The president and COO of Great Works Internet, a Biddeford-based broadband carrier, talks with Mainebiz about the lessons he’s learned as a business leader, an angel investor and an immigrant, and how they shape his work today.
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Kerem Durdag wears many hats in business, including president and chief operating officer of Biddeford-based broadband carrier GWI. He is also a member of the Maine Angels, a group of accredited private equity investors who invest in and mentor early-stage companies. Recently, the Turkish-Pakistani-American launched the Indus Fund, a community-supported microloan program for Maine’s immigrant community.
Mainebiz: What inspired you to start the Indus Fund, and what are the goals?
Kerem Durdag: I saw, and still see, firsthand institutional myopia, xenophobia and racism when it comes to lending practices. If we want to stitch the fabric of society together and allow a pathway to creating intergenerational wealth that is equitable for all, we have to use one of the longest and most powerful levers of economic development: the banking industry. I want to eliminate lending ‘redlining’ by partnering with my peers and colleagues in the banking industry to evolve how we approach lending to the immigrant community.
The goals of the Indus Fund are to partner with banks to provide them the funds to underwrite and provide below market-rate microloans to immigrant businesses and nonprofits so that they can grow their enterprise or organization, while the banks learn and get comfortable with best practices. And in doing so, the immigrant business owner betters his/her credit score, participates in vibrant and vital networks, receives mentorship if desired and becomes part of the conversation of what it means to be a functional participatory democratic society.
MB: Longer term, what can be done to help more immigrants access loans?
KD: The goal is to have lending practices that don’t have hurdles based on fear, but an outreach that is fundamentally anchored in society being equal. You can’t be an equitable society if the social contract is dysfunctional.
MB: What triggered your deep interest in creating a more inclusive world?
KD: I suspect it is part of my DNA. I am a Turkish-Pakistani-American who won the lottery of life. All those languages, songs, football and cricket, poetry, belief in the social contract, struggle of just making it from one day to another, the dreams, are my soul. I grew up in a dictatorship and know firsthand what it is to be encaged and bereft of expression. Here in the U.S., I was and sometimes still am on the receiving end of racism and xenophobia. For me, that oxygen to do something is cultural, technological, economic and social equality.
MB: AT GWI, what progress has the company made so far toward its goal of bringing affordable broadband to all of Maine?
KD: GWI has accessed federal and state dollars to build into rural communities and is poised to deploy in scale when significant additional funds by the state are released in the near future. At the same time, we are bringing in private capital to augment and amplify additional networks in additional geographic areas. We are focused on affordability, net neutrality, open access, data privacy and digital inclusion.
MB: And what are the biggest challenges?
KD: Building infrastructure for the next 40 to 60 years will take time, money, expertise and expectation management, because building broadband infrastructure is an intersection of technology, regulations, construction, supply chains, operational excellence, project management, community engagement and consumer empowerment. There is a tectonic societal demand for high-speed affordable broadband by Maine citizens, and we are rising to the challenge.
MB: What lessons from your past entrepreneurial ventures do you still carry with you today?
KD: Be humble, be open to learning, and surround yourself with those who love you and can teach you grace.
MB: Finally, as a member of the Maine Angels, what are your thoughts on increasing investments to BIPOC and immigrant entrepreneurs?
KD: There is hard work ahead. We have to start from the high schools and then move on to colleges, incubators, board rooms and capital providers to change the narrative to one of inclusion. We must lean in, be intentional, evolve and make it happen.
