We’re looking for a partner in the Rwandan hospitality sector
Who are we?
Brink is a Behavioural Innovation practice that enables teams and organisations to tackle big challenges with courage and clarity, by supporting them to learn, adapt, and grow.
Brink is a global business and, since 2021, we have been investing heavily in Rwanda. We chose Rwanda as our home in East Africa because it gave us the simple, lean launchpad we wanted as an organisation, but also offered an exciting trajectory of where we could be in 5-10 years time with a forward-looking, ambitious policy agenda and space to invest.
In 18 months, we’ve been busy. We’ve hired our first 4 Brinksters and delivered locally contracted projects and we’ve been fortunate to build an amazing support network along the way. In July, we celebrated together, our all-company retreat in Kigali in 2022, and having Brinksters from all over the world interact with amazing people from across Rwanda’s innovation ecosystem.
Now, we are looking at our next tranche of investment: setting up a lodge in Rwanda to connect us more deeply to the country and to provide a space for people to work together on wicked problems.
What’s our goal?
We plan to build a Lodge for retreats, residentials and training for us and our friends, partners and people from across the world to learn from Rwanda and its people
Brink Lodge will be a living demonstration of regenerative thinking in terms of energy, food, materials and the natural environment. We are committed to being innovative in how we use technology and cutting edge, age old wisdom to give back more than we take from the community. The Lodge will be a place for
- Learning, coming together, retreats or events: either national or international organisations. In that sense it must combine spaces for large groups to share meals and private spaces for individuals
- Brinksters to retreat to - for shorter periods of quiet work or longer periods where their work relates to Rwanda/East Africa
- Regional academic institutions to send future leaders to do focussed work
Why do we need a partner?
At Brink we believe in partnership. None of the track record we have today would have been possible without the talented partners and collaborators we are lucky enough to work with. Our future plans are always grounded in mixing and matching with people who complement us well. For Brink Lodge we want to partner with an organisation who “knows the ropes” of the market in Rwanda. We're also keen to have exploratory conversations with unusual suspects who might partner with us in a way we haven't yet thought of.
We want to hear from you if you are…
- Experienced and have built (really built, in the bricks and mortar sense) something from scratch in Rwanda
- Invested in sustainability, regeneration and like the idea of nature as the third partner in our team
- Want to create something more than a place, but for community
- Experienced in starting up service-sector ventures from scratch. This could be:
> Lodges and accommodation
> Events and retreats
> Food, drink and catering services
> Other
The legal and commercial bits. We are at the early stages of this project and as a result are open to exploring a range of partnership types, so we would love to hear from you if you are a potential…
- Supplier/subcontractor: Brink subcontracts your organisation to build and/or run the lodge as a supplier
- Co-funder: you make a financial investment in Brink Lodge as a partner
- Both/ joint venture: you would like to jointly fund and build the Lodge
- Sponsor/donor: you partner with us to sponsor or offer a grant to the project that's aligned with your objectives
If you’re interested, please write to us
Please email [email protected] by 12pm EAT 13th December 2022 attaching:
- A short letter expressing your interest, and explaining why you’re interested to partner with us
- A portfolio of your work / investment
- Details on an ideal investment structure. if you have one
