design phases, Survey, and modeling.)

1. NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award (R21) https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/r21.htm. This grant is a beginning grant for initial stages of research. We already have an NIH grant for our project, but it’s focused more on the original project with modeling bat movement. If we were to apply to this grant we would have more resources for our project to look into how we are building our survey. We would apply for it with logic using this grant to hire some professional help with the development of the survey. We need a good survey for the rest of our project to work, so professional help could improve the accuracy of our data and overall improve our project.
2. NSF Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E). This is a grant focused on developing models and conducting research into modeling. We would write a proposal targeting this grant from a modeling perspective. Our project once the survey is completed and the data collected we need to create a model to implement the data into. This is sort of our second phase of development of the project, but fortunately, we can borrow the model from our bat project to accomplish the beginning of the modeling. We have made a lot of progress in this area, but we need money to run simulations and buy time with computing power, which would be the use of this grant.

Dissemination Phase (This first grant targets collecting data in Sierra Leone, the second i

1. NIH Modeling of Infectious Disease Agent Study Research Projects (R01) https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/pa-16-107.html. This grant is focused on infectious diseases. We would write a proposal for this grant focusing on how our project has the potential to model the transmission of Ebola, which is an infectious disease. We would also probably add that if we get our model to work we can adapt it to other infectious diseases. Thus, the NIH would be more likely to approve our proposal. We would use this money to hire people in Sierre Leone to collect data and survey people while we are not there. This data is valuable to the NIH as raw data and is necessary for us to model the spread of Ebola
2. CDC 2019 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases (ELC). This grant is focused on the spread of disease worldwide. We would write a proposal to receive funding once we have completed the data collection and modeling, we would hope to start adding data from other countries, factors, and diseases into our model. We would use this grant to that by making new surveys, collecting new data, and improve the model with these new diseases by testing.

 

Partnerships

1. CDC: We need to form a relationship with the CDC because they have experts that have a great understanding of Ebola. They also were on the ground in 2014 during the last outbreak, so they have an understanding of how the disease spread in humans which can help us better understand how the disease transmits from bats to humans. The experts who do what we are trying to do for a living who can give us advice. Finally, they have a lot of data from the 2014 epidemic which can use to train our model and better understand what is going on. Overall the CDC has so much human capital that we could use to further our project. The CDC has a mission to understand the disease and find methods to better control and understand disease, which we are doing so our interest align.
2. NIH: The NIH has a lot of grant capability and also has a large research network we can rely on. Our relationship with NIH would be similar to our relationship with the CDC. They have experts, first-hand experience with Ebola, and data from the epidemics from before. There reach and network of researchers can allow us to connect with and improve our model. The NIH literally has tons of people who are doing what are doing that we can help, and that can help us. Take as much help as you can get. The NIH mission is to study health across the world, so if we are doing that, which we are they are incentives to work with us.
3. WorldHope: Obisoiuvly we have a relationship with world Hope through Khanjan, but we need to establish a better relationship with them so in the future, we can have them possibly conduct our surveys for us while we are not in the country. We also can use them as a base to get transportation, translators, and a place to work, which are key resources we need in order to gather our data. WH will want to work with us because we have money and human capital that they desperately need.
4. Statistics Sierra Leone: We would like to establish a relationship with statistics SaLeone to hopefully have them collect our data using our survey while we are not there. If World hope won’t or can’t play a part in the collection of the data Statistics can because they are already doing what we are trying to do, so we just need to convince them to do it with our survey. We just have to find the right motivation for them to do this for us. We can provide them with some capital resources to encourage them to work with us.
5. UNSD (United Nations Statistics): The UNSD can provide us with connections to statistics bureaus across Africa. Ebola is really only found in Africa. We want to grow our model as much as we can, so we need someone who makes all the right connections and has a global reach. UNSD can make these connections to allow our model to grow and allow us to collect data in more countries to improve our model. I am not really sure why the UNSD would want to work with us other than to collect data that can be valuable to the world.

Acumen Fund

 

1. Partner network
   1. Bain & Company
   2. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IKEA Foundation, Metlife Foundation, Unilever (have given $5,000,000+ each)
   3. World bank
   4. Dow Chemical Venture Fund
   5. International Finance Company
   6. LifeSpring Hospital
2. Key activities
   1. INVEST IN BREAKTHROUGH COMPANIES
   2. DEVELOP LEADERS DISRUPTING POVERTY
   3. CREATE PLATFORMS (+Acumen) THAT DRIVE CHANGE
3. Key resources
   1. Human capital
   2. Business strategies/planning expertise
   3. A network of people on the ground as mentors and advisors
   4. Financial capital
   5. Physical capital
   6. Infrastructure to move money and resources
4. Offer
   1. Money/Investment
   2. Resources: strategies, a network of mentor and advisors, Training programs
   3. To improve the economy at the bottom end of the pyramid
   4. To create jobs through investment
   5. To offer what banks won’t, to small businesses
5. Customer relationships
   1. Fund to Owner
   2. Fund to employees
   3. Advisors to employees/Owner
   4. Fund to NGOs
   5. Fund to World Bank
   6. Fund to Gov.
   7. Training Partners to students
6. Distribution channels
   1. Support companies through access to expertise in their specific field
   2. Active, post-investment support in areas of governance, customer insights, and strategies
   3. Raise awareness of their goal through a focus on the social gain over monetary gain
   4. Invest donations instead of giving them away, turning philanthropy into investment capital
7. Customer segments
   1. Creating value for companies through investments and area expertise for social enterprises
   2. Most important customers are early-stage companies providing a product or service to the poor across the areas of agriculture, education, energy, and healthcare  
8. Cost structure
   1. Patient capital is a debt or equity investment in a social enterprise
   2. Typical commitments for an enterprise range from $300,000 to $2,500,000
   3. This capital is in equity or debt with payback or exit in about 7-10 years
   4. Value-driven and focused on value creation, premium value proposition
   5. Pay in-house staff with expertise in the fields of Acumen’s current projects
   6. Pre-negotiated fees for this support are paid in full by investees using part of their investment capital from Acumen.
9. Revenue streams
   1. Funds its capacity-building projects through a pool of grant capital
   2. Acumen sets aside 10% of its total raised capital for capacity-building support to fund in-house staff
   3. Portfolio companies access Acumen’s in-house resources free of charge, these services attract investment pipeline
   4. Have built relationships with high-quality consultants with pre-negotiated fees for this support are paid in full by investees using part of their investment capital.

 

SOURCES:

https://acumen.org/about/

https://www.guidestar.org/profile/13-4166228

https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=12735717

https://thegiin.org/acumen-fund

https://www.bain.com/about/global-affiliations/acumen-partnership/

Guy Kawasaki, in his talk, mentioned that the main focus of a venture is to make meaning. This meaning can come to life in many forms as different products can work to solve niche problems but can also improve the efficiency of everyday life in different contexts. He mentions that increasing quality of life, righting a wrong, or preventing the end of something good should be at the core of every business in order for it to be successful and impactful. My project specifically is not exactly a business venture as we are developing and distributing a survey, however we still do have to implement the survey successfully with many working components are critical key players in Sierra Leone itself. At the end of our survey and data collection, our goal is to make meaning by improving the quality of life for not only Sierra Leoneans, but also the entire world through different applications of our findings. By being able to tell, in real time, where Ebola is most likely to emerge would greatly impact health and society as supplies and resources can be diverted to high risk areas, potentially saving countless lives. Some other key points that stuck out to me from his talk was to be specific and keep it simple. We are currently in the design stage of our survey, one of the most critical aspects of our project, and I think it is essential to be straightforward and pointed with survey questions. If the survey is too vague, our results may not be accurate as respondents could each perceive broad questions differently. In addition, as we will be working in rural areas with less than a 75% literacy rate so keeping questions simple is also important so that everyone also understands what is being asked of them. We hope to eliminate some of the difficulties with language barriers by conducting the survey by interview with a translator in order to collect the most accurate data. Another important point he brought up was to niche yourself and flatten the learning curve. I think for our project, doing something unique with Ebola research that hasn’t necessarily been done before makes our work invaluable and will likely elevate our ability to leverage our partners on the ground as our work would be beneficial to the Sierra Leonean health system as well. The last point that stood out was to flatten the learning curve. This is important to our group because if we decide to continue our data collection once we leave Sierra Leone, we must easily train people on the ground.

Business Model:

BusinessModel-qa7s05