Why I joined Colu
I feel like I was born with a strong sense of social awareness. I was raised by my parents to care about justice, to be concerned with fairness and to help those who need help around me. And so I grew up raising my voice against injustice, speaking out to demand a better future.
But I never really knew how to make a real change happen, not on a large-scale.
That was, until the summer of 2013. My life changed dramatically. I got married and a few months later my wife became pregnant. In the blink of an eye, I would be transformed from a carefree single man to a responsible father. That very same year, I co-founded a small startup and my monthly income dropped to almost zero. Now with a wife and a baby on the way, I needed to make some personal financial changes. It wasn’t possible to increase my income, so I searched for ways to reduce my household expenses. My first action item was to switch banks. This act (which by the way, was not an easy one), saved me a few bucks a year. Next, I studied our bills and ended payments for all the things I didn’t really need. I then set about changing my purchasing habits, making sure I was getting the very most for my money. I looked around my neighborhood and explored the local shops. I worked out who is local and who isn’t. That way, I could see who was likely to embrace me as a loyal customer and provide a quality, personal service with reasonable prices.
It was then, in the middle of this painful cost-cutting process, that it hit me. Change is not exclusively down to those in power. It is also up to us, the everyday public. If we are not willing to make small alterations to our own lives, then we really can’t expect large scale changes to happen. Real social change starts bottom up, not vice versa. Yes, changing your bank is annoying, canceling your daily newspaper is painful and comparing prices becomes a day-to-day burden. But all of this is a must if we want to make a difference. It is a personal challenge, it means acquiring real personal financial awareness and putting it into practice on a daily basis.
It took me three more years until I came across a real solution, a way to turn small steps into big changes. This was the moment I bumped into cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. It happened when I was mentoring young entrepreneurs and one of them came to me with the idea of creating a secure crypto wallet. I had no clue what blockchain was really about. I had just about heard of Bitcoin. So I asked him for 48 hours to learn about the subject, went back home and started reading.
I haven’t stopped since then.
This was my ‘big bang’ moment. I realized that blockchain technology can help bring about real social change. I understood that it could be the key to a better future. I invested endless hours trying to explain it to my family and friends and drew dozens of diagrams just to try and get people’s attention, to help them understand the revolutionary message that blockchain and crypto can bring to the world.
And then in the very early days of 2018, I came across Colu. I downloaded the white paper and studied it thoroughly. It left me speechless. Here I was, a blockchain and crypto advocate, discovering for the first time, a company using this very technology to make real, large-scale social change by strengthening local communities and the very fabric that binds them together.
A few things struck me the most. Firstly, that thousands of community currencies already operate around the world and that some have been effective for many years. Secondly, the stark fact that for each dollar spent in a local independent store, as much as 60 cents continues to circulate within the local community. To put that in perspective, just 20 cents from each dollar spent in a chain store, remains within the local community.
Colu is not a bank trying to quickly develop a payment app, to essentially upgrade what they are already doing by dressing it up in a different costume. Colu is not just another wallet app. Colu harnesses the advantages of blockchain and crypto to create a whole new level of engagement with your community by incentivising people to spend money locally. The open source code crypto is based on, by its very nature encourages widespread participation. As a result, cryptocurrency is so much more than just a payment system. It is a tool to create meaningful interactions between people, businesses and the communities they live in.
The concept hit me so hard that I knew I had to apply for a job at Colu. And so I did.
I applied for a junior business development position although I was way overqualified for it. I was sure that it would just be a step towards progressing higher up within the company. I was put through a series of interviews and tests. I had to prepare business and technology presentations for the company founders and management. I put days and nights into refining them. Never before had I seen such professionalism and thoroughness in a company.
And after all that, I failed.
Well, I didn’t really fail. I did everything right and established a great connection with Colu’s wonderful team. It just wasn’t the right time. The company was just about to finish its ICO, things were hectic and sometimes timing is everything. So I ended up just downloading the app, becoming an avid user and moved on to my next challenge which was also related to blockchain.
That is, until two months ago when Amos, Colu’s co-founder, called me and asked me to join the team. Things had moved forward, Colu was in a different place to when we’d last spoken and now he said, was the right time to join them. This time not in a junior business development role, but as a part of the management as the VP Commercial, responsible for the business development, operations and marketing teams.
Right after that call, I met Amos and the rest of the team. I was impressed by the huge amount of progress they had made since we last met and moreover, by the opportunities and the potential for the company. I simply couldn’t refuse such a challenge. I am now joining the Colu team and can’t wait to start working towards making a real change.
