Why we chose Madison as a Fellow

Madison built two US-based financial services businesses that helped consumers to improve their credit scores and protect their personal information. But after the financial crisis hit, he moved to Kenya to lead a nonprofit social enterprise where his experience working with farmers led him to found Farmshop, as a way to improve the distribution systems for basic farming inputs.

Farmers can't grow good crops without the right materials. Most farmers have lousy access to the seeds, fertilizer, and livestock products they need (if any at all), and even when they can get them, the products are often shoddy, overpriced, or even counterfeit. Farmshop gets the right products to farmers at the right price. Farmshop transforms existing agro-dealers into high-performance franchise shops that focus on real service to smallholder farmers. Because Farmshop transforms existing shops at relatively low cost, the model has the potential to scale throughout Kenya and beyond.