Episode Details
Back to Episodes“More founders should move to their country of operations” by Naveeth Basheer
Published 2 days, 16 hours ago
Description
TLDR
- I moved from London to Accra a year ago to set up AWASH, a charity working on farmed fish welfare. I think more founders should move to their country of operations, particularly in LMICs. My hypothesis is that most people overestimate the cost of moving, relative to the benefits.
- The financial case is the clearest. The difference between what my Accra salary is and what my London salary would likely have been would fund roughly one year of AWASH's operations.
- Being in-country has made operations faster. The closer relationships with local stakeholders have also made problem-solving more effective.
- It has let me defer the senior local hire that founders based abroad usually have to make early, when they know least about the country.
- Moving provided impact I did not plan for. I co-founded EA Ghana in January, which would not have been possible from London.
- The costs were real, and mostly caused by administrative bottlenecks and inefficiency. The personal adjustment was easier than I expected and settled within about four or five months.
Intro
It's been a year since I moved to Ghana to set up AWASH, a charity working to improve farmed fish welfare. So this [...]
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Outline:
(00:11) TLDR
(01:27) Intro
(03:44) Benefits of moving
(03:47) Cost-effectiveness
(04:58) Operations and early hiring
(08:25) Unexpected impact opportunities
(09:36) Challenges of moving
(09:40) Administration
(12:13) Personal adaptation
(14:18) Scale of commitment
(15:55) Conclusion
The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.
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First published:
September 22nd, 2026
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.