273

I couldn’t agree more! There is nothing quite like the feeling of starting something completely new, of doing something you have never done before and of convincing other people that it is a good idea and that they should, as Seth would put it, join your Tribe.

As I was watching this talk, having been studying marketing all year, I started to think about Tribes from a marketers perspective - how could they be used to sell more products. It is quite a depressing way to think about the ideas in this talk because one of the things that make people so cynical about marketers and sales people is that it is their job to market and sell products and services to you so you don’t really believe in them.  On the other hand, a leader is someone you can believe in someone that you know is doing it because they themselves believe in the cause or the movement or the product or the service.

There is only one way to start a movement and that is to start doing something you are passionate about and figuring out ways to connect with other people that are passionate about the same thing.  Passionate people can make great leaders and great leaders  don’t have to think about marketing or sales because other people will do that for them.

Why did I start a 273 Challenge about photography? I love photography (although I’m not a great photographer), I want to learn more about photography, I want to learn more about social dynamics and most importantly I want to spread the word about microfinance, Kiva and entrepreneurship because I believe that these are powerful forces for change.  You can see Seth’s words in action in that last sentence, I have joined the microfinance, Kiva and entrepreneurship Tribes and I am spreading the word.

Enjoy the talk,  get out there and start something!

Here at 273 we are constantly trying to come up with creative, new and interesting ways to help fund entrepreneurs in the developing world through Kiva.  Today we are very excited to announce a new feature, The 273 Challenge! It’s a pretty simple concept but we think it will be a fun and exciting and all you people out there will think of some really creative ways to use this tool!  The basic rules for a 273 Challenge are outlined below:

1. Anyone can post a challenge
2. Challenges can be about anything (so long as its legal)
3. The Challenger will provide a reward of $25 (or more) in the form of a Kiva Gift Certificate to the winner.
4. The Challenge should have clear rules for participation
5. The Challenger must have a way of verifying the winner (can be at the discretion of the Challenger so long as this is made clear from the start).

The challenges can be as simple, complex or crazy as you like. For example you might want run a bike race in your town, charge $10 entry and offer the winner a prize of $100 Kiva Gift Voucher. You may need some market research done for your company, post the survey online and offer a $25 prize to a random survey participant. You might be suffering from writers block on your blog, offer a $50 Kiva Certificate as a prize for the guest post that gets the most page views. You might need some research carried out for a school project. You might need a local tour guide on holiday and offer a $50 Kiva Certificate to someone that will show you the sites for a day. You might want to ask for tenders for a project you need doing (e.g. logo design or website design). I’m sure all you 273sters will all come up with much more creative ideas! Thanks to Max Boronovski (maverick entrepreneur and wine expert) who got this all started by challenging us to find a creative way to use Kiva Gift Certificates.

Everyone that has been involved with 273 will know all about Kiva but for those of you who don’t:

Kiva lets you lend money to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty. Kiva Gift Certificates are a great way to spread the word about Kiva, they are also make a great challenge incentive because once the loan is paid back (usually within a year), the recipient of the voucher can choose to either withdraw the money and spend it on anything they like, make another loan or purchase another gift voucher and create their own challenge!

If you have read this far, I hope you are as excited about this idea as we are, and want to post your own challenge. The good news is, it is really easy to do just follow these steps:

1. If you haven’t already, check out the Kiva website so you can see what this is all about.
2. Think of a great challenge
3. Fill out the form on the 273 Challenge Page.
4. We will email you to confirm your challenge, clarify the rules and give you instructions about how to purchase the Kiva Gift Voucher.
5. Once we have confirmation that you have purchased the voucher, we will post your challenge on the 273 website, tweet about it (follow @273Challenge) and post it to Facebook (become a fan).   We will also email you a link so that you can start spreading the word about the challenge you have created, the more people that enter, the better the result!
6. Pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for coming up with a creative way to change the world!

Max Boronovski has generously donated the first $50 Kiva Gift Certificate for us to launch the inaugural 273 Challenge! So stay tuned this week for your chance to win!!

273 would like to extend a big congratulations to our classmates Lennart (and his brother Loren) of IC3D Media  and David of Tailorbet  who came 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Venture Cup Syd business plan competition.  Having spent time with both of these teams learning about their concepts, all I can say is that they are truly amazing.  These are definitely companies to watch  (and they all happen to be great guys).  If I had the money, I would be investing at an early stage!

It was a very strong competition and I am glad to have been involved.  It is also a great endorsement for the Entrepreneurship Program here at Lund University, which is only in its second year and is going to get stronger and stronger as it continues to develop.

Congratulations again guys!

To ideas which I really love have either gone down or changed over the past couple of days.  Hoongle, got a great review in the New York Times which unfortunately seems to have led to its demise - it grew so quickly that it became unmanageable for the two college student/social entrepreneurs that started it.  Hopefully someone can step in to help them and they will be able to get it back up and running again.  I wish them luck and will keep you guys updated.

Last.fm a great social music player and more importantly (for me at least) discovery service, has started charging subscription fees to users outside of the US, UK and Germany because they cannot run profitable ad supported streaming music from those countries.  I am sad because I love that service and would be happy to pay if I wasn’t on a student budget, at the same time, I wonder if they could implement a different strategy - get the users to sell ads.  Basically you could receive a free subscription if you could support the cost of that subscription with ads you sold that were relevant in your country.  If the ads sold generated more income than the cost of subscription, these could be shared between Last.fm and its users.  I’d be interested to hear what you think of this, please vote in the poll below.

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What other creative ways could Last.fm use to increase its revenues whilst keeping its service free?

I highly recommend listening to this interview with one of the founders of Kiva, Premal Shah.  Just launch is his advice for entrepreneurs wanting to start a company.  Check it out here at Mixergy.com, this site has loads of great interviews with entrepreneurs all for FREE.