Building more than careers: how human capability transforms lives

Impact entrepreneur Zhihan Lee, co-founder and CEO of BagoSphere – an elea portfolio venture since 2015 – shares his story and the deeper purpose that drives him and the entire BagoSphere team:

In 2009, I spent a month in a remote Indian village, 380 kilometers from Bangalore, living among a group of illiterate youth learning to use computers. In just nine months, they were being trained to become data entry workers – some of the first in their village to ever touch a keyboard.

In this dusty, isolated community, I saw the dual forces of technology and globalization at work – opening possibilities where none seemed to exist. Their resilience and determination left a deep impression on me, and I returned to Singapore brimming with ideas.

There are 240 million informal workers in Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, 7 out of 10 people work informally. The majority are women with low education levels, earning less than USD 100 a month in irregular, informal conditions. The odds are stacked against upward social mobility.

My time in India planted a seed: if we want to address poverty at scale, we need to prepare young people for the future of work.

In 2013, we founded BagoSphere, starting with 14 unemployed high school graduates in Bago City, a small city on Negros Island in the central Philippines. Our goal was simple: get them hired at a call center within four months. My engineering instinct led me to reverse-engineer employer requirements and build a curriculum laser-focused on interview and recruitment success.

It worked – 13 out of the 14 students secured jobs shortly after completing the program. This early success gave us the confidence to raise our first round of funding.

We were happy that the hiring rates of our students hovered around 80–90%. But then reality set in. Our business model, where students paid for training through uncollateralized education loans, proved financially unsustainable. We were running out of money and, more importantly, running out of alignment with our mission. 

We began asking ourselves difficult questions: What truly sets us apart from conventional vocational schools that rely heavily on government subsidies? Are we really addressing the root causes of poverty or just treating the symptoms? 

The deeper we looked, the more we realized the issue wasn’t just employability. Many of our students came from backgrounds marked by a lack of early childhood education, parental guidance, and emotional nurturing. These deficits deeply affected their confidence, aspirations, and ability to navigate professional environments.

Despite these challenges, students kept telling us the same thing: “I found my confidence at BagoSphere.” That wasn’t part of the official curriculum. Our training was focused on passing interviews and assessments. But something else was happening. 

Our trainers – carefully selected not just for their knowledge, but for their empathy and commitment, were doing more than teaching. They were coaching, facilitating, and holding space for our students to grow. They were helping them discover their voice. This was more than upskilling. It was transforming the way they see themselves.

Today, we call ourselves a Human Capability School for frontline workers. 

Human capabilities are broad, inherent qualities that enable individuals to navigate complex environments, adapt to change, and thrive. These include: 

• Being – our values, growth mindset, and our ability to manage ourselves. 

• Relating – our ability to build meaningful relationships. 

• Doing – how we exercise our agency to make things happen. 

We discovered that when we invested in these deeper capabilities, the outcomes extended well beyond employment. Our alumni stayed longer in their roles, performed better, got promoted faster, and even became better managers. 

Employers began to see the value of a human-centered workforce – not as a nice-to-have, but as a business imperative. For fast-growing organizations, supporting human capability became central to sustainable growth. 

This realization reframed our approach. Instead of just bridging skill gaps, we began to address the deeper drivers of unemployability – by working not only with individuals, but also with the organizations that shape their environments. 

We now develop internal leaders within companies and institutions, equipping them with self-awareness, coaching tools, and the capacity to nurture others. This creates ripple effects –cultural shifts that reach beyond the training room into policies, processes, and ultimately, systems. 

We also design tools to track human capability development and programs aligned to frontline career pathways. These tools provide visibility into something traditionally seen as intangible: the evolution of human potential.

In the development world, “systems change” and “scaling impact” are often buzzwords. People ask me all the time: Is BagoSphere scalable? 

There’s an inherent tension here. Deep human transformation feels slow, messy, and individualized. Scaling, on the other hand, demands speed and breadth. Many assume you have to choose one or the other. 

As an engineer by training, I used to believe in linear logic: input → output → scale. But human capability doesn’t work that way. It grows non-linearly, emergently. It’s less like building a machine and more like tending a garden. 

Human capability is like mycelium – the invisible root network beneath a forest. You don’t see it at first. But over time, it transforms the ecosystem. It’s quiet, slow, and transformative. 

When we invest in these invisible roots, we create multipliers – individuals who, in turn, reshape how their organizations, schools, and communities function. 

Because systems don’t change. People do. And then they change systems.

To conclude, I’d like to share Markel’s story with you. When I first met him, he was going through a difficult time in life – but he showed remarkable perseverance and chose to change his path. He started as a trainee and is now a Program Officer, supporting others on their own journeys. His story is a powerful reminder of what can happen when hidden potential is given the chance to shine.

Since 2015, elea has served as BagoSphere’s lead investor and a member of its Board of Directors, playing a key role in shaping the company’s strategy and governance. Beyond capital, elea actively connects BagoSphere to its global network, strengthening the company’s reach and impact. Co-founders Zhihan Lee and Tippi Fernandez are also engaged members of the elea Entrepreneurs’ Community.