Operating Model

Exports are among the most reliable drivers of growth in low and middle income countries, moving millions of people into better jobs. Yet in many cases, critical gaps persist: industries that should exist given a country's capabilities, but don't. Historical data shows that these opportunities often sit unrealized for a decade or more.¹ These gaps stay open because too many things have to go right at once: an entrepreneur has to know which sector a country can credibly enter, stitch together a supply chain in often-broken ecosystems, line up local partners, clear certifications, attract buyers, and raise capital. They have to clear a minimum bar on every one of these, not just optimize against any single failure mode. Historically, governments have stepped in where markets couldn’t. MITI shaped Japan’s postwar economic boom, ITRI laid the groundwork for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, and Fundación Chile derisked a number of agricultural sectors so that entrepreneurs could confidently build firms within them.

Exporters Without Borders (ESF, from the French Exportateurs Sans Frontières) exists to fill these gaps where governments can't. We particularly focus on sectors governments are poorly suited for, those that demand cheap, fast iteration and the ability to experiment freely. ESF incubates ambitious founders who take ownership of a specific sectoral gap, helps them assemble the right team, and supports them until the gap is closed. We support on the constraints that reward scale across ventures - specifically capital & buyer relationships - while each founder runs the firm, experiments within the local business environment, and clears whatever constraint binds next, under market discipline. Once the opportunity is investable on its own merits, we hand it to DFIs and concessional funders like the Africa Jobs Fund.

¹ Thorsheim, 2026. “How to Start Export Booms: What Foundations, Entrepreneurs, and Firms Can Learn from the Historical Record”, Harvard Kennedy School. Coding covers the Export Boom Atlas and the eleven country cases in Rhee and Belot (1989).

Team

Co-Founders

Saarthak Gupta

Operations & Capital

Saarthak runs ESF’s Operations, Capital, Fundraising, and Research programs. He previously researched new cause areas across different growth strategies and evaluated pilot grants at Coefficient Giving. He subsequently advised sovereign wealth funds and pension funds on portfolio strategy at Bridgewater Associates, as well as working on the firm’s trading systems. He holds an A.B. in Economics from Brown University and is an alumnus of Deep Springs College.

Niklas Piringer

People & Partnerships

Niklas manages ESF’s Partnerships, People, Ground Operations, and Buyer relationships. He previously worked at McKinsey Nairobi advising governments and philanthropies on economics and sustainability, has conducted research at the Overseas Development Institute and Harvard's Growth Lab, and directed a research initiative for Ambitious Impact on cost-effective development interventions in Senegal. He holds a degree in Development Economics from Harvard University and a BSc from LSE, and speaks 9 languages including Arabic, French, Portuguese, Swahili, and Wolof.

Advisors

Ricardo Hausmann

Ricardo Hausmann is the director of Harvard’s Growth Lab, the former Venezuelan Minister of Planning and former Chief Economist of the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB). His research on economic self-discovery is the theoretical inspiration for ESF.

Thomas Kehler

Thomas Kehler, as part of a team of 4, kickstarted Colombia’s multi-billion cut flower industry in 1969. A decade later, he did the same for Chile’s smoked salmon industry. His entrepreneurial work is the practical inspiration for ESF.

External Board Members

Kartik Akileswaran

Co-Founder, Growth Teams

Abdramane Diabate

Co-Founder, Black Elephant & Senior Project Manager, Dalberg

Richard Nerland

Portfolio Manager, Verition Fund Management