Ep. 58: Finding Your Startup’s ‘Why’ with Andy Choi of Do Good Points

foreignhey everybody and welcome to the startupSavant podcast I'm your host Ethan andthis show is about the storieschallenges and triumphs of fast scalingstartups and the founders who run themour guest on the show today is Andy ChoiAndy is the founder and CEO of do goodpoints a company working to bridge thegap between non-profits and individualsseeking to make a difference in theworld at just 14 Andy started his firstcompany and within a few years he wasseeing success that any founder would beproud of not just someone in their teensand I'm being intentionally vague aboutthis business because I want Andy togive us the story behind this Ventureand I've read a little bit about it andI'm stoked to get all the details andshare them with all of you but before wejump in I want to tell you about anotherpodcast that I've been listening tolately it's called cashing out and it'sput together by the folks over at Exitwise similar to this show they bring onentrepreneurs to tell stories and gatherinsights but instead of current startupFounders the interview folks who havesuccessfully exited a business I'vereally enjoyed listening so if you areinterested in the later stages of theentrepreneurial Journey go check out theCashing Out podcast I mean once you'refinished with this episode of course wewill put the link in the show notesalright enough Preamble let's get intothis conversation with Andy Choi of dogood points Andy how's it going todayI'm doing good how you doing Ethan I'mdoing great we are living the dream outhere in Ann Arbor and uh just waitingfor that sun to come out it might happensometime this year I I just know it willAnother Day in Paradise exactly allright so I teased this episodeum by saying that you had an interestingbusiness when you were 14.um can you tell us a lot more about uhabout this Venture that you had when youwere just a lad yeahumlike like every teen I was looking formy first job right at like 13 but I waspretty aggressiveum in regards to like I I wanted to workI wanted to make money I had a lot ofthings I wanted to get or buy andum like Most teens I wasn't I justdidn't have any experience right and Iwasn't able to find or you know a joblike anyone that was willing to give mea chance like I applied at every smallbusiness in my town which is um inAlameda California and no one would hireme and also I had like some special workyou know you're 14 years old you can'tyou know your work permit I think startsat 16 like I had to get my parents tosign off so I had another barrier tothat butum I ran into someone who was doing thisrandom business at the time knocking ondoors and painting address numbers undercurb of the street and I I literally raninto this person at the park and wasjust kind of talking to them and likehey you know I've been looking for a jobI want to see what you're doing can Ihelp you out for the day and literally II helped them out for um two days and Irealized that I can do that businessmyself I was like why am I working forthis person I was like I can do thisthing and in Suburban areas as you guysknow like there's address numbers youpaint on the curb of the streets rightso you you go up and down and you youthere's a stencil you like a certaintype of paint that you use for asphaltand I was like I could do this and I washelping him like just paint and dothings he was going door to doorknocking on the house residential doorsand he had this pitch and I just kind oflearned from him in the two days and Ijust remember thinking um I can do thisand I still putting the materialstogether I went to a local paint storetalked about you know like what what'sneeded the technique and all of that andjust figured one thing out at a time andI started painting like I startedknocking on doors myself and I wasmaking a lot of money doing it right soit was um something that I just did onmy own and I really from thereI was like I can grow this thing and umat age 14 I decided to get a businesslicense like I you know people weretrying to help me out at the same timeletting me know that hey you know youneed the proper forms and all of theseother things so I got my first businesslicense learned about the politics ofopening a business which is you knowregistering with the cityum getting all of these things and Icalled it the Alameda team projectand we didn't charge for it but we tookdonations and it was a way to offerteens like teens my age ways to get workexperienceum you know stay out of the street stayout of trouble do all of these thingsbut have a productive way to developpeople skills by talking to peoplehelping the neighborhood knowing theneighborhood and we're all neighborhoodkids and I started off by hiring a buddyof mine who also had the same strugglewasn't able to find a part-time job andit just kind of ballooned up from thereand I grew it to 21 kids and we ended upexpanding into two two neighboringcities and it was this little Enterprisethat I ran at 14and at one point we're doing like twothousand dollars a day in Revenue wowand it was yeah it was incredible likeyou know I had teams you know runrunning up and down the block I had twosales people one you know one painter sothen they would go knock on doors theywould have quotas to hit x amount ofdoors per dayum you know and the painter would goback and forth they'll go back tocollect the donation and we had a wholepitch you know like this is a teamproject this is a non-profit you knowlike we're not taking any money but wewould love a donation and average youknow hey John next door gave us you knowtwenty dollars or forty dollars and thenyou know like Bob at the next door wouldthen like oh yeah we could match thatdonation or give more it was um and itjust kind of became a much bigger thingthan I ever anticipated and it was kindof my journey intoum yeah the business world that's anawesome story this and this is all likebefore you're able to even to drive yeahexactly I um I had a little scooter thatI would um like jet I would be sweatingbecause I would have to go visit myteams or I'll drop off lunch or you knowcheck in on them and also they wereholding a lot of cash right like we werewe're doing really well so then I didn'twant you know them to hold on to morethan you know 100 or 200 at a time sothen I would have to do these drops andpickups and I just you know at one pointit got so big you know I had to Iliterally would pay you know my dad toyou know they hey I need to hire you forthe afternoon to you know to use the vanto do a couple drops and pick upespecially when we were expanding toneighboring cities you know like thatwas New Territory right so it's like youknow we couldn't walk there I couldn'ttake my um my scooter but I ended upbuying my first car before I even had mylicense like I thought my first car whenI was like 15 years old right and I likeI bought it cash like you know and I waslike and my parents couldn't even arguewith me because I was like look I'mrunning this little Enterprise like Ineed Wheels likeum but that's a whole nother story yeahno that's fantastic and you know I thinkit really shows a lot about you knowkind of you as a kid your your want touh just have some have some spinningcashum and the and the ability to notoverthink of it uh because I mean as asadults we do that all the time we'relike okay I need I'm gonna open whateverbusiness and and it's gonna require meto do these you know laundry list of 80things before I can ever even you knowpick up a phone or or knock on a door orwhatever but I think that I think thatif we're if we're able to kind of putthat put that kid hat back on and sayyou know what I've got this thing that Ican do I have this skill that you knowI've always said if you have a truck youhave a business and it doesn't even Imean it doesn't even have to go there Iwas I was having a garage sale this pastweekend and I was selling a power washerI think it was like 50 bucks orsomething like that and I'm like youknow if somebody comes and buys this andthey want to do entrepreneur stuff theyhave a business you know stick it in thetrunk of your car put it in the LittleRed Wagon and walk it around yourneighborhood whatever you know it doesnot take that much to start somethingsmall like this especially if you'rejust getting started or if you're againlike what you were you know under underthe age of you know 16 18 whatever Ithink that there's so many opportunitiesout here for people to get trueentrepreneurial experience without youknow thinking that they need to call upa VC it's huge absolutely I think theSimplicity of it is that there is anobjective right and there's it's justhow do you how do you pursue and executeon that objective right and at the endof the day likeI always say this from a businessstandpoint our job is like businessowners or entrepreneurs just to solveone problem at a time right in order toget to that objective and like learningabout you know a business license forthe first time having to go to City Hallfor the first time can you imagine a 14year old kid coming in to City Hall andsay Hey I want to start a business rightI just I rememberum the ladies that were working in thatoffice and they're like you want to dowhat like and but they were so helpfulright like if there's a will there's away right and they're like all rightthese are the parameters and obviouslybeing a kid like you know is thisallowed is this not like there was therewere so many things and so many hurdlesbut again those are just one thing at atime to your point like whether it's apower washer you know this was a like Iwas a kid with an objective to dosomething and it's like how do I justeliminate all of these barriers to doingthat one objective and it's you know asas we get older we make things more andmore complicated and obviously life getsmore complex and there's a lot of otherexternal factors but like anythinganalysis just solving one problem at atime to get to that objectiveI think that's solid advice and I'm surethat I could keep talking about thistype of you know business and doing thisthing forever but I better not do thatlet's get into the real reason you'rehere uh tell us what is do good pointstwo good points is the first loyaltyprogram for doing good and essentiallywe are the first platform where youdon't a user doesn't have to spend asingle dollar to do good right so we area social Enterprise in its truest formwe comprise of a 501c3 Foundation aswell as we are a startup tech companyso you've got the foundation and you'vegot the for-profitum what's the tell us about the thesplit of the structureum how does that work yeah so I wouldsay the foundation is kind of theheartbeat of everything that we do righteverything's under there's one umbrellabut and the foundation's mission is whatwe call Rog and just like Roi return oninvestment when in capitalism and basicbusiness World Rog is return on givinghow do we take you know resources andsolve the problems within the non-profitspace which is marketing activating thenext generation of do-gooders and justfinding a better way to do businesswithin the non-profit space to havegreater impact and that is the focus ofthe foundation which leads and guidesour corporation which is a tech companywhere we build and aggregate technologyresources data in order to provide theseservices for non-profits free of chargeand Amplified their mission right and onthe corporate side our mission as acompany is to activate and empower thenext generation of do-goodersso so tell us a little bit more aboutthe the business model on the for-profitsideum it sounds like there's some datacollection there's there's uh maybe somemarketing and some other things what'swhat's the what's the business model onthat side yeah so it's um there's acouple different angles to it I'll I'llkind of break it down the first being onthe as a platform we are think of aslike a Yelp for non-profits where youcan go and find resources find whetherit's like your local burrito shop or youknow a nail salon or a bar right likehere at Google points you can go findyour local animal shelter uh Food Bankdifferent ways to do good and connect tonon-profit organization we aggregatedata with about the nonprofit where youcan access all 1.7 million nonprofits inthe United States but also get resourcesin regards to ratings review SystemsAudits and impact data and other thingsthat make it more informative and easierto connect to non-profits and then fromthere on the platform we also want tocentralize the technology available inorder to break down any barriers todoing good right so what's the easiestway to donate can I donate monthly orwhat are other Financial tools andresources whether it's crypto donationmatch and what we want to do isaggregate all of those Services underone platform and make it easier to dogood so then just like Robinhood createyou know create an app and a platform tomake it easier to to invest in stocksright so then over 50 percent of peoplethat use Robinhood had never invested instocks before so they took somethingthat was incredibly complicated or atleast perceived to be complicated andsimplified it and activated a youngergeneration to participate in somethingthat they normally didn't participate inand we say that for the same forphilanthropy it's like you don't need tobe a Bill Gates you're not somebillionaire to to be involved inphilanthropy and giving back like how doyou activate today and not having moneyis a big problem for the youngergeneration so then it's like there'sthere's other ways to connect rightdoing good sharing it on social mediaand how do we activate those things froma platformso you mentioned something about youknow the young folks who who do want todo good but maybe financially isn't thenumber one way that they can do good sois is your platform offering somethingfor these for these folks thatmonetarily may not be the best solutionfor themabsolutely and we we've done a ton ofresearch obviously like as a techcompany we're very data driven uh we oneof the research projects we did with thePHD program at St Mary's College wherewe try to really understand thepsychology of the Next Generation andwhat they Define as philanthropy aredoing good and having impact and one ofum the key findings was exactly what yousaid they don't see themselvesgiving monetarily as a primary way tohave impact that it's not preferredright one because their disposableincome levels and things of that sort atthat age obviously are not you know atthe levelum that you know they will be when theyhit the 40s or 50s or whatever it mightbe right but also like there'sinteresting data to find out like theydon't other user behaviors but whatwe're looking into is then how do welean into their behaviors likegamification loyalty finding fun waysand digital experience to engage so thenif they're not donating can be part ofbe part of a game can we be part of asocial platform that they already are onand find incentives and ways to engagethem that adds value to their identityto their Community to whatever they'redoing and um doing good is being a partof that right so then you earn pointsfor doing good sharing something andthen you can convert that points into anactual cash donation or something elsethat that has impact from a social levelwhat is creators for goodgreat question so creatives were good isa program that we run internally on theplatform where we activate influencersand creators whether it's a gamer socialmedia person but essentially anyone canbe a creator for good whether you havean influence over one person or millionsof people you can activate yourcommunity by talking about causes youcare about by using the platform thatyou have again it doesn't matter if youhave one follower or hundreds ofthousands or millions of followers likethese are the people that are part ofyour community your tribe your familyyour friends that can activate andusually you know we're surrounded bylike-minded people right if I care abouta cause I you know my friend next to meusually will support me or care aboutthe cause itself right so that how do weactivate creators for good whether youknow again a platform of one or platformor Millions to activate and utilizetheir platform for goodcan you tell us the um what uh whatimpacts creators for good has had so faryeah so we actually just piloted theprogram last year right so we're lookingto scale it this yearum some data points right off the top ofmy head we've reached over 8 millionpeopleum in our events and um you knowcampaigns and things of that sort thatwe've done we raised over 320 000um in the pilot program we've activatedover 500 creators for goodum to host a campaign uh a live stream asocial post anything that engages theirCommunity or friends and and relativesin regards to causes that they careabout we've activated and fundraised forover 120 non-profits and causes whetherthrough emergency funds or you knowblack history month or mental healthawareness whatever it might be based onthe Creatorum being any individual and to causedaycare about and like how do they usetheir platform for thatit sounds it sounds like it was a prettysuccessful pilot programit it was it it absolutely was and itjust goes to the Testament of like wherethe market is going with the youngergeneration right and part of thatresearch study that we did I was tellingyou about the number one way peopleactivate especially for social impactand doing good non-profits anything elseis through recommendations right youknow hey my friend John you knowvolunteered at this local soup kitchenthat's where I'm gonna volunteer rightor you know like Susie donated to thisorganization for this these reasonsthat's what I'm gonna donate right sojust using the the peer-to-peer as wellas a social aspect of it to reallyengage audiencesso let's jump into into the marketingthat you all doum so who is your target marketspecificallyyounger demographic ideally uh our sweetspot is between 25 to about 40 years old39 40 years old Millennials and thenwe're also very successful with um 18and 24 as well and again it's activatingthat the next generation of do-goodersand some key data points that you shouldbe aware of is that the average donor inthe United States today is 65 years oldright and it's you know even throughcovet when we talk about like you knowlike everything going digital there wasa 30 30 to 35 percent growth in digitaldonations that happen and we're stillonly at 16 on a good day right so itdoesn't you know it's not surprisingbecause if the average donor is 65 thenthey're not you know usually usingdigital transactions but talking aboutthe Next Generation it's like how do weactivate that how do we convert thatright so then our demographic is reallyfocused on reaching that audienceso in your company profile which peoplecan find over at startupsavant.com youlaid out a very detailed set ofattributes for your Target Persona andyou actually laid out quite a few youknow details here as well can you tellus about how you and your team ideatedand tested this Persona in a way thatallowed you to get so specific yeah andso I'm going to go back to some of ourkey research personas which is you knowlike there are people that are doinggood alreadyum people that are new to doing good andthen there are you know activists rightso there's kind of different stagesright and it's there's a lot ofdifferent ways to to think through it welook at the psychology of it andobviously the data behind it but there'syou know from a natural human instinctlike there's a masshierarchy of needs right based on whereyou at are at in in those kind of needshuman needs like you you know differentthings take priority right and when itcomes to to our our general likepersonas we look at we're looking toactivate people that are not already youknow activated but are curious arethinking about it are finding trying tofind ways as part of their identity forthe causes that they care about right sowe always say this we want to be wedon't Define what good is for someoneright we want to help discover thatprocess for yourself and it's a personalJourney right so it's not you know thatwe try to guide per someone like heythis cause is more important than thatcause I think every individual personstory is different and those personasthen is to really guide them dependingon where they are they are at in theirstage and I would say our sweet spot isactivating new um people youngerGenerations that are just figuring outthe causes that they care about and it'sincredible to do that now in this stagebecause the younger generation is moreinformed and they care more about itthan ever before right and so then wealso don't believe in the competition ofdoing good so we're not if someone isalready activated and involved and isalready a strong part of that we're nottrying to take them away from somethingthat they're already doing right so thenhow do we offer tools and resources toactivate them so these those threepersonas are really kind of meeting themwhere they're at and providing resourcestechnology and tools to amplify themalong their Journey as they as theymature as givers as as do-gooders yeahit sounds and obviously you've put a lotof thought into this and to to kind ofbe able to you knowum put the different the differentgroups into different buckets and and totreat them each slightly differentlyobviously all with the same goal ofallowing them to do goodum and I think that this is somethingthat any business and any founder reallyshould spend a lot of time uh puttingtogether these personas and truly trulytruly understanding who it is that theyare that they're servingum and you mentioned specifically thatit's very data driven can you tell uswhat kind of data that you're looking atand where you are finding this dataabsolutelyum it's it's definitely from it'sproduct LED right so all of the featuresand things that we want to provide andprioritize is based on what the markettells us so I always say this this dogood points is not some founder Visionwhere you know I'm like the Steve Jobslike I have this Vision let's build thisthing to the T right where I say we arewe're Market driven right the public andthe people tell us what we need toprioritize and what we need to buildrightum and when it comes to the data pieceof it like I'm going to share some cheapdata points that we found in our studyand how we correlate that to productswithin our our platformone of the big research studies that wedid it's like you know again what arethe barriers for you to do good rightwhy don't you volunteer more or donateor whatever that might be one of the keyfindings that we've that was verysurprising for us was thatthey the younger generation actuallydoesn't care about non-profitorganizations they don't carespecifically about XYZ organization theycare about the causethe organization itself is actually abarrier for them to do good becausetrust is a huge Factor who's running theorganization is it or you know what ageare they like all of these othercomments and questions are becomebarriers that that keep them fromactivating to engage with thatorganization or to volunteer or whateverelse right so then for example we takethat data and create funds so if youdon't care about XYZ non-profit but youcare about climate action we created afun product where you know we'llaggregate like the top 10 non-profitswithin that cast category based onreviewsum you know ratings and whatever else sothen we've done all the legwork for youand now you can support this cause rightso you know things of that sort likerecommendations social platforms againthat was you know that was an easy onefor us to figure out like hey they youknow like a lot of people want to dogood but they also don't want to do allthe legwork and that's okay you know youneed to start somewhere and that's whattechnology apologies for right you knowtechnology allows us to simplify andkind of do a lot of the legwork for usso then how do we aggregate that thistype of data make it easier and presentit in a way that's more digestible rightum and those are the data points that welook at to develop every feature that wehave but I think that the key thing isalso to really make it fun and engagingright to the Loyalty The gamificationaspect of it those are things that arealready part of our human psyche rightlike those are natural behaviors that wehave and that the private sectorutilizes very very well right loyaltyprograms points games in-game likerewards Badges and things of that sorthow do we incorporate that into doinggood right into behaviors that are notnormally rewarded in our daily lives howdo we engage that part of it so youmentioned putting together studiesspecifically you know it sounds like avery very uh concerted effort to go intoyour pool of data your pool of of datapoints and pull things out is are thesestudies something that you already knewhow to do is this something that youbrought on some sort of third party tohelp you put together some real you knowscientific quote-unquote studies or howdid you how did you manage these studiesone I I mean I personally have I'm asociology major like I have a personallike just love and passion for socialpsychology like what drives people andlike what you know that's essentiallywhat business is right andum so there's a deep like you knowpassion for it I would say I'mdefinitely not an expert and but fromtherethe tech industry is is notorious andthis is what you know the tech industrydoes so well like user user researchright like you know the product side ofthings and really digging into that andwe you know we're being a tech companywe operate in that same manner but againour product is different we're not youknow we're not selling an app or someother service or product but it is it isdoing good it's social impact right sothen utilizing those best practiceswithin the tech space and applying it tothis sector and the human psyche ofdoing goodum that that was a challenge but that'salso what made it fun right like that'sthat was the challenge we wanted to takeon and then in addition to that you knowbringing in research Specialists um wehave people like yesha on our team thatthat came in whose entire background isis research right and social impact sothen utilizing that you know from a bigEnterprise level to kind of our startupyou know like solving the problems thatwe're doing and then I I mentioned youknow utilizing out solar outsideresources like the St Mary's PhD programwhich is an educational program theydedicated an entire course for us onequarter to develop a survey it tookmonths to develop one survey to ask theright questions for us to get the rightdata that we need in order to build andprioritize the right features that wewanted to do on our platform right sousing outside factors to make surebecause when it comes to research andsurveys it's sometimes it's how and whatquestion you ask that will ultimatelymake all the difference right so thenreally putting a lot of thought intothat and like getting the responses andthe data points that we really neededthat's huge I think that I think thatthinking that deeply is probably thelevel that people need to get to I don'tthink that they need to get to that onthe first day obviously like you saidyou know these studies some of them tookmonths to get put together but I thinkthat you know if if you're finding somesort of uh success and and you want tocontinue moving that forward I thinkthat this is this is an area whereit will pay back in gigantic multiplesto to know your people better absolutelyso let's let's talk about how you're howyou're reaching this Marketum what are the kind of Channel orchannels that you are finding bestsuited to get into the the eyes of thisMarketyeah with so being in the non-profitspace you know that was I've neverworked in this space before right I'vebeen involved through my family and justyou know personalso coming into this space it was it wasa tough learning experience right and Iremember when I first started do goodpoints one of the first things I did waslikeI was like I'm gonna go to Everynon-profit conference I can find and thebiggest ones and just really kind ofsubmerge myself into space and you knowbecause we were trying to figure outlike is this the right problem thatwe're solving right like how do we fitinto this space like because I didn'twant to be another non-profit like Ifeel like that's the last thing thisthis world needs is like anothernon-profit right so when I go to theseconferences one the majority of them theKeynotes were always talking about theyounger generation how to reach themum but none of them talked aboutlike how to actually do it they justkept talking about the importance of itrightum because like you know donors agingout like is the you know again theaverage donor is 65 years old likethey're literally passing away andthere's no one else taking their placeso these non-profits are shutting downleft and right because they have nostrategiesso you know like those were the things II figured out but it's like how do wethen reach these audiences we we go toWicker at you know like if they're onTwitch playing a video game we go tothat platform it's not a if I build itthey will come scenario it's like how dowe go into the marketplace provide valueprovide you know like fit into thatspace you know fill the gaps where youknow where we are solving our problemand reach them there right um it wasn'tjust like if I build it they will comescenario soum to answer that question you knowwe're going into the marketplace whereyounger Generations are spending theirtime social media twitch gaming uhloyalty programs retailersum and participating in their dailylives and solving the problems ofgetting them to activate doing goodwithin the space that they're already indid you have some familiarity withplatforms like twitch and you knowYouTube gaming and all these other uhstreaming platforms for gamers andcreators did you have did you havefamiliarity with that or is thatsomething that was New To Youso gaming specifically was definitelynew to meum I just that wasn't gaming just wasn'tsomething I did Growing Up I was youknow I was running a business at 14 itdidn't give me a lot of time to playvideo games to be honestum you know I played like you knowthings growing up like Street FighterTekken and stuff like that when I was akidum but like you know that's completelydifferent from what the world of gamingis today right like and the wholestreaming so that particular space is isabsolutely new and I'm still learning itand I'm very upfront about it so we haveamazing teams and you know agencies thatwe work with that allow you know me tolearn and grow in that space But outsideof that um I was previously at a techcompany where you know we did like bigloyalty marketing campaignsum with big programs like Airlines Banksand institutions that engage uh massiveaudiences for engagement for a privatesector right so if Best Buy ran acampaign to do research or you know tofind more about their customers engagethem I was at a company that thatactivated those kind of pro programs sothen utilizing those that like thatexperience those resources is kind ofwhere the Genesis of two good points wasas wellall right I'm gonna take a very hardleft turn here and ask you what iseffective altruismmanum thanks for asking that question I'dlove to talk about this and I've learnedthat I need to explain it from a verybasic level because one I'm not anexpert at it but twoum it's usually a new thought butessentially the way I like to explain itand there's more to it than this and Ichallenge everyone to to search andresearch it themselves but it is theidea that what I'm doing is this thebest way to do it that's simply put likeif I have 10 hours in a day what's thebest way to use that 10 hours right butmore specifically if I can do good whatis the best way for me to do goodso from a monetary standpoint if I onlyhave a hundred dollars where's the bestplace I can donate this hundred dollarsto right that's a simple idea and it'slike I want to have the maximum well youknow again what we call Rog return ongiving right if I give this hundreddollars I want this hundred dollars todo have the Maximum Impact that it canhave outside of that if I am a you knowa digital marketer right someone that'sbeen in the tech industry you know likeyou know I get paid x amount of dollarsa large sum of money to do something I'mvery good at I have a high expertise inand then I go volunteer on the weekendon a Saturday 10 hours at a local soupkitchen nothing wrong with thatabsolutely nothing wrong with that butfrom an effective altruism standpointwas that the best way for me to spendthose 10 hours was that gonna have thegreatest impact that I'm able to have byutilizing my knowledge my resources mymy entire network or whatever it is it'slike was that the best way to spend 10hours probably not right and so thenit's like how do we you know utilizingwhat we have do the best that we canright and that's the simple ideology andkind of exactly where you know how Iapproach my personal Journey would dogood points and you know everything elsedo you have a a framework that you useor a series of steps uh to ensure thatyou are using your resources whetherthat be time or funds or attention inthe most impactful wayto share it because it always changes Ithink at different seasons of my lifetalking just purely about duga pointsbut just in work in general there weredifferent focuses right I'm a verydifferent person than I was when Istarted my first business when I was 14.I had very different objectives andagendas than I do now so then I thinkthose Frameworks constantly change butultimately it always starts with justwhylike why am I gonna do what I'm gonna dowhy am I pursuing this business and justreally the whole Simon cynic model rightit's like what is the why what is thereasoning like the foundation to thisentire Endeavor right and I think thatis the the starting point the Genesisfor for anything so I I would alwayslike that based on that why the what andthe how always changes right becausedepending on how that Y is it's like I'malways looking for the fastest way toget to that why right and what is whatare the distractions what are the thingsI need to cut away in order to get tothat why as fast as soon as possibleright so now that you've found the whyokay so I I I'm gonna press you a littlebit because I'm really interested I likethe way you think so I want to get inthere so we're not necessarily lookingfor answers at this point what we'relooking for is the questions so once youyou start with why am I doing this onceyou kind of have answered that questionwhat's the next question that you askyourself to make sure that you aretaking not just a path to you know thegoal but the best past the best mosteffective paththat's great and I love what TonyRobbins says about this he says the thequality of your life is determined bythe quality of questions that you askright and I absolutely believe that sothen to your pointspending the proper amount of time tofigure out the right questions to askright because once you figure out thewhy then it's like you know there's somany questions that come up and a lot ofquestions oftentimes start with justproblems I think the problems we don'tneed to get in a rush to reach problemsit's like finding out the questionsfirst it's like all right like what arethe type of problems that I want tosolve why do I want to solve thisproblem and just digging into that moreand more and and really figure out how Ifit into it right being honest withmyself realistic with myself in regardsto like what are my strengths leaninginto my strengths rather than you knowtrying to solve for all of the areasthat I I have I lack or weaknesses rightand then identifying those thingsbecause I want to go to path of leastresistance right and I think as anentrepreneur it's not so much that youknow we lack resources we lackresourcefulness right so then the way toactivate the resourcefulness is reallyto ask the right questions right so thenthe next frame of questions to that whyis just really figuring out like thesequestions need to lead to this path ofleast resistance to get to my why rightand I hope I'm doing a good jobanswering your question but it's likeyou know it's every scenario isobviously very different right and thenletting the problems kind of discoverthemselves right instead of looking forproblems I think what I've seen a lot ofEntrepreneurship like people are lookingfor problems to solve it's like that's aterrible way to run a business or topursue something right like I don't wantproblems problems just happen yeahproblems are just surprises I didn'twant yeah because you know what's goingto happen when you look for them you'regonna find them yeah exactly that'sexactly right like and it's like I don'tI don't need to go hunting for problemslike those things will come right I needto go look for Solutions and find a pathof these least resistance because againthe problems is it's just that's what Ineed to minimize that's my job right asa Founder as on no that's my job rightit's and then finding the right peopleto help me solve those problemsall right I love that answer so I'mstoked that we uh I'm stoked that wetook that that one step deeper yeahabsolutely all rightum tell us what surprised you aboutentrepreneurship man there's so manysurprises right and I think there's alot of different ways that I can answerthis but I think the one thing thatreally you know justbeing vulnerable and to share thatopenly with you is just the surprise oflike being responsible for othersand I you know like there was notthere's nothing that prepares you forthat you know and I think that's one ofthe biggest barriers to toentrepreneurship and doing good and Isay this and mo unless you've run abusiness yourself likeit's it's really hard to explain toother Founders or other other you know Imean not to other Founders but to otherpeople is thatif it was just me I can deal with it Ihave a really high risk tolerance I knowexactly what I'm getting myself into andbe responsible for myself but when youare responsible for the livelihood ofothers their income their family theirtheir livelihood the amount of pressurethat it puts on you know on me and otherFounders to to be you know the personthat's leading to be the Visionary to beyou know the boss to be whatever youwant to call itum that pressureit's just you can't explain it and thatpressure only grows as you grow you knowas your business grows like and theresponsibility behind that and thatsurprised me becauseoftentimes you start a business becauseyou're fired up right like I'm like Iwant to do this I have this problem likeyou know like there's this problem Iwant to solve like these are this is mywhy all of those things but how often dopeople think about others first rightbecause I'm not going to go on thisjourney by myself but did I spend enoughtime thinking aboutum you know thinking about who's goingto join this journey with me what's theprocess of this journey and that'ssomething I've learned over the yearsand obviously when I was 14 I started myfirst businessum that was the beginning of thisjourney but at every stage as I grow andas I mature that is the one piece thatcontinues to surprise me um but also itcontinues to bless me right that is theblessing of this journeyum yeah let me pause there did I answeryour question yeah oh yeah you nailed ityeah I mean awesome that was I didn'tknow what your answer was going to be uhso yeah you uh you knocked out of theparkyeah yeah and I'm happy to elaboratemore well I guess there's there's onething I will share like everyone sayslike now that I'm in like thephilanthropy and non-profit industrylike oh great you know like this that'samazing you know and it's like nah Idon't feel warm and fuzzy every day likeyou know that's just not the case likeuh oftentimes it's workyou know what I mean like I show up towork like anyone else shows up to workand yes it's a blessing to be in thespace that I'm in but it's alsoincredibly frustrating and not everycause I'm fired up about right or I'mlike it's not I'm not like weeping overeverything or every tragedy that happenslikelike I I wouldn't be able to do my jobevery day if that was the case it'll betoo exhaustingum but one thing that is consistent inaddition adding to that question is thatI I show up every day to work with thepeople that I'm working with right to dogood with our team first before we canever do good externally right and thatis a blessing of working and startingthis business and it took me a lot ofyears to figure out and get to thispoint but that is what my job is is toserve them and to and to do if I can'tdo good with them I'm not going to dogood with anyone else right and you knowif they don't believe in a mission thenno one else is going to believe in amission and I think that is the thegreatest challenge but also the thegreatest blessing soyou may have answered this you may havegiven some some points to the answer tothis but what how do you deal with itlike you've you've learned over and overthat this is the thing this pressure isthe thing that continues to surprise youwhat do you do I mean do you do you doyou are you just an excellent meditatoror um uh is there a book that we shouldall read or what what uh what do you doum that's a great I think there's a lotof different things there's a couplethings that I that stand out to me andthat become incredibly important to meum but I believe in servant-basedleadership I I believe that you know thefounder or the boss's job is to servethe people that that are that are makingthe mission possible so my job andfinding the best ways to do this is tohow do I Empower and enable them to dowhat they do best right and I believeeveryone on our team everyone I workwith have have a mission and it's likehow do I amplify that and learning waysto serve them better is what I put myenergy into so to your point meditatingfinding ways to make sure that you knowthat I'm you know that that my ego thatyou know things that are unhealthyum in my development are not gettinginto in the way of doing my purpose andreason to serve right so then being partof CEO groups and other groups thatreally focus on that same philosophy andmindset as well I'm part of a group thatthat meets once a month of Founders andCEOs that focus on servant-basedleadership right and kind of findingother and healthy ways to really likegrow teams not just from a you knowbusiness objective but really amplifylike the mission from inside out rightand it doesn't matter what industryyou're in but obviously being anindustry that I mean it's a little bitmore Amplified right so then it's likereally serving that and finding Avenuesto to develop those skills because likeanything else I need to constantly learnand grow in order to exercise thosemusclesall right we're working on some greatstuff here I hope uh I hope everyone'suh got their pen and pad out becausethey've they've got some notes to takehere and probably some homework too butuh we're gonna move on what is next fordo good points I'm so excited for thisnext phaseum we we are finally ready to reallyscale our efforts so we had so manyprograms that we've piloted and launchedand really trying to figure out exactlyum where our priorities are right sowhat's next for do good points uh we'relooking to scale our creators for goodprogram scale our Partnerships really gointo the marketplace and amplify youknow the successes that we've seen rightso last year we grew you know fifteenhundred percent right in in an eighthmonth period and really kind of leaninginto those strengths and areas this yearum and then growing our team internallyas we amplify those efforts we also havea number of really large partnershipdeals that we've been working on forsome for over two years that are youknow kind of reaching the end of itssales cycle partnership developmentcycle and we're really excited to getthose things goingum but also I you know constantlyadapting again to the marketplace rightand letting the market tell us where youknow and direct where our initiativesand goals are and one of the things thatwe're really excited about is obviouslythe whole Buzz right now is about Ai andhow you know that's changing you knowthe tools and services that we use butwhen I think about Ai and how it canchange and serve the non-profit space Iget incredibly excited about that rightand traditionally the non-profit spaceis way behind on technology right likeyou know again I told you like only 16of the market right now donatesdigitally which is a huge problemum but you know as a tech company that'slooking to amplify our mission like whenI think about you know Ai andintroducing those type of services intoour space I get super excited about thatsounds like there's a lot going onsounds like we've got a lot to lookforward to all right we're gonna we'regonna hit my favorite questionum because I just love what comes out ofit what is your number one piece ofadvice for early stage entrepreneursman I want to get this some serious stopthat's againyeah Istart with whyyou know I I I want to quote Simon cyniclike our why drives us it's the onlything that will feed us because thestruggle is real like it is soreal the problems are so real like andthey'll be endless and the barriers asyou know if you've been if you've beenon this road long enough you know likeit it just wears you down right it justcontinues to wear you down but the onlything that you can keep you going is isyour whyand to be honest with yourself rightbecause I think oftentimes I see a lotof you know entrepreneurs and businesspeople that that Do it for the wrongreason like oh I just want to make moremoney I want to and those things canonly take you so far right and thethings that will really you know betried and true and and withstand thetest of time is like when there's ameaning and there's a mission that'sgreater than you that why will is iswhat is what will drive you that willlike because because again the problemsare endless you know and it'spersistenceum that will persevere and the onlything that will continues to continue todrive us is is that purpose in thatreason and whatever that is for everyindividualum you know it doesn't you know like youyou will find ways to make impact butyour body needs to drive drive you inregards to to reaching those goalsthat is an excellent piece of adviceum and of course that that comes fromthe book called start with Y from Simonsinekum and just for the folks listening outthere we'll put a link up to that in theshow notes so if you wanna if you wannareally do your homework on this you cango pick up that book and and check itoutum all right last question where canpeople connect with you online and howcan our listeners support do good pointsI would love to connect with people thatare on this Missionum LinkedIn will probably be the bestway from a business standpointum Andy Troy do good points and as faras support we're always looking forpartners in our mission and any companyany brand can can amplify theircorporate responsibility there's causemarketing social impact all of the datashows that the younger generation wantto connect with brands that have astance in regards to the the area thatthey do business whether that's having alocal impact or to having a greaterbigger impact within the cost spaceitself and those are barriers to Brandsand companies because you focus on whatyou do bestamplify and use you know the platformthat you have by partnering withcompanies like do good points ornon-profits that are experts within thespace that you want to approach to andand you know work with us right we'rehappy to guide you in the right you knowin the right direction whether that'swith or without us but we think everybrand every company should absolutelymake that a priority where should thoseBrands reach out tothey can reach out to me directly atAndy dugit points.com Sweet all rightAnnie this has been so much funum I've really enjoyed this conversationum hopefully I see do good points onevery stream that I watch uh from thispoint forward uh that would be thatwould be really awesomeum absolutely and folks listening we'regonna put everything you heard today inthe show notes over at startupsavant.compodcastAndy thank you thank you for coming onthis has been great thank you so muchfor having me and appreciate you I'mdoing good together with us[Music]the startup Savant podcast is producedby truick