GMF#11 | The Funny Thing that Got Us to Join Give.Asia
TL;DR: So, what's up with Give.Asia, you ask? Well, picture this: a bunch of us, driven by the dream of spreading kindness in the world, teamed up. We're not the all-knowing experts, but we're excited to dive into a bunch of experiments. Whether it's playing around with tech that "might" make a positive impact or tackling the mission of inspiring everyone to be more giving, we're all in. I guess the funny thing about us is that we're always up for trying something new. 🚀😊
We join Give.Asia because we're inspired by its vision.
Working here means being surrounded by interesting folks who've done cool stuff.
We're upfront about money - it's either volunteer or a modest paycheck.
Tales like Tanin's remind us that passion drives our team.
Our goal? Inspire more generosity, even if it sounds impossible!
Last Thursday morning, I was taking a walk with some friends by MacRitchie Reservoir, and one of them shared an interesting story. He left his job at TikTok to join a startup because he was sold when the founder 画大饼 and he believed in the startup's vision.
That got me thinking about how we convince talented people to join Give.Asia. A while back, we did a survey in our team to figure out what makes us tick. The main reason we all work here and stick around is because we genuinely like the people we work with. And when we dig deeper, it's because we find the things they've done and built pretty darn interesting.
Back in the early days, we were super upfront about the money stuff. We told folks that joining Give.Asia meant either doing volunteer work (no pay!) or taking a full-time role that paid enough to cover basic needs but definitely wouldn't make you rich like those big tech companies.
This made me think of Tanin's story when he joined the Give.Asia team. He had a few months to kill while he was waiting for his visa to work at Twitter in the US. So, he shot us an email and offered to fly down from Thailand. He said he'd build the tech for Give.Asia using Ruby on Rails if we had a spare couch for him to crash on. You see, he had this straightforward notion that if loads of folks used the things he build, it would make all his hard work totally worth it.
Since then, I've been describing why you might want to join Give.Asia kinda like this: Our big dream is to inspire everyone to be more giving. Now, that's a tough nut to crack, and some folks say it's impossible. They reckon people are naturally selfish, or they think only the rich and powerful should do good stuff. And honestly, we don't have all the answers. But we're totally up for trying out tons of ideas to turn that dream into reality.
So, if you've got an idea you want to test or you're itching to use your skills to make something that encourages people to be more giving, then join us. See, the group of us here chose Give.Asia because it's like a fun playground where we can try out things that others might think are impossible.
Later that day, I had a chat with Dongge, a great friend who's been with us since day one. He said the cool thing about Give.Asia is that it's not just about doing good with tech; it's also about having the freedom to build any tech stuff we find exciting. Between us, we've started companies that have done really well and launched products on Kickstarter. No matter what happens, we always go back to the drawing board, eager to build something new.
So you can say that the funny thing about Give.Asia is that we are like a bunch of curious cats who can't resist playing around with tech that "might" do some good. 🚀🤗🖐️