Martin Fisher started [[KickStart International]] with Nick Moon in 1991 as a "non-profit organization that develops and markets new technologies for use in Africa".<ref name=ogando>{{cite news|last=Ogando|first=J.|title=Engineer of the year finalist: Martin Fisher|url=http://nextbillion.net/news/engineer-of-the-year-finalist-martin-fisher/|date=September 27, 2007|newspaper=Design News}}</ref> It develops technologies advocating understanding the cultural factors surrounding making money in Africa rather than an approach of giving away technology with expertise that has little to do with Africa's ability to make a living. Moon and Fisher believe that "the poor people don't need handouts, they need concrete opportunities to use their skills and initiative".<ref name=heroes>{{cite web|title=Meet the new heroes: Nick Moon & Martin Fisher|url=https://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050728133707/http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/meet/moon.html|archive-date=July 28, 2005}}</ref> Fisher further states that "[o]urour approach is to design, market, and sell simple tools that poor entrepreneurs buy and use to create profitable new small businesses and earn a decent income".<ref name=case>{{cite web|last=Case|first=J.|title=Martin Fisher|url=http://www.casefoundation.org|accessdate=5 December 2008}}</ref> He also stresses the need to build tools that can be supported in Africa using limited materials and assembly methods. They have designed and marketed a number of tools focusing on farming in African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Mali because 80 percent of the poor are farmers having only two assets: land and the skill of farming. For example, KickStart had created a Hip Pump selling for $34.00 allowing a farmer to use the motion of her or his hips against a lever as a drive mechanism. The pump is capable of lifting water from six meters below the ground to 13 meters above it to allow a farmer to irrigate about three-quarters of an acre in eight hours. Other technologies have included pressing oil seeds, making building blocks from compacted soil, baling hay and producing a latrine cover. These technologies are being mass-produced in Africa. The company has successfully sold over 63,000 pumps (Perlin, 2006) and estimates that 42,000 new micro-enterprises have been started using KickStart equipment such as this pump generating more than 42 million US dollars per year in new profits and wages. Fisher and Moon further estimate that they have helped 200,000 people escape from poverty. They have been successful in Africa because they have focused on:
