Thanks, Aaron. Okay, 15 minutes gets to feeling like a really short presentation when you’re talking about something that has basically taken over your life So, I’m going to start with a quick 60-second introduction to the Tipping Bucket to get us all on the same page, then give you some highlights on what we’ve been up to since the competition, as well as some of the lessons we’ve learned…and hopefully end up with a couple of minutes for questions. Here goes.
The quickest way I’ve found to explain Tipping Bucket in an audience like this is that Tipping Bucket will do for grantmaking what Kiva did for micro-credit. Let me show you quickly what I mean.
TB allows young people just like you and me, with great ideas, tons of passion, solid skills…and no money, to move forward anyway and change the world.
They get help from experts, mentors and friends to take them from great ideas to a sustainable plan
And then through the phenomenon that is social networking,
And a collection of simple, but powerful tools, that idea gets funded by thousands of other people just like them.
And they go forward to change the world. I was only half joking earlier when I said that TB had taken over my life.
This is a quick snapshot of some of what’s happened since May. I’ve LONG since lost track of hours spent on things like web-design or re-working financials or just trying to figure out what order to do things in. And I’ve long since lost track of the number of people who have helped and encouraged me in various ways…but I guess we know it’s at least 65…and I’m behind on thank-you notes, by the way.
Another way to look at where we’ve come the SVC finals is this one…somehow I don’t get the same feeling from this one. They tell you that it always takes twice as long and costs twice as much as you think it will. They’re wrong. So far I’m thinking it’s more like 3-5 times as long.
But we have made some significant progress, and right now we’re pushing through some last hurdles to start our beta launch sometime before the end of the semester. It’s been quite a ride and since I know that some of you are starting in on that ride, I wanted to share some of the things that have really helped me.
#1 Be Social. And this isn’t referring to some sort of holistic life balance—since I obviously haven’t figured that one out. I’m talking here about the social life you give your idea.
When something truly innovative and exciting takes root in us, a lot of people have this really counter-intuitive reaction to protect it, to be afraid to share it, to put it out in the world. Trust me. I did this. One person asked me “what’s to stop Causes from just implementing this next week?” and I panicked. I deleted the blog post I’d put up about TB, I didn’t come to any of these networking meetings for the competition last year. I really guarded that idea. And I regret it. Talk to people. Share with them, ask for feedback, let your idea have a life. The chance of someone actually stealing it is a tiny price to pay for what you’ll gain by talking to people. These are just a few of the great people available to talk to just through the university. And I am serious about the last item. I have a followup meeting this month with a potential $50,000 funder because I struck up a conversation on a train into Portland.
The second way I would tell you to be social is to purposefully engage with social media. That means you have to get beyond Facebook stalking You don’t have to produce a lot of content, probably the best thing you can do is listen to other people, and then let them know that you’re listening in meaningful ways. There’s a whole post on my blog about this if you want more details. And, if you haven’t figured out Twitter yet. You need to. Period. Let me just say that I the two most lucrative and beneficial connections I have made to date both happened through Twitter. You’re missing out if you don’t get it yet.
Second piece of advice is to double dip whenever you can. Please don’t apply this at parties—that’s not what I mean…
I just mean that you should find ways to get credit for your work. Better yet, find a way to get paid for it. If you can’t make the things you’re doing that you’re passionate about fit into your studies, your work, etc. it may be time to change your major. There’s a lot more flexibility to the academic system than most students take advantage of.
Speaking of flexibility. Your business plan is a working document.
Remember that. Use ALL the resources that are available to you to get ideas, mercilessly edit your own work, and perhaps most importantly, do everything you can to get things as concrete as possible—the numbers you need are out there. And if you carefully track both your sources and your assumptions, you’ll be much better able to adapt when things come along and change your plan—and trust me, they will. Oh, and remember to put your contact information in your business plan. We got all the way through the competition without catching that little detail.
The last thing is to ask for help. There are people out there just waiting to get excited about your idea and jump on board. Open your mouths. This is something I am still really working on, and in the spirit of practice what I preach, we have some opportunities right now to work with Tipping Bucket as we get ready for this beta launch. I’ll go through them quickly now, and please come see me afterward if you’re interested.
We need a couple people to help coordinate PR and social media efforts.
We have some immediate need for video production.
And we could a couple of people to work with the executive team on the capital campaign that’s going to get us the rest of the funding we need to move on to a full-scale launch.
But we have made some significant progress, and right now we’re pushing through some last hurdles to start our beta launch sometime before the end of the semester. It’s been quite a ride and since I know that some of you are starting in on that ride, I wanted to share some of the things that have really helped me.