5 years ago I quit my job to try to change the world. This is what I’ve learned so far.
By James Sancto - Co-Founder & CEO, We Make Change
It’s been five years since I quit my job to start We Make Change - a platform to enable anyone, anywhere to make change anytime. Each year I share the lessons I’ve learned over the previous 12 months to reflect on my own ChangeMaking journey while hopefully helping others on theirs.
This year, more than any other, has been steady. No mega announcements, huge funding rounds, or spectacular failures; just steady progress. In some ways, that feels about right as a startup develops. From the early phases of unproductive busyness where you don’t know what you’re doing, to feeling that you’ve got it all figured out, to then realising you really don’t.
As a startup develops, so do the lessons (see what I learned from year 1, year 2, year 3 and year 4 to see what I mean!).
These are the lessons that I’ve learned from year 5 of being an impact entrepreneur (if that’s what I am). Every person’s journey is different, but I hope by sharing my experience you can learn from my mistakes and make the change you want to see, whatever that may be.
People are amazing ❤️
ChangeMakers, impact startups and the team making change happen (and having some fun)!
I start with the same lesson every year. Why? Because every day it becomes increasingly clear. Nothing meaningful can ever be achieved alone. And when you start, that’s where you are - alone; accompanied only by an idea. If it’s going to get any further, you need others.
Over these five years, I’ve been fortunate enough to connect with literally thousands of people who have made this journey possible. From the dozens of people who have believed in our purpose enough to join the team, the more than 30,000 ChangeMakers who have signed up to volunteer remotely to make the change they want to see, the 800+ impact founders who have believed in us to supercharge their startup, and the increasing number of companies enabling us to deliver the ultimate impact experience for their employees.
Without you, none of this would be possible. So, thank you. You are amazing.
Building a team is curating a culture 🙌
A rare in-person meet-up for some of the team in London
For so long, we’ve been an entirely volunteer team. Like so many impact startups, we simply didn’t have the money to pay anyone (including ourselves). Fortunately, there are so many people who want to volunteer their skills for good that we’ve always had a volunteer team (and still do). But for the first time this year, we’ve been able to build an at least partly paid team.
Whether full-time or part-time, you and your team are your culture. As an early-stage startup, you have so much to do that you often don’t think as consciously about your culture as you should (or as any business book or ‘guru’ will tell you). Even when you do, the values chart rarely gets seen. Instead, your culture emerges. Because culture is actions, reactions, decisions and moments. And those are the things you and your team do, whether consciously or not. That is why I find culture is more curation than creation; it emerges as much as being constructed, it ensues rather than being pursued.
Just make sure to capture it, so you can spread the magic as you grow!
Grow at your own pace 🚀
Growing our community steadily to over 30,000 ChangeMakers globally this year
Funding rounds sound awesome - and they really are for so many startups to enable them to grow their business, team and impact. But building a foundation is more important than funding. As a founder, it can be anxiety-inducing to see so many startups raising so much money. Yet, up until now we have received no external funding and are growing through revenue alone (at least for now). That’s not to say it’s right for everyone, but it’s right for us. Because we want to understand what the most effective platform to enable anyone, anywhere to make change anytime is before we build it.
Fortunately, the addiction to growth is finally being questioned in the startup community (and beyond). Maybe you don’t want to be the next startup unicorn. Maybe you’re fine making impact where you are, in your own way, and without augmenting your stress (or you’re simply trying to learn before scale). That’s fine, as long as it works for you.
Yeah, we want to grow so we can maximise our impact and truly enable anyone, anywhere to make change anytime. But rather than raising, we’re learning (and that’s growing at our own pace).
The end is at the beginning ⛰
Since the start, we’ve wanted to be all change-things to all ChangeMakers. But, as any founder knows, that’s impossible. If you try to be everything to everyone, you’re nothing to anyone. It’s all about focus - finding your niche and growing from there.
This year we announced the launch of We Make Change 1.0. We consider it a brand ‘refresh’, because it involved no new tech, but simply an increased focus on what we do and for who. What does that mean? It means a focus solely on remote volunteering supercharging impact startups. In other words, enabling anyone to volunteer wherever they are, whenever they want by supporting scalable solutions to The Global Goals. By making volunteering as simple as streaming, and supercharging impact startups uber easy.
We started We Make Change wondering why many people can get almost anything with a click - food, clothes, movies, taxis - yet it’s so hard to make change? When it came to increasing our focus, that meant making change as accessible, flexible and effective as possible. That’s where we started and that’s where we’re going!
Salute to the impact entrepreneurs 👏
Meeting the one and only Emmanuel Trinity, Founder of era92, one of the first impact startups we supported
This year I had the chance to meet more impact entrepreneurs than ever before. Whether in person or online, it’s been awesome and inspiring. Everyone has their own story, challenges and ideas. But they all hold a common belief - a belief in themselves (and their idea). It’s not arrogance, ego, or pride. It’s despite the anxieties, the barriers, and the uncertainties that the belief still holds.
So many have faced far more barriers than I ever will (and that anyone can truly understand). That’s why hearing their stories first hand just brings home why they do what they do, and why anyone would feel inspired to support them. They are not superheroes, but that’s what makes them inspirational. Because they are attempting to do extraordinary things, when there are so many barriers in their way.
Let’s salute the impact entrepreneurs. And more than that - let’s supercharge them!
Hobbies bring harmony 📖
Meeting the amazing Eleanor Manley, Co-Founder of Metta Space, and discovering our shared passion for classic literature
From my countless conversations, it was amazing to hear how many interests, passions and pastimes impact entrepreneurs share. From reading classic literature to following sports, working out, binge-watching (or podcasting), travelling and much more. Not simply as a way to pass the time, but a way to relax and reset the mind.
Whatever the sector, and no matter how privileged the position, being an entrepreneur can be stressful. You can feel guilty that you’re not spending all of your time supporting your newly-founded ‘child’. But, like everyone, you need time to rest. Between the emails, spreadsheets, and LinkedIn updates, hobbies bring harmony to so many.
It’s true that all of these hobbies may not be totally disconnected from the startups people found (reading books on sales, travelling to conferences to meet potential clients or investors, or listening to podcasts on the latest consumer trends). But they bring harmony amid the chaos, a quiet place in a loud world, and can be the difference between a sound mind and clouded judgement. It’s often in those spaces that I find my best ideas and can be most creative.
Never feel guilty about taking time off. It’s probably the most valuable time you’ll ever have.
Learn, learn, learn 🧠
Learning some of the latest thinking in sustainability at hub.berlin
In my experience as an entrepreneur (and in life), just when you think you know something, you realise how much more you don’t know. That is both one of the greatest frustrations, but also why it’s so endlessly fascinating.
This year, I was fortunate enough to attend a few conferences with my partner-in-change, Jens. Having gone to find some of the most promising impact startups our community could supercharge, I took some time to go to a few talks. Whether by academics, politicians, business leaders or impact entrepreneurs, they each shed a new light on topics that have been thought over for years. They showed how just as knowledge is changing, so is perspective.
Even if you think you’re an ‘expert’ in your field (which I certainly don’t claim to be!), there is so much changing in the world, that the only way you can keep up is to learn, learn, learn. And even then there’ll still be more to find.
Do what you need to do, not what you think you should do 💻
Jens and I making change now at changeNOW
The picture is deliberately misleading. Why? Because most people think this is what being an entrepreneur is. Going to swanky conferences, travelling to Instagrammable locations, and making big deals. In truth, that is the least of it.
Most of your time is spent right where I am now, behind a computer. That is not a complaint (again, this is a privilege!), but the reality. There can be a tendency to get FOMO when you see so many people speaking on stages or travelling to places you’ve always wanted to go (and again, big props to them for making it happen!). That might well be what you think you should - or want - to be doing, but sometimes there are things that you need to do. And mostly, they’re not that fun.
But if your impact, business or team is going to grow, that’s what it takes. And that’s where your focus should be. Do what you need to do, so you can do what you want to do. You might not know when that may be, but hey, part of the privilege is that there’s always a possibility.
Never underestimate the impact you can make 🌎
Celebrating the Kinetic Consulting Change Programme, where consultants volunteered remotely throughout the year to supercharge impact startups across the world
This year we’ve enabled hundreds of corporate employees to use their volunteer hours to supercharge impact startups remotely. These have included employees from some of the world’s biggest companies, as well as small and medium sized businesses globally.
Through our Change Day online volunteering events, we match teams of employees with startups who need their skills to address a strategic challenge they face in just 4 hours. We’ve had software developers in India supporting local agritech startups with web design, consultants in the UK helping youth employment platforms with their business models, and multinational and multidisciplinary teams providing strategic guidance for selling goods handmade by artisans globally.
Of the more than 100 impact startups supported through Change Days this year, the average estimated value they received from those 4 hours was $4,000 each (spending just a few hours of volunteer time off with impact startups can be invaluable for the change they can make).
So many employees are looking to volunteer. But many don’t have opportunities that are accessible, effective and meaningful for them. Don’t let that stop you. Never underestimate the impact you and your colleagues can make. Because if you do, then you, they, and the world will be missing out.
Make the most of it 😁
Sporting the awesome Leiho, baby sky blue beanie, named by Jens
As an entrepreneur, it’s so easy to get caught up in the challenges, tribulations and super annoying tiny details that probably don’t matter anyway. But everyday is a privilege. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to make change (with corresponding responsibility that comes with it). And a series of privileges that have put me in the position I’m in.
That’s why I try to make the most of it. That doesn’t mean forcing yourself to enjoy everything that comes with the entrepreneurial journey, but at least attempting to put things in perspective. When you do, the challenges become opportunities to learn, the frustrations chances to grow, and the successes truly are awesome (even when they’re not your own).
For as long as I go, I’ll be trying to make the most of whatever this is!
*****
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