By Anahi Santoyo
When I was asked to write about my co-op at Heart Capital, an impact investment company based in Cape Town, South Africa, I was very overwhelmed since there were many experiences I wanted to share. Should I start by mentioning the thrilling, fun, and creative work-environment of the organization? Should I give a brief description of how breathtaking the panorama of the city is up from Table Mountain? Or, should I mention the amazing people that I worked with in Khayelitsha, the biggest township in the city? Narrating such a vastly important life chapter is quite challenging, especially when the outcome is an entire new life perspective. Those with previous international co-ops might understand. So, I will try my best to briefly describe what was the most rewarding and fun experience I have had in my life.
The mission of Heart Capital is to create high impact and high growth social enterprises that tackle poverty at the bottom of the pyramid. Their business model is a combination of philanthropy and venture capital investing. Most of their portfolio ventures are in the business model of social franchising since it is easier to scale and replicate. As an International Affairs student with minors in Social Entrepreneurship and Business, this company was an excellent example of many concepts that I learned in class. After all, social entrepreneurship is about “individuals seeking innovative solutions to society´s most pressing social problems” such as in Heart Capital.
The workspace of this company is very dynamic and creative since most of the people working there are interns. Even though it was a diverse group, we were all very passionate about the mission of the organization. It did not matter if you had previous work experience or if you were a freshmen or just graduate from a masters, but the important feel was the drive to implement something wonderful in order to help poverty alleviation. Most of the interns came from other prestigious universities in Europe and the United States. As a matter of fact, four of my other colleagues were also from Northeastern, providing me a home-away-from-home.
One of the best qualities that I thought my internship had was the easiness one had to take ownership of the projects and work-packages that they provided you. My main task was impact measurement for all of the portfolio ventures. It was really interesting to translate the information that I learned from class to real life and experience all of the challenges that books cannot teach you. Nevertheless, the knowledge that I gained through my social entrepreneurship classes and field study programs with Professor Shaughnessy were undoubtedly one of my most valuable assets.
Heart Capital is at a very interesting moment of its development since some of their ventures such as FoodPods and Hubspace have been selected to participate in the prestigious World Design Capital 2014. This project will transform Cape Town through design achieving a sustainable productive city with social and economic inclusion. This is an incredible opportunity to replicate and scale the amazing work this company has been doing for almost four years.
Every time people ask me about my internship at Heart Capital I think about smart, fun, loving people passionate about leaving the world a better place. I am happy to announce that while you are reading this there are three new Northeastern students doing an internship at Heart Capital and I can assure you they are having the time of their lives while gaining valuable skills. It is an experience that I would recommend to anyone seeking for a life change and the next step to the rest of their lives. I would say without a doubt that my second coop has really big shoes to fill.
