Friday Find: Don Bosco

Don Bosco is a remarkable organization that provides education to disadvantaged students all over the world, including the USA. You can learn more about them at by searching on-line.

I recently visited a local vocational institute in Dar es Salaam. This school not only trains students, it defrays most of its expenses by selling the goods that the students make. We are looking into how we might be able to use this production to assist the bicycle factory.

Here’s what makes this a Friday find: you don’t expect to find the most sophisticated machines in a country hidden in a vocational school but that is exactly what I found.

Pictured below is the machine shop, which also has a high-end CNC machine and an automated motor winding machine.

If you are continuing the bicycle factory story, go here (not posted yet).

Bicycle Factory Chapter 3: On the Trail of Welders

(This is part of a multipart story. To start at the beginning, please go here: http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/bicycle-factory-chapter-1.html)

Well, I had stopped at Wonder Welders, was impressed with their art and their work, but not their welding. In fact, I had looked at welding all over Tanzania and it was often very poorly done, including on the few locally made bicycles. I asked Elly Kay, the director at Wonder Welders if she had further ideas about where I might find good welders. She said sure, right down the street, just go and ask for “fundi Peter”. ‘Fundi’ is the universal Swahili term for ‘technician’. It can apply from everything from a traffic cop, to a cell phone seller, to a welder.

So I went looking for fundi Peter. This street specialized in a variety of construction related trades. The one that broke my heart were men, many women and a few children breaking stones down into gravel. Piece by piece. Some with hammers. Some with bigger stones. They sat in the gravel and pounded the rocks between their legs without masks or gloves. I wasn’t able to get a good picture because taking pictures of people needs to be done with permission. But you can get the idea in the picture below.


I found fundi Peter. His carpentry and welding shop provides a variety of goods from bed frames to cabinets to metal trusses. (See a picture of his shop below)

The welding was great. It turns out that Peter has a ten year history of teaching welding at a vocational school called Don Bosco, right around the corner.

Not only had I found a welder, I found one that could keep a factory stocked with quality welders who knew what they were doing.

I talked to Peter and another partner that was there. Since then I’ve had two meetings with them; there are four partners in all, with Peter as the chairman. Our discussions have been very interesting.

When Cheetah invests in an entrepreneur, we need their all. Starting small businesses is very difficult work. Even in the USA, according to the SBA, about 80% don’t survive the 10 years, with 25% failing in the first year. So we need our entrepreneurial partners to be fully interested in making a success. To make sure of this we apply several methods but the two most important is to make sure they are focused on the business and that they provide part of the investment.

Providing part of the investment is not so much about how much money they are contributing, but that they are putting themselves meaningfully at risk. Cheetah won’t take a risk if they won’t. This keeps incentives aligned for success. Sometimes the risk is less about money than other things, like leaving a good job, committing resources, or pledging other assets.

One of the problems with this group of entrepreneurs is that they wanted to keep their existing business going along with joining the bicycle factory. They have a reasonable perspective: they want something to come back to in the event of failure and they want to make more money on the side. But it probably dooms the bicycle factory. The core work force cannot have another major project going on the side.

So I told them the story of the Spanish explorer, Hernando Cortez seeking to conquer Mexico. His problem: his men thought maybe they should return to the comfortable home in Cuba instead. When he landed in the Americas he told his troops to burn the boats. There was no going back. They were going to find a way forward.

“Burn the boats!” This has become part of every conversation with this group of entrepreneurs. They got it. So have I. Now we need the help of hundreds people like you to find the way forward.

Since Don Bosco was right around the corner, I left fundi Peter and his partners and went straight there for a reference. I got a very good reference from the headmaster. I think we’ve found the start for a bicycle factory operations department!

To continue the story of the bicycle factory go here: http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/friday-find-don-bosco.html

Here’s a picture of Peter (left) and one of his partners, Geofrey.

Bicycle Factory Chapter 3: Wonder Welders

(To start at the beginning, go to http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/bicycle-factory-chapter-1.html)

I was on the trail of finding welders to work in a possible bicycle factory . It was recommended that I stop by Wonder Welders and see what they have.

But let me back up a little. Tanzania has enlightened laws to protect the employment rights of handicapped people. But with only 15% employment (not UNemployment) a handicapped person, whether by birth or injury has little chance in the world.

There are a few organizations in Tanzania working to help. Wonder Welders is one of these. I met the new Director, Elly Kay in the workshop. Their organization employs exclusively handicapped men and women. They teach craft skills including welding, paper making, specialty soaps, glass bead creation, and more. At first they give some art guidance and then they set them loose to create. On May 29th, 2009, I stopped by and met them.

Using scrap materials, these artists make beautiful works that could be treasured across the world. They pay an above average salary and then give the artists a commission on everything of theirs that is sold. 44 disadvantaged people have a new life of dignity.

Wonder Welders is operating at about break even. It could use some accounting help to organize their finances and calculate the costs of pieces. We are looking to coordinate this with business students from the University of Dar es Salaam. (See related story.) There is more demand for their products than they are able to meet, but exporting has its own complications and requires building up a large enough stock to make it work. That requires cash flow and there is none available.

I didn't find welders for the bicycle factory, I did find artists!

Check out their website at http://www.wonderwelders.org/

Bicycle Factory Chapter 2

(To start this story at the beginning go to http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/bicycle-factory-chapter-1.html)

I want to tell at least one of the business stories in enough detail that there is a sense of how these things might develop and proceed. Of course, every story is unique but I don’t have the time and chances are neither does the reader, to hear them all.

Anyway, taking up from the last chapter…as my time to travel to Tanzania neared I was introduced to Chilwa Kiliaki. Chilwa is a woman who is a key policy maker in the Tanzanian central banking institution. She is full of energy, exuberance and joy. Her arrival is accompanied by a flurry. We were speaking on the telephone across many time zones and I was describing the Cheetah project to her. She asked what were some of the business ideas in which I was most interested. As I listed some off, she interrupted me with a burst of long laughter and then said, “Now I know you are directed by God because you are talking about bicycles.”

Well, I had not claimed to be directed by God and so this was her own conclusion. She said that she needed to tell me her own story: She was dreaming of starting businesses, especially in rural villages to help people. She wanted to start in the place her father was born and spread from there.


(In the picture above you see a store on wheels, selling rat poison. Stores like this are common. It had a continuous playing announcement. Notice the condition of the chain. The bike is now pushed everywhere it goes but it is still invaluable to its owner.)

Chilwa's thought was to open bicycle shops to sell to farmers because they can have such an impact on their lives. Three weeks prior she had been sent by the Tanzania government to China to study their economic policies to see if any might aid growth in Tanzania. While there, she visited Chinese bike manufacturers and shops to learn as much as possible.

When she returned she commissioned a report on the Tanzanian bicycle market. This is an important subject because bicycles can truly help to fight poverty. She said when I would come to Tanzania I would receive access to this report. For a company entering a market like this, such a report might be a great help. What an amazing ‘coincidence.’


Displayed prominently on her desk is a cell phone holder in the shape of a bicycle.




In her family room:




Eventually, she invited me to stay with her. Here is the light fixture in the room I am staying:





Chilwa said that these were chosen for their colors years ago, and she didn’t even think of them as bicycles until I noticed them.

...almost as if there was a plan ahead of time. (Ephesians 2:10)

(Story continues here: http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/bicycle-factory-chapter-3-wonder.html)

Bicycle Factory Chapter 1

This is the first installment in what hopefully will be a long enduring story.

In my first visit to Tanzania a year ago, I thought about possible businesses that could be started. One of my first ideas was a bicycle factory. Bicycles are very common here – but not nearly common enough. It is the transportation mode that most people aspire to have. Bicycles are not just for personal transport. They are trucks, taxis, and often key to a person’s livelihood. You can see them on many highways where even 10 miles from the nearest town there are many people riding – but also many people walking.

I lodged this in the back of my mind for many months.

Now fast forward with me to early in 2009. I had been introduced by Scott Hillstrom to a Jake Chaya. Scott had not given either of us a reason to meet but Jake said that he had known Scott for 20 years. Jake conveyed that Scott had perhaps even a spiritual gift for making introductions that were important. I believe this can be true because I have seen how Cheetah’s very existence has depended time and again on being introduced to the right person at the right time.

As Jake and I share our respective stories, I found that Jake had many projects going both in the USA and in the developing world. One of these was particularly interesting to me. Jake is involved in an organization that is working in Rwanda (adjacent to Tanzania on the west). This group (http://www.projectrwanda.org/) is working on delivering three wheel cargo bikes to poor farmers. They have created a solution that involves setting up bike shops with trained technicians, tools, inventory and parts – almost a franchise model. Then they have partnered with a microfinance organization that finances the bikes. (If you don’t know about microfinance, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance.) They are now selling many bikes; if I have my numbers straight, more than one per working day per store.

But according to Jake, Project Rwanda has a problem. The bikes are imported from China and are of very poor quality. China produces varying degrees of quality: one for the west, which is the highest standard, another for their own consumption and a third for the third world, which is very poor. As has been described to me, they look beautiful and shiny but the paint rubs right off and the frames fall apart. I have verified this with people in Tanzania.

Jake assures me that Project Rwanda is looking for a new source and they would prefer to by African, especially locally. Besides the poor quality, the cost of shipping the bikes from China is almost equal to the cost of the bike. This shipping problem is a built in protection for locally produced goods. Many products that are bulky and lack special technology or sources enjoy this benefit. Think of toilets, furniture, bread, etc. as examples.

But it got better. Project Rwanda has already had a cargo bike designed by an American bike designer and a prototype built.

‘Bike factory’ was moved from deep in the mental recesses to one of the most interesting ideas to consider.

(Story continues here: http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/bicycle-factory-chapter-2.html)