Ana Sáenz de Miera’s Post

Applications for the ReFi Local Node Beta Cohort are LIVE! 🪩🎉 We have a $25k cUSD match funding pool lined up on @Gitcoin #GG18 thanks to the generosity of @CeloOrg and @CeloEurope! 🌎🌍🌏 Apply 🏁 https://tally.so/r/mK5VYM Read 🤓 https://lnkd.in/dXz8Gebe 1/ 🧵🪡 Our mission is to build a global regenerative economy rooted in local startup communities around the world. Local Nodes are the key element in this system. Join us by starting a Local Node in your city! Deadline: Aug 15th Apply now: https://tally.so/r/mK5VYM 2/ @CeloOrg is the carbon-negative, mobile-first, EVM-compatible blockchain ecosystem leading a thriving new digital economy for all. We've partnered with them and @CeloEurope to deliver the ReFi Local Node cohort on @Gitcoin for #GG18! 3/ The ReFi Local Node Beta Cohort? 🤔 It's a 3-month program for a global network of local regenerative leaders to gather online and work together towards building local, regen economies. We also support founders within Local Nodes through insights, introductions, and more! 4/ Existing Local Node leaders 🌟 If you participated in the Alpha round, you'll need to submit a 'Proof of Impact' form to be eligible for the $25k cUSD Local Node round on Gitcoin GG18 and the subsequent Beta Cohort. Prove impact: https://tally.so/r/nG9zJo 5/ What are Local Nodes? 🗺 Local nodes are startup communities working towards a shared vision of regeneration, led by entrepreneurs but cross-pollinating with leaders other sectors. They host monthly events, work on open source software and land-based regeneration. 6/ Why build a local node? 🧐 - IRL friendships - Access to local institutions - Online community support - Funding - Global content distribution, Let's build startups together, and move towards a regenerative future! 7/ Last quarter, we supported 14 local nodes w/ over $3-k of grant funding via @gitcoin! Our forthcoming Beta Cohort is a light-weight, high-impact program for busy local leaders. Join us as we regenerate the earth, one Local Node at a time! Apply now: https://tally.so/r/mK5VYM 8/

🚀 Exciting News! Join the Joltzly Community Round 🚀 We are thrilled to announce the launch of our crowdfunding campaign! Your support has been instrumental in driving our mission to revolutionize mobile charging solutions. Now, we're inviting you to learn more about our journey and how you can be part of our growth story. Discover how you can get involved and support Joltzly: 🔗 Read the Announcement Stay charged and stay tuned for more updates! #Joltzly #Crowdfunding #InvestmentOpportunity #MobileCharging

Quick update since last month’s post… We’ve raised an additional $250K so $250K is remaining/available in our current $1M pre-seed round. In total (convertible + pre-seed), we’ve raised $1.45M of our $1.7M goal. Minimum investment is $25K. The round is closing! GroupSpot pitch deck:  https://lnkd.in/eZHqrCbQ GroupSpot one sheet: https://lnkd.in/emGieDxv Rapidly growing company rescuing thousands of organizations and institutions from the chaos of running their groups on email, group chat, Slack and Teams. There’s a better way to run your groups in a private and secure setting… It’s called GroupSpot. Background: • ~50K active members  • Available on iOS, Android, & Web  • used by B2C (teams, scouts, Greek, music, faith, nonprofit, family)  - used by B2B (enterprise: nonprofits, trade associations, business) • Robust feature set that replaces single purpose apps • Payments coming Q1 2024 • 4.8 rating in app store, 1.6K ratings and reviews • Five consecutive quarters of triple digit user growth  • ~50 colleges including Harvard, Georgetown, Air Force, UVA, Penn State, & Williams* - Other clients like Washington Commanders, IMG Academy, YMCA, Boy Scouts of America, & US Indoor Lacrosse • Zero $ invested in advertising or PR to date Also if you’re local to the NYC area, my friend, Daryl Dezelan is hosting a private, invite-only ‘Pitch Night’ event next Thursday, December 14th, in my hometown, Ridgewood, NJ. Two startups pitching, GroupSpot and an AI startup called IntelliHire, courtesy of the talented Tom Abraham. Space is limited so if you’re interested, please reach out to me directly to hold a spot. For more information: https://lnkd.in/ejk7722T Mark Kossick Cofounder & CEO M +1-201-249-7432 mark@groupspot.app To learn more: www.GroupSpot.app TW @GroupSpotTheApp IG @GroupSpotTheApp

📣 Breaking News: Are you part of the YIM community? Then read on quickly, because this is a unique opportunity for a (financial) boost to make your impact dreams come true! In collaboration with @stichtingdoen and @stadsmakers, we are launching a Community Fund! 🌍💡 Are you young and do you have a project or idea to make your city more social, sustainable, or enjoyable? Then this is your chance! 🚀🌟 What makes this fund so special? Decisions are made by the YIM community and the Stadsmakers community itself! Together, we determine where the money goes. 💪💰 And there's more good news: we have €25,000 available! Small amounts up to a maximum of €1,000 can be requested, and in some cases even a bit higher (as in the pitch event, up to €5,000). This money can be used for expenses necessary to organize your local impact initiative. How can you submit an application? There are two options: 💌 1️⃣ Attend the festive launch of the fund during @stadsmakers festival in The Hague (29/09) 🎉✨. Pitch your impact idea or project and have a chance to win up to €5,000! The deadline for submitting your pitch is September 13th. Email your impact idea or project (max 1xA4) to yana@youngimpactmakers.nl. By September 15th at the latest, you will be notified if you are selected to pitch at our event on September 29th! 2️⃣ After the fund's launch, you can send us an email explaining your impact project, including three endorsements (to yana@youngimpactmakers.nl). To qualify for funding, the project must be endorsed by three individuals or organizations within the network of @stadsmakers and/or @youngimpactmakers_nl prior to submission. Are you ready to make an impact in your city? Join in and give your idea a flying start! 🚀💚 #YoungImpactmakers #CommunityFund #Youth #Initiators #RealizingDreams #StrongTogether

I'm excited to support Nonprofit ENG(INE), a philanthropic program working with America’s leading nonprofits on their most mission-critical tech priorities to 10X their impact. Founded and funded by AlleyCorp, ENG(INE) will deliver $1M in awards to eligible nonprofits to build cutting-edge technology that advances social & economic opportunity. Learn more here: nonprofitengine.org. Leveraging AlleyCorp’s 70+ person engineering team, ENG(INE) pairs nonprofits with a team of engineers over 6 months to deliver major, strategic technological builds. At a time when corporations and startups are rapidly deploying advanced data, AI, and design tools, we believe that the greatest technologies must also be available to the best social innovators. US-based nonprofits focusing on workforce, financial security, or women & girls are encouraged to apply by Friday 7/26/2024! Interested? Start an application today: apply.nonprofitengine.org. cc: New York City Economic Development Corporation, Tech:NYC, Robin Hood, Code for America, Fast Forward

Big News🎉 I am proud to announce that every team member at Simple Modern will now be an owner! In the first year alone, we will allocate 5 million dollars in stock across the team. The plan includes everyone. It spans from senior leaders to the team members who work in our domestic manufacturing facility. Here's the story: Eight years ago, I co-founded Simple Modern with my life savings of $200,000. It seemed like a crazy idea to most people. The first few years, I got comments like, "How's your Yeti knockoff thing going?" "Seems pretty risky." "How are you going to compete?" To be an entrepreneur, you have to be borderline naive. You can't spend too much time thinking about the reasons why your company won't work, and you have to accept that most people will be skeptical. The list of risks is always long, and focusing on them only discourages taking action. We kept building because we focused on the opportunity to create something different. We were fascinated with a question: What if you created a for-profit company that was focused on generosity? I am an eternal optimist, but the results have exceeded my biggest dreams. Today, we have annual revenues approaching 200 million dollars. We have created a meaningful brand that serves partners with the biggest companies in the world. And we have done it all while keeping our commitment to generosity by donating 10% of our profits each year to incredible charities doing important work worldwide. The company's success enables us to give millions towards clean drinking water, homelessness, marginalized communities, ending human trafficking, and education. But there's more opportunity than ever to live out our goal of being a generous company. The success of Simple Modern is a result of its exceptional team. It's only natural to share the value that they have helped to create. A final story. Yesterday, I told the team that they were all becoming owners of Simple Modern. One team member's response made my day. They said, "My family has been poor for generations, but for the first time, I have an opportunity to build a different future."

A good example of the positive PR/Image boost that a company gains when sharing its profits (or ownership) with its employees, although having an external certification of the program (such as that by VOSA) would significantly enhance the public and employee trust in the program. In the end, it's all about the program design, which makes the difference between something that sounds nice and something that actually works for all parties and produces the expected results. In the comments, I attach a list of key downsides of employee stock ownership compared to employee profit-sharing. Something worth considering.

🪴 Tech advancement made possible. Our blog post explores creative ways to fund nonprofit tech needs. Discover strategies for bridging the financial gap and pave the way for tech-powered success at your organization: https://loom.ly/5YlWaGk

Amidst a complex year, Gold House united, invested in, and championed Asian Pacific creatives and companies to deliver $88 million worth of transformative impact that has shaped our community and propeled us to power tomorrow for all. We: ⭐ Fostered unity by creating new programming for underrepresented communities and industries, growing our 1000+ Membership base, and expanding our relationship with platforms like GoFundMe’s AAPI Community Fund, which has granted over $7.3 million to 250 Asian Pacific-serving nonprofits. ⭐ Continued our leadership in narrative change through full-funnel services in entertainment and media, including transformative research and consultative services, formal investments through our regenerative Creative Equity Fund, and Gold Open promotional and awards campaigns that was capped off by Everything Everywhere All At Once’s history-making wins ⭐ Advanced economic equity by expanding Gold House Ventures’ capital and services to Board placements and Asia via Singapore and empowering even more entrepreneurs to build their own companies through the top Asian Pacific founder network and accelerator, whose alumni have now raised $1 billion in follow-on capital Most of all, we feel lucky to deliver all this transformative impact with hallmark joy. We are not victims; we have power. We are not only here to defend; we’re playing offense. We believe more than ever that growing a larger pie–while fighting systemic injustices–is the critical cornerstone to reimagined, broader societal change. Thank you to everyone who supported us, partnered with us, and created alongside us this year. We are excited to keep building this house. Together. To read Gold House’s full 2023 Impact Report, visit the link in bio or visit https://lnkd.in/eAPkk4NK. Videos and music are not owned by Gold House and are not being used for a commercial purpose.

My goal is to build a unicorn. But that probably doesn't mean what you think. This isn't about building the next big tech company valued at $1 billion. It's about building and growing innovative companies and products that help community-minded organizations raise $1 billion so they can do more good in our local communities. How do I measure that? Thanks for asking. 😉 One of the ways I measure my progress toward that goal is through online payment volume. Payment volume? Wait. What? Let me explain. Whether we like it or not, these organizations require money (some might say revenue) to fuel their mission. That money can come from places like: online donations registrations for camps, events, etc. member dues You might think in 2023 that most organizations would have the tools in place to quickly and easily process, track, report, and forecast online donations, payments, dues, etc...but I'm here to tell you that's not the case for many. In fact, technology has buried the leaders of many of these organizations. They are spending too much time cleaning data, manually creating reports, troubleshooting tech, dealing with vendors, working in spreadsheets, chasing late payments, etc. It’s a mess. These leaders are the heart of their organization. We need them out front, leading the charge, and doing good in our communities. So how do we do that? One of the ways is we give them tools that put the “business side of things” on auto-pilot. That's where I step in. I love building and growing innovative companies and products that solve practical problems for community-minded organizations - like payments. For me, it's the perfect mix of business, tech, and purpose. With my first company, we helped ~6K churches, schools, and nonprofits process $600M+ in online donations. Next up is youth sports. Duesy is putting dues and fees on auto-pilot for youth sports teams, so coaches can get back to coaching. Because I believe coaches play an important role in our communities. So that's my version of building a unicorn. I guess you could call it an "impact unicorn.” 🤷♂️ Lots of work to be done to get that remaining $400M. But I’m up for the challenge. 💪 $1 Billion or bust. Let's gooo! 🚀 #purposeled #entrepeneur #fintech #saas