My interest in increasing economic opportunities for people in developing countries comes from growing up in Brazil and the U.S. and seeing the sharp contrasts in people's lives due solely to where they were born. Another passion is working with women to safeguard their health and increase their financial opportunities.

I'm currently focused on international development as Co-Founder of Speak Shop, a company that links tutors of Spanish (now, more languages later) living in developing countries with a world supply of students through an online marketplace. Learners choose their tutor and lesson times for personalized tutoring via webcam. We're using open source software with the aim of making the opportunities of e-tutoring and language education as widely available as possible.

Speak Shop Benefits Low-Income Tutors in Developing Nations:

• Guatemalan Spanish tutors are making more than 100% their typical wages. We're expanding to Nicaragua and Mexico in 2007.
• Access to a world market of students means more opportunity, jobs and exposure for tutors
• Easy to implement in other countries
• Possible to implement in other languages

Speak Shop Benefits Individuals Who Want to Learn Languages:

• Convenient and accessible - closest thing to studying abroad which many can't afford to do at all or can't do for very long
• Cost savings - no travel costs and per lesson costs are much cheaper than traditional alternatives
• Each lesson is personalized and one-on-one
• Builds cross-cultural social networks and a network with other learners

Speak Shop Benefits Society:

• Democratizes access to world markets for tutors and to language education for students. Made possible through open marketplace model, open source technologies and low-cost operations
• Increases intercultural interaction and understanding
• Builds intellectual capital in Open Source
• Creates community of learners and educators

Prior to launching Speak Shop I worked at Net Impact, which is a network of professionals committed to using the power of business to create a better world. I've worked at large corporations and small nonprofits, but so far nothing beats entrepreneurship.