Let There D.light!

Like every Spring, last month students across India finished months (sometimes years) of preparation for the “examination of their life.” There are a few exams during an Indian student’s career that will essentially make or break their future, and this year some students in the 10th Standard in Karnataka were studying under different conditions.

In March, The Sikshana Foundation adopted high schools in Kanakapura, Karnataka and discovered this: "Students in 9th/10th Std often do part-time work in the fields or help their parents during day. They depend on kerosene lamps at night to study. Kerosene can be purchased only through ration shops and each family is limited to a ration of 3 liters per month. Kerosene lanterns coat walls and roofs with soot and pose a fire risk. In these parts, power cuts are common. When power fails, many students stop writing or studying. This impacts their performance in the SSLC exam, particularly in subjects like Mathematics and English which requires lots of practice." (from Sikshana Foundation's blog).

In response, Sikshana distributed 84 D.light Kirans to students requiring extra attention in English and Math.  The students received the lamps just as they started studying and most were previously using kerosene lanterns.

Results were suprising: in a district where average pass rate was 67%, more than 82% of the students using Kirans passed their exams. Most reported an increase in study time of 2-3 hours and more than 50% also said they would not have studied at night if it were not for the clean, bright light of the Kiran!

Around the world we are trying to connect with people's aspirations for a better life and the greatest common denominator is education. Increasing student’s study time by 2-3 hours is something nearly every parent wants…Now to figure out how to move from improving education for 84 students to 84,000 students!

 

Finally, after 3 years of emails, graphs, big talk (and small talk) with investors, friends, and family — we’ve arrived at our first tangible milestone.  Our first 1 million lives impacted.  its amazing.  A real number.  And a large number.  We’ve come so far from a team of 5 people to 80, and from just a couple stools and a bench and some pictures tacked to the walls in the D.school at Stanford, to 4 offices in some of the hubs of the world (Delhi, Hong Kong, Shenzhen!....... And our super HUB -- Dar es Salaam).  I’m excited — and I’m really hoping the next 1 million lives impacted are easier, faster, and more thrilling.  If we keep up the pace — we’re heading towards our dreams – and a world without kerosene.  Its definitely fun to get results from a dream job, but a job that has seriously taxed me and my ability to cope! I have a few more grey hairs, but I’m also learning how to take it easy and make better decisions, that help us scale faster.  More to come -  I’ll be updating this blog from the Skoll Conference in Oxford next week.

On a side note --- back in palo alto 3 years ago we made some cool shirts that said “Not Your Grandma’s Lighting Company”.  I’m pretty excited to replace that shirt with some new “1 Million Lives Impacted” tee-shirts, to celebrate!

 

Sunday, January 28, 2007, was one of those rainy-sunny days in Silicon Valley where you might easily turn a corner and find a rainbow.  I walked through the Stanford University campus, where many of my friends had studied when I left for the snows of MIT in Boston ten years ago.  After a few wrong turns, I reached the Design School building and climbed the concrete stairs to the second floor lab, to find my friend Ned Tozun working on a prototype rechargeable LED light, and we discussed power-control methods and light spread angles.  It reminded me of my time in West Africa in the Peace Corps when I had wired my house there with LEDs running on a car battery as a replacement for candles.

August arrived: “Our lighting company got funding, so I won’t be joining you at Google in October,” Ned emailed me.  In fact, at our next lunch at Google, the roles were reversed as he suggested that I come work with him at D.light, but I stayed working on Google Maps while Ned moved to China.

December, 2008: My girlfriend Jennifer and I stepped in from the cold night air (for California) and climbed the stairs of Books, Inc., on Castro Street in downtown Mountain View.  In that bustling little café above the bookshelves, we heard the story of life abroad working for D.light’s continuing growth and success.  I had talked about going back to Africa ever since returning from the Peace Corps, convinced that business was the best route to development, and I had recently started working with solar energy after being struck by the reality of climate change.  That night after dinner, Jennifer and I stayed up late, excitedly discussing prospects of leaving our jobs and jumping in with D.light:  we calculated that we could live on our savings for a couple of years, and worst case, come right back to our old Silicon Valley lives.

Most of our friends were a bit shocked with the news, “We’re getting married, quitting our jobs, bicycling around the country, and moving to Africa to sell solar lights,” but we took it slow and gave them most of a year until we packed everything we owned into 4 suitcases and visited D.light offices on the way to the Gambia.

In December 2009, we spent about two weeks living in a thatch-roof hut in remote rural village with no electricity, to try the products for ourselves in the target environment, and to do a “market study” observing in person how the population spends money on light and how they might benefit from D.light products.  The most exciting moment came the night before we left the village: We decided to offer a few D.lights for sale, and we were immediately mobbed, there in the dark in the middle of the village, by a crowd of excited villagers buying lights.  Our host’s older brother, exclaimed, “Seerut!  Seerut!” – “It’s not expensive!”  That was the moment when I really started to believe it would work.
 

Kiran charging in a village

I had another such moment two days ago, when a village shopkeeper who had bought five Nova lights from me asked me to meet other merchants in the bigger town.  “I use this light in my shop every night, and it’s fantastic,” he explained to one merchant.  After listening, examining the lights, and running some calculations, the town merchant placed the biggest order we had seen yet!  But I was in for another surprise:  at the next stall we visited, the man who had just placed the order started explaining the lights to a third merchant – and there, in a daze of heat and fatigue, I felt a sense of magic creep over me, a sense of awe at the way people can see the inherent goodness in these products that bring light to those who live in the dark, awe at how this seed of an idea of bringing light can grow and spread, and finally, joy that I can be a part of growing that seed planted by Ned and Sam.

As we walked out of the market, I turned to the village shopkeeper.  “Why are you helping me like this?” I asked.

“I’m doing this to help my people,” he replied.

           

Jen and Doug promoting D.lights on national TV at a program hosted by the National Environment Agency.

Hong Kong, 3 March 2010 – D.light Design today announced that it will be providing tens of thousands of solar lighting products for earthquake relief efforts in Haiti in partnership with multiple relief organizations.  In the coming weeks, D.light is poised to send over 35,000 units of Novas and Kirans to the devastated areas, most of which still do not have access to electricity and must rely solely on generators and solar power.

“Our main goal is to serve the people of Haiti in a significant, high-impact way,” said D.light CEO Sam Goldman.  “We truly believe that our products are needed now more than ever, when having light means that more people will receive medical care and food each day, and productive rebuilding activities can continue even after the sun goes down.”

D.light products were selected in a competitive process due to their brightness, reliability, and durability in rugged environments.  The Nova provides up to 12 hours of bright light on a single day’s charge; the Kiran provides up to 8 hours.  The solar lighting products will be distributed among aid agencies and earthquake victims in the affected areas, depending on where local government officials and aid workers determine the greatest needs are. 

In the coming months, D.light expects to continue to work with international aid organizations in the ongoing recovery and rebuilding processes.

“D.light has thousands of customers in Haiti, so we feel particularly close to this disaster,” said D.light President Ned Tozun.  “We are committed to working closely with our partners in Haiti now, and in the future, as the Haitian people rebuild their lives.  We believe that having access to clean, safe and bright light will significantly improve their quality of life as they embark on the long rebuilding process, and D.light wants to continue to serve them in this journey.”

This is the first time that D.light has participated in an international disaster relief effort on such a scale.  Previously, D.light distribution partner Food for the Poor had provided over 7,000 Nova products to impoverished families in Haiti.


 

It has been quite a while since we have blogged, but that just means D.light is moving faster than ever!

I am making my second trip to East Africa this year, where we continue to see serious kerosene accidents as well as innovative campaigns.

On Jan 25th, D.light launched the “Right to Safe Light” Campaign in Tanzania, in partnership with social media platform Femina HIP. The campaign is a reaction to over 15 fires in schools and household during the last year as a result of children studying with kerosene or candles during the night. The campaign aims to create awareness among schools, parents and students about consumer solar products as an alternative to dangerous and polluting kerosene lamps and candles as study light. The best part is the campaign's front figure - the famous poet Mrisho Mpoto (popularly known as Mjomba).  Mjomba has made himself the face of the campaign across the country by making songs, doing multiple media interviews on Tanzania’s largest channels, and leading outreach activities to quickly build awareness on the dangers of kerosene usage.  D.light’s products are front stage at all locations (but the shirt is purely a Mjomba creation).

As part of the campaign around education, D.light also launched a Youth Solar Entrepreneur Competition that asked students to write a business plan detailing current lighting sources in their village and how they would start selling solar lights in their village. We received more than 140 applications and awarded three Solar Entrepreneurs with exciting visions of how solar would benefit them, where would they sell solar lamps, and how would they do their financing and marketing. Congrats to these young entrepreneurs!

I hope you have heard about D.light’s new product we launched in October! Ned and I started this company to design and distribute low cost solar solutions to those without electricity.  At Rs. 499 ($10) we have released a product that will directly replace kerosene lanterns. It opens up an entirely new market segment – getting closer to those we really want to serve. And the initial feedback is looking great with distributors and partners purchasing volumes that we can all be excited about.

If you are a villager that has 2 kerosene lanterns (Rs. 150 or $3 each) and spend Rs. 40 per lantern on fuel you now have an option that is brighter, cleaner, more durable, and far more functional that pays for itself in 3-4 months (with zero recurring costs)!

I was in a super remote village outside of Rampur, UP during our “Go to Market” activity, where a 90 year-old man tried the light for a few minutes and slowly reached into his pocket to lay Rs. 500 on the table.  His family said nothing beats the price, durability, and brightness of the Kiran for someone who cannot carry a kerosene lantern and is afraid of burning himself. 

We have designed the highest quality product for the price and now turn our attention to the sales challenge – how do you gain access to the hundreds of millions of kerosene customers living in rural India (or East Africa) and provide them with solar education and an affordable alternative? 

Heres a blurb about our new baby:
Kiran (“ray of light” in Hindi) is the world’s most affordable high quality solar light, and was specially designed to enable all families to opt out of using kerosene, and immediately adopt a brighter, safer, less expensive, healthier and longer-lasting option. It is perfect for hanging, using on a table, carrying, or mounting on a wall, and can be used when walking, cooking, studying, bicycling, or virtually any other situation where electricity is not reliable. The Kiran is light weight, extremely durable, portable, and easy to charge and use. It provides up to 8 hours of light, has 2 settings, and is 3 times brighter than a kerosene lantern. Kiran comes with a built-in solar panel but also is AC compatible with a standard Nokia charger. The panel and the light are water and impact resistant.

And Congrats to our Product Design Team – Kiran recently won the Spark! Awards for Highest Design Honors.

Our fabulous BD fellow in China is moving on to be with his wife-to-be.  Apply to join our team and help us at this critical time of growth.  As our BD Fellow in India, Anay Shah, told me "the beauty of this fellowship is that at D.light if you have a good idea and the bandwidth to execute, you can literally shape the future of the off-grid lighting market around the world!"

D.light Design Fellows Program
D.light Design is seeking passionate and talented professionals to contribute to one of the world’s leading social enterprises through 6-month+ fellowship. As a company that strives for excellence and innovation, we are committed to providing our fellows with a uniquely invigorating, challenging, and life-changing experience. Fellows will be supervised by one of our senior managers and partner with our diverse team across three continents and multiple countries. Each fellow will be a major part of growing a multi-national, one-of-a-kind company that will alter the global landscape.

www.dlightdesign.com/fellows.html

International Business Development Fellowship Description
The Fellow will work in the Shenzhen, China office, and will be supervised by the International Sales Manager. The fellowship is for a minimum of 6 months, but individuals who are able to commit to 9 months or more are preferable. There may be some additional travel to international markets.

The ideal start date is before January 1st, 2010, but this is flexible depending on the candidate. The Fellow will be provided with a small living stipend and housing. The International Business Development Fellow will support D.light’s international sales efforts as well as lead various projects and studies in connection with D.light’s new market development strategy.

The Fellow will be expected to engage in:
* Market Research - Conduct a study to determine feasibility of entering strategic
* markets and monitor business landscapes in prospective countries in terms of both market and non-market forces
* Emerging Markets Development - Develop distributor relationships and institutional partners (public sector and NGOs) in emerging markets on an ongoing basis
* Marketing Support – Assist the international sales manager in providing marketing support to key distributors
* Partnership System - Create systems to identify new international partners and gather best practices for developing those relationships
* Field Work - Participate in field work as necessary

Qualifications
All fellows are expected to be passionate about D.light's mission to develop high quality solutions for families living without adequate electricity. They should be committed to completing their deliverables during the fellowship period and be willing to work long hours in order to do so.

The International Business Development Fellow should also have the following qualifications:

* 2-5 years of professional experience in management consulting, business development or international sales within a multi-national company
* Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in related field; MBA or related graduate degree preferred
* Experience in developing countries and base-of-the-pyramid markets strongly desired
* Ability to think creatively about business development in new markets
* Solid project management, research and analytical skills
* Excellent written and oral English communication skills, with fluency in a additional languages preferred
* Advanced Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint skills
* Detail-oriented, highly-motivated, independent worker
* Desire to work in social enterprise
* Enjoys the fast-paced, high-pressure environment of a start-up
* Ability to live in China for the duration of the fellowship and travel to D.light markets as needed to conduct field visits

How to Apply
Interested applicants should complete the Fellows Program application  and submit their most recent CV/resume.


 

We promise you'll roll up your sleeves at D.light! (d.light employees moving Novas during an office flooding)

As part of National Design Week, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is sponsoring a competition in which good design is chosen by the public.

The D.light Kiran is currently in the top 5 out of 170 entries!  Check out the description and if you like the design give us your vote! 
http://peoplesdesignaward.cooperhewitt.org/2009/nominee/2165

At $10, the Kiran (‘Ray of Light’ in Hindi) replaces 2 kerosene lanterns, provides 8 hours of light on one day’s charge and pays for itself in just 4 months. But it all begins with good design!

Thanks for your support! 
http://peoplesdesignaward.cooperhewitt.org/2009/nominee/2165

Customers are behind everything we do – particularly new product design.  But every time we go out to our consumers, the voices speak loud ... we need to reduce cost.  To go deeper we've got to become leaner, innovate and stretch ourselves to get to the people who really, really need our product solutions.

Usually, it's about getting to the next, higher, level.  But not for social enterprises working at the BOP.  We're looking to go the next, lower level, and this coming month we will do just that.

The D.light design team just returned from researching a new consumer base – one that has just experienced the latest product offering from D.light.  These potential users have very little grid connection and typically survive on 1-3 kerosene lanterns per household. Our proposition – an ultra-affordable kerosene replacement that is designed specifically for them.

It's often a nervous moment to release a new product, but like any singer auditioning for a music career, you do your best, and wait to hear the audience's response.  Will it be cheers, or jeers?

While interviewing a new consumer, a small crowd formed around us - everyone leaning in to listen intently to the conversation happening in their village.  At the center was a light source.  The villager was explaining his experience with this intriguing device.  He explained the benefits of the product to the interviewer, and the crowd around him nodded approvingly, commenting to one another.

After the interview, the crowd began to ask questions. One man in particular pushed his way forward and asked where he could get such a product from.  As this new item was yet to be fully sold, the interviewer explained that he would have to wait.  The man asked about the sample version that the design team was holding.  Could he purchase that?  He asked the price and immediately reached into his pocket.  The team insisted that the product was not boxed, was only a sample, and came with no instruction or warranty card.  This didn't matter to the man.  He wanted the product and he wanted it on the spot.

For the design team, this was the "moment of truth."  This product sells itself.  The design team executing the research were not sales people; they had no promotional materials with them; there was no fanfare associated with their activities; there was no intention to sell to individuals ... and yet there it was - "a sale."

When this happens, you know you've got it right. We are a design company that must constantly innovate to meet our ambitious goals and become the leading provider of off-grid modern lighting solutions. But there is always that wonder if the product you pour your love and energy into will really be what people want.  We are now going into the launch of this new product with a bit more confidence!

One year after the Lehman Bros. collapse, TIME has issued an interesting special on responsibility and service in business: how companies big and small, old and new — and consumers too — are changing the world.  D.light is featured as one of their 25 Responsibility Pioneers.

The past few weeks D.light has also been featured in a number of different publications.  Check out:

o Outlook Business: Lighting Up Lives.  50 people are featured in this great round-up of social entrepreneurs in India.

o Financial Express: D.light is one of three firms in India on the Global Cleantech 100 list

o From the Global Atlanta to the New Zealand Herald – interest in lights is spreading fast!

o And if you are interested in some of the challenges we are facing along the way, see  Measuring Life at the Base of the Pyramid.

And stay tuned for a major D.light announcement coming in the days ahead….

Greetings, Social Edge readers, from Ned Tozun, President & Co-Founder of D.light. Sam and I have been working together since day one of this great adventure, when we paired up as graduate business students in the "Design for Extreme Affordability" class at Stanford University.

First, a quick introduction to me: I have an engineering background, having studied both Computer Science and Environmental Studies at Stanford as an undergrad. After that I started up several companies, including one focused on making customized music for children in the US, Europe, and Japan. I am an entrepreneur at heart; I love to come up with great ideas and bring them to fruition.

By far, though, D.light is the most exciting, meaningful, and challenging enterprise that I have been a part of starting. The scope of what we're trying to do, and the pace at which we are attempting to meet our goals, is occasionally daunting but always motivating.

While Sam has been setting up the India office, in parallel, I've been establishing our Manufacturing and Development office, located in Shenzhen, China.

Almost exactly 20 years ago, Shenzhen was designated as a Special Economic Zone, an area in which the Chinese government deliberately invested significant capital to create a thriving economic environment that would attract foreign investment and foster domestic economic growth.  By all accounts, they have succeeded tremendously in their goal. Formerly a fishing village, Shenzhen today is a bustling metropolis of over 15 million people.  The city attracts workers from every province and corner of the country, many of whom leave their families behind to try to make a living in this fast-growing urban center.

Shenzhen is also one of the manufacturing capitals of the world, with nearly every product you can imagine, from textiles to electronics, produced within 100 kilometers of the D.light office. The pace and volume of growth and activity in this city is phenomenal, spawning a local saying that things here happen "at Shenzhen speed." Across from the 35-story apartment complex in which my wife and I moved into a year ago, a 40-story building has sprung up across the street in a matter of months.

The D.light China office consists of our product engineering and manufacturing team, as well as a small finance team for the company. About one-third of the staff are expats from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the USA and the other two-thirds are Chinese Nationals. True to the character of the city, we have staff from Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Heliang provinces. I appreciate that the cross-cultural experiences are not limited to the expats, as even our Chinese staff need to spend time understanding one another's home regions.

There are many ways in which Shenzhen feels like the Silicon Valley of China: It's the upstart business environment that is significantly newer than cities like Beijing and Shanghai; it's full of young, well-educated professionals who are talented, adventurous, and ambitious; it's the technology hub of the country, with everything from PDAs to mobile phones to watches to LCD screens to iPhones being designed, manufactured, sold, and shipped from here. Quality can vary widely, so supplier selection, vetting and monitoring is critical; but in short, it's the perfect place for D.light to find the best manufacturing partners and suppliers in the world to provide affordable and high quality products for our customers.

And it's certainly a fascinating place to have both professional and personal cultural adventures, such as learning the local languages and getting accustomed to the local cuisine (the residents of Guangdong are notorious throughout the country for their extreme love of eating every kind of meat imaginable). We also cater our team-building activities to appeal to both locals and expats, having organized multiple badminton competitions, karaoke nights, and team dinners.

This is the first in a series of posts I hope to contribute over the coming months, so stay tuned!  Now that you have an image of where D.light China is, I will share some more observations about our role in helping D.light execute its mission.


 

Twenty-seven days ago I received a clear reminder that D.light is moving in the right direction – by hiring Mandeep Singh – a highly successful senior professional with a fascinating background – as our new COO. Bringing on board talented, Indian staff with experience in sales and rural marketing, is extremely difficult and even more time consuming.  But few things are as important to the future of a growing enterprise. I am really excited to have Mandeep help run operations in India, after over 25 years working for everyone from Kodak to rural marketing start-ups.

Keeping with D.light tradition (and policy!), we planned a trip to the field within Mandeep’s first month. He and I spent two days visiting with distributors, dealers, rural entrepreneurs – our company's primary "touch points" across India. Coming from an FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) background, Mandeep quickly recognized our growing open market sales infrastructure of distributors and dealers as similar to how the best companies began to move razors and batteries to every corner of India.  But, as usual, our most memorable moment came from one of our customers.

We travelled to the villages near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh to visit Amit, one of our top rural entrepreneurs, who has sold 265 Nova lights in a matter of months. We entered a few villages that do not fit the typical demographics of our customers -  these richer villagers were owners of tractors, inverters (battery back-up for a home), and even solar water heaters. They were not the customer with no electricity that we are used to serving. Despite the supposed lack of need, every fourth home in this village had a Nova! 

When we asked around to understand why, one couple exclaimed “Aap to Bhagvan roop ho aur yeh light Bhagvan ki den he” (You are like a God and this product is like a gift from God). While we are not that good (yet), I was surprised to find our products useful and loved by customers who are quite rich by rural standards. They had recommended it to relatives coming from over 1500 km away because kerosene was still a high cost for portable light and after 10 months of useage they had not had any technical glitchs. One night, the husband recalled, the Nova even saved him from getting bit by a cobra!

There are few products sold in the rural market that are featured at the center of someone’s home, where important items for the entire family are kept. Despite their relative wealth, this family from Aligarh still found the Nova a precious investment and showed us how they kept it 20 feet from the entrance.  As a CEO, I spend a majority of my time solving problems and hearing about what is wrong – as I leave for a much needed vacation, it’s nice to remember the emotional connection our diverse customers have to our products.

The family from Aligarh

 

When I joined D.light 10 months ago, I posted a blog about my first day.  Now in my last week after unbelievable learning with a great team of people, I’ve got a few takeaways to share: 

Technology seems to become obsolete every few months.  So do start-up plans, processes, and organizational structures. I remember when I started and asked Sam if I could see their strategic plan as I got up to speed.  He laughed and said, “Ha! Oh, that won’t help you now – it’s 2 months old!”  Even though technology becomes outdated, the fundamental science allows for its continued improvement; in the same way, if the fundamentals of a business are solid, changes can be powerful and necessary enhancements to the organization’s guiding principles.  I started reporting directly to Sam in a six-person office.  Sam now is a true global CEO of a 71-person company, and there are (rightfully so) two layers between us (a COO and a Head of Business Development).  Two weeks ago our newest BD fellow came onboard.  He asked me if there was a strategic document he could read over.  I smiled and said, “No – but why don’t you join me on a call with our newest strategic partner?” 

Understand reality & the full context.  We work with financing institutions to get people consumer financing for our lights.  For one of our initial pilots with a rural regional bank, we had designed a loan structure, fulfillment process and marketing plan that we were feeling pretty excited about.  But when we launched, not a single order was placed.  We discovered then that many branch managers at this particular institution had apparently become accustomed to receiving bribes for the large tractor loans they typically saw.  Processing our small loan applications was not a priority in that environment.  We learned to pay a lot of attention to incentives and context from then on! 

Young people can do anything! (Kind of) Growing up in the Bay Area where you see 20-somethings building successful businesses left and right, I was told and believed that I could achieve anything.  My Mom still believes this.  But my 26-year-old confidence that I can do anything I set my mind to has been tempered by my experience at D.light recognizing how valuable people who have had years of experience with sales and marketing in India have been on our team.  Yes, we have energy, are smart, and can do it!  But I have been humbled by how crucial deep functional expertise is when working in an established field. 

If you’re running a social enterprise, guess what?  You’re running a business.  I was psyched to join D.light and do work that would be personally fulfilling and directly help underserved populations I cared about.  While that motivation is still true, I realized I was surprised to find the day-to-day work of a real business.  I’m not walking door to door giving poor people light.  I’m often sitting in an office at my computer.  And once in a while I remember that what we’re doing is having a huge impact on poor households, and think, “Yay!” and smile.  Then I go back to work building sales projection tools and designing the incentive structure of a marketing campaign.

What D.light is doing is hard.  I could have told you that 10 months ago, but I wouldn’t have internalized it.  We initially focused on a skeptical market of poor rural Uttar Pradesh households (not your easiest sell).  We have to distribute in deep rural areas where the largest multinationals struggle to set up shop.  We make electronic problems (unlike potato chips, they sometimes – very rarely, but sometimes – have problems and need repairing).  It takes a lot of effort to hire the right people (in India most high-performers would prefer a stable job with a big multi-national over a riskier one with a start-up).  I could go on.

But you know what?  We’re doing it.  And doing it pretty well.  From cracking the model of consumer financing partnerships to get our products into the hands of poor rural consumers who need it most, to launching innovative market education campaigns in new states, to creating innovative new (get excited!) products in our product design room, D.light is on its way to making kerosene lighting a thing of the past, and bringing bright affordable light to households everywhere.  That is awesome, and it’s been a privilege to be part of this organization.  Sam, Ned and the rest of the leadership team deserve huge accolades for commitment, leadership and smarts like I’ve never seen.  There’s a reason VC firms are said to invest in people, not just ideas.  I think they made some good calls investing in D.light.
 

India office bowling goodbye to Christina

The energy at the event was palpable, as Rob Katz from Acumen Fund describes in his blog about the event.  As D.light was one of the award finalists, the Sankalp team created a short video on D.light - check it out below. 

It’s all about Finance.  We know that the poorest customers often need consumer financing to purchase our lights – and that they often do not have the cash flow to pay for the full amount up-front.  When these customers have access to a microloan for the light, they can repay it incrementally with money they would have otherwise spent on kerosene.  We are working with financing institutions that can offer loans to their clients for our lights; Shell Foundation will help us with risk capital to jumpstart these relationships. 

And it’s all about Marketing.  People need to understand how solar works and know about D.light for us to convert them into customers.  With Shell funding we can test out a variety of marketing activities, from grassroots promotions to mass media radio ads.  Once we identify the most effective strategies, we’ll integrate those into our ongoing operations. 

These two pieces – market education and financing – will help us effectively reach more people closer to the base of the pyramid.  The planning for these activities is underway!  The timing is perfect as we’ve been setting up our distribution network across specific Indian states.  We are excited to use Shell Foundation funds to reach deeper rural than we could on our own, to test out marketing activities, and to learn what combinations of consumer financing and market education will allow us to achieve higher penetration and truly move the needle in eradicating kerosene.


 

We have sales offices in India and East Africa, but do sell to other countries worldwide, primarily Asia and Africa via large distributors and partners.  And now going full circle back to my roots, through Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa!  Well, we haven’t exactly gotten that channel sorted yet, but we do have my cousin, a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal.  Here is an excerpt from a letter from my cousin Dana:

“Nothing solar is available in the markets around me. People tell me you can get solar lights in Dakar but they are expensive and not that great. The people in my village, especially the teachers, are in love with the dlights. Everyone keeps asking when they will be able to buy them in Senegal and how much they cost? How much do you sell them for now? The teachers at my school are all ready to set up distribution points and make loads of money selling the lights. They even think they would be a big hit in Dakar because power outages are so frequent. They also want you to send a container of the lights for them to sell as a "test batch". Lots of ideas, as you can see...”

Lots of ideas, and lots of them being tested and refined, both here in India and beyond.  We’re excited to continue sharing those with you as we roll-out new sales channels, market education campaigns, and more!

TiE - a global entrepreneurs' network - has sifted through over 1,500 nominees to select 150 finalists for the TiEcon 2009's 50 "Hottest Emerging Companies" award.  D.light is honored to be among the finalists, and if you have have a chance before voting closes on May 7th, go to http://www.tie50.net/polling/ to cast your vote!

Our staff has certain favorite neighbors – our chaiwalla, who makes delicious ginger, cardamom and masala spiced chai for us several times a day; the “shack” around the corner that makes the best lunches around; and, of course, our samosa lady.  Ms. Gupta is out there first thing in the morning making puri (common breakfast food) and stays into the evening satisfying customers with her vegetarian samosas. 

Five weeks ago our product development team gave Ms. Gupta a Nova S150 – our flagship solar-powered lamp – and watched.  She immediately replaced her expensive Petromax lamp with the Nova, charging it from her stall during the day, and switching it on as evening descended.  A few things about Petromax – it’s expensive, bright (often “too bright”, shining directly in customers’ eyes), liable to spills and gives off a lot of heat – a negative in summers as temperatures rise to more than 45 degrees Celsius.  Switching to the Nova she reported a number of improvements – softer bright light, ability to hang it from the corner of her cart and get a better lighting angle to see what she was doing, and a true money saver.  She would recover the cost compared to her Petromax expenditure in just 5 months!  And free solar-powered light for years thereafter…

The last interesting tidbit is that the Nova acts as her cart’s “headlight” as she wheels it back to her home each night.  She couldn’t keep the Petromax turned on while moving the cart for fear that it would spill, but with the Nova lighting her route she feels safer and less likely to get hit along the road.

While we generally think of our products as being for the rural market, there exists a ready market with urban street vendors that we are excited to continue exploring!

Ms. Gupta cooking during the day - panel is on the wall behind her charging the Nova.

Ms. Gupta and customers under the light of the Nova.

• Fortune Magazine, “Making money with tech products for the developing world”
• Business Week, “America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs”
  • Ned and I are listed among the top 25 – read through the many awesome businesses in the slide show, and if you think D.light holds the most promise, feel free to vote for us to be in the top 5!
• Business Week, “Making a Profit and a Difference”