Wokai- Skin in the Game
Founders of Wokai, Courtney McCoglan and Casey Wilson, share what it takes to realize a great entrepreneurial idea. Wokai, an online micro-lending platform, went public in 2007 and has been successfully working to distribute loans to the working poor in China ever since. We are grateful for Courtney and Casey’s willingness to speak with Gumball University and thank them for their time and commitment to microfinance.
Q) What inspired you both to start Wokai and devote yourselves to it full-time?
A.) Casey: I was inspired by the realization that I came from a world where I had such amazing opportunities in my life. I grew up in a good family, graduated from a good college, so I could pursue anything I wanted—either an executive position in a Fortune 500 company or traveling around the world. But the majority of people worldwide do not have same freedom. Personally, I feel like I would be wasting my opportunities if I didn’t try to share some of them with others, allowing them to take hold of their own lives, lift themselves from poverty, and feel that same sense of freedom.
I headed to China, knowing that I wanted to be involved in development. Wokai gave me an opportunity to use this interest to actually start something to give back. Logistically, Courtney and I lived in an apartment together, both trying to find opportunities to utilize our backgrounds. We finally asked: why not start a microfinance nonprofit together?
A.) Courtney: It had everything to do with inequality. While working abroad, I found myself in a rural village talking to a girl who had read, studied and watched videos about India. I knew she would NEVER get to go to India and experience the culture first hand—mainly due to her economic situation. She was the same age as me and shared similar interests in another culture. Yet I was in China living my dream and she would never get that same opportunity. I knew then that we needed a mechanism to allow her to get closer to her dream. That mechanism was microfinance.
Q.) What’s one piece of advice you would give to aspiring entrepreneurs trying to bring their ideas into fruition?
A.) Casey: Commitment is key. So far, we’ve found that being passionate about our cause, not taking ‘no’ for an answer, and working until things work has been an effective model. Every day there’s a reason to say ‘this isn’t going to work,’ or its too hard. But you have to just calm down, and keep working at it. There’s always a solution, if you keep looking. Having that confidence is really important.
Second, you have to pick a cause that you really believe in. If you start something you don’t have something that will fuel you in the long term, you’ll drop it when things get hard. You need something to keep you going even when you feel like you’ve reached the end.
A.) Courtney: There are two,
- Don’t give up. You will, without a doubt, hit more than one wall in your endeavors. Never accept defeat and always keep knocking on doors. Eventually one day, someone will answer.
- Be ready to change. Wokai started off focused on p2p, [peer-to-peer], microfinance and now is moving into a p2p giving platform for China with microfinance as only one component. This transformation came after discoveries about users, economics, partnerships, etc. You have to be okay letting the organization lead you at times. You will often learn something!
Q.) What was the greatest challenge you encountered during this process of trying to legitimize your idea and how did you overcome it?
A.) Casey: No one challenge stands out in my mind—every week or two weeks, we have a new feeling of facing a big challenge. One huge challenge for us was trying to operate and create this model in a very underdeveloped microfinance sector. Originally, we wanted to create a lending model, where a Wokai.org user could go online, lend money to a borrower of his or her choice, and get the money back after it’s been repaid. Unfortunately, financial regulations in China prohibited us from establishing ourselves this way. Another obstacle we have faced has been fundraising—not many people want to support the operations of a brand new organization run by people in their early 20s—so we’ve had to come up with creative solutions to completing operations, including getting a lot of in-kind support instead of actual operation capital.
One last challenge has been working in areas where Courtney and I have few have skills; going into this, we both had no technical skills. On the business side, I had never managed people, and (other than teaching sea kayaking at camp, working at a tennis club, and as a secretary) had no work experience.
Overcoming these challenges has been difficult, but doing so has taught us to be flexible, allowed us to grow as people, and taught us how we can make Wokai grow.
A.) Courtney: Skin in the game. People want you to have ‘skin in the game,’ whether that be selling your car (Courtney) or giving 100 percent of your time—paycheck free—to the cause for two years (Casey).
Look for more insight from Courtney and Casey in the coming weeks!
To learn more about Gumball Capital’s relationship with Wokai, please visit The Gumball Fund.
