By: Bianca Buliga, Senior Marketing Manager
Alex Macdonald’s venture, Just Results, is disrupting the international foreign assistance market by getting rid of bureaucracy that businesses in low-income countries deal with when interacting with the government. Their goal is to offer pay-for-success products, and their first product on the market is called Better Investment Climate. They approach developing country governments directly, offering to improve their ranking on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index.
As Just Results prepares for Virtual Demo Day on Tuesday, April 14th, the SEED SPOT team sat down with Alex to learn more about this venture’s journey:
What inspired you to start your venture?
Just Results was founded to disrupt the international foreign assistance market. Our goal is to offer pay-for-success products, and our first product on the market is called Better Investment Climate. We approach developing country governments directly, offering to improve their ranking on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index. Often international donors are willing to pay for our services, yet we treat the government as our primary client and our long-term goal is to help them manage their many donors (so they can actually get results from their projects). Our product is a tech + consulting offering. We’ve gotten traction and proven we can cover our operating costs with our consulting revenues. We are seeking investment to further develop our tech offering, which offers a unique value proposition in the e-government space (the most rapidly growing market in the economic development assistance spending category).
What did you hope to gain by applying to SEED SPOT’s Impact Accelerator program?
We hoped to access resources and gain experience to improve our investment pitch, obtain the legal support we need for our venture, and develop our new software offering.
What’s the most valuable lesson you learned during the Impact Accelerator?
The Impact Accelerator gave me insight into the areas of business that are not my strengths and gave Just Results the tools and connections so we can fix that.
What does the future hold for your venture?
We hope to build on our progress with SEED SPOT to finalize a prototype of the e-government product and continue to grow our Better Investment Climate offering.
What is one piece of advice you have for entrepreneurs just beginning their journey?
Always know the numbers.
