The Venture Edge

Way back in April 2009, I wrote a glowing post about my love affair with Kiva.org, the online microlending website. The idea is a great one: connect everyday people with entrepreneurs around the world who need small loans to start or grow their businesses. Go to the website, find an entrepreneur you want to loan $25 to, click and pay, and your money is winging its way into the pocket of your "adopted" small businessperson.

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.

Teach him how to fish and he will feed every day.

Loan him money for a boat and he will have a fishing business.

                                  -- Olivier Ozoux

Like my blog co-conspirator Kathy Allen, I too am a BIG fan of person-to-person microlending site Kiva.org. Over the past couple of years that I have been a member, I have made nine different loans to entrepreneurs around the world, including men and women in Senegal, Peru, Cambodia, Mexico, Tajikistan, Samoa, and Azerbaijan.I have been paid back in full on five of my loans, and the others are on their way. To date, Kiva has loaned more than $67 million by way of almost 100,000 individual loans. I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Kiva.org cofounder Matt Flannery (he and his wife Jessica came up with the idea for Kiva.org while they were working in Uganda for the Village Enterprise Fund) for my book Giving Back: Connecting You, Business, and Community. I thought it might be interesting to include here some excerpts from the interview pertaining to Matt's own entrepreneurial journey...