Zaadz: The first two months, today, the next two months & beyond!

"Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. ‘Give me a place to stand,' said Archimedes, ‘and I will move the world.' These men moved the world, and so can we all." 

What a great couple of months. As we retroactively move into a private beta mode, I thought I'd capture the last couple of months and paint the picture of what the next couple will look like. Quick recap:

The First Two Months
So we released the basic pre-beta tools on Dec 10^th with the goal of getting 100 of our friends in the system by the 12^th when I gave a presentation to prospective investors. (We got the 100 friends in the system and the ball rolling on the $1.2 million financing. :)

At that stage, we pretty much just went to work on the product while we watched our friends tell a couple of friends who told a couple of friends and all the sudden we had 1,000 members in about a month. Cool. We also officially closed our financing in January which allowed me to bring on an AMAZING team.

Then some stuff went on at Tribe and we went from ~1,000 members to ~2,000+ in a couple of weeks. Now, the actual # of members and the increase in traffic wasn't that big of a deal (thanks to David and Jim). We did, however, experience some challenges with the expectations of some of those new members. Whereas our first 100/1,000 members "got" that we were building a social networking site with a purpose, the bulk of the "tribe refugees" didn't really care about our mission and simply wanted a new social networking site where they could hang out and do whatever they wanted to do.

Now, I have no problem with that per se, but the fact of the matter is that we're trying to create something unique. Whereas most social networking sites seem to devolve into a Jerry Springer show, we want to create something that has integrity to its stated purpose. I'm not going to go into the details other than to say that, unfortunately, in the process of trying to communicate our intention to some of these new members, some animosity brewed on their end. Although I (obviously) believe in free speech, our site simply isn't "about" radical free expression. It's about striving to live at your highest potential, serving the world and creating positive change in the process.

Today

"No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen."

So, long story short: We realized that we're not quite ready to handle the range of issues inherent to serving the complex needs of an open community while maintaining integrity to our mission and honoring the diversity of our members. So, we're going to slow things down a bit and take the time to ensure we succeed in creating an online sanctuary for our fellow members by retro-actively going into a private beta mode.

Unfortunately, this is resulting in the temporary de-activation of many of the individuals who recently joined from Tribe along with several hundred members who had signed up but didn't enter any content. I know that this is going to incense many of those already frustrated with us but I trust that those aligned with our intention will respect the decision.

 So, practically speaking, as we move into a private beta mode, although our site will be viewable by anyone and about 1,000 members will remain active, new members will join by invitation only.  Our existing members will have a certain number of invites and people coming to our site for the first time will answer a couple of quick questions en route to getting an invite from us.  

 The bottom line for me: I'm excited to ensure that our first 10,000 members are aligned with our intention and build from there.

Magazine Ads: We currently have a one page ad going out in a million magazines (literally) over the next couple months and we're going to put all of our energy into creating a thriving community in line with our mission. Go out and get the newest editions of Utne, Ode, Yoga Journal, What is Enlightenment?, VegNews, Shambhala Sun, Tricycle, Science of Mind, Yoga International and check us out!

Product Development: Our five (!) new developers are hitting their stride with our code and will be developing some AMAZING stuff over the next couple of months. I'll let Aaron and Jake and the crew provide the details, but we're basically going to have each developer focus on a different project which will include these major initiatives:

- General Cleanup: We've got a lot of housecleaning to do from enhancing the messaging system so you can send to multiple friends and forward messages to grouping your friends to enhancing the tagging searchability and all kinds of other stuff.

- Zaadz Pods: A place for group discussions. Imagine Tribe meets Meetup.com meets Yahoo! Groups meets myspace FOCUSED on topics that help you live at your highest potential and change the world (and fun stuff like that). OMG I'm excited. We'll be rolling this out publicly toward the end of Feb. In the meantime, we'll be testing the tools with our friends over at What Is Enlightenment / EnlightenNext whose first group will be explicitly focused on discussions related to shifting consciousness. (How cool is that?)

- Zaadz Events: Alright. Don't you agree we need a place where you can find all the self-development events going on this week within five miles of your zip code? We think so, too. From a life coach helping you discover and live your calling to a healer walking you through breathwork/meditation to Ken Wilber's next iWET, we're creating THE place you go to get the scoop on what's up.

One thing that gets  me most giddy (but will take a little longer) is when you can cruise over to our site and find a yoga class tomorrow morning at 8 am AND a meditation class tomorrow night at 8 pm both within five miles of your zip code and recommended by your friends. That's hot. :)

(Oh yah, forgot to mention that we co-sponsored our first event this month, too. Worked with my friend Dan Siegel and his friends Jon Kabat-Zinn, John O'Donohue and Dianne Ackerman and their super planner, Barb. The event was awesome. Highlights included dropping a fluffy bomb on Steven Spielberg as we talked about transcending and including the apparent dichotomies between art and science during a private lunch. Too fun.)

(Oh oh yah, I also almost forgot to mention how cool it's going to be when we can organize little meet up groups to go see my friend Dan Millman's new movie of his classic "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" that's coming out this spring (starring Nick Nolte as Socrates). That'll be rockin. (His movie is REALLY good btw.))

- Zaadz Match: I don't know about you, but I'm more likely to meet someone I dig at my favorite vegan restaurant or yoga studio or meditation class than at a bar (especially seeing that I haven't been to one in years). How cool will it be when you can find your "match" by interests such as "into yoga, meditation, reading, Ken Wilber" and stuff like that? We think it'll be kinda cool, too. (Hmmm...maybe we can set up some first dates to go to see Dan's movie. ;)

- Zaadz Pro Local. You've heard me say this one before: Imagine a local, "Conscious" Yellow Pages: a place where you can find all the individuals in the business of helping you  optimize your life (from life coaches to acupuncturists to yoga teachers) as well as general businesses that share your values (from a plumber who goes to your yoga studio or the accountant who eats at your favorite vegan restaurant). The idea is to combine social networking and online yellow pages to help our members more consciously circulate wealth through their community, embracing the idea that we vote with every dollar we spend. Another OMG-can't-wait-to-show-you. (from here)

- Zaadz Grow: If we want to change the world we each must be the change we want to see. Therefore, we'll succeed to the extent we help you with this, eh? Plan involves two main things here:

We currently have very basic goal setting tools in place. This is basically the beginning of some REALLY cool tools that will help you discover and live at your highest potential by helping you more clearly define who you are, what you're here to do, and then help you set goals in multiple areas of your life while helping you create the actual habits that will change your life...all within a collaborative community so, if you choose, you can share your experiences with others who have the same goals. OMG. Excited about that.

And, we're going to expand our favorite teachers, heroes, books and all that good stuff so you can actually go off adding detail to why they're your favorite and tell us how they've changed your life. My big thing here is helping everyone share the 100 biggest things they've done that have changed their life-from the books they've read to the events they've attended to the goals they've set and achieved and the habits they've created and all that good stuff. Imagine the wisdom that's going to be flying around so anyone, at any stage of development, can cruise in and immerse themselves as they discover their path. Wow. Goosebumps.

What I'm up to: In addition to writing really long blog posts, my main job these days is developing relationships with amazing people who are out there changing the world. Quick highlights:

I'm heading out to Boulder in a couple weeks to attend the third day of the Integral Institute's Integral Spirituality Conference. They're bringing together some of the leading thinkers from the world's great spiritual traditions to discuss the universal truths as well as the unique gem(s) each tradition brings to the world. I get to show up for the third day and soak in what they learned. REALLY excited about it. (Thanks for the invite and all the support, Huy. You rock.)

Then I'm heading to Brazil with Michael Strong at FLOW to attend The 10^th World Summit of Young Entrepreneurs. (Thanks to Kirsten at Globond for hooking me up.)

I'm also working with Jeff Klein and Michael Strong to create the first "Working for Good" project-which is focused on teaching high school kids around the world how to use entrepreneurialism to create peace and prosperity. Looks like we'll be sponsoring the business plan contest prize (woo hoo!) and I'm currently working on an article that will be the basis of one of the web-casted classroom sessions I'll help lead in May. John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods is one of the other presenters and I can't begin to tell you how excited I am for us to be focusing on our first non-profit project that is so amazingly tied to our mission here at Zaadz. (btw: please read Mackey's article on the Role of the Corporation if you haven't yet. GENIUS. GENIUS. GENIUS.)

All kinds of other cool stuff going on including some chats with people who work closely with The Dalai Lama who would like support in building a community around him and his work. Working with the Dalai Lama has been one of my chief aims for a couple of years and to see this coming to fruition so early on is beyond words.

Again, my vision is to create a thriving sanctuary where we can all grow-honoring our unique paths while cherishing the opportunity to evolve and grow together as we strive to be the change and change the world in the process.

It's amazing to see this taking shape and I am so honored to have the opportunity to create this community and company with you.

Absolute love and a deep bow to the divine within you,

"In the faces of men and women I see God."