Lessons Learned: KickStart CEO Martin Fisher

Non-profit faces challenges similar to those of startups; need to "prove impacts"

Martin Fisher, founder and CEO of KickStart, has learned a few things after 17 years of helping rural Africans lift themselves out of poverty.

"People all over the world are not so different -- they all want a better life for themselves and their families," says Fisher, whose efforts have helped 65,000 families earn a better living.

While his firm is a non-profit, it still faces some of the same challenges of a startup -- things like marketing, advertising and fundraising. 

KickStart sells low-cost, human powered irrigation pumps and other equipment to farmers that allow them to transition from raising subsistence crops that are harvested once or twice a year to growing commercial crops grown year-round.

Fisher, who earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford, raises money from donors the same way entrepreneurs pitch investors: by focusing on results.

"You have to be able to prove impacts... to prove that you're taking people out of poverty," says Fisher, whose company can do just that for the cost of a $250 tool.

Fisher started out working in Kenya helping foreign aid programs but quickly realized that hand-outs aren't the best way to help people.

When pitching donors, "you have to prove that you are creating something sustainable, so you don't have to be there forever" and prove that you can replicate the model in more than one country.