New York pre-incubator helps Nepalese phone charger firm
Collaborizm helped nourish idea of the solar-powered device
When a huge earthquake hit his hometown in Nepal in 2015, Madindra Aryal and his family had to stay in tents without electricity. He and his neighbours lived in complete darkness at night, and they could not charge their cell phones, which meant they were unable to contact worried family members.
From that experience, Aryal, a 26-year-old electronics engineer, came up with an idea: Why not try to produce a solar-powered cell phone charger, one that would be inexpensive enough that Nepalese villagers could afford it?
Although he knew he could not do it on his own, he set up a project called Nepal’s Light, then looked for a way to raise money, which is no easy feat in a poor nation.
Enter Collaborizm, a Kickstarter-esque website based in New York that specialises in nurturing companies in the preincubation stage — before they have seed money, a business plan or even, in many cases, a working prototype. Collaborizm connects aspiring entrepreneurs like Aryal with mentors, suppliers and early-stage capital.
For Aryal, help came fast: Collaborizm connected him to Gham Power Nepal, a utility. He also had a previous deal with Bal Joshi of Thamel.com, which transfers money and goods to and from Nepal. Those resources enabled him to build a prototype two weeks after the quakes.
After the prototype was built, 500 chargers were manufactured, priced at Rs2,500 (about $24, Dh89), and delivered to those most affected by the temblor. With the help of Collaborizm, Nepal’s Light raised $10,877 on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo.
With these funds, Aryal was able to build another 500, which were distributed free to rural Nepalese still living in darkness.
Collaborizm helped Aryal create weekly discussion panels to give him advice on improving the product. From those discussions, he decided to make his charger more portable by using plastic instead of metal.
“If we want more entrepreneurs going from step three to 60, we need to help more young ones go from zero to three,” said Steven Reubenstone, founder and chief executive of Collaborizm, which was set up in March 2016.
It does not always work. Some ideas, no matter how intriguing, languish because of insufficient demand, an entrepreneur’s lack of know-how or countless other reasons.
For instance, Narendran Asokan, a 22-year-old computer science engineer in India, wanted to manufacture shoes with a built-in GPS to help locate children who are lost or abducted.
But he had problems obtaining the type of salt he would need to power the battery in the shoe.
“Collaborizm provided me with a special kind of salt from the United States,” Asokan said. Collaborizm also helped him raise money to refine the product and connected him to a mentor. Robert Lancer, the site’s chief technology officer. Lancer led him through each step of the creation cycle.
As these projects mature, Collaborizm hopes to keep supporting their efforts.
“The only way to fail on Collaborizm is to give up,” Reubenstone, the founder, said. “We hope to disrupt the creation of early-stage start-ups, helping projects develop and mature into small companies.”