Leila Chirayath, Samasource

Why did you start Samasource?

Leila: I think the biggest tragedy associated with poverty is wasted talent. As a volunteer teacher in Ghana in my late teens, I was struck by how bright my students were and how few opportunities they had to use their skills productively. We have this perception in the US that the world is a reasonably functioning meritocracy -- in fact, it's much more like a lottery.

I became a management consultant after graduating from college, and my first client was a large outsourcing company in Mumbai. I'd walk the halls after work and discovered that many of the staff lived in slum communities around the city and were supporting entire families with their incomes. For young Indians, these jobs offered an entry into global business and a shot at putting their talents to use.

I began thinking about a system that would encourage greater local ownership -- by workers, rather than large multinational companies -- and extend the benefits of outsourcing to skilled workers in the bottom billion.

Can you explain some of the challenges you face in the US in advocating for small businesses in developing countries?

Leila: Where do I begin? Our biggest challenge is convincing people that there is a surplus of skilled talent in very poor regions, particularly Africa. The general response is, "Don't people there need to focus on the basics -- agriculture, health, education -- rather than on trying to build service companies?" Years of development studies have given us the answer to that question: the only sustainable path out of poverty for many poor countries is increased international trade, particularly in industries that rely on human capital.

People tend to irrationally aggregate the countries in Africa, which leads many to believe that doing business anywhere on the continent entails driving through refugee camps or bribing corrupt officials. Potential clients are shocked when we show them videos of our partner firms in Nairobi in modern office buildings, filled with educated young people in suits. We spend a good deal of time repairing Africa's public image and convincing clients that doing business with small, locally owned service companies in places like Uganda is a win-win: they can lower their costs while contributing to sustainable economic development.

What kind of support does Samasource have already, and what kind of support would help you sustain your model?

Leila: Samasource was a second-place winner in the global Business in Development Challenge in December 2007 [a $22,000 award] and the Stanford Social Enterprise Challenge in April 2008 [a $12,000 award], which funded our feasibility study and the launch of our pilot earlier this year. We have received countless hours of volunteer support to build our initial website and sales team.

The nice thing about our model is that we're sustainable: Samasource makes a commission on work we broker for the providers in our global network. We're trying to raise about $350,000 to build out the organization, and after that we plan to run our organization largely on earned income.

Is the world financial crisis affecting any of the small firms you work with?

Leila: We have eight small firms in our network: in Kenya, rural India, and Nepal. The biggest hit our firms took was during the Kenyan elections crisis earlier this year. Many US companies left Kenya immediately, though there were few actual service interruptions.

The global financial crisis may make it harder for our firms in developing countries to raise capital for expansion, but it will likely have a positive impact on sales. Outsourcing tends to grow when client companies are pressed for cash.

What did you think about the Kampala Dev Garage? You've done these in Ghana and Kenya. How did Uganda compare?

Leila: We were lucky to have Charlie attend in person. In Nairobi, we were only able to patch in Silicon Valley coaches via online chatrooms. With the spotty Internet connection we had there, it was very challenging to coordinate 80 people in chat rooms at once. I think having someone attend from Facebook was also really exciting for students. Silicon Valley engineers rarely spend much time in sub-Saharan Africa. Charlie also had a chance to learn what the local technology scene was like and will transfer that knowledge to his peers in the Valley.

This interview is a follow-up to an audio interview I conducted with Charlie and Leila on Appfricast. I also conducted an interview with three attendees (one Peace Corps volunteer, one local student, and one successful East African entrepreneur) to see if they thought the workshop was relevant and how it would directly impact their lives. You can listen to that podcast here.

Appfricast is a weekly podcast about the African technology scene. Appfrica Labs is an incubation program for software entrepreneurs in East Africa modeled on Paul Graham's YCombinator. Photos by TMS Ruge, Leila Chirayath, and various attendees. You can find the Kampala Facebook Developers groups here. More photos from the day here.

Disclosure: it was mentioned at the top of this post, but to reiterate that the author Jonathan Gosier's company Appfrica Labs was one of the 3 organizers of the event described here. Jonathan Gosier is a web developer and social entrepreneur living and working in Kampala, Uganda.