December '24 Member Letter
From Matt Martensen
December 12, 2024
To the Members of User Cooperative:
The holiday season is upon us, and I hope you’re psyched like I am!
Sorry for being late on this letter. Let’s get into it. Please read my last letter if you’d like more context for this update.
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We completed our accelerators
We’re done with the Startup Colorado’s growth accelerator for tech companies and SEA Change’s social enterprise accelerator. Both were terrific learning experiences that led to a crisper “sales pitch” and a bigger network of supporters.
Participating simultaneously in both accelerators was fantastic. For several months, we had three- to six-hours per week of virtual sessions that were designed to help us improve and grow our business.
Each session was jam-packed with lessons and advice from seasoned entrepreneurs, subject matter experts, and business educators, almost all of whom have committed to help us out going forward. We also got a ton of valuable feedback and insight from our peers.
Both accelerators effectively culminated in the management presentation that I gave to Bridge Entrepreneurs Network at the end of Startup Colorado’s accelerator. Here’s our eight-minute presentation, a great “one-stop shop” for User Cooperative’s particulars.
We completed our customer interviews
We wound up with 32 individuals who volunteered 16 hours of time to share their perspectives on tech companies, and I’m so thankful for their input.
Because of these interviews, I believe even more strongly that there’s a latent global demand for a “people’s tech company," and I feel great about the “go-to-market” messaging we're using to start tapping into that demand.
You can check out our customer interview takeaways here.
We updated our messaging
Thanks to input from our accelerators, advisors, interviewees, members, and mentors, we replaced “equity for clicks” with “the people’s tech startup.”
While catchy, the former proved to be too difficult for most people to readily understand, and the latter, if you ask me, is just plain awesome: more affirmative, more to the point, more revolutionary.
We’re (actually) getting some press
Our first podcast (!)
Local NEWS Network, which is based in Durango, Colorado (where we are) and covers Durango, Farmington (New Mexico), Montezuma, and Telluride, interviewed me for their “Beyond The Headlines” podcast. It was the first podcast to feature our story, and I was honored to tell it. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Our second podcast (!!)
I have another podcast interview scheduled to record in January, and I believe it’ll be a fantastic opportunity to expound on the data “democratization” implications of a people’s tech company. I’ll let you know when it’s published.
Members, members, members
As I wrote before, our key objectives are to build our membership and raise money from our members so that we can scale our activities and develop/deploy our Surge Browser. Everything we’re doing right now is in service to these objectives.
Now that we’re done with our accelerators and our “go-to-market” messaging is solid and incorporated in our website, I can focus a lot more on prospecting for members. I intend to use a variety of means that range from direct outreach to consumers to creating new website content.
Here’s where we are today:
12/12/2024
Total members
124
Total contributions
$5,996
Maximum contribution
$1,000
Contributing members
56%
Average contribution
$48
Median contribution
$20
Want to help?
If you'd like to give us a boost:
1. Chip in $5 to help us with startup costs!
2. Share our site with a friend to help get the word out!
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Best wishes for the holidays!
Matt
December 12, 2024
Matt Martensen
Founder/organizer