Business is not about money. It's about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.
~ Derek Sivers
Derek Sivers founded CD Baby, an online store for independent artists selling music, in 1998. He had over $100 million in sales for over 150,000 artists. In that position, it sounds easy to say business is not about money. But Derek truly means it – he transferred the ownership of CD Baby to a charitable trust sponsoring music education.
I have the same vision for InfiniTeach (not the $100M in sales – though that would be amazing!). The making dreams come true part. InfiniTeach will be a world changer for children with autism and their families. InfiniTeach was not founded on the idea of making things to sell them – though of course we will. I have (finally) learned that in order to sustainable and make dreams come true for others that a consistent revenue stream is necessary. InfiniTeach, at its core, is a hope engine. We will provide access to information, strategies, and optimism to the world's most vulnerable individuals.
The InfiniTeach team is myself, Katie, and Lally (you can read our bios on the homepage). We have incorporated as an LLC. We have secured initial funding. We have a legal team. And now we are engaging in a research project with Greater Good Studio. We were lucky to find Greater Good after meeting with a marketing firm that was much too large and expensive for our startup venture. The person we met happened to know Sara and George, the founders of Greater Good, and referred us to them. Our team at Greater Good – Sara, George, Mark, and Annemarie – are amazing. They have done some very cool projects like designing a water filtration system to be used in Haiti, overhauling school lunches, and building a sustainable model to teach literacy skills young children. One of the main reasons we chose to partner with Greater Good is that they only take on projects that have a social impact. And even though we are a technically a business, we will not be successful unless we can make meaningful change in the lives of our customers.
Greater Good is currently conducting developing their research plan and recruiting stakeholders – teachers and parents – to learn more about the needs of the community we are serving. Our goal is to develop a product that exactly solves the problems parents and teachers are facing. And while we are just getting started, we could not be more excited to be on this journey.