DaaraJ

You wrote a great article about the rising prospects of Africa a couple months back that, among other things, talks about the chronic misconceptions people have about Africa. How do you think journalists can help correct these misconceptions while at the same time continue to shine light on the often-overlooked conflicts in Africa?

I actually have several questions as investing in and supporting African smallholders is something I'm very interested in:

1) Do you plan operating on a contract model with the farmers you source from? If so do you have mechanisms for enforcing this model? Is side-selling an issue?

2) Are you working with any NGOs/development agencies (ACDI/VOCA, Technoserve, etc)?

3) How do you handle payments to the farmers and quality control? eg, do you pay farmers on the spot for their leaves, or is payment deferred a few weeks so you can assess quality? Do you pay farmers in cash or are you using something like M-Pesa?

4) Do you plan on collecting the tea directly from the farmers, or are you setting up more centralized collection points based on farmer density or co-op location?

Best of luck!

Edit: One more question that just came to me: Why did you decide to go the non-profit route as opposed to for-profit (or some sort of hybrid model, I forgot what the Canadian equivalent of the B-Corp is)?

Wow, very cool. It sounds like you are off to a great start Grayson. I'd love to Skype/email/smoke signal with you. I'll send you a PM with my details.

Did you and Eugene Mirman ever submit your performance to Slingbox