Still Hungry, Still Foolish

“Have an idea for a startup? Don’t launch a company, launch an experiment.” - @vacanti

Vin, from Yipit, wrote a great post suggesting entrepreneurs launch an experiment to prove their assumptions, before spending the cash and time building a product, a la the lean startup movement. 

He had an idea, spent one day coding it (instead of six months), to realize consumers maybe weren’t so interested in that idea, so he could move on to the next. Eventually, his Yipit experiment tested well, and the rest is history. 

At Phoundit, we have a similar mentality. It’s tricky to redesign lost & found. 

Experiment - fail or validate - build. That’s the cycle. We’re always experimenting. Most importantly— we’re always moving. Because that’s the only way to solve big problems, after all.

So we were curious,

Are finders really keepers?

We dropped 100 stamped envelopes across New York City, with my name and address - at coffee shops, bars, street corners, all over the place! All a finder had to do was drop the found envelope in the closest mailbox. Nothing more, nothing less. 

I was pleasantly surprised when 57 of them were returned to me. While this wasn’t the most scientific of experiments, I learned:

If made easy and actionable, quite a few people return what they find.

So that was an interesting insight. It was time run another social experiment. Like I said, we’re always experimenting - we’re just that curious. 

Vin makes a great point - starting a company is scary. But when it’s an experiment, what do you have to lose?

*Thanks to my boy Alex Green for his help on this project

We are living amidst a global revolution.

We have access. We are being heard. We are making a difference. 

 And it’s sparking new behaviors. 

It’s not only inspiring – it’s empowering.

 As I read Time’s piece, it reminded me of a common misconception around social media – that it in of itself is the revolution. 

Technology is a facilitator of human behavior, not a creator.

Time’s Kurt Anderson put it perfectly:

 “In the Middle East and North Africa, in Spain and Greece and New York, social media and smart phones did not replace face-to-face social bonds and confrontation but helped enable and turbocharge them, allowing protesters to mobilize more nimbly and communicate with one another and the wider world more effectively than ever before.”

So as we wrap up 2011, I can’t help but fixate on technology’s role on facilitating motivation and what that means for 2012.

A study by the Guardian and The London School of Economics concluded that these protesters are motivated by anger about poverty, unemployment and inequality as well as overaggressive policing.

In 2012, I hope we can redesign the relationship between cities and people. 

By that, I mean re-build systems to motivate and inspire action from a place of community, collaboration and innovation, rather than anger and displeasure.

And maybe, just maybe, Time’s 2012 Person of the Year will be “The Citizen.”

Back in March, I was fortunate to experience the epitome of human kindness. My journey began as I was heading to the bank to cash a check, where upon I panicked after realizing I’d lost it (womp womp). About a week later, I was blown away to find a check in my mailbox, returned by a good samaritan who found it along the way. 

It moved me. Someone took time out of their day to do the right thing, with no expectation of a reward. It felt contagious. I wanted to do something nice for someone else. And I wondered, “What if we could enable more of this human kindness through technology?”

Later that day I came across Todd Bieber’s viral quest to return lost photos found in Prospect Park. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Todd found a canister of undeveloped film back in December while skiing in the park. He developed the photos, told a beautiful story over YouTube and asked the community to help him find the owners of the lost photos. More than 800 people offered their help to Todd!

And his story spread like wildfire. Over 1.7 million hits later, Todd and his girlfriend traveled to Paris to return the lost photos to a French women, who was studying in Brooklyn. 

Wow. Blown away. What an amazing experience. 

So it got me thinking - we’re human and we lose things all the time. But what are we supposed to do with what we find? What if we had a platform to mobilize our community to help us find what’s missing? “Lost flyers” are ideas that stand - how can we make ideas that spread?

So I’m very excited to introduce my latest project, Phoundit, lost & found redesigned for the networked city. Both an iPhone app and a website, we integrate social, mobile and location technology to cut out the middleman for a simple and meaningful shared experience. And we exist to make it easy for the community to act on their inherent goodwill and inspire others to do the same. 

At its core, I really believe technology doesn’t change human behavior, it simply empowers an existing motivation. 

More details to come, but sign up for invite if you’re so inclined. Our amazing team is building something pretty special. 

New York Times columnist Nick Bilton wrote an interesting piece questioning why passengers need to power down their electronic devices during takeoff and landing.

Bilton writes:

New technologies are often greeted with fear and that is certainly true of a disruptive technology like cellphones. Yet rules that are decades old persist without evidence to support the idea that someone reading an e-book or playing a video game during takeoff or landing is jeopardizing safety. 

In his argument, Bilton cites several studies that confirm there is no interference caused by these devices.  

Even Alec Baldwin was booted off his flight for playing Words With Friends before takeoff! 

So before your next flight, consider signing this White House petition to use our devices in airplane mode while we take off. 

Moved by Simon Sinek’s TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, I decided it was time to take an introspective look to articulate my “Why”. 

In my experience as an entrepreneur, it’s imperative to remember why you’re in the game - why you risk over ounce of stability to make your idea happen. Especially in this climate, it’s easy to be distracted by what’s not important. 

So here’s my golden circle. Let me know what you think.

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Why: To inspire the world around me // To be inspired by the world around me

How: Start meaningful projects to change the world

What: Redesign failing systems for the networked city [ie Lost & Found]

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I challenge you to give it a shot. And remember, start from the inside-out when you take that look in the mirror.