#getsimplist

Hey, Team Interactive is crushing our raise for Camp Interactive (a program to get more kids of color into technology). And I'm actually almost ready for this triathlon. So let's finish strong! Every $1500 puts a kid through ENTIRE program. So we decided to shoot for 150% of our original goal.

Here are reasons you should stop and take 30 seconds to support me dragging my butt across the finish line to get more kids in tech:

1. The odds of me winning the RACE are small...like less than zero.

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2. BUT the odds of us together making more kids feel capable of solving their own problems are HIGH. Which is kind of like winning.

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3. So, take 30 seconds to be more awesome and help me help more kids see just how incredible they are and will be as builders and definers of our future. 

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See, that's easy right?

Thank you for the support and see you at the finish line!

Ron J

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FAQ:

Who am I again?

I'm the Chief Empathy Officer of Simplist

Build your team. Build your business.

Why am I doing this?

There is not enough diversity in tech. Period. As a black kid from Brooklyn who became a tech founder I see this everyday. I was lucky enough to have educational opportunities and the support of a "village" and I gotta pay if forward.

Why else am I doing this?

Because diversity breeds unique perspective and innovation. Kids who today might only see problems can tomorrow see and build unique soutions only THEY can think of.

Does your business have a sworn enemy? I don’t mean a frenemy whom you openly work with until that hopeful day when you can crush them. Not the people who kind of annoy you. I mean the businesses and people with values that are antithetical to the core mission of your team. I mean the entities that offend you with their very existence. In the immortal words of the Notorious B.I.G…the folks you have beef with.

A sworn enemy provides a foil. A true south to your true north. A dragon to wake up and slay every single day for your users, customers and for the world. As Josh Linkner wrote in Forbes, you’ve got to pick a fight to build something that really matters.

Your sworn enemy might be mediocrity in a market. It might be bad, ugly design in Enterprise software (shout to FieldLens). It might be inefficiencies in supply chain, or poorly managed retail operations that lead to higher prices for end consumers (looking at you Jeff Bezos). It could be mercilessly attacking the stuffy whiteshirt and propriety of old school Valley VCs with passion-filled expletives and non-traditional money-ball strategies (hell yeah Dave McClure!)

Our team’s sworn enemy: the mediocre introduction middleman. You know that guy who offered to introduce you to some Angel Investors if you pay him to play? Yeah, him. You know that recruiter who keeps calling you with candidates half of whom it turns out you share connections with (and the other half of whom aren’t a good fit because that recruiter doesn’t know you or your team well)? And for the basement bargain price of only $10,000-$20,000? Definitely him.

It’s not that there aren’t amazing recruiters and incredible advisors that you’d be lucky to work with. It’s that mediocre middlemen have built an industry around your fear that you can’t get to the right people for your business to succeed. That’s bull.

I get higher quality intros and candidates than 99% of the crap that cold calling middlemen lay on my doorstep; simply by combining the power of my team’s networks

So we’re putting you on notice mediocre introduction middlemen: step up your game. Empower your clients. Collaborate with them on identifying who they already know so you can go find the leads they TRULY can’t get to. Your target clients are the people that are increasingly using Simplist to turn every team member, advisor and investor into a connector across every single one of their combined networks (linkedin, twitter, facebook, their contacts, and we’ve got more coming!)

A small, scrappy team can do all of the following without paying a middle man if they know how to leverage their networks:

Get to their first 2,000  users

Raise their first round of funding ($100K - $1MM)

Close their first 5-10 business customers ($100K - $1MM in rev)

Recruit their first 5-7 employees (~$150K in savings)

Yeah. We’re gunning for all mediocre middlemen (and mediocre middlewomen), especially the ones who prey on early stage founders and small teams. That’s beef.

Hint: Almost always.

In the past 24 hours, you've probably been invited to the Nomad application. Like 10 times. In fact I'm inviting you to the app right now. The problem is that nobody almost nobody intended to invite you. Tricked again!

This neat little trick occurs when an application or website asks your permission to access your social network data and then pushes stuff to your wall without your explicit consent...because you've already given permission by NOT opting out. Yup, they get you on the "didn't say no" technicality.

That sucks. But worse than that, I think it's a violation of an implicit contract between product makers (us) and users/customers (you):

We product makers (Simplist in this case) will only use your data and your social reputation in ways that benefit you and that you explicitly condone.

Anything else is shady and ultimately just spammy. Nomad is not alone and I'm not singling them out. In fact even awesome events like "The Affordable Art Show" are getting in on this sophisticated approach to inauthentic word-of-mouth.

Will people click stuff because people they trust look as if they endorsed and recommended? Of course. Is that good for your [FILL IN THE BLANK]? Emphatically no.

Authentic recommendations to people who actually are likely to listen is your best bet hands down. Simple rules of the road:

Never trick me into posting.

Give users filters and tools to connect your awesome app, message or art show to the people in their networks who actually WILL care. On their terms.

And for those of you building or launching something, start with the warm relationships relevant to what you're building or launching.

Share this if you're down with authentic word-of-mouth!