Re:Development: What Entrepreneurs Really Want from Foreign Aid
In our latest "Re:Development" episode, entrepreneurs Sahar Mansoor from India and Celina Alvarado from El Salvador share how they think foreign aid should support the small business sector.
International development has entered a new era. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been shut down, and many countries are cutting foreign aid budgets. And yet global poverty remains one of humanity’s most urgent challenges.
At this moment of crossroads, TechnoServe is exploring what the future of international development should look like—and how we get there.
In TechnoServe’s series, “Re:Development | Conversations for Change,” we interview leading thinkers and doers with bold perspectives on how to build a world where everyone has an equal chance to succeed.
Read previous episodes of the series.
Effective Foreign Assistance from the Entrepreneur’s View
Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are critical for development, representing 50% of GDP and up to 70% of employment in lower-income countries. Accordingly, the sector receives substantial foreign aid funding and attention. But what do entrepreneurs themselves want from outside assistance? What do they think are the most effective ways to support them?
In the latest edition of Re:Development, TechnoServe CEO Will Warshauer speaks with Sahar Mansoor and Celina Alvarado, entrepreneurs who worked with TechnoServe in the past to gain greater skills to grow their businesses.
Celina Alvarado from El Salvador is the founder and CEO of Auténtico Catering, a food service company established over 10 years ago. Having started the business as a service geared particular for busy mothers or other women, Celina has grown Auténtico into a successful enterprise with 10 employees. With degrees in culinary arts and food service management, Celina has also been named a Fellow of the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative.
Sahar Mansoor from India is the founder and CEO of Bare Necessities, which produces zero-waste personal and home care products. Sahar holds a graduate degree from the University of Cambridge and has worked with the World Health Organization and the SELCO Foundation, a solar energy enterprise. A well-known social entrepreneur in India, Sahar led Bare Necessities to become the country’s first fast-moving consumer goods company to become a Certified B-Corp.
Overcoming Funding and Informational Barriers
Will Warshauer: There is a lot of talk around the world, probably now more so than ever, about how we can boost economic activity, economic growth in emerging markets.
With all of the talk and thinking about that, we rarely hear enough from people who are actually engaged in doing that. And that’s why I’m so pleased to introduce our two guests today, Celina Alvarado from El Salvador and Sahar Mansoor, coming to us from India. Both of them are entrepreneurs who can give you their firsthand perspectives on challenges they faced in growing businesses in two very different markets – and also some of the thinking about how outsiders could possibly support them in ways that would be useful to them.
But I’m going to let them introduce themselves and their businesses. I’ll start with Celina. Celina, just tell me a little bit about yourself and then about the business that you’ve been building there in El Salvador.
Celina Alvarado: Well, hello everyone. It’s nice that we can be here together and share ideas. My name is Celina. I am from El Salvador. I’m 35 years old, and I am a mother. I’m an entrepreneur. I am a woman advocate for raising our voices together and making our community better through whatever we can do. And that’s why I started Auténtico Catering.
The idea was that as a mom, you usually don’t have help around. Like you have to figure everything out. You are the heart of the household. So you have to figure out things about your kids, your husband, your friends, your mom, or your sisters. So I was like, where can I get this help? It doesn’t exist. Who can I reach? Who can I contact?
And I was like, well, maybe I can be the help. Maybe I can be the one who extends the service, who is there for other women. Doing it around food is something that brings us together. You know, we get together for a birthday, we get together for a meeting, we get together for breakfast. So it was like, how can I be of service through food, which was what I had studied. And it was like, maybe I can do this. Maybe I can have a catering service.
When I started to do this, I noticed that I didn’t have a lot of people that I could reach or I could hire. So I started with the maid, with the help at home. I started to teach her, how can I do a cross pie? How can I do a filling? And when I started to notice that she was able to learn how to apply all of these tools and to create, I was like: This is great, because she is a mother who takes care of her kids, has to leave home in order to come here and work with me and help me out. So it was like, we as mothers can help other mothers.
I was able to have women who didn’t have the knowledge or the curriculum or the experience of cooking. I was able to teach them, give them the skills. They got better at what they did. They learned something new. They were able to better their lives while they were working with me—it was like having an opportunity to learn how to cook and get paid for it. And then at the same time, give this service to another woman.
Will Warshauer: And Sahar, the same question for you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and about your business, which I know is called Bare Necessities.
Sahar Mansoor: Yeah, thanks so much for having this conversation. I’m Sahar. I’m from Bangalore, India. I have a business called Bare Necessities. And we’re really, really excited about making sustainability the norm and not the exception. And we’re doing that through high-quality personal care products that we can all use on a daily basis. And the idea and the intent is to reimagine everyday necessities without any plastic footprint. So it’s better for you. It’s better for the planet.
So we try to have an approach that cares about people, planet, and profit. So we’re a social enterprise. We have a 100% woman-run production team and warehousing team, which I’m very proud of.
But myself, I’m a bit of a nerd. I studied at the University of Cambridge. I studied environmental law and environmental economics. I was a student at the United Nations in Geneva, WHO, moved back home to Bangalore, worked in the development space, in the solar energy space, before starting Bare Necessities.
Will Warshauer: Terrific. As we were thinking about foreign assistance and the future of foreign assistance, it’s great that you have some experience from the inside of that, as well as a business person. Let me ask each of you, and maybe you can go first this time, Sahar, in terms of the main challenges that you faced in starting and growing a business. I’m sure that that’s a very long list, but if you had to think of two or three at the top of that list, what were they for you?
Reform Priority: Patient Capital and Stronger Networks for Women
Sahar Mansoor: For me, I think, definitely access to capital ranks super high because I was a first-time entrepreneur. I had all of these amazing ideas, a lot of energy, but I don’t think I had the social network in order to raise that kind of capital. And I think because of my age, because of my gender, I was not just proving my idea in those pitch rooms, but I was also kind of, you know, I had to explain why me, as a single woman founder, would be able to do this.
And I do think that a lot of my male counterparts don’t get asked what I do get traditionally asked. I don’t think personal milestones like marriage or kids are something that someone who is my age, my peer, with my same experience, who might be my male counterpart, would have to answer in a pitch conversation. And I think those were some questions that I did get asked that caught me by surprise as well. So I think that’s one.
I think just the statistics speak for themselves: roughly 2% of venture capital funding goes to women. And that number has stayed the same since 2000, which is, I think, frankly, quite crazy that we’re in 2026 and the number is hovering around the same amount as well. So it’s not just our perception, it’s not just these personal experiences and anecdotes. It’s really beyond that. It’s backed by data as well.
Will Warshauer: Yeah, it’s very well said. And it’s interesting because, you know, it’s not a new problem and it’s not a very complicated idea. You know, the new businesses need financing, and yet I think the sector has been really slow to respond. And then, as you say, even where there is some financing available, it disproportionately ends up in the hands of male entrepreneurs.
Celina, how about you? What were the biggest challenges you faced as you started and in growing your business there in El Salvador?
Celina Alvarado: I agree. I mean, we all need some capital to be able to launch something. And here in El Salvador, what has been a trend is that only what is focused on AI or tech or, you know–there’s no funding for other business areas, and we all need it. We are all part of the seed that we put into the country that we’re from, like we move the economy.
So I think I agree that that’s one of the challenges that I faced. And then the other was to do it alone. It’s hard for people to believe in you, and at the beginning it feels lonely because it’s so hard in El Salvador to be able to launch something, to sustain something. So when you start, not a lot of people are backing you up.
However, it was nice to find that there are resources that are available for entrepreneurs like me, getting the support from organizations that help us to get our business straight. Because for example, I studied culinary arts, so I didn’t have a lot of knowledge on financial background. I didn’t know that it was important; what I needed; what for.
I mean, I knew that I wanted to sell and have money and be profitable, but that was it. I didn’t have the order or the importance of having this all together and being able to develop my business around this structure that would help me grow. I didn’t have that at the beginning, but it was nice to find it throughout the way.
Will Warshauer: Sahar, I saw you nodding a lot as Celina talked about being alone as you’re starting your business; that seemed to resonate for you. I’m curious if it did. And if so, where you found help and also where you found financing eventually.
Sahar Mansoor: Yeah, definitely. I think I really echoed the sentiment where a disproportionate amount of capital goes towards tech, because I’m also in Bangalore. It’s the Silicon Valley of India. It’s just so sexy, it’s so scalable. And it can be literally scaled overnight. So I definitely understand and appreciate that.
So honestly, where I found support, it was from other entrepreneurs. It was through my football, you I started learning how to play football when I was the ripe age of 25. But I found these amazing women who are CEOs who are 40, who are in their mid-30s, and who are 18. And it didn’t matter because honestly, on the field, we were all just like, “Yes, coach.” You learned discipline, you learned teamwork.
And I think I found that I made a lot of those networks on the field, through my run club, through a lot of activities that I was doing that were completely outside of my startup, but things that I was enjoying. And I was slowly building the social capital in ways that I didn’t know.
And then it also happened in unexpected ways. I feel like I was really knocking on doors because I thought I needed this capital to start. But then I decided to just start building and really taking the revenue and reinvesting that into the business. And I think that really helped because when I put my head down and just was building, I then suddenly got a lot of interest via LinkedIn. It just proves that if you put your head down and build, eventually the funding will also follow.
Will Warshauer: Celina, I saw you nodding at that. Is that also true for you? And where did your financing come from eventually, if you’ve taken some?
Celina Alvarado: It’s funny, yes, I do agree a lot with Sahar’s opinion. However, for me it was different. For me, I didn’t get any financial help. However, I felt that building and having a team around you, building different relationships through networking events or having different gatherings where I could meet people, people would support me through purchasing products from me or purchasing services from me. I mean, it came through work. So maybe I don’t have the experience to have had fundraising. However, I am excited to hear that these are possibilities for other women around the world.
And in fact, I am starting to change my business into a corporate kind of business now. So maybe I’m going to start this part for myself this year. So it’s exciting to hear from somebody else and to see there are people interested in helping you out and helping you grow and helping you expand.
From Projects to Partnerships: Invest in Local Capacity
Will Warshauer: So I think a lot of the people who are going to watch this conversation are people who are thinking about foreign assistance and how they can make foreign aid more helpful and better. And what would you tell them in terms of what sorts of support would have been helpful for you? And if you saw programs or support coming from overseas that was actually not helpful? Because obviously, in a world where there is less foreign assistance, we’d like all of it to be as effective as it can be, and you’ve lived through this. And so if you could go back and have a smarter foreign aid community, what would they be providing you? Sahar, do you want to kick us off on that one?
Sahar Mansoor: I think what we really need is capital that is patient, that has the eye on the long term, beyond a four-year term or a five-year term, depending on the country that you’re from. But really understanding also that impact takes time. And a lot of that impact you’re not going to see overnight.
So if you do a longitudinal study and you really look at the impact of solar lighting in schools or in local communities that didn’t have energy access prior, you’re going to kind of have to look at it from a 10-year lens or more to see if livelihoods were improved, if incomes improved, if school attendance improved, if test results improved, if people just enjoyed their recreational activities more and were happier and were more excited to go to school. And all of these indicators, health indicators, will have to be really done in a longitudinal lens.
I think what happens often with international aid is sometimes whatever is really super shiny or new or exciting might get a lot of press, and then we might get a little carried away. But I think just making sure we’re rooted in data and the grassroots reality, to really make sure that the beneficiaries or the co-investees are really benefiting from it, I think is really important.
And sometimes a lot of things are really well-meaning and well-intended, but maybe it doesn’t translate on the ground. One example was this amazing, well-intended person got all these books together and wanted to donate them to developing countries. But unfortunately, when it reached the geographies that it did, there was no kind of connection to the books. It was about Santa Claus and the snow, and it was people who didn’t look like them, you know, temperatures that they had never experienced, or clothing they had never seen, or food they had never seen. So it’s obviously a lighthearted example on this, but just making sure we’re really being quite mindful of the grassroot impact.
Will Warshauer: Yeah, I really like both the points. I think the understanding and appropriateness of the local context obviously matter. And I think a big challenge for everybody in development is these short project cycles. There’s a three-year project to do so-and-so with entrepreneurs somewhere. And often the cycles are so short. And both of you have been at this for a long time now, I know.
Celina, any thoughts from you in terms of what you would have wanted from somebody from the outside assisting, or efforts you saw that were particularly unhelpful?
Celina Alvarado: Sometimes there are resources that we can get to, but not many people know about them. Like for me, every time I learned about a new program was because somebody told me, like another entrepreneur told me, hey, there’s this program or organization that you should apply to. Because we all know what we’re struggling with, and we all need all of these kinds of resources. Like it’s not easy for me to have access to somebody who has experience, to get a conversation with somebody and ask for advice, so I mean, you get discouraged sometimes.
And maybe to be able to be closer to the entrepreneurs, to be able to talk to them, to hear them. Like, for example, this experience that we’re having with you, to be able to raise our voices and to communicate from where we are, what could create a greater impact. Because there’s a big distance between the people who want to help and the people who get the help.
And I think it’s important to be able to look at every kind of business. I know that sometimes we want to develop more certain areas, but I think it’s important to reach out and to know that we all bring something to the table. I feel that it doesn’t matter if your business is a big corporate company or something small, we all can make the change that we want to see in the world.
And immigration is a big deal in the world, I feel, because people try to leave their countries because they want better opportunities. But what if these opportunities reach the country, and we don’t have to do this, and we can stay here?
Will Warshauer: Yes, thank you. And so I mean, I’ve heard a lot of similarities in your two answers to this in terms of patient capital. I liked your last point quite a lot, in terms of accessing people who are experienced entrepreneurs themselves. And you both said a lot about this, but if there’s any other advice you would give to these rich countries that want to do foreign aid programs, this is an opportunity to do that–whichever of you would like to jump in first and give some advice to the aid givers.
Sahar Mansoor: Yeah, for sure. I think to really truly invest in local capacity. And that’s not just in monetary terms, but invest in knowledge transfer, invest in technology, invest in things that really matter, like climate finance right now.
I think these are really big ones but also supporting through your trade terms that are fair, are really good and equitable, that are going to really strengthen the local economies that you’re importing from or working with.
And I think aid should always be more in terms of a partnership. It’s not just like a prescription, like “you should do this,” and definitely not a one-size-fits-all. I see this a lot where, “you know what, this worked really nicely in parts of Africa. So we really think that you should do this exact same thing here in Latin America or here in India.” So I think that’s something that I do see a lot in the development space.
And I think being quite cognizant of that would really help–to look at policies that really, really benefit the local communities and invest truly through your time, through your effort, through technology, not just in patient capital, but also these other mechanisms.
Will Warshauer: I like that a lot, and it’s easy to talk about partnership, but true partnership is often hard to do. It’s slower, it takes more time, it requires more flexibility, all of which we don’t see always in foreign aid. Celina, anything to add to that?
Celina Alvarado: I agree with what you just said. We have to go through a lot of processes in order to get the help that we need or that we want or that will make us be better. And I would say that if you have the opportunity to come and help us out, find the voices that are going to make this aid help spread out. Like, find organizations like TechnoServe that can be the voice to other entrepreneurs and open up and do that domino effect: like if you help me out, I can help another, and make that ball go around.
Lessons on Balancing Business and Sustainability
Will Warshauer: I think there’s a lot of very practical, implementable suggestions from both of you on this point. So I really appreciate those, and I think they’re going to be helpful.
I want to shift gears for a minute. In listening to both of you talk about the businesses and the start of your businesses, obviously you had social concerns fairly front and center. Do you run into times where there is a tension between the business imperative and the social imperative? How do you balance those two?
Sahar Mansoor: I think that’s a really great question. Thank you for asking. You know, when I was working at the United Nations and I worked in the development space, I was really, really intentional about creating a business that was a business, an entity that essentially, was not reliant on philanthropy or grants or, the flavor of the season–something that was really very, very mindfully built to scale over a long period of time.
And I wanted to prove that you can have a business with social, environmental, and economic goals that are all very much congruent to one another. And you don’t have to pick between creating impact and being a viable business. And that’s what I really wanted to prove. And I also think that the future of doing business is that: where you have to go beyond your Excel spreadsheets, beyond just your financial impact. The businesses of the future have to be built with this triple bottom line in mind.
And then we’ve actually very intentionally built this into the DNA of Bare Necessities. I remember when I was a student in L.A., in Cambridge, looking at brands that were B-Corp certified. And I was really diving deep into how they articulate their impact, et cetera.
And I’m really happy and excited to share that we’re actually India’s first B-Corp certified FMCG [fast-moving consumer goods] brand in India. It’s not just us saying that here we’re creating impact, it’s literally vetted. We answered those 50,000-odd questions around it and we’ve proved it. We’re walking the talk as well, and it’s verified. And it was really important for me to do that because it was also a self-evaluation tool. Because I’m saying I care about impact, I’m saying I’m doing all this, but am I really?
And honestly, the process was really also enlightening because it made me set up new structures, new processes that maybe I wasn’t doing, or it highlighted some things that we were actually doing pretty well. So it was a good way to kind of reflect inward. And I think that’s how I hope that more and more, newer age businesses that develop are kind of built with this intent of thinking of environmental, social and economic impact.
Will Warshauer: Well, first of all, just a big congratulations. Some of our business partners have become B-Corp certified, and they have talked at length with me about how hard it was and how much time and energy it took. And these are big multinationals with thousands of employees. So I can only imagine for your company–very, very impressive.
Sahar Mansoor: Thank you.
Will Warshauer: And with fewer aid dollars, we’re going to have to find businesses that are both profitable and good for society. Celina, do you want to come in on this question?
Celina Alvarado: Yes. Well, for me, it was a little bit different, but I’m glad that I’m able to hear her story and to learn from it. I didn’t start my business intended as a business. In fact, I didn’t know what I was doing. I just knew that I wanted to help other moms like myself. However, it did become a business down the road. So it’s nice to see how things are able to grow.
And one of the things that I did want to start with, and I did have clear at the time, was that I wanted to help others through the business–or whatever it was that I was trying to make. And it was to impact other women’s lives through Auténtico. To be able to help them heal in some kind of way, to find a purpose, to find that they are able to do things that they never knew that they could do.
And I just would like to give you an example. I have this lady, her name is Margarita. She used to work as a salesperson in a pamper company, and I saw her skills, that she was able to do more. So I said to her, “would you like to try?” And her attitude was just so positive that it turned out to be something good. And she didn’t know how to cook. She didn’t know how to hold a pot or anything. It was nice to see her get empowered through the learning process, through being at Auténtico. And now she’s the supervisor of my kitchen. She’s my right hand.
And I know that if she decided today to leave Auténtico, she has all the skills that she needs in order to have her own business. So it’s nice to be able to help the community, this is the idea behind Auténtico: to help other women get the skills that they need in order to improve their lives.
Will Warshauer: I appreciate you moving the conversation on to one of your employees, because it’s exactly where I wanted to go next. It’s well known that particularly in emerging markets, the majority of jobs are created by small and medium businesses. And so this is one of the many reasons why they’re deserving of support and deserving of the time and effort to think about how we can help them grow. Because employment is a hugely important area for resilience and otherwise.
And I’d love to hear from both of you in terms of how many people your business is employing, but also to sort of broaden that out a little bit and think about the role of your business in terms of alleviating poverty, which is the mission of TechnoServe. Obviously, I think a lot about that. But let’s start off by how many employees you have now.
Sahar Mansoor: Sure, I can get started. We’re a team of close to 20 people, but we have 100-plus vendors all across India. And that was vetted by B-Corp. So we source things like cacao butter from Auroville, coconut oil from Kerala, lavender and saffron from Kashmir. So we’ve actually indirectly created 187 direct jobs. And indirectly as well, we’ve created more than 500 jobs.
I think that’s really important because small businesses, we’re kind of the heart of the economy, we’re the backbone of the economy. I think we’re trying to build dignity through these livelihoods. And I think that’s something that really keeps me going on tough days.
And know, Celina, you share such a beautiful story. And I definitely have similar women on my team. I know just seeing them have access to capital to buy themselves, you know, laptops; educate their kids; put their kids through special needs schools. All of those things were not possible before they started at Bare Necessities. And a lot of them are first-time earners as well. So we had to actually set up their bank accounts; that meant financial inclusion, the first time they had health insurance. So it really means so much more than just a job.
Will Warshauer: I love that. Thank you. Celina, how many jobs have you created and how do you think about this impact?
Celina Alvarado: We created one job per year, 10 jobs. It’s been nice to see how much we have grown. But I want to be honest, the growth happened when I was able to share, to delegate, to trust. If I hadn’t done that, it would be me, myself and I, even though I had 10 years.
Because something that I had learned through having the opportunity to participate in these programs is to be able to learn to delegate, be able to learn to have different areas that support you to grow your business in order to make more job opportunities for other communities. So it’s nice to be able to reach that number because it was hard for me.
And I think it was because I started it as a desire, and now it has become a business. And now I see the need to grow, the need to create more job opportunities. So yeah, we have 10 people on our team, and we hope that this year that we get to do this corporate side, we get to be able to bring more job opportunities to other people as well.
Inspiring Future Women Leaders
Will Warshauer: Well, it’s just enormously impressive to talk with both of you and to hear your determination and not letting obstacles get in your way–lack of capital and otherwise–and the intertwining of the business and social I think in a very profound way. That’s super encouraging. We’re fortunate at TechnoServe, we get to work with tens of thousands of small businesses every year all around the world. And the energy and dynamism of entrepreneurs like you give me hope for the future. So thank you.
I want to try something a little new here with my last question, which is: I want to ask each of you if there is a question you would like to ask the other, about what it’s like to run a business as a women entrepreneur in her country, if that makes sense. So if one of you would like to go first, asking the other a question or two, I’d like to wrap it up that way.
Sahar Mansoor: That’s a really special touch. I think for me, my question to Celina is, how does culture in El Salvador really shape entrepreneurship there? And are there many other women-led businesses in the impact space? Tell me more about, how does culture shape entrepreneurship in El Salvador?
Celina Alvarado: Well, thank you for your question, I really appreciate it. I think it’s been getting better through the years, because at the beginning, like a couple of years ago, it wasn’t something that would happen. But now it’s something that is really being promoted, to promote students, adults, or young people to open up their own business and start moving the economy.
And there are more opportunities for women now. They try to make sure that women get to develop different entrepreneurial ideas, and there’s a lot of support and a lot of organizations that focus mainly on women entrepreneurs. So it’s nice to see how that has developed and how maybe the focus has changed, and now we have the same opportunities as other people. So yeah, I think it has become something cultural now, but it wasn’t before. So I think it’s the impact that maybe we have had throughout the years, around ourselves as women.
For me, more than a question, I just would like to say that I am glad that I had this opportunity to hear your story because you’re like, a thousand miles away, and you never know what other women might be going through in another country. So thank you for sharing your story and thank you for inspiring me and for having that knowledge and that certainty of what you’re doing. This is why I like to speak with other women or another peer, is that I get to see that there are other women making things that I want to be able to accomplish. So they exist, they are out there.
So thank you for sharing your story and inspiring me, because for me it was a gift to be able to hear you today. So thank you.
Sahar Mansoor: That’s so kind and generous of you to say, Celina. I really enjoyed listening to you. And I’m so excited to see how you continue to build. We’ll definitely be LinkedIn “connects.” So I’ll be watching you and cheering you from afar.
Celina Alvarado: That’s amazing.
Will Warshauer: You guys are terrific. My work is done here. Thank you both very much for your time today. Thank you for sharing your insights. Again, I think you pointed at several ways, very practical, specific ways that we could make support to entrepreneurs better from the outside. But you also, through telling your stories, made manifest the power of the individual: someone with a good idea and the determination to make it happen. So I really appreciate your time today, but most of all, I appreciate your time every day in working with your businesses. I wish you much continued success.
