Entrepreneur Interview: Abe Niederhauser, Founder of Ads4Africa.org

We always tell people it’s the same as Google; it’s powered by Google. In actuality, there are slight differences. I’ve never had anybody tell me they’ve run into a problem with not being able to find something. You can compare the results. Most everything I’ve searched for, the results are identical.

When I searched for my own name, there were some things that were missing that I found on Google. But you know, I’m not a big web celebrity. I think it’s generally the same results.

I told my roommates about it and said I’d love for you guys to help me, and so all of us got involved. At the beginning it seemed like everyone was involved in doing a lot, now not as much. I guess it’s become more of an individual thing. I still have their pictures on the website, because it provides support for me, and I know they’re willing to help. I think a lot of the help they’ve given me is emotional support.

The two that are helping are Travis and Seth. Seth is my brother and Travis is my roommate. Travis did some graphical design work for us at the beginning. He actually designed the background Africa with everything coming out, which is great because I wouldn’t have been able to design that. So he did some graphical design work in the beginning.

Since then the website has been remodeled and revamped. I’ve done all the other graphical design work and I’ve learned more about the internet and how to do that kind of stuff. So now, I can do most of that on my own. And it doesn’t take a lot of work to maintain, so mostly it has become individual. But who knows what will happen in the future.

I think because of the internet, almost anyone can start a business for almost nothing. I mean, you need a basic website, and also getting a website up, if you have someone else do it, it can be expensive, but we did it ourselves. At first we used different software, but now as I’ve learned to do it, I’ve built the websites from scratch with a text editor. And so now it’s based off of that.

You have costs with website hosting and domain names. Originally there were a few things, I can’t even remember what they were, that cost a couple hundred dollars. They probably weren’t necessary. The only thing that really seems necessary is getting a website and getting somebody to host your site, and that’s really all. If you’re a business you need to advertise, so also the cost of advertising.

I don’t know. Right now, we’ll keep it the search. Most of the work I do on it now is just kind of advertising and letting people know about it so that it will grow and we can get more money. As it grows, I’m not opposed to venturing into other things, but it’s basically going to just be a search for a while.

It really just depends on the funds. Right now, everything I do for it is voluntary. I don’t spend as much time on it as I used to because I’ve got to provide an income for myself. And that’s how I got involved in these other businesses that help me make a living.

Yes, Ads4Africa is non-profit. And even with a non-profit, people who work for a non-profit or if someone started a non-profit, they still get paid themselves. Right now we get a good amount of money, but not enough to provide a decent income for anybody. And so you know, I don’t get paid.

In the future, if it expands and I need to hire other people to help, or I need to devote more time to it, then it may turn more into a traditional non-profit where we will pay those people for their time and we’ll use the excess to help those people. Right now, every penny that comes in is going out to help people.

Kiva is a very reputable company. They were actually I think in 2009 one of Time Magazine’s 50 top websites. And even as one of the 50, I know a lot of people who haven’t heard of Kiva. But they’re becoming a lot more popular. Especially in the last year, it seems a lot more people know about them. They help any regular person like you or I get matched up with people around the world who are looking for help—entrepreneurs who want to start a business so that they can become self sufficient and support their families and kids.

There’s these little microfinance institutions, these banks, all over the world, but getting in touch with them is difficult. And if you do get in touch with them, you’d only have access to the people around that one bank. But Kiva is an organization that helps you network. Anybody can network with Kiva and connect with all these microfinance organizations all over the world.

I learned about Kiva about 3 years ago in my entrepreneur class, and from there I’d always thought about it. Kiva is a great way to help. Given that I felt like they were very credible and could trust them, I decided that Kiva would be a great option for us to work with.

We get to choose everybody. I’m very careful about who I select.

I go through and I read a little bit about what they want to do and what kind of market they’re facing. It seems like there are a lot of people who want to start liquor stores, and I know they want to do that because there’s a lot of demand for liquor and a lot of people want to drink. But I don’t think that’s working toward finding a solution. I feel that a lot of times the drinking and the alcohol in some of those countries contribute to the problem. And so I don’t ever fund anybody who wants to start a business like that.

We look for people who sell goods, like clothing. One guy wanted to start a little cab business and wanted money to help buy a taxi so he could start giving people rides around town. A lot of people start markets where they sell food or supply sites or supply food to other distributors. Those things I feel like will actually contribute to society and help them, maybe employ others and take care of essential needs that people have.

Mostly just their business ideas. The microfinance institutions screen pretty well, and Kiva screens really well too. Kiva actually has, I think, with the loans a 98% repayment rate, which is really high. All these people have a lot of integrity and they’re paying back their loans. So I don’t particularly look at any characteristics about them, any attributes, or personality traits. Mostly just their business plan and how I think that could contribute. It is kind of a subjective thing. I make a call on what I think is good and what I think is not.

I think there was. And whether I got over it is a good question. I had hoped it would grow enough that I would be able to do it full time and support myself. But it didn’t grow fast enough to do that, and I still want it do it, so there was a big hump, and we’re still working on climbing it I guess.

I think you could also say there have been a lot of hills that we’ve had to go over. And there’s been some that we’ve gotten over and figured out ways to do things and gotten things to the point where I feel like we’re actually making a difference and contributing to helping people.

I’ve realized I need to do something else to provide for myself, and that’s why I’ve started these other businesses. And yeah, all of them you have to break through to the point where you feel like if I don’t get a job I’ll be fine because I can provide for myself. I don’t have to worry about it. This is going well enough that it will work for me. I feel like that’s kind of what the hump was. I had to pull back on that. I still work on it, but not as much.

I actually didn’t have a lot of fear, I think because I wasn’t really intending to be an entrepreneur at the time I started, I felt like it was more of a little side project and I would go back to being safe with a job. I think later when I started realizing how much I enjoyed it and, “Wow, I’d really love being able to work for myself,” is when the fear started coming. I was like, “If I don’t make this or something else work out, I’m going to need to go back.”

And I was not so much scared of going back to get a job because I was fine working a job, and it wasn’t some horrible thing, but I think it was for me fear of lost time. I have plans and things scheduled out and financial goals. Taking time off to try to start businesses, and if they don’t succeed, can really cut into you financially. Maybe it’s because you spent more on opportunity costs than what you could have been making working a job.

I think it’s probably some of both. I think there are definitely some people who are born with a predisposition for that; they just have the personality or the vision. They want to be an entrepreneur. Other people maybe aren’t sure, but they can develop what it takes. I think everybody could if they really wanted to. I think it’s really the risk aversion that drives a lot of people away. I think everybody would enjoy working for themselves a lot more than working for somebody else, there’s just more risk. […] I grow more risky every day.

That’s a good question. If you’re looking to start a business, you should expect to fail. Before I found some things that actually felt like they were working I tried a lot of different things, and I still have a lot of different things that I think maybe I’ll come back to.

I think failure is part of what helps us learn and grow, and I think it’s what helps you become an entrepreneur. I think the entrepreneur is someone who fails but doesn’t give up. They’re determined to find something that will work.

And when you fail, you learn. I’ve had a lot of failures, and I know in the future I’ll fail a lot more too. And it’s okay because I keep getting better and learning more and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

I think I’d still be pursuing humanitarian work, whether I’d be an entrepreneur is another question. Before the internet, people had to go out and find a shop and open up. Usually you had to have some sort of physical location. How did you contact people and advertise? Did you have to put up billboards, newspaper ads, magazines? All these things you can do on the internet for a lot less or for nothing if you do it right.

I still think that I’d still be involved in humanitarian things in other ways. I think that’s something that I’ve been interested in. I would probably do a lot more… I do some serving in my community, but I’d probably do a lot more of that type of thing.

That’s a good question. I think for me, it’s more freedom. The freedom in itself isn’t what’s important. I think it relates to my goals as a humanitarian, and my goals as an entrepreneur. I try to evaluate what the most important things in life are and what the things that I want to spend my time doing are. Sitting in an office all the time is not one of them. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when I have a family some day, I’d like to spend time with them and have them be my number one priority.

I think there’s a vast amount of happiness helping people. Those types of things, spending time with family, doing something you’re passionate about, serving people around you, are the types of things that I call the most important. The most important things are really what drive me in all this. […] And I hope that in my entrepreneurial endeavors, I can do some of those most important things in helping other people.

Yeah, I’ve read a lot of books and there are a lot of good books. There are a lot of bad books too. I did like the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” books. I don’t think they specifically tell you what to do, but they’re great motivation. I really like “The 4-Hour Work Week.” I know that you’re a fan of Tim Ferriss. I’m a fan of Tim Ferriss. I like “The E-Myth Revisited.” It’s a very good book. I think anyone looking to start a business should read that. It seems like there’s another book that’s on the tip of my tongue that’s really good, but it’s not coming to me.

Advice… jeez, I could use some advice myself. It takes hard work. You’ve got to be determined. We talked about failure, you’ve got to be able to overcome failure and not be discouraged. And I think that is one of the most difficult things—not becoming discouraged. There have been a lot of times I’ve been very discouraged, and it’s been tough. So I think that if you want to be an entrepreneur, and that’s really what you want to do, then you should do it and don’t give up and be determined. Hold to your dream.