Q3 2024 Member Letter
From Matt Martensen
October 10, 2024
To the Members of User Cooperative:
Our cooperative endeavor to get you “equity for your clicks” continues. Here’s an update on what we’ve been up to for Q3 2024, where we are today, our key Q4 initiatives, and where we need your help.
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Refresher: Why Equity for Clicks?
For too long “tech” companies, like Big Tech, have excluded us consumers from participating in their profits, gains, and governance – their “equity,” in other words – even though we almost single-handedly capitalize them with the data that we convey through our “clicks” on their services.
This “data capitalization without equity participation” is inconsistent with the risk-reward principles that determine corporate ownership in our free market system, and it has given a few shareholders the power to dictate the terms by which “we the people” relate to technology in our daily lives.
It’s time that we stop accepting this “inequity for our clicks” as a fact of life and engage in a cooperative endeavor (e.g., User Cooperative) to forge a fair apportionment of the economic, informational, and technological wealth that’s derived from our clicks and, in doing so, take the reins of our tech destiny.
User Cooperative’s “key objectives” are to (1) build our membership and (2) raise donations, primarily from our members, to raise the capital we need to build our web browser, etc., and everything we do is in service to these objectives.
For context, a cooperative, a 100% member-owned and -governed company, typically starts by forming an association of members, who pool their money in the form of payments – not investments – so that their cooperative can meet its initial capital needs and go on to provide its services.
Q3 Highlights
1. We got into a growth accelerator for tech companies.
First, an “accelerator” is a selective, cost-free, and cohort-based program that helps startups grow quickly through training, mentorship, and networking. These programs tend to last from three to six months and culminate in a business presentation to capital providers, like investors or grant-makers. Training and mentorship comes from experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders. Because of its exclusivity, accelerator admission can be a powerful market signal of a company’s traction and growth potential.
In August, Startup Colorado handpicked us to participate in their inaugural growth accelerator for tech companies. We are one of ten companies across Colorado that got admitted to the program.
Startup Colorado is an nonprofit organization that runs the startup ecosystem across all (53) rural counties in Colorado, and it’s recognized at a national level for being an exemplary organization. So, it’s a huge honor for us to be selected, a testament to our work, and a powerful signal of our potential.
This accelerator is 11 weeks long, and its purpose is to help us grow our company by providing targeted mentorship, network connections, and other resources from some of the best advisors, thought leaders, and professional networks in Colorado.
The program culminates in a 90-minute presentation to and consultation with Bridge Entrepreneurs Network – an influential member of Colorado’s business ecosystem – whose backing could yield significant advancement toward our key objectives.
We’re in our 7th week of the accelerator, and we’ve connected with a number of professionals who are enthusiastic about our “revolutionary” mission, and they’re helping us get better at building our membership and accessing capital.
2. We got into a social enterprise accelerator.
First, a “social enterprise” is a business that benefits society, and it can be a for-profit business or a nonprofit business. We’re a full-fledged for-profit business that falls into this category because we’re cooperatively owned by consumers – individuals acting according to their interests – not shareholders.
Based in Ohio, SEA Change has been operating social enterprise accelerators across the country for almost ten years. More than 350 social enterprises encompassing many industries and business models have completed their programs, and several have gone on to achieve national scale. So, it’s a huge honor for us to be selected, a testament to our work, particularly its “social” nature, and a powerful signal of our potential.
This accelerator is 16 weeks long, and its purpose is to help us grow our company by providing targeted mentorship, network connections, and other resources from advisors, thought leaders, and professional networks that come predominantly from the social enterprise “space.”
The program culminates in a pitch competition for cash and in-kind resources in front of the SEA Change community. This could result in not only more resources, but also a significant amount of exposure to a large socially conscious community, and that could yield significant advancement toward our key objectives.
We’re in our 12th week of the accelerator, and so far we’ve received a great deal of mentorship from experts on corporate communications – this program matched us with a dedicated mentor for this – philanthropic fundraising, and corporate partnerships. These elements are crucial to building our membership and accessing capital.
3. We were a semi-finalist in a national pitch competition.
Earlier this month, we reached the semifinals of SCORE’s 60th Anniversary Pitch Competition. SCORE is a longstanding entrepreneurship support organization that operates in all 50 U.S. States, and it’s backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Though we didn’t advance to the final round – they didn’t give us any specific feedback on their decision – it was awesome to be held in such regard by a national organization, and I consider it an exciting, albeit nonpublic, validation of our work.
Here’s the pitch video I submitted for consideration in the final round:
4. We assembled an advisory board.
First, an “advisory board” is a group of unpaid and highly experienced professionals who provide advice and network connections to a startup enterprise. An advisory board is especially helpful to a startup when it doesn’t yet have the capital to hire and retain full-time employees.
Advisory board members provide perspective, fill knowledge gaps, test strategic thinking, help access resources from their networks, etc. Advisory board members neither make executive decisions nor vote on corporate matters.
I’m thrilled to report that three weeks ago we assembled an advisory board consisting of six professionals whose character and expertise are second-to-none, and each advisory board member is volunteering to do whatever they can to advance “equity for clicks.”
Our advisory board brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the following key areas: branding and marketing; building data-driven businesses; community building; corporate strategy, governance, and law; public service; and software development.
I’m so honored that our advisory board members have joined our team, and I hope you’ll meet them here.
Key Objectives: Members and Money
In July, SEA Change admitted us into their inaugural Colorado cohort for their flagship social enterprise accelerator. We are one of 16 companies across Colorado that got admitted into the program.
Membership Metrics
10/10/24
Total members
101
Total donations
$5,604
Max donation
$1,000
Donating members
60%
Average donation
$55
Median donation
$20
We include these metrics because they matter most to a cooperative in formation, like us. Again, we’re building our membership and raising donations primarily from our members so that we meet our initial capital needs to scale and provide our services.
We operate in an industry in which enterprise value, net income, daily “users,” among many others, are measured in millions, billions, and trillions. Our numbers here might seem pretty darn small. But we’ve only just begun.
Besides, as a startup offering a unique and novel “equity for clicks” service, we’re not (yet) concerned about scale, we’re concerned about proof-of-concept – whether our target customers are willing to buy what we sell. That’s what these numbers indicate and why I’m extremely excited to report them to you.
Further, our membership metrics aren’t the result of a sustained membership-building campaign. They’re the result of an iterative process of honing our “unique value proposition” and how we express it on our website – the precondition of any such campaign.
We’re doing something revolutionary, and it’s critical that we internalize the fact that big things have small beginnings; achieving scale requires doing things that don’t scale; and, in our theater of operations, ideas worth spreading – like “get equity for your clicks” – can reach billions of people in a relative blink of an eye.
Key Q4 Initiatives
Here’s what we’re doing to accomplish our key objectives over the next quarter.
1. Sharpen our messaging.
We need to speak more directly to the needs of the people we seek to serve so that we can grow our membership and raise donations more efficiently.
As part of that, we’re now conducting a series of “customer interviews” to understand in far greater detail the feelings consumers have about their relationship with tech companies and their perceptions of how tech companies impact society. If you’d like to be interviewed, you can book a time with me here.
2. Raise grant funding to meet our initial capital needs faster.
In addition to raising donations from our members, we’re pursuing grant-makers for larger capital infusions so that we can be more efficient at building our membership and raising donations and shorten the time frame to releasing our web browser.
3. Refine our web browser budget and development timeline.
We estimate that we need $10 – 15 million to develop, deploy, and maintain our web browser, but this estimate is based on comparable web browser companies, not on our specific web browser features and an expedited timeline. We’re reaching out to web browser developers to help us out with this.
4. Get the most out of our accelerators.
Where We Need Your Help
Your cooperative is a unique and ambitious endeavor to deliver “equity for clicks” to the 80 – 90% of consumers worldwide who want a fairer “data exchange” with the tech companies they use, and there are some powerful forces in the world that are disinterested in our success.
But we can do this.
Here’s where we need your help:
1. Donate.
Every dollar matters. Please donate if you haven’t yet, or donate again.
2. Invite someone to become a member and donate.
Every new member makes us stronger and accelerates our progress. Please invite a friend to become a member and donate. If they can’t donate when they join, their support as a non-donating member is still a big deal for us.
3. Book time here for a customer interview.
Help us optimize our communications so that we can scale more efficiently. Please book time with me for a customer interview.
4. Connect us to those who can help.
Expanding our network grants us access to resources and partnerships that can accelerate our progress. Please connect us to any people or organizations who are willing and able to help us accomplish our key objectives.
5. Give us some feedback here.
Feedback ensures that we’re always on point with what matters to our membership and continuously improving. Please let us know how we’re doing.
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Going forward, I’ll provide you with similar (but shorter!) updates on approximately a monthly basis, and I’ll email you notifications of any company updates and content that we publish.
Thank you so much for your support, and stay tuned!
Matt
October 10, 2024
Matt Martensen
Founder/organizer