Still Hungry, Still Foolish

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. 

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.