Based on the material covered in this chapter, what questions would you ask the firm’s founder before making your funding decision? What answers would satisfy you?

Business Idea: Create products that utilize recycled and natural products and use handcrafting skills.

Pitch: Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When she left college in 2005, she founded what would become Ethiopa’s first global brand, soleRebels. The footwear company is a community-based operation that has grown into a World Fair Trade Federation

(WFTO) fair trade–certified business as well as the very first global footwear brand created in a developing nation.

In just a decade, the business has come to be described as Africa’s Nike, with an international presence. The company sold around 125,000 pairs of shoes in 2016 and has created over 1,200 jobs. In 2018, the company will expand to 3,000 Ethiopian employees when their new production facilities have been built, and it will have increased revenues to over $10 million.