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I co-founded Akvo Foundation [1] in 2007. Akvo is a not-for-profit/not-for-loss [2] organisation that put together a combination of tools, services, local exper

I co-founded Akvo Foundation [1] in 2007. Akvo is a not-for-profit/not-for-loss [2] organisation that put together a combination of tools, services, local expertise and sector knowledge. We work mainly in management of water, sanitation and agriculture, even though organisations use our platform for all sorts of data. WWF are tracking turtles in Indonesia, SNV manages their massive biogas programmes, Sierra Leone quality test their drinking water etc. Lots of stories here https://akvo.org/stories/ https://akvo.org/stories/ We are 75 people in a bunch of countries, with HQ in The Netherlands. We have worked with two dozen governments, hundreds of organisations and companies, in over 70 countries in the last decade. We work hard at making all our tools and work open source or open content. Working mainly in international development is not easy. The customer is mostly project based, so retention is hard. You have to sell into each new project. We have some of Europe’s largest NGOs using the tools as corporate tools, but the technology use in many of these type of organisations, despite being heavily dependent on data, is patchy at best. [1] http://Akvo.org http://Akvo.org [2] We charge money for our services and any positive results are reinvested in our tools, people and knowledge platform.

kgonza 6y ago
Why Netherlands for your HQ?
- WJW 6y ago
  Looking at their "About us" page two of the cofounders have extremely Dutch names so it's probably just where they started out.
- bjelkeman-again 6y ago
  Two of our founders, (we were seven, 2xSE, 1xUK, 2xUS, 2xNL) where based in NL. They also had great connections to the government in NL that supported us to get started. And we were initially part of a project which was based in the NL.
XzAeRosho 6y ago
I founded a small company in my country doing this exact same format, but for energy and energy efficiency. We have currently worked with our government and several other agencies, plus some overseas companies, and the struggles are basically the same. >The customer is mostly project based, so retention is hard. >but the technology use in many of these type of organisations, despite being heavily dependent on data, is patchy at best Glad (kinda) to know I'm not the only one suffering with those problems. Sometimes is disheartening to struggle as a small company when working with this kind of entities.
- bjelkeman-again 6y ago
  We started with software only and quickly realised that our idea that others could do the implementation and consulting around the tools just didn't work. So we gradually had to set up hubs where we could provide the knowledge locally. That took quite a lot of effort. It works quite well though.
  - XzAeRosho 6y ago
    Send me an email if you ever want to do a collaboration here in Chile :) victor (at) vgr.cl

kgonza 6y ago

Why Netherlands for your HQ?

WJW 6y ago
Looking at their "About us" page two of the cofounders have extremely Dutch names so it's probably just where they started out.
bjelkeman-again 6y ago
Two of our founders, (we were seven, 2xSE, 1xUK, 2xUS, 2xNL) where based in NL. They also had great connections to the government in NL that supported us to get started. And we were initially part of a project which was based in the NL.

XzAeRosho 6y ago

I founded a small company in my country doing this exact same format, but for energy and energy efficiency. We have currently worked with our government and several other agencies, plus some overseas companies, and the struggles are basically the same. >The customer is mostly project based, so retention is hard. >but the technology use in many of these type of organisations, despite being heavily dependent on data, is patchy at best Glad (kinda) to know I'm not the only one suffering with those problems. Sometimes is disheartening to struggle as a small company when working with this kind of entities.

bjelkeman-again 6y ago
We started with software only and quickly realised that our idea that others could do the implementation and consulting around the tools just didn't work. So we gradually had to set up hubs where we could provide the knowledge locally. That took quite a lot of effort. It works quite well though.
- XzAeRosho 6y ago
  Send me an email if you ever want to do a collaboration here in Chile :) victor (at) vgr.cl