RE LOG - Spring 2017

SPRING 2017 Ransom Everglades LOG 15 I’m going to try to find a creative solution to this chronic problem. I never made it to Harvard Business School (my wife did). At the time, everybody – including my parents – thought I was nuts. How did you get your idea off the ground? The way I started was by approaching the companies that purchase these farmers’ products, asking if they’ll work with me. I literally pleaded with Green Mountain Coffee, Starbucks and importers selling to Whole Foods. I told them that I have an idea for how I can finance their otherwise un-bankable suppliers in the forests of the Andes or in Africa. Those suppliers don’t have assets that banks require as collateral to make a loan – like registered land titles, equipment, and buildings. Instead, I said Root Capital would lend against their purchase orders and contracts. What does that mean, exactly? If you went to Starbucks this morning, then thank you – you indirectly provided collateral for Education London School of Economics, MS Development Economics Yale University, BA history Honors Ransom Everglades Commencement Speaker, 2014 Council on Foreign Relations, Life Member Henry Crown Fellow, Aspen Institute, 2012 Forbes “Impact 30,” 2011 Young Presidents’ Organization, 2009 Young Global Leader, World Economic Forums, 2008 Ashoka Fellow, 2007 Skoll Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship, 2005 Willy Foote ’86 Willy Foote left his job on Wall Street to learn about the plight of family farmers in remote villages in Mexico, then bypassed a chance to attend Harvard Business School to start a non-profit organization that launched him into 17 years of global service. Through Root Capital, Foote and his colleagues around the world identify under-resourced agricultural-based businesses, and provide them with what they need to grow: access to capital and trade partners, business skills and environmental training. Since its inception, Root Capital has made more than $1 billion in loans to 630 agricultural businesses in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Together, those businesses have generated more than $6 billion in revenue and connected more than a million small-scale farmers to markets. the loans that we make to farmer cooperatives that grow that coffee. We provide these rural businesses with cash so that they can pay farmers up front when they deliver their crops, not at the end of the season. We also provide financing to help businesses expand their operations, buy equipment, and build factories. Simply put, we act as a bank in remote farming communities that rarely benefit from banks. And to be as close as possible to our clients, we have hub offices in Costa Rica, Peru, Kenya and Senegal. I’m traveling 40 percent of the time, sleeping in hammocks and playing my guitar in the villages where we work. What else does Root Capital do? It’s not enough to provide capital in order to address this market failure; we also need to provide education and workforce training. For example, we share expertise and financial management know-how through Founder and CEO of Root Capital Story continues, page 65