Purecause Follow-up & Beta Sign-up

I reached out to Lee Mallon of purecause to get an update on how things are progressing.  For those of you who don’t remember purecause is going to help change the way charities seek help and how people donate the expertise.  An idea that Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital and Jason really like.

Q&A

1. Lee the last we heard of purecause you called in to ask how big to start, can you catch me up to date?

The last 2 months have been very interesting getting input/ideas and advise for people from many different backgrounds causing me to restart and change how the site/business will run with all the different directions it could it.

The starting small idea Jason talked about really hit home with me, I don't want purecause to come and go within 6 months, I want it to grow and grow over the next decade and I believe having a passionate community is the key factor in this. So starting so so small and not worrying about quick growth.

2. I noticed you have a beta invite coming up in March, can you catch me up to date?

Yes the beta, as per my answer in point 1, we are going to start very small. The website for matching people and jobs has taken a back seat currently as I want to focus on the community and as Jason advised success stories, we are going to pick 5 charities/projects that need help from the Purecause community,  one is a website rebuild, we will get a team of our beta users (a designer, developer, writer ...) to re-brand, design and developer a new site for a charity in much need for it. The aim is to get 5 of these and work with the charities over a 3 month period improving and advising where possible.

3. Do you have a screenshot you could share?

The community site branding is being worked on currently, will send you something over once happy

4. Are you planning to launch in one city? and then expand?

As in point 3, we are going to focus on 5 charities over the next 3-4 months so we can iron out any issue we come across before launching the donating skills part of the site, don't have a concrete road map on this yet but will stick with tech/ online projects before moving to other skill sets. The key being, ironing out as many problems as possible with 5 projects, then 50, then 500 and on (following the yelp modal here).

5. Is there anything the TWiST community can help you with?

Get your name listed in the beta user form, for the first 5 projects, I will be leading them with input from others so we you won't be required to work on it for a year, prob a few evenings spread over a few months.

I would like to thank Lee for sharing his experiences and progress.