Emily Kerr-Finell

The full story: A couple of years into leading Liga Masiva, the team and I started talking.  So much was thriving: an Oprah Magazine feature; positive farmer impact; and amazing customer feedback. But we had the sense that we weren’t doing what we set out to do. We set out to create the beauty, diversity, and power of a farmers’ market, on a global scale. We set out to connect thousands of farmers in Latin America, growing a beautiful range of products, to people in the US. We set out to build a Global Farmers’ Market and we knew we could get closer to what we had imagined.

So, in November of 2011, we decided to make our vision of a Global Farmers’ Market come to life. The Liga Box was a curated collection of tasty products direct from farmers in Latin America, brought to life by a magazine full of recipes, photos, and stories of the farmers who grew them. Intended to be the first edition of what we planned to make into a monthly experience, the first box was released in December 2011 (just 6 weeks after the first discussion).

It was a bold experiment with extremely impressive execution. While not a completely unmitigated success, in many ways, those 6 weeks were the model of what the company aspired to be. We truly proved that our model of Direct Trade could work in a different country, with different products, and with a very limited timeframe. 

In brief: In 2012, I collaborated with Farmigo to launch a new "food community" strategy, innovating a way to make local food more accessible and convenient.

The full story: Since I'm passionate about creating better ways for people to connect through food, I jumped at the opportunity to work with Farmigo. Farmigo’s simple mission is to get more healthy, local food to more people.

Farmigo's start came in 2009, and their focus was providing farmers the technology to manage their Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSAs.) CSAs are a great idea dating back to the 1960s, in which CSA members pay at the beginning of the growing season for a share of the anticipated harvest; once harvesting begins, they receive weekly shares of vegetables and fruit. But  only 1% of people in the US have joined a CSA, and 40% of CSA members drop out year to year. Farmigo saw a need and started to brainstorm around new ways to create local food communities.

I teamed up with Farmigo at a key inflection point. We knew we had to keep what is great about CSAs, but give members more variety, flexibility, and convenience. Farmigo brought me (on the East Coast) and Nate Jordan (on the West Coast) on to help create the strategy. Together, we began to ask what these new Food Communities might look like. We knew that success meant creating a phenomenal experience for the key stakeholders in these communities (hosts, farmers, and members.)

Within just 3 months, we used rapid iteration, design thinking, and cheap prototyping to launch several communities on both coasts, linking up local farmers (of vegetables, fruit, bread, honey, etc) and communities of folks that would love to eat a bit better... but need to find a convenient, easy way to do so. Each community hosts several different farmers at one easy pick-up spot, allowing members to sign up to subscriptions to produce of their choice and pick up their goodies weekly. 

Farmigo is set to launch thousands of these communities... and you can find one near you here.

In brief: As Founder & CEO of Liga Masiva, the core of our work was to build a new way to "do trade" with smallscale farmers. We had some phenomenal results.

The full story: From 2009 through 2012, I worked with some of my most incredible colleagues, visionary investors, and fantastic partners to found, lead, and grow a social enterprise called Liga Masiva. The vision for Liga Masiva was to create a global farmers’ market: connecting smallscale, organic farmers in Latin America directly to folks in the US. It is about turning a financial transaction into a human relationship. It is about addressing the causes, not the consequences, of poverty. And it is about making something we all take part in (growing and buying food) more just and more beautiful.

Throughout the entirety of our work at Liga Masiva, we were relentless in structuring our work to immediately and sustainably benefit the farmers that we worked with. As Bill Gates noted in his speech at the 2009 World Food Prize Symposium, “Three-quarters of the world's poorest people get their food and income by farming small plots of land... I believe that helping the poorest small-holder farmers grow more crops and get them to market is the world's single most powerful lever for reducing hunger and poverty.”

The goal, in fact, was not simply to benefit the farmers we bought from, but to construct a new, more just, way of doing trade. How we did that is pretty simple, really:

• Real direct trade. We bought direct from the people that grow the products and then sold  direct to the people that enjoy them. We visited  farms biannually; spoke with farmers regularly; met farmers' kids. And we created and signed completely transparent, long-term contracts that guarantee a price that is 200% what they could otherwise make.
• Access to information. In order for farmers to be fully in control of the trade of their goods, and despite barriers of literacy, electricity, and technology, farmers must have access to the information they need. So worked constantly  with farmers to facilitate information sharing, bring in experts, and support this savvy group with everything from facts about the supply chain, to coffee cupping, to best practices in repairing coffee depulpers.
• Access to capital. One big reason that smallscale farmers end up at the mercy of corporate buyers is that farmers need capital in the beginning of the season to fund maintenance and harvest costs that are incurred before the end-of-harvest sale. So we worked with Rafe Furst to fund and create a completely revolutionary preharvest loan program that reduces farmers’ interest rates from close to 40% to under 10%.

I firmly believe that this kind of approach-- one that works to address the causes, not the consequences of poverty-- is crucial for real change to take place. I'm incredibly proud of the work we did with these farmers and I hope that it serves as a platform for more innovation.

In brief: In 2006, I took on an engagement with Greenmarket, NYC to make farmers’ markets accessible to low-income families.

The full story: As awareness grew about "food deserts" in NYC, Greenmarket, the nonprofit that runs most of NYC’s farmers’ markets, focused on starting new markets in places where they were most needed. By 2006, there were many markets in low-income neighborhoods... but now Greenmarket was facing a new problem. 

Food stamps, which for many low-income families bridged the gap between their wages and their food needs, were transitioning from paper coupons to a debit-style “EBT Card.” Although the cards were more convenient, they had one big shortcoming: farmers couldn’t scan the cards because they didn’t have the required (and costly!) electronic terminals. 

Greenmarket came up with a great solution: buy one wireless terminal for each market, have the market manager scan the EBT cards, and give people “tokens” with which to pay the farmers. , giving people “tokens” with which to pay the farmers. A year after the launch of the program, the team wasn't seeing the results they had expected. They had secured grant funding and set up the machines, but few people were using them and it wasn't clear why. 

I joined the team just as the second season of the EBT program was set to begin. My job was to create and implement a strategy to encourage low-income families to use their EBT cards at the markets. By partnering with local community leaders, using cross-cultural communication and simple skills as a bilingual leader, and devising easy tactics for local market managers, we were able to increase EBT sales almost 500% over the previous year. In just a few months, the Greenmarket EBT program went from being an idea on the verge of discard to being a beloved part of their citywide offerings. 

Visit a Greenmarket in NYC and check out their EBT program while you’re there: www.grownyc.org/ourmarkets

 In brief: Over the course of 3 years, I worked with a premier financial services consulting firm to optimize operations at the largest mortgage provider in Mexico.

The full story:  First Manhattan Consulting Group may be the most influential company you’ve never heard of. A boutique financial services consulting firm with only 70 employees, FMCG works with the world’s leading banks to optimize their work and more successfully serve their customers. This company is the SWAT team of management consulting, hiring only 1% of the thousands of Ivy Leaguers that apply annually.

When I joined FMCG, they were considering working in Latin America, but didn’t have the cross-cultural skill-set or even the Spanish language talent to do so successfully. Furthermore, the institution they hoped to serve focused on a demographic that FMCG had little experience with: low-income borrowers getting a mortgage for the first time. 

I came on board to complement the team’s 3-person team of financial services veterans. In working directly at the C-level with the the organization that provides 60% of Mexico’s mortgages (and is the largest mortgage servicer in the world), I was able to help bridge the gap in terms of language, strategy for low-income communities, and support finessing client relations in a Latin American setting. Over the course of 3 years, we were asked back for project after project with this and other clients in Mexico, providing sophisticated analysis, groundbreaking and actionable strategy, and constant collaboration.

In brief: I founded and was CEO of Liga Masiva, a "global farmers' market" connecting organic farmers in Latin America directly to consumers in the US.

The full story: From 2009 until 2012, I worked with some of my most incredible colleagues (Danny Alexander, Hilary King, and Amy Osekowsky, just to name a few), visionary investors, and fantastic partners to found, lead, and grow a social enterprise called Liga Masiva. The vision for Liga Masiva was to create a global farmers’ market: connecting smallscale, organic farmers in Latin America directly to folks in the US. It is about turning a financial transaction into a human relationship. It is about addressing the causes, not the consequences of poverty. And it is about making something  we all take part in (growing and buying food) more just and more beautiful.

Over the course of 3 years, we had many proud achievements and some frustrating failures. Although we didn’t grow this company to the scale of impact or the diversity of products that we originally envisioned, we did so much that we’re incredibly proud of. It’s a pleasure to share these successes as “points of light” that I hope help guide the way for others (and ourselves!) to continue pursuing this mission. What we’re proudest of: 

• We launched the Liga Box, truly testing our vision of a more holistic version of direct trade. 
• We were featured in Oprah Magazine. So fun!
• We raised $175,000 in socially-conscious investment dollars. 
• We created real, direct trade relationships with farmers in the Dominican Republic and in Mexico. This coffee went from changing hands 13 times, to changing hands 2 times. And farmers earned 200% what they could have otherwise.
• Increased income was just the beginning of our hugely innovative and bold work with our farmers, however. For more on how we approached this work and what we accomplished, see the Liga Masiva Farmer page and my farmer work project summary. 
• We constantly strived to be truly human-centered. Our work with farmers was driven by farmers and our products were driven by consumers. Rather than starting programs that we think are necessary, we asked. We used a process of human-centered design that starts with the needs of the users (farmers sometimes; consumers other times) and designs, prototypes, and iterates, based on feedback and observations of those users. What came out of this process? Tailored farmer workshops. A preharvest loan program that reduces farmers’ interest rates from close to 40% to under 10%. Totally transparent, long-term buying commitments. A coffee subscription with free shipping, customized roast, brewing and tasting notes, and new farmer information every month. 

You can't buy Liga Masiva's coffee anymore, but you can learn about our work, our mission, and our beloved community here: www.ligamasiva.com

In brief: In early 2012, I launched an experiment in human-centered design, lean startup methodology, and business creation called Arch and Arm. Arch and Arm does consulting and product creation in the service of supporting creativity. 

The full story: Arch and Arm is on a mission to help makers, doers, and leaders do their best work. In other words, we build products, services, and experiences in support of creativity and productivity. The way we make those things is just as important as what we make. Our process is a mashup of Lean Startup and Human-Centered Design. We start with specific problems that makers/doers have-- obstacles to their creativity-- and experiment toward solutions that work to get them unstuck. Over the past six months we: 

• Did 6 Lean Startup business experiments in 6 months.  
• Created a pop-up online retailer to make clothes shopping less miserable for women.
• Consulted with local small business owners to launch Lean Startup experiments and prompt growth.
• Taught entrepreneurship to urban youth. 

To read more about our work at Arch & Arm, head over to our website: www.archandarm.com

In brief: As a Small Business Advisor at the Queens Small Business Development Center, I got a crash-course in what entrepreneurship really means.

The full story: In the most diverse and entrepreneurial city in the world lies Queens, the most diverse and entrepreneurial borough in the city. It's the kind of place where you walk 10 blocks, hear 15 languages, and see cuisine from 3 continents. It's a neighborhood where newcomers settle first and-- in many cases-- start their first businesses.

As a Small Business Advisor at the Queens Small Business Development Center, I had the honor of supporting many of these entrepreneurs at crucial inflection points in the launch of their businesses. As a free business support and consulting center, we were able to support businesses ranging from the tiny to the transnational.  Business owners came looking for advice, for help applying for loans, for insight into regulation, or for a second pair of eyes on their business plan. 

My work with each of those entrepreneurs gave me incredible insight into both the commonalities and the idiosyncrasies of businesses, across size and sector. The challenge of applying lessons I'd learned in the boardrooms of Top Ten banks and finding innovative approaches to seemingly insurmountable problems was huge. But over the course of just months, I was able to support these (largely immigrant) entrepreneurs in raising more than $1mm in capital, launch catering companies, transition to sectors they were most passionate about, and analyze their companies' strengths and weaknesses. Those sessions gave me insight into business at the most practical level... and inform my approach on a daily basis.