Hi, I’m Derin!

I lead Global Access to Capital at Endeavor, a non-profit that supports over 2000 entrepreneurs spread across nearly 40 emerging and underserved markets. I’m based in San Francisco, and have previously worked for a start-up, a VC fund, and an incubator.

Unevenly Distributed

Unevenly Distributed is a newsletter that tracks the diffusion of technology, entrepreneurship, and venture capital in emerging markets. Since the turn of the millennium, the centre of technology-driven entrepreneurship has moved away from Silicon Valley. In 2000, 80% of venture capital investments went to the United States, in 2018, that number dropped by more than half to 38%.

When Aileen Lee coined the term unicorn, they were mythical creatures primarily spotted in San Francisco. Today, unicorns are popping up everywhere from Manilla to Mexico City to Montevideo. The number of countries with at least one unicorn has gone up from 9 in 2009, to 26 a decade later.

Silicon Valley used to be the centre of innovation, but in the past two decades, companies like Meituan, Nubank, and Gojek have pioneered new business models from emerging markets which have spread across the world.

As these business models spread across the world, they undergo mutations to adapt to different ecosystems. The acronym companies (aka big tech) and companies like Uber, Stripe, Tencent and Alibaba are also increasingly engaging more deeply with the rest of the world. In some cases, they are able to transfer their business models almost wholesale into these new markets. But more often than not, they also go through mutations as they cross borders.

What you’ll get

About once or twice a month, I’ll send you a newsletter that will contain a mix of original analysis, curated resources, and/or perspectives from operators & investors across emerging markets. The central theme of the newsletter is the diffusion of technology, entrepreneurship, and venture capital in emerging markets, as seen through the eyes of the founders, operators and investors in those markets.

Subscribe to Unevenly Distributed

A newsletter about the diffusion of technology, entrepreneurship, and venture capital in emerging markets with a focus on Africa, Latin America and Asia.

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