COURTNEY: An excerpt from Courtney’s journal- Day 3

Matt and I were sitting in the lobby of Kenya Commercial Bank fidgeting nervously. Matt looks at me. “Nervous?”. “No”, I lied and hoped I sounded convincing. I really wasn’t nervous until that moment. It was just that now this whole non-profit thing seemed so real, so tangible- like we actually had something to lose if we blew this meeting. Kenya Commercial Bank is one of the largest and most prestigious banks in Kenya. We were sitting on the 8th floor, the executive floor, waiting to be called in to meet with the CEO. The contact was given to me by my lovable Kenyan Harvard Professor, Professor Juma. Matt and I stayed up until 2am preparing our powerpoints for our three meetings today.

The first went incredibly well. I mean better than we could have ever hoped for. It was with the Vice Chancellor of KCA University- another contact given to us by Professor Juma. It was our first meeting, and I was prepared to be ignored or shuffled out the door after 20 minutes. “Oruoch,” A small man with eyes filled with the kind of wisdom only gained by experience ,said extending his hand. Matt and I were both confused. “Oh, Dr. Oruoch”, I stammered, “nice to meet you.” “You’re Rountree?” he says acting a bit surprised. “Umm yes, that’s me” I say with a big smile. He leads us into his office and we sit in plush leather chairs. Dr. Oruoch was making some joke about matatus, and I had a chance to observe him. He was wearing a light colored suit with a bright orange t-shirt. I was wishing I could pull off wearing a suit with a bright colored t-shirt as well as he did. After a few minutes of pleasant chatting, he jumps right in, “So, I read your proposal, and I really love the idea. I called Juma and said ‘bring me Rountree!’”. I blushed. I wasn’t expecting him to have read my proposal. It was an amateur 2 page document I had written back in February when I applied for funding from Harvard to come to Kenya this summer. It was forwarded to him months ago. The whole conversation proceeded with mutual excitement about the possibilities for collaboration. They even offered to give us workspace and a student intern for the summer. Amazing.

Now the receptionist was calling us in, staring at us curiously, probably wondering how in the world we had landed time with the CEO. I scanned the room…the long, expensive looking oak table, the large powerpoint screen, the refreshments in the corner, the expensive paintings on the wall. Yep, this was really it. The executive board room. Matt and I had been to this room before in other companies, only for a completely different purpose. It was usually because a partner was presenting the three months of grueling work we had done. This was different- we were here for a purpose, and the two of us were actually the focus of the meeting. Wilfred introduced himself as the “Head of SME Finance”. He was a sharp looking Wall Street kind of character. Dr. Oruoch joined us. Wilfred explained that the CEO was stuck in traffic, and he would be taking his place. Well, at least the CEO sent us the right person to talk to I thought. Wilfred mmmmhmmm’ed and uhhhhuhh’ed the whole time I was talking, feigning interest and checking his blackberry. He then proceeded to give us a thirty minute presentation on KCB’s SME strategy. I wondered how many times he’d given this presentation. We had to do something quick. I waited for the pause and jumped in, “Do you target start-ups for loans?” “No”, he answered honestly. “We’ve thought about it but haven’t done anything in that space yet.” That was everyone’s story, and this is precisely reason we are here this summer. “Well”, I proceeded, “this just made me realize how much potential we have to help each other. I mean we are basically creating an SME pipeline for you- a pipeline of the most qualified and well vetted SMEs in the country.” Matt nodded at me when he saw Wilfred’s eyes start to twinkle. And then we went for it. “However”, I said, “we really need funding, and we think that it would be great to get funding from your corporate foundation because that would actually help both of us.” I have never been a blunt person- always a bit shy in asking for money. I wasn’t this time. Wilfred was all smiles. The grey in the room turned into a rainbow, and I almost thought I could hear birds singing outside. Matt and I left with smiles too.

The confidence only lasted a few days until we were stood up for a lunch meeting. “Sorry, my meeting went over”, our interviewee said. We looked at the newspaper spread out in front of him. He followed our eyes to his newspaper and continued..”and this is my only time to read the newspaper.” I guess you win some and lose some. However it all turns out though, win or lose, it promises to be an incredible summer.