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

Thank you!

Today, 16th of July 2011 is the first anniversary of majamba LLC.

At this time, we would like to thank all the majamba social venture network members.

And we would like to highlight folks who went out of their way to advise us:

Bhaskar B

Marc S

Tom W

Joe H

Noel T

Shyam S

Anil G

Aslam M

Jaldip U

Narendra V

Chandan W

Ojasvi B

Sandy W

Raphaël C

John A

Patrick B

Guido S

Thomas V-A

Simon F

Simon S

Fabrice A

Alejandro A

Michel J

Vincent R

Jean-Baptiste E

Michel T

Didier W

Chris T

Laurent L

Patrick G

Joe B

Steve M

Barb N

Sebastien F

Rika N

Robin L

Frank D

Francis C

Markus S

Damien C

Karim P

Peter H

Krishnan S

Nicolas S

Johnny K

Jena B

Daniel F

Mike F

Rahul B

Nilam S

Nandini D

Prableen S

Martine B

Sabine E

Rene D

Geert DB

Sanjiv D

Caroline S

Jean-François B

Roland G

Eric M

Didier M

Metin C

Chris B

Caroline R

Eric G

Xavier B

Gauthier J

Ricardo I

Juan R

Francisco M

Brian M

We are grateful to you. Of course, a startup is super challenging and your good wishes and support has made it a lot easier. Now the challenge for us is to use all the positive thinking to launch majamba.me later this year.

What good is dreaming it, if you don't actually do it!

That is the tagline from an advertisement for Honda 2009/2010. The company created by Soichiro Honda in 1948, who after tinkering for many years started producing motorcycles and founded the company at age 42 to focus on making superb motors (the smooth sound, never hurts the ears).

Wieden + Kennedy, a London based agency produced this ad for Honda using the 1965 song "The Impossible Dream" written by Joe Darion & the original Music by Mitch Leigh.

The words of the song are like a charter for majamba:

Impossible Dream (The Quest)

To dream the impossible dream,

to fight the unbeatable foe,

to bear with unbearable sorrow,

to run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong,

to love pure and chaste from afar,

to try when your arms are too weary,

to reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest,

to follow that star --

no matter how hopeless,

no matter how far.

To fight for the right

without question or pause,

to be willing to march into hell for a

heavenly cause.

And I know if I'll only be true to this

glorious quest

that my heart will be peaceful and calm

when I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,

that one man scorned and covered with scars

still strove with his last ounce of courage.

To reach the unreachable stars.

Building the "dream team"

As we continue to strategize, design & develop - we just realized that we are building the dream team that will allow us to launch a pretty powerful majamba platform.

The team is focusing on answering some basic questions:

- what can we do for our customers that no one else can do?
- how do we take our message to them?
- how do we ensure that we have the most interesting user experience?

The team is also made up of advisors (some of the people on this list), who are kindly providing feedback.

Once again thank you!

I am not happy with status quo.

Look at the statistics (according to SwissInfo): In 2010 there were 205 million people out of work and 2011 does not look any better, especially in industrialised nations, hit by sluggish growth. Young people – 80 million are unemployed - are the worst hit by the current growth model that no longer works, says the ILO.

Think about it - 200 plus million people out of work and perhaps around 800 plus million people are trapped in jobs where their aspirations are not being met. Now some might say, hey why I should bother...let the Govt. and Inter-Govt. folks work it out. And some people want to help and find that the only option available for them is to donate money. I believe that indifference is uncalled for. A society with imbalance creates angry people who become puppets for manipulative politicians who tap into this feeling of injustice and only create chaos, grab power, accumulate wealth and then "air-brush" history. Giving a donation is almost as harmful as indifference. Imagine this - a person gets something without working on his own. Then gets more and more donation. It does not take long for the person to get addicted to getting money without producing some goods or services that can be consumed by the society. Micro-credit, another favorite of the elite who want to do good is equally harmful if its not accompanied by developing institutions that allow the person to sell and market what he is producing.

So what is the solution for winning against poverty?

Imagine a system by which products and services produced in villages & towns around the world could be marketed directly to consumers. Then people will not leave where they live and just move to the cities to get a job. Villages and small towns will thrive as people with the highest level of productivity will stay where they are and build a home full of wholesomeness. People with jobs can afford education, health care and do not become recipients of donations. When people have a cash-flow they do not fall prey to loan contracts from sharks disguised as micro-credit firms. Imagine free & fair market economics helping the world manage poverty; imagine every person having access to a fulfilling job; imagine parents spending time with their kids - own or adopted; imagine low taxes and small lean governments; imagine citizens of the world buying products directly from people who are producing them. Yes, imagine a world where its cheaper to work than to steal or to engage in corruption. Yes, you may have guessed, that such is a system has to built on the Internet. The biggest collaborative platform the earth has ever seen. Something the creators of the Internet or the Web did not not envisage, because they could not. The Internet has become what it has because Governments have been unsuccessful in fully controlling it.

So far the Internet has been used as a tool for information, communication, entertainment and commerce. Which is great! I propose that now we are entering the phase where the net will be used as the primary tool for development commerce. In the next 10 years, you will see companies that will use market economics to uplift millions out of poverty. That will be so satisfying, so cool and so wholesome!

My Hero - Henri Nestlé, who started small & scaled fast

One of my heroes is a German national called Henrich Nestle who moved to Vevey, Switzerland from Frankfurt and after experimenting for many years founded Nestlé which as you know has become the biggest Food & Beverage company in the world.

Here are some of the lessons worth noting:

1. Nestlé started small.

2. Experimented endlessly.

3. Built a powerful team by supporting them.

4. Founded Nestlé when he was 53.

5. He and his successors scaled the business through acquisitions.

In short, start small & scale fast!

What is the PROMISE? Why should anyone join majamba?

Need your guidance. As we are working on the full launch for mid-year, I am struggling to decide what should be the customer promise?

- Is it that Members build a Personal Profile (they inspire others by showing what good they are doing)

- Or is it that Members solve Micro Challenges (social work). The challenges are the focus.

- Or is it that Members collect Social Currency (majambas). The badge with the social capital is the focus.

- Or is it that members get 50% to 100% off on handmade products from around the world. The products are the focus.

- Or is it that Members get Social Gifts that they can share with friends. Combines products with people.

- Or is it that finally someone is building the GOOD social network. And we try to define what we mean by GOOD.

- Or is it...something else!!!!

Please help!!! Take the Poll >>>>>>>>>>>

Nationalism versus Internationalism

Back in La Sarraz after our exciting trip to India - 3 cities (Jabalpur, Ahmedabad & New Delhi): friends, family, new web design & development team, new operations team & partnerships with excellent social enterprises.

But the highlight was something simple - rediscovering "Internationalism". Indians (like me) love the world and everything in it (including India). This is interesting for me as I have seen (and felt) the rise of nationalism in the west. I have been trying to understand why are Indians open towards the world.

Why is that? I think that there are two main reasons:

1. Duality: Genetically, Indians have been comfortable with boxing competing ideologies, philosophies, allegiances and even product preferences into one very Indian framework where the two competing ideas can co-exist.

2. Growth: Living in a hyper-growing economy makes it easier for people to be optimistic (tomorrow is better than yesterday - it actually is for a whole section of the economy when there is growth).

It is truly inspiring to meet good, open minded, talented and straight-forward people.