Back in the winter of 2003, Crown began to explore how technology-related philanthropy may accelerate Crown's mission to impact people's lives over the next two decades. And so began Crown's "TechFunding Initiative".
Early in the journey, we discovered the emergence of venture philanthropy (raising capital to fund a for-profit venture that would share proceeds with charitable organizations), which ultimately led to the development of "Money Matters Mobile" (MMM). MMM was a subsequent project to move the Money Matters PC-based budgeting tool online to create a real-time, dynamic budgeting tool that we know today as Crown Mvelopes, powered by In2M.
At the time, for us, venture philanthropy meant that we were going to raise $3.5 million from Christian technology philanthropist (friends of James Massa) to design, build-out, and launch Money Matters Mobile. After securing the funding, it would take 18 to 24 months to launch. During the competitive landscape analysis of the MMM vision document creation, I was Googling and found In2M. I noted it only as a proof-of-concept at the time.
By October 2003 we had formalized our MMM funding plan to present to the Crown ELT. However, about that same time period, Crown's ELT had decided to get out of the software development business, even off-loading the current Money Matters 05 project to Phil Drake. We ended up shelving the project.
Rob Parker had just joined Crown to head-up the MAT group, and because I was working on a "funding" project, I reported to Rob. Rob reviewed our MMM project and the TechFunding Initiative and determined it was not the right time to continue exploring down this path. Rob suggested that I bring in some funding to support further TechFunding activities. We agreed that I could continue as a volunteer for Crown.
Six months later, I contact In2M to see if they would be interested in a private label relationship with Crown. They were, in fact, they had been trying to figure out how to contact Crown for that very reason. In May of 2004, I introduced George Murphy to In2M. After that, George and I tested Mvelopes for seven months before presenting to the ELT in December 2004.
After the ELT's approval, it took us, along with a huge [time] contribution from James Massa, almost six more months to finalize a legal agreement with In2M. We later found out that it had taken In2M $10 million in angel funding and almost five years of development to launch Mvelopes! God saved us (Crown) from those unforeseen cost and extended development time. And in the end, it didn't cost Crown a penny to build the product.
Here's the value and take-away: From a TechFunding Initiative, to a cancelled venture philanthropy project, to a no-cost private label/Web partner deal with In2M to launch Crown Mvelopes (Crown's most popular selling product behind the 10 Week Study Set). If we never began the journey, we'd have never found Crown Mvelopes. Certainly Proverbs 16:9 applies here - "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps".
What's the next "Crown Mvelopes"? Is there a next "Crown Mvelopes" out there? If so, where is it, and how do we find it? With all the buzz about Web 2.0, and the rise of another tech bubble, should we consider circling back around and picking up the TechFunding trail again?
Could this be the rise of TechFunding 2.0?
