majamba.me pre-launch campaign is live!

Dear friends,

As you know, we are developing the majamba platform in baby steps, so every 2 months we have been launching something. On December 16th, 2010, we launched the "Social Currency & Social Network" platform, currently being revamped; On the 14th of February 2011, we launched the "Challenges" App, currently being tested on majamba.com. In mid-March, we received partial funding from the Vaud State / SELT for product development and now on the 15th of April, 2011 I am pleased to announce that we are introducing the "pre-launch" campaign for majamba.me. We are on target for the commercial launch in mid-year 2011.

Now you may be wondering - why are we doing a pre-commercial launch campaign?

You see, for the commercial launch of majamba to get any traction, we need around 4,000 supporters, who really want us to succeed. This will allow us to build the good social network with sufficient critical mass that will offer members the following features:

1. build social capital when you do good (e.g. - solve challenges or promote good).
2. when your social capital points reach different levels, you will qualify for rewards & gifts (e.g. - notebooks, music etc).
3. these gifts are procured from the best social enterprises (like SEWA.ORG) in the world that secure the jobs of the bottom of the pyramid.

So the more good you do, the more gifts you get and the more jobs you help create. Our goal is to sign up hundreds of social enterprises and create thousands of jobs for the "bottom of the pyramid" (BOP). The BOP are our friends who live on less than $2.50 a day. That's over 3billion people or nearly half of all humanity.

Yes, please sign-up at majamba.me and use the "Share this" button on majamba.me to share this campaign with your good friends & followers. And together we will change the world!

My best regards,

Rajiv Srivastava

www.majamba.me

Switzerland

majamba.org, a social venture incubator

It took me 10 months to get funding for a company that is focussed on doing good. Upon reflection, I realized that the main reason is that there is a gap in the market for financing start-ups that are untried, untested, very early stage and fragile especially if they are planning to do good for the society AND aim to make a profit.

Socialists do not invest in you because you are making a profit and Capitalists do not really understand why you have to do anything else but make money!

So I got rejection letters & calls saying - we love your resume, we like your idea but come back to us when you are successful. I thought, why will I need them when I am successful, however, there was one clear exception - The Swiss Government / Vaud State / SELT, who decided to partially fund majamba LLC.

Then came a simple insight - hey, why not document all my lessons learnt and provide consulting to other folks starting a venture. I looked around and there are quite a few people doing that already. Then I thought maybe I can package my consulting into a solution for entrepreneurs and take care of 5 to 10 ventures. There are quite a few people in California who do this type of thing quite well...kept on thinking and talking to my friends. And then the idea presented itself - how about building an incubator that can support 1,000 social ventures every year, all focussed on eradicating poverty.

Incubate like a fish.

That is the goal of www.majamba.org

To be continued...

The Good Needs Friends

There are over 3billion people on the planet who are living on less than $2.50 a day. Every time I share this statistic with potential investors or collaborators or friends, they go yeah, that is true but how will you do something about it?

There are governments with trillions of dollars and billionaires with all their will and resources and millionaires who give large amounts to charity. There are professors with PhD's who are writing books after decades of research on their theories on how to eradicate poverty. There are politicians who promise to provide jobs to millions if they are elected. There are thousands of super dedicated social workers, but still the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer.

What can I do? I am not rich, I am not super smart, I am not super connected (this blog has 5 followers and my Linkedin profile has under 200 connections and Twitter & Facebook are in their 20's), yet I dream to move the needle, to make an impact on improving the lives of billions. I am in the 10th month of this journey. Here is why I believe even a small guy like me can make a difference - you see, the good needs friends - no one can overcome the challenge alone.

The challenge is SO enormous that it will take everyone to pitch in - beyond nationality, race, religion, political spectrum, sexual orientation, ideological framework, class or caste, for profit companies and non-profit, Government or Non-Government organizations, everyone to do something about it.

The second point is that I believe that our focus has to be create JOBS for the bottom of the pyramid. With jobs comes dignity and ability to support a family responsibly, get medical attention if required, get shelter and most importantly produce something which is of use to the society. Having a Job allows a person to believe in sustainability much more; more peaceful neighborhoods (there is a direct correlation between inner city unrest and youth unemployment); more education opportunities for the young families.

That is what we are building with majamba - a social network that will make people who want to do good super successful. majamba means to give something insignificant away for the greater good.