I became an AIESEC alumnus in 2005, after 5 exciting years which included being LCP in Rio de Janeiro, MCVP ER in Brazil and ABN AMRO Global Exchange Partnership Manager. While most of my team members in both the MC and LC were also heading for the future through very different paths, we had one certainty: we wanted to work together again in the future!!!
Some of us actually started to get very serious about it in 2008. We had been working for other organizations for some time, and really needed to create something of our own, using chaordic principles to strive to solve some of the world's toughest problems. We did not know exactly what, although we were sure it should build on our experiences. We did not know exactly when, apart from "soon". Then we called this organization a KOAN: we could feel it, but not exactly explain it!!!
Our process evolved to listing different things we were interested in tackling along with our skills: "Where your talents and world's needs cross, there lies your vocation", said Aristotle. The list was long and would be really difficult to prioritize and get started. To make things, I was attending business school in Madrid, Henrique attending the KaosPilots in Denmark, others doing long hours in consulting or banking back in Brazil...
Enter Artemisia
Nothing better to get you started than engaging with a third party, committing to deadlines while getting just the right support. The Artemisia Social-Business Ventures Competition came just in time. Furthermore, I needed to submit a business idea to my entrepreneurship track in the MBA as well.
The initial idea of KOANedu was suggested by Henrique. He had met the founder of QiFang in Shanghai and got excited about the idea of P2P lending for education. I got thrilled, as I had done a case study on Prosper couple of months before for my MBA. But most importantly, we had felt the same pain: both of us struggled to finance our education. We were very committed to KOANedu's vision:
"Youth access to higher education is a matter of ambition and will, not financial resources".
The rest is history: we have worked very hard to meet Artemisia's deadlines, despite being in different countries and timezones. We got feedback from lots of other AIESEC alumni, classmates, friends and potential partners, on top of great coaching from Artemisia's network of entrepreneurs. We were a finalist at the SEEC social business plan competition last July in Spain. We have pitched to angels last September in Sao Paulo. We have an attorney who will help us incorporate the business pro-bono. We have another 3 great AIESEC alumni about to join the management team, and some key individuals as prospects for our Board of Advisory.
In summary: WE GOT STARTED!!! And it is a very exciting journey!!!
Some of us actually started to get very serious about it in 2008. We had been working for other organizations for some time, and really needed to create something of our own, using chaordic principles to strive to solve some of the world's toughest problems. We did not know exactly what, although we were sure it should build on our experiences. We did not know exactly when, apart from "soon". Then we called this organization a KOAN: we could feel it, but not exactly explain it!!!
Our process evolved to listing different things we were interested in tackling along with our skills: "Where your talents and world's needs cross, there lies your vocation", said Aristotle. The list was long and would be really difficult to prioritize and get started. To make things, I was attending business school in Madrid, Henrique attending the KaosPilots in Denmark, others doing long hours in consulting or banking back in Brazil...
Enter Artemisia
Nothing better to get you started than engaging with a third party, committing to deadlines while getting just the right support. The Artemisia Social-Business Ventures Competition came just in time. Furthermore, I needed to submit a business idea to my entrepreneurship track in the MBA as well.
The initial idea of KOANedu was suggested by Henrique. He had met the founder of QiFang in Shanghai and got excited about the idea of P2P lending for education. I got thrilled, as I had done a case study on Prosper couple of months before for my MBA. But most importantly, we had felt the same pain: both of us struggled to finance our education. We were very committed to KOANedu's vision:
"Youth access to higher education is a matter of ambition and will, not financial resources".
The rest is history: we have worked very hard to meet Artemisia's deadlines, despite being in different countries and timezones. We got feedback from lots of other AIESEC alumni, classmates, friends and potential partners, on top of great coaching from Artemisia's network of entrepreneurs. We were a finalist at the SEEC social business plan competition last July in Spain. We have pitched to angels last September in Sao Paulo. We have an attorney who will help us incorporate the business pro-bono. We have another 3 great AIESEC alumni about to join the management team, and some key individuals as prospects for our Board of Advisory.
In summary: WE GOT STARTED!!! And it is a very exciting journey!!!
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