Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development (SEID) is the intersection of international development and entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan. We host action learning projects with entrepreneurs worldwide, provide career support for MBAs, and gather academic and extracurricular resources for international development.
Check our blog for the latest updates, and reach out to our leadership team with questions — we’d love to hear from you!
Recent Events :
Mobilize Up to Change the World!! Our next mixer is Feb 15th 6:00 PM- @ MIT Stata Center, R&D Commons Please join us again to mingle with like-minded people, find teammates and partners, and opportunities to use your skills and experience. This mixer includes idea pitches and demonstration of D-lab Technology Dissemination Program.
RSVP: http://bit.ly/SEIDmixer0215
This past week, SEID members and collaborators Tiago Wright, MBA ’12, Rachel Chung, MBA ’12, Reka Horvath, MBA ’12; Kira Intrator, a Course 4 student; and Pallavi Chaube, significant other of Anand Dass, MBA ’12 were recognized for their contribution to Assured Labor. The company “enables job seekers in emerging markets to find jobs using their cell phones”, as the article states. The SEID team explored Assured Labor’s options for new country expansion. David Reich, co-founder of Assured Labor, notes in the article (published on the MIT News site):
“The students presented their findings to David at the end of the fall semester. He commented, “Our SEID team was great. It was invigorating working with five highly driven people. Given the demands of the Core, I was impressed with the quality work they produced and their enthusiasm for our business. Our team will absolutely implement some of their ideas. The team’s work provided a great perspective on what we’re in for and how we should approach these new markets.”
The SEID team, adding value to Assured Labor and photos
The full article can be found here.
Last Thursday, SEID kicked off the spring semester by co-hosting an event with TechnoServe at the Venture Café here in Cambridge. The mixer brought together more than 50 students from schools across the Boston area including Tufts, the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School and Northeastern to connect over a shared interest in international development and social enterprise. A number of former TechnoServe volunteers were on hand to share their experiences working with an organization that for more than 40 years has helped entrepreneurs in the developing world escape poverty through business creation. You can find out more about volunteering with TechnoServe here.
The Venture Café, a hub for local entrepreneurs housed in the Cambridge Innovation Center, provideda perfect venue to discuss these themes. Endeavour Partners, a CIC neighbor, sponsored the event. We hope this will be the first among many opportunities for cross-campus collaboration over the coming year!
What is consulting’s role in impacting global health issues? Recently, Wendy Woods, a partner at BCG and key thought leader in global health issues, shared how BCG is supporting the entire global health ecosystem including foundations, NGOs, and local government.
The challenge, we learned, is not just getting more money to critical health issues, but finding the best way to get the money to the people who need it most. She was joined by Kurt Knight, a Project Leader, who is helping the Gates Foundation make sure that every dollar they give out has the highest impact.
Mohammad Jhaveri set up Hera Capital, a social investment fund aimed at reducing poverty, extremism, and expanding economic opportunity for the lower-middle classes in Muslim nations. Mohammad provided valuable advice for entrepreneurship in the Middle East, such as structuring the company, legal protection, funding environment, as well as overcoming barriers unique to the region.
Olde City’s founders, Ali Siam and Ena El-Hadidy, envisioned their startup to be engaged in grassroots change. Ali told the story of how they received a bottle of Palestinian olive oil as a wedding gift back in 2007 and created Olde City to spread the gift to the rest of the world. Despite being profitable in only 1 year, Ali presented some of the real challenges they were still facing. The event closed with a tasting of their delicious product
