Turn every lawn into a commmunity garden. Alot matches people who love to garden with people who have land but are too busy to garden it.
The question: Would gardeners be as interested as land owners?
The test: Sign up 10 gardeners in month 1. Use community Facebook groups and targeted local Meta ads to drive traffic.
The results: 10 landowners and 2 gardeners signed up
The outcome: Compost the site, interview gardeners.
The learning: Feedback showed gardeners were more interested in a group working bee model where everyone helps out on one person’s garden in a rotation.
A non-profit social network for driving communities of action. Member comms, projects and task management all in one place.
The question: Could the ethics of the platform overcome the cold start problem? Would nonprofits and community groups use a platform that their members had to sign up to?
The test: 1 group gets 2 people to join in month 1. Use word of mouth, build an automated Tik Tok and Instagram content engine and create targeted high-level SEO to drive traffic.
The results: 5 groups and 8 individuals joined in 4 countries. No groups got their members to sign up.
The outcome: We were set to interview group coordinators and iterate functionality to make Gather indispensable. Then age verification laws came into place in the US, EU, UK and Australia. They had requirements that our nonprofit didn’t have the resources to meet. We had to block access from those countries, decimating our traffic. Now New Zealand is going the same way we have sadly shut down the site.
The learning: There is some need for this, but a nonprofit social network can not exist in places where under-16s are banned from all communication networks. The age verification requirements are simply too expensive for ethical platforms to meet.
The law should be that it’s illegal for communication networks to advertise to under-16. This solves the actual problems (addiction algorithms, extreme content, the promotion of suicidality, eating disorders and deteriorating self esteem), which are all driven by ads, and it impacts for-profit social media giants without destroying positive nonprofits in the process.
“Communication was easy and she was a pleasure to work with. We were particularly impressed by Maddy’s ability to transform loose specifications into production ready features.”
Josh Gunn, Tech Lead - Swayable
“Maddy was the bridge between us and the developers - us and a world we did not understand. Working with her has been a dream. She exceeded my expectations, which was delightful, because many had underdelivered before. Her work ethic was unquestionable and I always felt like she went above and beyond for us. She is straight up, efficient and conscientious, and best of all she’s a problem solver not a problem moaner. I’d recommend Maddy to anyone who needs a project manager, an all-rounder, a brainstormer, a development advisor, a developer, an everything-er.”
Damaris Coulter, CEO - The Realness
“Maddy filled a gap in the market I didn’t know existed until we needed it. Having someone experienced who can act as a fractional growth / performance marketer to understand your business… really lowers the barrier to experimentation.”
Forte Global
“The Digital Marketing course that Maddy delivers is an excellent way to develop and implement a Social Media Marketing strategy. It was a great balance between instructional content and making you think outside of the box! Easy to follow, knowledgeable and challenged the thinking of the attendees.”
Rohan Jarvis, Director - LALATAT
