In my previous, previous blog, I teased about making money in poop. How?
This is part 2 of my IDC 2023 experience. One of my favorite talks in this conference was by Dr. Dato Kim Tan. He is the Chairman of SpringHill Management, a private fund management company specializing in biotech and social venture capital investments. He actually began his career as a scientist — he has PhD in biochemistry and he invented sheep monoclonal antibodies (not sure what that does, but you can google or duckduckgo).
Dr. Dato Kim grew up in Malaysia. He said his father was uneducated but because of hard work, his father managed to send him and his 8 siblings to the UK to study. He describes himself as a bit of a butterfly. He enjoyed creating new things and got bored creating the same product every week.
If I remember his story correctly, his career path changed when he visited Cape Town. It’s the most beautiful city on planet Earth, he said, but outside of Cape Town is the biggest slum in the world. He said,
“I could give them money, but that won’t change anything.”
He then began his investments in Africa — intentionally designing and building sustainable, scalable, and profitable businesses among the poor. “If it’s not profitable, then that’s charity.” Dr. Dato Kim does not believe in charity.
“No country was ever transformed by charity.” — Dr. Dato Kim Tan
So what does? He argues that long-term change is through entrepreneurship/enterprise. He added that we should not be judging people in poverty for their choices if we cannot give them alternatives. Case in point: waste management.
Now let’s talk about waste, specifically poop.
Among the many investments and successful businesses Dato Kim helped put up, this one is really fascinating. Way back in 2013, his company SpringHill UK invested in Sanergy, an innovative sanitation company based in Nairobi, Kenya that is providing low-cost toilet units and waste management services through a franchise model throughout urban slums in East Africa.
In that part of the world, there’s such a thing as flying toilets — a person defecates in a plastic bag, ties it, and throws it out the window. It flies and if you’re lucky, it could land on you.
You see, toilets are critical to getting people out of poverty (I remember Bill Gates has similar projects). Sanergy through Fresh Life, “works with municipalities, utilities and residents to deliver safe, equitable and sustainable sanitation, particularly in low income areas.”
Here’s how they do it:
They partner with municipalities to build water-less, container-based toilets in non-sewered informal settlements (this is a high-quality sanitation option vs the flying toilet).
These toilets are not free. A person who uses it needs to pay a fee because they’ve discovered installing these toilets for free does not create accountability. People vandalize on the walls, end up not taking care of it because nobody owns it.
Poop then gets collected and treated.
To treat the waste, they partner with Regen Organics, who convert the waste into agricultural inputs such as animal feeds.
Regen Organics raises Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BFSL) using feedstocks from (treated) human poo. Once mature, the BSF Larvae are pasteurized and dried making them 40% protein, rich in amino acids and fats, and is natural to the diets of chicken, fish, pork, and pets.
See, there’s money in poop! Helping people get out of poverty is to improve their way of living and the only way to make this endeavor sustainable is to make it profitable, not charity.
Dr. Dato Kim’s networth could probably be in millions of dollars, but when you see him in person, he dresses humbly, nothing fancy, you wouldn’t think he’s managing tens of millions of dollars for investment (ultra rich people are the ones who dress modestly). He has no aura of arrogance. He could actually just sit in his London office making tons of money by inventing biotech products, but he chose not to. Why? Here are some of the things he said:
“When we stand before our Lord and Master, He’s just gonna ask us a very simple question: What did you do with the gifts that I’ve given you?”
Loving God and loving your neighbor are the two sides of the same coin. You cannot love God and not love your neighbor. And you would not be able to love your neighbor as you ought if you don’t have the love of God inside you.
“God has given you the ability to create wealth not just for yourself, but also to be shared with others.”
We are only stewards. God has given you what you have and make the most of it.”
Dr. Dato Kim is using his business/investments to bring transformation to the world’s poor. He and his team do this to “restore broken lives, set the captives free, and restore God’s image in people’s lives”.
When asked how he selects businesses and startups to invest in, he evaluates them based on:
Competence, intelligence
Hard work
Integrity
Humility (Dr. Dato Kim considers this as most important for he said “pride kills relationships”)
How does he lead his business? He said he’s learned to step aside and bring others (people smarter than him). Also in his office, the CEO makes the coffee!
I should end this blog here, but wait! There’s more!
When asked if a business should still pay taxes knowing it will lose money and/or government officials steal taxes, this is what Dr. Dato Kim said,
“Developed countries only have 12-15% informal economy while developing countries have 50%. [Because an informal economy is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government], don’t complain when there are potholes in your roads. If there aren’t enough people paying taxes, there will not be enough funding. Good companies pay taxes.”
Real Christians live differently.
Watch the highlights from Intentional Discipleship Conference 2023! IDC is an open to all yearly conference held in CCF Main every January. Let me know if you’re interested to join next year. Let’s go together!