Q Yeah. I know that after the UN, you went back into, kind of back into finance, and eventually you found Tala, which you founded in 2011. Tell me about the genesis of that idea. What gave you the idea to want to create essentially a microfinance, a microcredit startup?
A So for me, it really stemmed from the time that I worked in emerging markets at the UN Population Fund. You know, I had the opportunity to really firsthand see money moving through the system. So what I was studying was the effectiveness of microcredit, so small dollar loans for the underserved, and really trying to understand, you know, by providing these loans, are we actually seeing an improvement in quality of life? And I saw firsthand that there's no macro database that I can go to. And so for me, I had to essentially kind of create a QuickBooks. I became that QuickBooks. I started, you know, going to their homes in the morning. I would go to work with them. I would sit in the back of their stores and I would firsthand see how much money they made that day. How many products did they sell? How many services did they provide? I would then go to the marketplace with them and understand What they did with that money? You know, what decisions did they decide to make with it? And by walking alongside them, I saw one that they were making really concrete decisions. They knew how to make decisions. I also saw that they were very capable of running their businesses, but I also saw that they felt stuck. They didn't have a lot of confidence in their ability to grow those businesses or to really plan for the future of their families. And so I started to lend to them myself. Because I…
AI assessment note: “So for me, it really stemmed from the time that I worked in emerging markets”