Found out Wednesday that my Grandad had been diagnosed with cancer. Being separated from family during these times is definitely something I considered before coming over here, but it doesn’t lesson the feeling of just wanting a hug from my dad. Between abbreviated phone calls with family at home it has been a rough few days.

My first recourse is to start pounding away on the excel models, maybe microfinance can buy me a bit of karma. Then Thursday I got to trek across town for a different type of coping.  LifeSpring maternity hospitals run perhaps one of the most innovative and inspiring socail enterprises I have seen; top quality, no frills, extremely affordable  health care ($35/ delivery, inclusive of all consultations and medicines) done at the only level feasible in India- massive scale.

LifeSpring succeeds in offering a valuable service to those at the bottom of the pyramid by being led by a passionate, energetic entrepreneur; a rockstar core management team and a blushingly proud hospital staff “we wouldn’t work anywhere else.”

Being at the hospital and seeing the new parents, seeing their optimism- they are going to raise their children in an India where literally anything is possible. Absolute emotional high.

And this is one of the reasons it is so exhilarating working at Spandana- getting to partner with organizations like LifeSpring. We are placed at the nexus- a huge customer base that we touch every week; to the extent we are able channel meaningful products like maternity health to them- we can go far beyond credit in the impact we make. It helps you remember what can get lost in the maze of conference calls, models and business planning. At the end of this chain, we may have just given that little boy or girl a better chance to succeed.

Start timing us, lets see how fast we can scale this.

Tyler Bolender (Spandana)
Saturday, February 09, 2008 4:29 PM