When it became clear that I would spend the next 3–4 decades solving for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), I had to decide how to legally structure my social venture. Here are the three big reasons that pushed me towards registering my venture as a for-profit -
1. The Ability to Experiment.
In the beginning, I didn’t have a model — impact, business, or otherwise. I just had a few hypotheses, a very real problem, and a research-backed insight: increasing physical activity could significantly reduce the risk of NCDs, especially among low-income families in low- and middle-income countries.
I imagined the work to be translating this solution insight into a repeatable and scalable impact model.
The non-profit approach — starting with a Theory of Change and then creating a logframe — felt too rigid to me. I gravitated toward the Lean Startup Methodology: running experiments with the explicit purpose of figuring out what works.
2. Treating our Beneficiaries as Customers
I love the insight from Jacqueline Novogratz that when it comes to serving the poor, markets can be an efficient listening device. The approach of treating our intended beneficiaries as customers also gave us a better chance of designing something they truly want, rather than what we assume they need. For example, getting children to be more active is the core insight. But when we frame it as a high-quality physical education program for low-income schools, the game changes. The moment you introduce a transaction, you start learning what the school would really want and like to see.
3. Staying Focused on Solving, Not Just Fundraising
Most social sector organizations are founded with the intent to serve a beneficiary. But time and again I have witnessed many well-meaning organizations pandering to funders, the ones who pay the bills and not the intended beneficiary. At the end of the day, the reality of most non-profit organizations is that they serve the funder, who is the real customer. Philanthropy is definitely needed — especially when serving low-income families — but I didn’t want to spend more time fundraising than building solutions that work.
In Part 2, I share why — after 8 years of running this as a for-profit — I’m even more convinced this was the right choice, and what it’s taught me about building for impact at scale.