Ben Bellows of Nivi: Getting the Market Incentives Right

Ben Bellows spent almost 20 years studying the economics of aid systems - but 2 years ago Ben quit his day job to go all-in on Nivi. Nivi is a chatbot marketplace Ben founded to empower, inform, and engage communities directly. Today we chat with Ben to understand what inspired someone with 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and a lifetime in the nonprofit sector to take a bet on a healthtech startup.

Ben grapples with the hopes and failures of designing a better kind of aid, one that rewards outcomes rather than inefficiencies. He talks about the unique moment in history when broadband arrived at his home in Kenya and you could feel the energy and optimism that kickstarted the Silicon Savannah. Embracing this moment, Ben clicked with one of his two co-founders within an hour of their encounter at Java House in Nairobi. All of this brings him today to Nivi, a social enterprise providing a chatbot-based marketplace allowing over 2 million people to achieve their own health goals in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and India.

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