wanted: majambassadors

My grandfathers were professors and they used to teach me the value of work. They used to say that Work is not just a source of income, security and most of all work creates dignity. And creating good jobs is the ultimate joy.

As I went to study and work around the world, I started to realize what they meant. I met some very generous people in Delhi, Ahmedabad, London, Los Angeles, Dallas, Basel and Lausanne. And I am linked to most of them via the Linkedin network.

Then a static refused to go away - over 3,000,000,000 people on our planet live on $2.50 a day or less. Sometimes, the only skill our friends have is to produce handmade goods. However, most of the time, they do not get a fair deal for their efforts, hence the cycle of poverty persists.

After doing some more research realized that donating money to the poor is not always the best form of charity. As it does not always preserve or promote dignity. However, buying the handmade products at a fair price has the good chance of impacting poverty because the income comes over a period of time and families are able to plan education and save for healthcare and rainy days. But further research revealed that real handmade products make up a very low percentage of the total volume as they can prove to be expensive for the end customer.

So there was a gap in the market for companies that could shift large volume of handmade products without taxing the consumers with high price.

After many discussions with our good friends including great organizations like Vaud SELT and SEWA.ORG the concept of "Do Good & Get Goodies" took shape and majamba.me was conceptualized.

majamba.me is an incentive system for doing good - the more good you do (like supporting a start-up or helping someone promote a book, anything that is good for the society), the more credits you get. And with your credits you have 2 options:

- use the credits to reward others who help you (so here majamba is like a services exchange)
- get gifts (here majamba is a catalog of fair trade products)

We are now getting ready to launch on October 2nd and we are dedicating the next year to finding "majambassadors" - these are like-mided entrepreneurs from around the world who can promote majamba to their network or in their town or club or friends and get lots of majamba credits that they can use to seek help for their projects or get handmade gifts...and the virtuous cycle will grow.

Our videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/majambaME
Our full blog: http://majamba.blogspot.com/

Our alpha site: majamba.me

The story of majamba is out!

Check out "the story of majamba" on YouTube.

Just making this video is a major landmark. I hope you like it and share it with some good people.

Getting ready for the launch of majamba.me

We are getting ready for the launch of the world's first fair trade social commerce network on the 2nd of October. Please check out the video...

The secret of success

In my opinion, the secret of success has four ingredients:

1. Identifying a cause worth fighting for

2. Building a talented & diverse team

3. Delivering with limited budget and under unlimited pressure

4. Patience

Is Crowdsourcing a solution to poverty?

I believe that Crowdsourcing is the solution to global poverty. But before I go further, let's look at the alternatives:

1. Govt. financed poverty alleviation programs: Financed by tax and currently fighting for survival because funding is under attack due to rising public debt.

On the positive side: Chinese & Brazilian Governments have lifted millions from poverty however at the cost of relocation in most cases.

2. Charity/Donation financed programs: Financed by donations and currently facing a decline in donations as economic/political/market volatility means that people are unsure about the future (and market is volatile because people are unsure).

On the positive side: Bill Gates & other billionaires stand out as they are focussing on specific issues for example vaccination.

3. Business Innovation/Corporate Social Responsibility Programs: All companies want ROI on any investment and a CSR campaign is generally no different. Only visionary companies keep up their CSR campaigns during uncertain times.

On the positive side: Toms.com is one of the best examples of CSR based marketing.

Now the beauty of crowdsourcing is the "peer2peer" nature. In other words, individuals connect with other individuals and together create a better world. Peer2Peer networks are the future because they democratize doing good, so anyone and not just Governments, Corporations & Billionaires can make the world a better place and directly control what is being done with their funds.

In summary, crowdsourcing is the solution to alleviating billions out of the viscous circle of poverty is because the biggest source of happiness is helping others (this is backed up by research from Prof. Dr. Martin Seligman who has empirically shown that people are most fulfilled when they help others).

Internship at a Swiss Fair Trade Social Commerce Start-up

Do you believe that business can be a force for good?

Do you want to become part of a start-up team focussed on Fair Trade?

Are you interested in a 6 month, part-time, 100% flexible internship to shape and execute the majamba.me launch strategy?


Yes, please read on:

Introduction
majamba.me is the world’s first fair trade social commerce platform. We empower social enterprises by providing social commerce services - Catalog, Payment, Logistics & Social Marketing. We offer handmade gifts to consumers at unbeatable prices. And we offer a powerful campaign management system for corporations to manage their global social corporate responsibility campaigns. We are funded by an innovation reward from the Swiss Govt.

Your Mission
- Work online with the core team in Switzerland and India to fine tune the launch strategy for majamba.me. The planned launch date is October 2nd, 2011.
- Create interesting missions that anyone can solve online in minutes and get majamba credits (MC).
- Procure interesting & beautiful fair trade products that members can get using their credits.

Our Ambition
- thousands of members in Switzerland, India, UK, US and around the world helping each other and getting fair trade gifts
- millions in sales revenues for our partners, the fair trade social enterprises
- unlimited dignity (and Jobs) for makers of handmade products around the world.

Your Reward
- Boost for your resume
- Our support for starting your own venture
- 100,000 majamba credits (that you can use to get amazing handmade gifts)

Contact Details
intern@majamba.com

www.majamba.me
we♥fair trade

What is professional success?

1. Doing something that gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling.

2. Being able to talk about what you do for a living without cringing.

3. Knowing whatever happens next, you will be fine.

What can Fair Trade companies learn from Apple?

First of all, fair trade is a very powerful concept - allow the producers of handmade goods to get a fair price for their products and allow them to lift themselves from poverty.

However, 200 years of industrial revolution has pretty much left the 4,000,000,000 people aside.

So the question is - what can be done to lift millions from poverty en masse (using the principles of industrial world)?

1. Build a powerful aggregation platform (like iTunes or Apps Store) that allows individual products to be promoted & sold worldwide.

2. Build a seamless customer experience 24x7.

3. Tell a story that people can identify with.

4. Ensure that the product works.

What are Groupon, Living Social missing?

Groupon, Living Social and a bunch of daily deal companies have some flaws:

1. Limited brand building options for partners

2. Erosion of price point for partners

3. Almost no new capability boost for partners

4. Consumers have to spend money to buy the discount and then spend money to buy the product (sooner or later the credit card bill will catch up with the people)

Facebook vs. Google+

The question is - what happens when two giants duke it out?

1. Customers win

2. Niche Competitors win

3. Developers win

So what does it mean for majamba.me?

1. Stay focussed on developing our platform

2. Continue to sign up partners

3. Prepare for offering our customers a great offer