#thatsbrass

Q: HeroX is such an interesting concept: a platform for running competitions to solve local and global problems. As the co-founder and VP, tell us a little bit more about the work you do there.

A: HeroX is built a three core beliefs:

The first one is the belief that every problem is solvable.

The second belief is that you have to ask the right question to get a powerful answer.

The third belief, and in my opinion, the most powerful, is that breakthrough, world-changing ideas can come from anyone, anywhere, anytime. You don’t have to have a particular pedigree or level of expertise to solve a challenge and win the ultimate prize. Instead, you need to have a passion for the problem and a relentless curiosity that propels you forward to create the solution.

The goal of HeroX is to expand the awesomeness of the XPRIZE model; it’s meant to be a complement to it, whereby anyone with a problem they care about can launch a competition to get others to solve it. We wanted to create an innovation platform where it’s really easy for people with problems (and prizes) to match them with creativity and talent to find solutions.

It’s also about risk. Anyone who’s done innovation knows, you can’t have innovation without risk. It’s about trying on crazy ideas that may not work. Peter Diamandis, founder of the XPRIZE, often says, “The day before it’s a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.” We see HeroX as contributing to the world where crazy ideas are tried out and the ones that work are rewarded.

I’d love it if, in the future, someone reads the newspaper in the morning and as they read all the terrible things going on in the world, instead of feeling badly about them, they go to HeroX.com and launch a competition to solve it. We’re trying to change the relationship with problems - instead of complaining about them, we want people to feel empowered to get into action and to play a hero’s role in whatever way they can - whether it’s through putting a problem out there, funding a prize, or creating a solution.

We believe in the power of the human mind and our ability to create solutions when motivated and passionate. We hope to play a small role where people can “stand” upon our platform and make amazing things happen.

Q: Tell us about one of your favorite challenges that is going on at HeroX right now.

A: Honestly – they are all my favorite. I am so impressed by our clients’ courage in launching challenges where they believe a solution is possible. We have the San Antonio Mx Challenge, which is a $500,000 prize to the team that can create a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem in San Antonio. Love those guys! We have the Smart Tech for Firearms Challenge, which is $1M to the innovators who are working to improve firearm safety by developing personalization features in firearms, locking devices, and ammunition systems. We have the Ellucian Student Success Challenge which is just in the process of awarding it’s winners - $50,000 for the best ideas about how to ensure graduation and retention rates in universities.

All of the organizations, their missions, and individuals behind are so different and yet, they all are using competitions as a way to source the best ideas in the world!

We are launching a series of AMAZING challenges in the next month, so stay tuned for that!

Q: The social innovation space is growing rapidly but is still a bit amorphous. Did you always think this was the type of work you wanted to do? What led you to this line of work?

A: Social innovation and social entrepreneurship are focused around the strengthening of our society. Our generation (Millennials) have had a major influence on the influx of this space. The way I see it – we grew up with everything at our fingertips. We also grew up with a knowledge of world problems, a vision of the mistakes that were made, and, above all else, a positive and passionate drive to make the world a better place. For me personally, I grew up in a town where we were taught to be kind to each other, to respect and embrace diversity (and to desire it), as well as to “think for ourselves, but think of others”. (Thanks L-S!)

We were also taught that “You can do anything!” and “You can be anything you want to be!” and “The sky is the limit!” Those empowering thoughts affected our generation where, when we were unleashed on the world, we were (and are) ready to take anything on.

I think the other main driver of our generation is that we believe in equality. Again – diversity and equality were fundamental to what I was taught and, based on convo’s with other friends from around North America and Canada (in particular), I can see that to be true elsewhere. So, fundamentally, we believe in the world around us, we believe in each other and we believe we are powerful. It makes for an AWESOME generation of go-getters! Social innovation is all about taking on really daunting, large, complex, wicked problems and finding creative, effective ways to solve them. If that’s not our generation, I don’t know what else is!

Growing up, I always knew that I wanted to “help”. I recall a time when I was 7 or 8 and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. At the time, I said I wanted to be a doctor. When I got to university though, I realized that I wasn’t as interested in the biology of the body as I was about the concept of a doctor making someone/something get better. It was then that I decided to go into studying business. I recall that I wanted to have an impact on the world and I felt that business was a useful tool to allow me to do just that.

I had no idea that I would eventually get into this line of work – using competitions to motivate people. I know that I have fallen into the right place and I’m so grateful for that. Although I know that prizes aren’t the only way to create change in the world, they are a great tool. I love that they allow for a sense of possibility, wonder, creativity, drive and passion. 

Q: In a world where too much attention is paid to Kim Kardashian's ass, do you feel like there is still hope for our planet and the human race based on your day-to-day work?

A: Absolutely! One of the things that I love the most about my job is that every single day, without fail, I get to have conversations with people who bring problems to me that they want to be solved. In a given day, I get to speak with a father who wants to cure his daughter of a very rare disease, I get to speak to a passionate entrepreneur who wants to create personalized flying devices, I get to speak to a foundation that wants to share the stories of all the hard work their partners have done, I get to speak to a philanthropist who wants to change the way that business is done in an entire city. I speak to some of the smartest and most passionate people in the world and it’s an immense honor. On the other side of those problems, I also get to meet some amazing innovators who create solutions based on their innate desire to manifest change in the world. They are not experts and often do not have the “pedigree” or credentials to solve such hard problems – but they DO! They do. I’ve meet teens who’ve created early diagnostic tools for pancreatic cancer, 83-year olds who have devised prototypes of smart-technology guns, and astronauts who want to create humanlike robots to soothe and assist the elderly. All in all, I have the utmost faith in the human race – we are incredible and capable of absolutely anything. We are fascinating and powerful!

Oh – and if Kim ends up reading this (because one time we locked eyes and waved at each other with an all-knowing “Hey, girl” smile), I love your bum.

Q: When it comes to the startup/innovation world it seems like there is a wealth of men and not so many women. Why do you think this is? Do you see this with your challenge applicants at HeroX and what are some of the steps we can do to change this?

A: The gender (and race) discrepancy has finally been noted by large tech companies like Facebook, Google and Yahoo. So that’s good news! Also, the Forbes 30 Under 30 lists just came out and I was super happy to see the diversity in the class.

There are a number of factors that have created the situation that you’re describing - everything from early childhood beliefs created by parents, toys that girls and boys are pushed to play with, school, peers, what we see on TV and read online/print, and eventually how women and men are treated differently (and treat each other differently) in the workplace. It used to make me very angry, but I realized about a year ago that, anger was never going to solve the problem. Instead, creating a new future, together, will.  

In my life personally, I have been seen as a leader from the get-go. I have been respected and given greater and greater challenges to rise to. I attribute that to the men who were in senior roles who realized right away that I was ready for a challenge. For better or worse, men are still at the top in many instances, and so the more that they notice, appreciate, and utilize the power of women’s leadership, the better the organization will be. It’s just a simple calculation based on diversity – the more we diversify, the stronger we are. It’s really that simple. I think the world is starting to get that.

As a leader myself, I have a big role to play. As I rise in my career, it’s my responsibility to support both men and women as they rise, too. I want women to know that they can be CEO’s and I want men to know they can be homemaking dads. What I tend to do is to look at the person in front of me as a human. Not a woman. Not a man. I listen for who they are and more importantly, who they want to be in the future and what they are committed to creating and being in their lifetime.  

With our innovators, they still tend to be primarily male. However, in 2015, our goal is to put a lot of effort on getting lots of different types of people to participate. Again, brilliant ideas can come from anywhere and so we want to ensure that we’re getting ALL different types of people from many walks of life.

Q: The wardrobes of many women are determined in large part by the workplace. How would you describe your style and is it influenced by your work environment?

A: I work from home, so if I let my work environment affected my style completely, I'd never EVER get out of my Lululemons. Fortunately, I also travel a lot for work, so when I go to see clients, partners, governments or investors, I go for what I like to call "Capable Chic". I want to look pulled together, elegant, and approachable. It’s a fine balance!

When I’ve put my outfit together, I do two tests to make sure I’ve gotten the balance right. First, the wake-up-your-face-and-talk-with-your-hands test. I stand in front of the mirror and pretend that I’m presenting to a crowd. I make sure my face wakes up by smiling as BIG as I can and then I give a pretend award acceptance speech. I’m pretty sure that most of us ladies start the day off like this, right?!

And then? I do the “hug” test - I make sure that I can give a proper, whole-body hug. While I may start a meeting with a handshake, I often end it with a hug. We’re all part of trying to change the world and I see us as all one family. Might as well hug it out!

Q: Tell us a bit about the back story of the Buca Boot. What were you doing before you started working full-time on the Buca Boot? How and when did you decide to make it your full-time gig?

Like many product ideas, the Buca Boot was born out of personal frustration…and shoes. I’ve been riding my bike around cities for years and when I was in grad school in London, I faced that age-old dilemma: Do I choose the practical or the fashionable shoes? I didn’t want to bike across London in my cute and very high heels but I also didn’t want to carry a bag of extra shoes into a club. I wanted a car trunk on my bike.

Each day since that first inkling, I’d come upon another situation where I wish I had a trunk. I was sick of planning my day around the stuff I might need. What if it rains, what if I get cold, what if I decide to meet up with friends after work? The Buca Boot solves these problems. We like to say that the Buca Boot gives you the freedom of your bike with the storage & security of a car trunk.

Since the idea’s inception, it took quite a few years to develop the right design. A big reason for this is that I’m an economist, not a mechanical engineer. I spent my days in the finance industry building models in Excel, not out of plastic. So I had to take the design in my head and find the right people to help bring it to life. We finally did that and when we successfully completed our Kickstarter campaign (last October, 2013), it became apparent that I needed to focus solely on the Buca Boot in order to bring it to market. I left my job a few months later and we’ve been working design iterations and setting up production since then.

Q: You did a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $90K. These pre-orders serve as financing for production and start-up costs. What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of crowdfunding?

A: Kickstarter was great for us because it provided market validation (and some money!) We have our first customers because of Kickstarter and garnered great press. That’s much more difficult to do outside of the crowdfunding campaign platform. However, be prepared that running a Kickstarter campaign is a full-time job. Unless you are one of a lucky few, you need to constantly reach out to potential backers and press and find ways to keep the momentum going. Also, remember that both Kickstarter and Amazon take fees, so factor that into your bottom line.

Q: What is one thing you've learned during the production and manufacturing process that totally surprised you?

A: It’s easy to make 1-5 units of something and relatively easy to make 100,000 units. It’s very difficult to make 1,000, which is usually where a small product start-up is for a first run. Set-up costs (molds) are very expensive, which we knew but it can also be difficult just to find manufacturers who will work on a smaller scale.

Q: We know you are a city-cyclist. What does the perfect day on your bike in Boston look like?

A: Every day on bike is a great day, especially in Boston because you don’t have to sit in traffic or look for parking. I particularly love any route that takes me along or across the river. I love the view crossing the Mass Ave. Bridge, in either direction. Also, my favorite days are those with that perfect in-between weather when it’s still warm enough to go without a coat but cool enough that it’s not sticky. So, September, I guess!

Q: How do you describe your style? Any special tips for ladies who still want to look fashionable while biking?

A: Wear dresses! So much easier to bike in than pants…you don’t have to worry about getting stuck in the chain. Your Sheath dress is perfect; in fact, I’m going online to buy one right now!

1.  Danika we’ve seen you in magazines and on the web modeling anywhere from Kohl’s to Rent the Runway.  How did you get into modeling?

I was running an errand at Bank of America and was approached by two people from an agency and asked if I had considered plus size modeling.  I did some research to make sure they weren’t murderers and eventually signed with them.  My career took off quickly and I added agencies in New York, London, and Germany to my roster.  I had wanted to be a model for over a decade and spent years trying to lose weight and be someone I wasn’t in order to fulfill this goal. I had a serious eating disorder and spent years hating my body.  But when I finally found it in me to start loving myself again (and this took a lot of time and work), I found that I got to live that dream, working as a plus size model, in a way that I didn’t have to harm my body. I’m now represented with Wilhelmina Models in NYC, Natural Models LA, and Brigitte Models Germany.

 2.  We know from your Instagram feed that you are an amazing chef and big into healthy eating – specifically the Whole30 lifestyle.  How’d you get into that?  

In late December 2013, I moved cross country from LA to NYC and recognized that this transition was the perfect opportunity to start fresh and be exactly who I wanted to be.  I stepped back and looked at my life from the outside.  I took into account the dreams that I still wanted to pursue and picked out certain things that were holding me back. I was fine with my body and was learning to love it but I knew I wasn’t living to my potential.  I wanted to feel vibrant and alive and full of energy.  I wanted to function at my highest level possible.  I wanted to be my best self ever.  And if I’ve learned anything, it is that the most significant change happens outside your comfort zone.  If I wanted different results, I’d need to take different actions.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

As it turns out, I was most certainly insane.  I committed to making 2014 the year of being my best self ever- and to be a person that keeps my commitments.  I spoke to a health coach friend and got inspired, followed a clean eating program called the Whole30, cut out alcohol and any processed foods like dairy, grains, added sugars, legumes, and more. I educated myself.  I started from square one and lived by the Whole30’s motto that “food either makes you more healthy or less healthy… there is no in between”. I committed to being active for 45 mins every day- incorporating yoga almost daily, running, strength training, long walks with my dog, and little things like taking the stairs and carrying my groceries home. I stopped eating out almost entirely and started hosting healthy dinner parties and tea dates (it turns out that a lot of people like these sort of get-togethers even more than the drunken bar ones!). I still went out to the bars occasionally and sipped soda waters with lime and danced until 3am- I’m pretty good at faking drunk after all these years of practicing the real thing. I focused on getting 8-9 hours of sleep every night.  I took baths, wore cute lingerie to bed for myself, read tons of books, took pride in the cleanliness of my apartment, burnt all the nice candles down to the glass, and cooked myself elaborate healthy dinners better than most restaurants I’d been to.  I realized that every moment of life is a special occasion and it was time I started living it that way.

Over the last year, since I've made the decision to eat and live cleaner, my entire world has changed. I found my mind absolutely blown at the difference cutting out all the chemicals, hormones, drugs, alcohol, additives, sugars, and any other unnatural junk had on every single element of my body, mind, and life.  It was as if something finally wiped out all of the haze and brain fog that I used to have and I had total clarity.  I was able to step back and look at things from a big picture viewpoint- making better decisions and functioning so much more efficiently in every way.  My energy was consistently high and I felt like I was on happy drugs all the time.  No ups and downs, just consistent, positive, endless energy.  I slept so much better. I was more productive, focused, alert, quick, creative, and present. It was like all of a sudden I became this 2.0 version of myself in every single area of my life.  And I haven’t looked back since.  On top of all of this, I've lost over 30lbs of excess weight, my physical performance has become substantially better, my skin is clearer and glowing, my hair and nails are stronger… pretty much everything has just amped up.  I've found such joy in this new lifestyle, that I want to share it with whoever is open to it!

That is seriously impressive!  And how have you taken it to the next level with Model Meals?

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.  As I shared my health transformation via social media over the last several months, I noticed that people were regularly reaching out asking for help in how to start.  “I don’t know how to cook,” “It feels overwhelming,” “It seems expensive,” “I don’t think I have the willpower”.  But what I knew was that if people could just give it a week, they would be able to feel the massive shift in themselves that comes with ridding ourselves of unnecessary toxins. And then once they felt that feeling- they would be willing to put it more effort to sustain it.  And so Model Meals was born to bridge that gap:  to offer a food delivery system to people- to make it easier to deliver that feeling.  To take out all the work and fear involved in taking the first steps, and to ultimately work backwards. To dangle the (organic) carrot that would inspire them to eventually grow their own.  

3.  We’ve seen you sporting a “Healthy is the New Skinny” t-shirt.  Can you tell us about that?

Healthy is the New Skinny is an organization started by my Los Angeles modeling agency, Natural Models LA, to promote the message that we must start focusing on health rather than on being a specific size.  Some people are naturally curvy while some are stick thin, and there is so much body shaming seen in our world today.  We’re all in this together and there is no right way to look.  In my opinion, that is one of the most beautiful things about humanity. Healthy is the New Skinny to me is promoting a message of total support and acceptance.  With a focus on love, it suggests that all we should ever strive for is to be the best possible version of ourselves. 

4.  And lastly, how do you describe your style?

 My style is pretty simple and has changed a bit since I’ve moved to NYC.  I like a lot of basics and solids.  Blacks, Whites, Greys, Navy.  I like a bootie with a little heel, body-con dresses and skirts that highlight my waist, leather, and cool gold and silver accessories.  I think style is important but that it shouldn’t distract from the person who it’s riding along on.  It should complement your personal beauty and personality rather than define it.