October 2020! 6-months into this pandemic and it has definitely felt like 6 years. Or 6 weeks. Can't tell.

Purposely had a busy October and I'll tell you all about it.

Taking some time to learn from those with hands-on experience

We've been talking with lots of companies about their volunteer program needs and challenges in the last few months. In October we started really zeroing in on the first, big obvious problem that needs solving, and also getting more clarity on what our roadmap could look like for the coming months. It's an exciting time.

It has been a process: talking with enough people, gathering information, and figuring out how to understand it. But it's all worth it. In the wise (paraphrased) words of Greg McKeown, taking the time to explore and research your options is a crucial step to going all-in on "the right thing the right way at the right time."

One of our biggest insights from companies? Finding the right volunteer opportunity is way harder than you'd think. Lists exist, but a paradox persists: The best volunteer opportunities aren't being posted. Consistently, company leaders struggle to simply put good volunteer opportunities in front of their employees.

So we're feeling ready to get started!

Heed great advice

We've spent time meeting with our expert advisors and mentors, Rian Gauvreau from Clio, Artiom Komarov, Mike Rowlands, & Eric Bin - I can't say enough about taking time to solicit (and listen to!) great advice.

Rian told us that customers often don't know what they want, and they'll always ask for the moon. You need to ask smart questions to get to the core problems. And even then, you'll need to experiment to find the right first-step solutions, because Rome wasn't built in a day!

Artiom told us sales is like working out. Nobody enjoys it but you need to put in the reps - every day, hit the goal. Mike told us about objectives & key results, and the importance of connecting your high-level objectives to your day-to-day. Eric taught us about product-led growth, and the champion role that young people often take on in modern workplaces.

We're using all this great advice to improve on our product and our internal systems! For example, we've just implemented a new OKR tracking system to ensure we're staying on track.

What a delightful month! We're excited to build our first solution to the first pressing problem, and help companies increase volunteerism, especially during this pandemic when we need the selfless support of our neighbours more than ever.