4 ms·

Hey all, I was an early eng at Votizen, now coming up to speed w/ Causes. I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

by jdunck 14y ago

danielpal 14y ago
Everything I read from the article makes it sound like you guys are a non-profit or at least run it as such? Do you guys have plans or expect this company to ever monetize?
- jdunck 14y ago
  Both Causes and Votizen are venture-backed companies, definitely expecting to make revenue. I've heard this confusion consistently from people, so I get where you're coming from. It is possible to have a for-profit business whose customer is the non-profit, or the campaign, or the NGO.
- kristjan 14y ago
  [Former Causes employee] I always liked the term not-just-for-profit. Congrats on the merge, guys!
  - thomson 14y ago
    Echoing Kristjan and Jeremy's sentiments here. It's a very fine line to walk in finding the intersection of public good through individual empowerment and corporate sustainability through partnerships with CSRs and non-profits. And then there's the challenge of doing this in a way that doesn't breach user trust and privacy in data. No one doubts our heart's been in the right place but what's exciting now is proving out that our business acumen's in the right place too.
- HistoryInAction 14y ago
  Votizen monetized early on by selling its services to campaigns to discover new voters and drive them to the polls through peer-to-peer contact: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/14/votizen-launches-virtual-precinct-walk-for-san-francisco-mayor-ed-lee%E2%80%99s-election/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/14/votizen-launches-virtual-pr...
rdl 14y ago
Curious how privacy will be handled; I guess the info on my votizen profile is all technically public record, but I'd really prefer opt-in for all merging. Also curious how "multiple groups who conflict" will be handled. On Votizen, there was already D vs. R (with a lot more D...), but my experience with causes is that it was mainly pro-things, where no one was really anti that thing, just maybe "don't feel it's the most important thing to do".
- HistoryInAction 14y ago
  According to their note, all personal data records will be destroyed: https://www.facebook.com/notes/votizen/votizen-and-causes-are-joining-forces/580105002003042 https://www.facebook.com/notes/votizen/votizen-and-causes-ar...
bicknergseng 14y ago
Probably way outside any NDA you might have, but I've been kicking around ways to introduce more statistics and data analysis to the governing process itself. Are you guys looking to move beyond the election cycle into the actual lawmaking process?
- saraid216 14y ago
  You might take a look at this: https://makeyourlaws.org/ https://makeyourlaws.org/
- jdunck 14y ago
  This is a thing I want personally. Most recently the excitement and focus on Sandy Hook has frustrated me. 1 Sandy Hook occurs every day in the United States. We just shrug off the sad local news story and continue eating dinner. The fact that there is sudden interest in discussing gun policy is great. The fact that the discussion is so badly informed is not great. I can tell you that I will work inside Causes to make it a thing we do. EDIT: to be clear, I don't mean informed gun policy, I mean informed policy in general. Gun policy is just a recent example.
  - mattdeboard 14y ago
    >Most recently the excitement and focus on Sandy Hook has frustrated me. 1 Sandy Hook occurs every day in the United States. Dude, no. "An act of gun violence" is not "20 elementary school children killed in their elementary school." There is not 1 Sandy Hook every day. It is the Olympics of moral equivocation to boil what happened there to "an act of gun violence." Why would you be frustrated that people got more worked up over 20 little kids being murdered in their classrooms than other "acts of gun violence"?
    - jdunck 14y ago
      30 people per day are killed with guns in the US. Some of those people are kids. Probably less than 20 kids per day, you're right. I do not hold a child's life higher than an adult's. I realize that's a weird thing to lots of people. Maybe that's weird to you? Anyway, I do agree that a single actor causing all that harm is a different thing, yes. We should fix that. I just hate that we ignore ongoing disasters because it doesn't make a good news story. EDIT: I didn't downvote Matt and don't think people should. Don't downvote things you disagree with. His is a valid response and this is a place for discussion (right)?

Hey all, I was an early eng at Votizen, now coming up to speed w/ Causes. I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

by jdunck 14y ago

Hey all, I was an early eng at Votizen, now coming up to speed w/ Causes. I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Everything I read from the article makes it sound like you guys are a non-profit or at least run it as such? Do you guys have plans or expect this company to ever monetize?

jdunck 14y ago
Both Causes and Votizen are venture-backed companies, definitely expecting to make revenue. I've heard this confusion consistently from people, so I get where you're coming from. It is possible to have a for-profit business whose customer is the non-profit, or the campaign, or the NGO.
kristjan 14y ago
[Former Causes employee] I always liked the term not-just-for-profit. Congrats on the merge, guys!
- thomson 14y ago
  Echoing Kristjan and Jeremy's sentiments here. It's a very fine line to walk in finding the intersection of public good through individual empowerment and corporate sustainability through partnerships with CSRs and non-profits. And then there's the challenge of doing this in a way that doesn't breach user trust and privacy in data. No one doubts our heart's been in the right place but what's exciting now is proving out that our business acumen's in the right place too.
HistoryInAction 14y ago
Votizen monetized early on by selling its services to campaigns to discover new voters and drive them to the polls through peer-to-peer contact: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/14/votizen-launches-virtual-precinct-walk-for-san-francisco-mayor-ed-lee%E2%80%99s-election/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/14/votizen-launches-virtual-pr...

rdl 14y ago

Curious how privacy will be handled; I guess the info on my votizen profile is all technically public record, but I'd really prefer opt-in for all merging. Also curious how "multiple groups who conflict" will be handled. On Votizen, there was already D vs. R (with a lot more D...), but my experience with causes is that it was mainly pro-things, where no one was really anti that thing, just maybe "don't feel it's the most important thing to do".

HistoryInAction 14y ago
According to their note, all personal data records will be destroyed: https://www.facebook.com/notes/votizen/votizen-and-causes-are-joining-forces/580105002003042 https://www.facebook.com/notes/votizen/votizen-and-causes-ar...

bicknergseng 14y ago

Probably way outside any NDA you might have, but I've been kicking around ways to introduce more statistics and data analysis to the governing process itself. Are you guys looking to move beyond the election cycle into the actual lawmaking process?

saraid216 14y ago
You might take a look at this: https://makeyourlaws.org/ https://makeyourlaws.org/
jdunck 14y ago
This is a thing I want personally. Most recently the excitement and focus on Sandy Hook has frustrated me. 1 Sandy Hook occurs every day in the United States. We just shrug off the sad local news story and continue eating dinner. The fact that there is sudden interest in discussing gun policy is great. The fact that the discussion is so badly informed is not great. I can tell you that I will work inside Causes to make it a thing we do. EDIT: to be clear, I don't mean informed gun policy, I mean informed policy in general. Gun policy is just a recent example.
- mattdeboard 14y ago
  >Most recently the excitement and focus on Sandy Hook has frustrated me. 1 Sandy Hook occurs every day in the United States. Dude, no. "An act of gun violence" is not "20 elementary school children killed in their elementary school." There is not 1 Sandy Hook every day. It is the Olympics of moral equivocation to boil what happened there to "an act of gun violence." Why would you be frustrated that people got more worked up over 20 little kids being murdered in their classrooms than other "acts of gun violence"?
  - jdunck 14y ago
    30 people per day are killed with guns in the US. Some of those people are kids. Probably less than 20 kids per day, you're right. I do not hold a child's life higher than an adult's. I realize that's a weird thing to lots of people. Maybe that's weird to you? Anyway, I do agree that a single actor causing all that harm is a different thing, yes. We should fix that. I just hate that we ignore ongoing disasters because it doesn't make a good news story. EDIT: I didn't downvote Matt and don't think people should. Don't downvote things you disagree with. His is a valid response and this is a place for discussion (right)?