Our Last Visit to Griselda
Yesterday, we had our final meeting with Griselda at her clinic. We feel like regulars now when we take the metro to Tasquena station and then the Tren Ligero to Xochimilco. The purpose of our final meeting was to have an extensive discussion with Griselda about what her ideal financial contract with InVenture would look like. We will be buying her an ultrasound machine in mid-September that is valued at $8,800 USD. We have decided that InVenture will put in $5,000 of this amount, while APROS will provide a flexible loan for the remainder of the money.
Our approach to this pilot is an experimental one. In order to design the most beneficial financial contract for micro-enterpreneurs, the best thing is to talk to them directly about their financial needs. What we learned from Griselda was that she would like longer payback periods (about 1 month), a longer-term loan (~24 months), and most importantly that a profit-sharing model would be beneficial for her. Because of the cycles in her business, she would appreciate paying a portion of her profits each month as opposed to interest. Taking all of these requests into account, we are now setting out to determine the exact terms of our equity contract.
Tuesday turned into great day to be in Milpa Alta because it was the start of their annual town festival. Around 3pm Griselda’s family, clinic staff, and the two of us went to the local community center for free food, mariachi music, and dancing. Later that evening, Griselda took us to the town church, beautifully decorated with flowers and artwork for the festival.
The picture above is one we took with Griselda and her family outside the Los Angeles clinic! We are really going to miss her! We are looking forward to working with her in the coming months to start implementing her contract and growing her business! Our work with Griselda is our first step in expanding the InVenture model throughout Mexico!
