Impact 1:
Impact 1 has been holding down the SW corner of the 1871 space. You’ll find a group of people spanning from engineers to educators to tech guys. It's an amazing experience to be surrounded by people who are building products that will impact people's lives and share your worldview of doing good. We're eight businesses that you should really get to know.
While there is a level of internal competitiveness at The Impact Engine, it has been mostly through the growing ping pong tournament ladder. A great deal of our key insights are coming from internal feedback from the other startups. The people we are working next to are a gold mine of incredibly intelligent and insightful minds. That's the beauty of a workspace like 1871.
1871:
The open layout of coworking space along with the awesome people that work in it make a breeding ground for growth and innovation. It's great to get instant feedback on a sketch or layout. We are surrounded with experienced individuals that make sure everything is pixel perfect.
The folks at Intelligentsia also know a thing or two about coffee and provide a steady stream of organic free-trade caffeine. It isn't a bad place to camp out for 3 months (but seriously - we think some people might live here).
Team:
It's really important to get your first core hires right. We've managed to onboard some great people to work on marketing, public relations, web design, and graphic design.
Our all-hands meetings have lead us to some great ideas just by having everyone in the same room. In a startup environment it's sometimes difficult to steer everyone in the right direction, however we've been successful by using Basecamp (paired with the constant creation of Google Docs) to keep everyone accountable and on task. We also have a small team in India, which gives us the advantage of a startup that almost never sleeps.
The work we set out to do at Azadi is serious - we’re trying to provide a solution to a big problem that negatively impacts the lives of a huge market. But there is something to be said about approaching our work collaboratively and whole-heartedly. Our team reflects that and it's great to be working with a great group of people.
Mentors:
The foot traffic of founders and doers at 1871 is truly spectacular. One of those is Belly Founder and CEO, Logan Lahive.
When looking for the right investors for your venture, he cautioned:
“A lot of people think you’re just looking for money - but you’re looking for partners.”
(Also that swearing in meetings is good)
Progress:
300 million girls and women in rural India don't have access to female hygiene products. This prevents them from going to school and work.
Our solution is to engineer a machine and partner with local communities who will manufacture and supply sanitary pads at an affordable price.
Now to get back to work. We think that Aaron Levie puts it best:
If you don't have a billion users, you're not working hard enough.
— Aaron Levie (@levie) October 5, 2012
