How To Scale Digital Tools
“How do digital tools support efforts to build power for working people?” This is a common question at The Workers Lab. After our last Enterprise Institute, we now have more insight to help respond to our field and partners.
Our June Enterprise Institute is a day-long business development and planing training opportunity. In addition to having Michael Bush as our lead facilitator, we had two advisors: Lull Mengesha, founder and CEO of the data science company Datable Services and Sharon Block, former Senior Counselor to Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. For the main event, we invited three tech entrepreneurs testing products with the potential to build power for working people at scale:
- Brian Young, founder of Action Network an online toolset for organizers.
- Eric Shih, CEO of SpendRise a platform that aggregates consumer spending for change.
- Keith Goodman, CEO of PledgeUp software allowing unions to collect dues and manage membership information when right-wing judicial, legislative, and executive action makes it illegal to collect via traditional payroll deduction.
Here are some of the lessons learned as we dove deep with each entrepreneur.
Output Versus Impact
Our field has approached digital tools as an end and not a means. A number of digital platforms have been built with little attention to users, marketing strategy, or long-term revenue streams. In and of themselves, the creation of digital tools cannot be the sole marker of success. The impact of a tool should be valued more than its creation. We think that there is a need to understand how digital tools materially change the lives of working people at scale before calling them a success.
Budget to Be Versus Budget to Build
Brian Young, CEO of Action Network, is preparing for the launch of a new product. Action Network is a growth-stage 501(c)4 and online mobilization tool. Used by the organizers of the Women’s March and the People’s Climate March, Action Network is quickly becoming an integral tool amongst progressive organizations from unions to small non-profits around the world. The new product democratizes the power of on-the-ground organizers by bringing a blended digital and in-person service to worker centers and smaller organizations.
Brian’s budget to fundraise for the new product launch was practical and accounted for the bare minimum needed to scale the tool. What we’ve learned is that there is a real need to raise money in ways that move beyond the line-items costs and take into account the risks of a new product, follow-on costs, and that buffer the reputation of his company should anything go awry. We need budgets that allow people to build, not just be.
Feeling Impact Versus Being Impact
Founded by CEO Eric Shih, SpendRise is a platform that aggregates consumer spending to demand change in a companies’ behavior. Eric launched SpendRise after years as a community organizer, where he grew frustrated by the limits of asking people to take action by signing a petition or sharing a social media post. He wanted some way to capture the energy of the rising number of consumers, who had far more power through their wallet than a picket sign. Since that power was still untapped he started SpendRise.
One problem with any social enterprise, though, is the tension between profit and purpose and SpendRise is no exception. Although Eric is most inspired by aggregating consumer voice, our advisors made it clear that Eric’s paying customers, the companies, should actually be the target of his communications. First and foremost, they argued, SpendRise is providing value to these businesses by solving the pain point of customer acquisition. There is clearly a tension between the good feeling of aggregating consumer spending power to change business practice and solving a business problem by finding value aligned consumers. There is often a blurry line between feeling like your making impact on the issues you care about and actually having impact through unforeseen means. This is a constant tension.
“The accelerative impact of this conversation has been really important,” said one participant at the end of the Institute. “I would’ve spent days on the internet without maybe ever reaching the same conclusions as I got to today.”
It really is something special to witness how over the course of a day we can gain insight that will support us in building power for working people. In an Enterprise Institute, we witness how “A-Ha” moments can mean the difference between a brilliant tech tool being buried and forgotten or being used to improve the lives of thousands of working people around the country.
Do you have an early or growth-stage company, organization or project that could benefit from an Enterprise Institute? Let us know about it at info@theworkerslab.com
