The path to widespread prosperity would not come from simply helping local businesses operate more efficiently. [My company] Wasoko was a start, but local purchasing power was deeply constrained. Creating genuine engines of income growth requires businesses built to serve markets beyond developing countries—using global purchasing power to drive convergence.

That conviction is what brings me back to you. If you want to improve livelihoods across the world, I would push you not towards Silicon Valley or the UN, but to the factory floor.