Thesis
- There are massive opportunities to create large profitable companies by solving problems for the bottom billion - underserved people in developing countries.
- Those who have the ability and ambition to solve these problems are stuck at companies like McKinsey and Google - they don’t feel fulfilled in their jobs and want to make a meaningful impact but don’t know where to start.
TL;DR
Attract talented people by:
- Giving them $15,000 to immerse themselves in developing countries for 3-months.
- Investing $100,000 into their companies and hosting a demo day to raise additional funding.
- Being part of a community of like-minded, impact-driven peers from top-tier companies.
Ultimately, this is a forcing function for people to quit/pause their career with low risk to build an impact-focused company.
Outcome
Scalable companies that create positive impact for the underserved.
Structure
Phase 1: Applications
People interested in joining Outlier must pass an application and interview process. Only 40 people will be accepted to join the first cohort.
Phase 2: Retreat | 7 days
Goal: Build relationships, plan trips, and get training.
Accepted participants (i.e. “Outliers”) will gather together for a 1-week retreat to kick-off the accelerator program. During the retreat, Outliers will participate in friendship building activities, plan their 3-month immersion, and receive training on maximizing their experience while in developing countries.
Phase 3: Immersion | 90 days
Goal: Identify a problem that you deeply care about solving.
Outliers are given a $15,000 budget to completely immerse themselves in developing countries. The purpose is to gain deep understanding and empathy for how people live and how industries operate. By fully immersing themselves, Outliers will (a) identify problems and (b) develop a strong emotional desire to solve these problems. Over the 90 days, they will vlog their experiences while navigating various industries and problems people face across the world.
Phase 4: Build | 60 days
Goal: Validate the solution, understand the economic incentives, start building a company.
After returning from their travels, Outliers will validate solutions to a problem they connected with, while exploring potential business models through understanding the economic incentives. They’ll be provided workshops, access to domain experts, and peer brainstorming sessions with other Outliers.
Phase 5: Raise
Goal: Raise capital.
Outliers will present at a demo day to impact investors. They’ll be trained on how to raise capital, understand what investors look for, and how to position their companies to align with investor incentives (i.e. returns and impact).
Next Steps
We are currently...
- Hiring a Managing Director to oversee the accelerator.
- Raising a $2M fund to invest in Outlier companies and support the accelerator.
Once that is complete, we’ll open applications.
Team
Navid and Nadeem Nathoo - we’re brothers. Our life purpose is to create meaningful impact by unlocking human potential to reduce suffering and accelerate humanity. In 2016 we started The Knowledge Society, a global human accelerator for ambitious young people ages 13-17. The best way to learn more about us is by listening to us talk on podcasts.
ps. know someone that would be interested in the managing director role? send them here.