by Amy Gillett, vice president of WDI’s Education Initiative
Ernesto and Yudiel operate a “Cool Coconut Water” stand in Havana. My colleague at the William Davidson Institute, Diana Paez-Cook, and I met them recently on our trip to Cuba to assess the entrepreneurial landscape there. (Disclosure: WDI is NextBillion’s parent organization.) I work on designing and delivering entrepreneurship programs in emerging markets, and Diana directs global grant projects. We sampled their refreshing coconut water on a very warm day in May. Just as we thought our fieldwork couldn’t get any better, Ernesto took our empty shells, freed up the delicious meat, and handed the coconuts back to us with a smile.
