Thanks for all the positive tweets!

Why do 2 20ish men start a feminine hygiene company? B/c of Puja, a bright young woman who dropped out when she started her period #Impact1

— sharonschneider (@sharonschneider) January 9, 2013

30% of girls in school in rural India drop out because of menstruation. #impact1 @azadipads

— ImpactEngine (@TheImpactEngine) January 9, 2013

Helping women reach their full potential thru female hygiene @azadipads @theimpactengine #impact1

— Jamie N. Jones (@KelloggImpact) January 9, 2013

Someone needs to hurry up and marry the @azadi guys. #impact1 they care.

— Romke de haan (@romke) January 9, 2013

Awesome! Two males in their early 20s working on feminine hygiene product solutions in India azadipads.com #impact1

— Jennifer Maddrell (@JenM) January 9, 2013

Girls in rural India lack access to sanitary products and so skip school one week every month until they fall too far behind. #Impact1

— sharonschneider (@sharonschneider) January 9, 2013

30% of girls in school in rural India drop out because of menstruation. #impact1 @azadipads. Makes me realize what I take for granted.

— Jessica Schultz (@JessicaLouiseS) January 9, 2013

Traditional retail outlets don’t work in rural India. Women don’t have access to feminine hygiene products. #impact1 @azadipads

— ImpactEngine (@TheImpactEngine) January 9, 2013

Kudos to @azasipads for digging deeper, addressing a real root cause of education issues in India. #impact1

— Drew DePriest (@drewdepriest) January 9, 2013

.@sarahcmalin and I agree. RT @romke: Someone needs to hurry up and marry the @azadi guys. #impact1 they care.

— Melanie Kahl (@melaniekahl) January 9, 2013

Azadi Pads partnering with Indian NGOs to build a distribution network of rural women entrepreneurs to overcome cultural barriers. #Impact1

— sharonschneider (@sharonschneider) January 9, 2013

Making menstruation a “non-issue” in rural India @azadipads #Impact1

— Q-it (@QitVideo) January 9, 2013

An amazing and truly inspiring group of entrepreneurs at the Impact Engine event tonight. #Impact1 #1871

— Anthony Vitagliano (@a_vitagliano) January 9, 2013

Azadi brought it home. #Impact1

— chuck templeton (@ctemp) January 9, 2013

The design process is exactly what it sounds like: a process. It’s almost never a bolt out of the blue (I wish that happened more often); instead, it’s a progression of drafting, editing, and refinement.

The first thing I did when I started the design is brainstorming, and lots of it. I like to spend quite a bit of time researching. This was especially true in this case, since India has a rich heritage in art. Once I gathered information, I found that making lists and word association maps were helpful for sorting out what directions to explore.



At this point, I began sketching. I started off with many thumbnail sketches - in this case, there were about fifty. From there I narrowed things down to three concepts and refined the results. These sketches were then rendered digitally.



The three finalists were presented to the team as a whole. Feedback is a very important part of the design process: not only were the prototypes shown to the team, but were also distributed through informal surveys and presented to mentors at Impact Engine. Once I receive feedback, I go back and refine and create more sketches. This process of sketching and presenting is done two more times, at which point a design is agreed on.



Once the final design was chosen, it was a matter of nailing down details, such as typography, colors, and spacing. An identity standard was drawn up: this document is a reference for future designers on the proper usage of the logo.

A year and half ago, when Dhiren, my co-founder and I were providing merit-based scholarships to students in rural India, we came across another problem. We found that many girls dropped out of school even after receiving financial help. 

As we dug deeper, we found that the problem was a lot bigger than we’d thought. There are 300 million (that’s the population of the U.S.) girls and women in rural India that miss school and work because they lack access to feminine hygiene products. 

We were stunned that such a simple problem could so dramatically affect people’s lives. We had to solve this problem. We built a team in India that is working on operationalizing the business. Currently, they are working with engineers to create a machine that can produce affordable sanitary pads. Here in Chicago at the Impact Engine, the U.S. team is building the Azadi brand and a community of mentors, investors and supporters to propel the business forward. 

Now we’ve reached the next chapter of our story.  Investor Day is fast approaching, and our team is really cranking up the gears. Since the start of Impact Engine 9 weeks ago, so much has happened behind the 1871 doors - and we’re ready to show people what we’ve been up to.

We’ve managed to progress quite a lot on our own, but now we need your help. In order to start creating better machines and distributing them to communities in rural India, we are launching an Indiegogo campaign with a goal of raising $65,000. We’ve already raised $50,000 and will use the money from the campaign to complete the research and development of the machine.

Our vision is a world where women and girls can have greater freedom to pursue life’s opportunities. Making menstruation a non-issue is one of the stepping stones. The journey is really just beginning and we hope you can be part of the solution.

Join us for the launch of our IndieGoGo campaign. We will be premiering our campaign video, and more importantly, celebrating the start of something great.

What: Azadi Launch Party
When: Wednesday, November 7, 6:30 pm
Where:

1871 @ 12th Floor of Merchandise Mart
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza
Chicago, IL 6065. 

RSVP here (www.azadilaunch.eventbrite.com)

Follow us at AzadiPads or me at AmeetM.

We’re a third of the way through the IE program at 1871- it’s hard to believe that we’ve already completed 4 of 12 weeks. So what’s it been like? It’s been a whirlwind!

Here are a few things to note:

Our Team:

Our team is really shaping up! In addition to the operations components of our team, we’ve built a U.S. team that is hard at work with respect to social media, public relations, web design, and graphic design. The work we are set out to do at Azadi is serious - we’re trying to provide a solution to a huge problem that negatively impacts the lives of a huge market. But there is something to be said about approaching our work collaboratively and whole-heartedly… and with a good sense of humor (and what we’re saying is that it’s super important).

Impact 1:

A common concern for cohorts is a dynamic of internal competitiveness. This isn’t the case for our cohort (though our growing Ping Pong tournament ladder is getting pretty intense). In fact, a great deal of our key insights are coming from other businesses in our cohort. Our cohort is a gold mine of incredibly intelligent and insightful minds. If you walk by the space we occupy in the SW corner of the 1871 space, you’ll find a group of people spanning from engineers to educators to tech guys. We all benefit from collaboration as we continue to find synergies between our eight businesses while we work together.

1871:

1871, by design, is where teamwork and innovation flourish. The open layout of coworking space along with the awesome people that work in it is a winning combination. We can literally travel a few feet in any direction and ask people we cross paths with for feedback on something we’re working on, whether they’re a part of Impact Engine or not - the beauty is that we can approach anyone and we are likely to find someone who is willing to help.

With a steady supply of pizza and beer, 1871 isn’t a bad place to camp out for 3 months (but seriously - we think some people might live here).

And it’s not just about improving our business skills. We get to work on our motor skills, too (to work off the pizza and beer).  The Razor scooter is the prefered mode of transportation around here. It’s the time-efficient way that people get around the space in a stylish - yet daring - manner.

Fun and Games:

In addition to the interacting and bonding that we do in our workspace, we make time for fun and games outside the office when we can. Two of our favorites thus far are:

1) Smart Bet Charity Poker Tournament: Azadi advanced to Round 2 with the second best score at our 1871 table; our strategy of folding repeatedly did the trick!

2) Cubs game outing in a lavish Pritzker Group suite: it was the last game of the season and the Cubs won at the bottom of the 9th! (with our dessert cart, it wouldn’t have mattered either way - you weren’t kidding about this, Chuck!)

VIP Access:

The foot traffic of VIPs at 1871 is truly spectacular. The list is extensive, but here are a few words of advice we’ve gotten from Impact Engine visitors:

• In explaining what it means to find the right investors for our ventures, Belly Founder and CEO, Logan Lahive cautioned: “A lot of people think you’re just looking for money - but you’re looking for partners.” There’s good money and there’s bad money!
• To set off our meeting, Mission Measurement Co-Founder and CEO, Jason Saul advised: “Set your intention for this practice.” He’s a huge yoga advocate and encourages us to apply this principle to our venture endeavors.

Stay tuned - we’ll do this again at the halfway mark!