Jessica Jackley

I happened to land in this place called the Center for Social Innovation, where everyday people were thinking about how to use business skills and entrepreneurial thinking to enact social change.

I happened to land in this place called the Center for Social Innovation, where everyday people were thinking about how to use business skills and entrepreneurial thinking to enact social change.

And I very, very quickly realized, oh, wait, these people are super passionate, value the same things I do, have their priorities straight, in my humble opinion, and are getting things done, like know how to move people and resources around to do stuff. So I thought, oh, This is where I want to be for a little while. So I ended up working there for three years.

And I very, very quickly realized, oh, wait, these people are super passionate, value the same things I do, have their priorities straight, in my humble opinion, and are getting things done, like know how to move people and resources around to do stuff. So I thought, oh, This is where I want to be for a little while. So I ended up working there for three years.

I crashed classes, went to professor's office hours. And if no students were waiting, I'd be like, explain pricing to me. And one day I stayed late after work and heard this guy, Dr. Mohamed Younes, speak. It was three years before he and his Grumman Bank would win the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering work in modern microfinance. And I heard him speak to a room of like 40 people.

I crashed classes, went to professor's office hours. And if no students were waiting, I'd be like, explain pricing to me. And one day I stayed late after work and heard this guy, Dr. Mohamed Younes, speak. It was three years before he and his Grumman Bank would win the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering work in modern microfinance. And I heard him speak to a room of like 40 people.

And it changed the trajectory of my life. I ended up quitting my job a few months later, moving to East Africa, begging my way into an unpaid internship and just immersed myself in an experience that taught me a lot about entrepreneurs who had used $100 to bootstrap out of really abject poverty. I mean, these weren't even micro loans. They were micro grants.

And it changed the trajectory of my life. I ended up quitting my job a few months later, moving to East Africa, begging my way into an unpaid internship and just immersed myself in an experience that taught me a lot about entrepreneurs who had used $100 to bootstrap out of really abject poverty. I mean, these weren't even micro loans. They were micro grants.

So we're talking very first rung of the economic ladder. And it was there that I started to ask the what-if questions that led to the creation of Kiva. What if they stayed in touch with these individuals, these amazing people that I was meeting all over rural Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania?

So we're talking very first rung of the economic ladder. And it was there that I started to ask the what-if questions that led to the creation of Kiva. What if they stayed in touch with these individuals, these amazing people that I was meeting all over rural Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania?

What if instead of donating money to an organization that then later might provide loans, the next step many of them wanted and needed was a loan, a tiny, tiny loan. And so I thought, well, what if individuals like myself back home could lend money directly to somebody, not even charge crazy interest rates or anything, but just here's a hundred bucks. Let me know when you're done. Pay it back.

What if instead of donating money to an organization that then later might provide loans, the next step many of them wanted and needed was a loan, a tiny, tiny loan. And so I thought, well, what if individuals like myself back home could lend money directly to somebody, not even charge crazy interest rates or anything, but just here's a hundred bucks. Let me know when you're done. Pay it back.

wouldn't that be an interesting experience? And what if you could use technology that really we're right on the cusp of getting comfortable with? It sounds crazy, but it was 20 years ago, but people were just getting comfortable with the idea of using their credit card online, using PayPal, that kind of thing.

wouldn't that be an interesting experience? And what if you could use technology that really we're right on the cusp of getting comfortable with? It sounds crazy, but it was 20 years ago, but people were just getting comfortable with the idea of using their credit card online, using PayPal, that kind of thing.

So we kind of put all these what-ifs together, myself and my co-founder, Matt, and we ended up launching Kiva in this. We did a pilot round of loans in the spring of 2004, and we launched For Real in 2005. And yeah, it was $3,000 for the pilot round. It was, oh my God, 500,000 the first year. It was 15 million next, 40, 100. And it's moving towards 3 billion now.

So we kind of put all these what-ifs together, myself and my co-founder, Matt, and we ended up launching Kiva in this. We did a pilot round of loans in the spring of 2004, and we launched For Real in 2005. And yeah, it was $3,000 for the pilot round. It was, oh my God, 500,000 the first year. It was 15 million next, 40, 100. And it's moving towards 3 billion now.

And it's this real platform for connection and empowerment in a way that is pretty stunning to watch. I feel super lucky I got to be a part of it in the early days.

And it's this real platform for connection and empowerment in a way that is pretty stunning to watch. I feel super lucky I got to be a part of it in the early days.

But I mean, I was just right out of undergrad. I lived with 11 other people in a three-bedroom house on Sand Hill Road. This was back when there's this little strip of houses that were on Sand Hill. They've kind of built a barrier now. We were all recent grads with no money trying to figure out what we wanted to do with ourselves. We had a guy in a tent in the backyard.

But I mean, I was just right out of undergrad. I lived with 11 other people in a three-bedroom house on Sand Hill Road. This was back when there's this little strip of houses that were on Sand Hill. They've kind of built a barrier now. We were all recent grads with no money trying to figure out what we wanted to do with ourselves. We had a guy in a tent in the backyard.