2021-05-12 Leadership Cadence

Date

12 May 2021

12 May 2021 Participants

@Stephanie Kord Miller

Josh Lintag

Josh Chamberlain

Alec Akin

@eddie brown

Will Beaumont

Richard Ji

Discussion topics

Item

Person

Notes

Stephanie Kord Miller

@skm

  • Small/med product β€œtry before you buy”

  • Strategic planning

    • Needs

      • Org structure

    • Roadmap - get the shared vision to paper for next 12 mo

      • Tasks

        • Go to market

        • Where do we want to target

        • Drive volunteer-ship

        • Who do we hire?

        • Where to go?

      • Organization

      • Revenue Strategy

        • Fundraising is a piece

      • Budget

        • Eddie - this is what kills us/drives back

  • First steps/project ideas

    • How do we get money?

      • Use Kristin’s agency

      • What do you do when you aren’t a 501c3?

    • How much is needed?

      • Initial thought

        • 20k/mo for 2x ppl

        • 10k/mo for data bounties

Challenges w/ waiting on IRS

  • There is a space to cross when waiting for non-profit status to get…what can we do in the interim

  • Holding up progress get tech licenses (need official status)

  • @skm: have we checked partnering with other 501(c)3 to provide resources?

    • We were concerned about signing up for something we didn’t understand

      • @skm Who would be the right partners?

Cliff notes on past work

  • Formalizing how we interface with the community

    • 2-sided market: data miners (scrapers), data users (researchers)

    • Decentralized nature of work is part of the work

      • People show up for a few weeks and then drop off--how do we harness?

    • Petrean or lots of small dollar donations

  • @skm

    • Identify the audiences you are serving

      • Engineers/technologists = volunteer workforce

        • How do we grow, engage, entertain

        • Grow our volunteer to speed product roadmap velocity

      • Journalists/research/foundation = Consumers

        • What does partnership look like?

        • How do we monetize (we need to make money--people are doing it)?

        • Corporate sponsorship? PR benefits, data access

        • How much do you get for free?

        • Allow people to pay for a build/state of data?

        • University relationships w/CS departments

    • Build amplification, awareness, audience

    • Fundraising is the fastest revenue - understanding this is important for our audience and our brand

Challenges

  • Concern is over making a strong foundation to build on

    • We need to be ready for people to show up

  • MVP

    • Want to move fast to get toward foundation

Next steps

@skm

  • Spend 2 days

    • Want’s to consider fundraising questions vs larger revenue model

    • Does the investment look/feel right?

Ben Email Address

  • Official email for legitimacy when applying for grants

  • Granted by Josh Lintag

Action items

  • @skm submit proposal 17 May 2021 to consider fundraising questions vs larger revenue model; discuss 19 May 2021