Samasource Give Work Not Aid
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REV: JUNE 18, 2012
FRANCESCA GINO BRADLEY R. STAATS
Samasource: Give Work, Not Aid
Work is at the core of human dignity: it is how we define ourselves and our position in the world. The disparity in access to decent work that pays a fair wage between rich and poor represents, in my mind, the biggest threat to global stability. — Leila Janah, CEO and founder, Samasource As she landed at the San Francisco International Airport, Leila Janah reflected on her most recent visit to Samasource’s delivery centers in Kenya. Founded in September 2008, Samasource connected over 1,500 people living in poverty to work over the Internet. The company secured contracts for digital services from large companies in the United States and Europe, divided the work up into small pieces (called “microwork”), and then sent it to delivery centers in developing regions of the world for completion through a web-based interface. Samasource, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with 20 people working at headquarters, was growing rapidly. By October 2011, the company worked with 16 partner delivery centers in South Asia (India and Pakistan), Africa (Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda), and Haiti (see Exhibit 1 for a map of Samasource’s partner delivery centers). The company had disbursed over $1 million in direct payments to workers. The data Samasource had collected showed that its work had an impact on over 6,000 people in these developing regions. While the company had come a long way since its founding, Janah also knew that it still had far to go to fulfill its mission of fighting poverty through the provision and execution of digital work. As she walked off the plane, her mind started racing with the scaling challenges the company faced. How could Samasource best secure additional funding to sustain and accelerate its growth? How could it best help entrepreneurs at delivery centers and workers develop new skills? And even more fundamentally, how could this social business efficiently
REV: JUNE 18, 2012
FRANCESCA GINO BRADLEY R. STAATS
Samasource: Give Work, Not Aid
Work is at the core of human dignity: it is how we define ourselves and our position in the world. The disparity in access to decent work that pays a fair wage between rich and poor represents, in my mind, the biggest threat to global stability. — Leila Janah, CEO and founder, Samasource As she landed at the San Francisco International Airport, Leila Janah reflected on her most recent visit to Samasource’s delivery centers in Kenya. Founded in September 2008, Samasource connected over 1,500 people living in poverty to work over the Internet. The company secured contracts for digital services from large companies in the United States and Europe, divided the work up into small pieces (called “microwork”), and then sent it to delivery centers in developing regions of the world for completion through a web-based interface. Samasource, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with 20 people working at headquarters, was growing rapidly. By October 2011, the company worked with 16 partner delivery centers in South Asia (India and Pakistan), Africa (Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda), and Haiti (see Exhibit 1 for a map of Samasource’s partner delivery centers). The company had disbursed over $1 million in direct payments to workers. The data Samasource had collected showed that its work had an impact on over 6,000 people in these developing regions. While the company had come a long way since its founding, Janah also knew that it still had far to go to fulfill its mission of fighting poverty through the provision and execution of digital work. As she walked off the plane, her mind started racing with the scaling challenges the company faced. How could Samasource best secure additional funding to sustain and accelerate its growth? How could it best help entrepreneurs at delivery centers and workers develop new skills? And even more fundamentally, how could this social business efficiently