Shaan shares his cake

Our elder son, Shaan, turned twelve on November 29. Luckily for him, it was a Sunday - so he could have some of his friends spend the afternoon & evening with him, at home.

The boys (can't call them kids anymore) had tons of fun! Amazingly, none of it was 'electronic'. Some healthy competition over table tennis punctuated by a game of football (soccer if you're on that side of the Pacific) got the ball rolling. We also had the kids' parents over, and a party on the side - of our own. All in all, a perfect day!

The icing on the cake...

Shaan had a ShareMyCake birthday too - with all benefits in tow:

1. He's got a neat sum of money for himself - enough for him to get some cool tennis stuff, which is what we expect he'll get considering he lives & breathes the game.
2. Suyam has another cheque coming their way (we did something similar for Arya's birthday in October)
3. Shaan & his friends are more aware about less privileged sections of society, and the importance of sharing.
   
4. Shaan's friends' parents were spared trips to Odyssey, Landmark, etc
   

And...some of his friends also want to have a ShareMyCake birthday (at the time of writing, Vinay has had his). We expect this 'viral' effect to play a huge role in popularizing ShareMyCake celebrations.

Why Fans are Fan-tastic

We have a Facebook page and we'd love it if you became a fan.

Why?

Is this an 'ego thing' whereby having more fans allows us some bragging rights?

Hand to heart?

To some extent, yes, I guess.

But that's the 3rd reason and it's a far & distant 3rd.

The 1st & main reason is "validation".

ShareMyCake is a new concept. It's a new way of celebrating, and a new way of giving. As with anything new, it needs to 'catch on'. When you click on that "Become a Fan" button, you're helping validate the model.

We're certainly not implying that every 'fan' will use ShareMyCake and we wholly realize that the "many a slip between" rule applies quite well here.

But...

If you're willing to tattoo your facebook identity with your "I'm a fan of ShareMyCake" link, it means we've struck a chord - maybe just a minor chord (like Em) for now, but a chord it is.

And that's really what we're doing right now with ShareMyCake - seeing if the concept resonates with you.

Lots of parents emailed us to share their thoughts - most love the concept, some think they would love the concept more with a few tweaks, and a few are still warming up to the idea of 'articulated gift receiving'. The unifying thread, nevertheless, was that all of them were 'positive' emails - and each piece of feedback helps us tremendously.

But then...we had a biased sample!

The people we've reached out to (so far) are friends, and a few friends of friends. True validation will happen when we reach out to our 3rd (& beyond) degree contacts - and that's where we're hoping you can help.

This is the 2nd reason we hope you'll become a fan: help us with spreading the word.

We need all the help we can get.

So, please...

Become a 'fan' of our FaceBook page, and let your friends know that you've become a fan.

If Twitter's your type, do follow our tweets & retweet any that you like.

And if email is your 'poison', there's an email template to help you get started.

Whatever your communication arsenal, please ShareTheWord.

And, Thanks!

Hi. Welcome. Where's my Gift?

Till our kids crossed 6, we used to sometimes cringe at their birthday parties.

A poor kid would land up empty handed and our son would ask him "where's my gift?". We'd duck for cover behind the nearest counter while the parent of the poor kid would out-cringe us and go to great lengths to explain that she'd forgotten the gift behind, and would get it when she came to pick her kid up.

93% of these poor parents probably didn't have the time to go pick up something, and were anyway planning to hit the nearest toy shop/book store/supermarket after dropping their kid off (45 minutes late, already).

Now both our kids are older, and they don't say W.M.G. anymore.

I think their eyes still say it, though.

Kids will be kids!

Heck, it's a known fact that adult pupils dilate (indicating joy) when they receive a gift. Everyone loves the idea of a gift (physical or otherwise). Why fight it?

This subject came up in a couple of our discussions on ShareMyCake with friends & parents. People asked "wouldn't it be inappropriate of me to suggest that invitees use ShareMyCake - isn't that a veiled request for a gift?". The answer, quite honestly, is "No".

Provided you do it nicely, of course.

Let's get real. When was the last time you sent your kid empty handed to a birthday?

Exactly!

(sending your kid empty handed and getting a gift later isn't the same as sending your kid 'empty handed'- that's just logistics)

So, considering that almost everyone is anyway going to get a gift, doesn't it make better sense to be pragmatic about it - and make a difference in the process?

Or you can be quiet and end up having Monopoly, Money Play, Cash, Business & Bizness on your toy shelf! Needless to say, except for the Monopoly, the rest will be dumped (or that amazing concept around a non-existent word - 'regifted' to another kid who doesn't want it).

Kinda pointless, don't you think?

Our world is changing...

We're comfortable (at least in some countries) putting up wedding registries - so we don't end up with the Western equivalents of 6 Sumeet mixies (a brand of blender). We call it 'being practical'

We're comfortable putting up wish lists on Amazon and letting people know what they can get us if they ever plan to get us something. It's called 'being pragmatic'

We're comfortable baring our lives on Facebook & Twitter. It's called 'being open'

And we still want to pretend that removing a price tag from a gift makes it 'priceless', and that our kids don't expect a gift (or that our guests won't get one)

Let's be practical/pragmatic/open...and make a difference. That's ShareMyCake's tagline, by the way:

Celebrate | Make a Difference

PS: we wrote about Arya's birthday some weeks ago. Here's the text of the mail we sent his friends / their parents. You might find it helpful.

Many parents said they loved the idea. Many even pre-registered with ShareMyCake.

When ShareMyCake launches, we'll have many such templates you can use to automatically manage your invitations & RSVPs...

Dear [parent of Arya's friend],

Arya will be 9 later this week, on Oct 3rd , 2009

We will be celebrating his birthday at home – the party is from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on October 3rd (Saturday). We hope you can send [Arya's friend's name] for this as Arya wants to celebrate his birthday with a few ‘close friends’. Please confirm by replying to this email. A request…

Arya has more toys & books than he can play with & read. So, please don’t feel it necessary to send any gift with [Arya's friend's name].

However, if you absolutely insist on sending something, we’d prefer if you send a nominal amount by cheque (payable to ShareMyCake) or cash. Arya will be having the 1st ever ‘ShareMyCake Birthday’ whereby a portion of the money he receives will go towards helping a social organization of his choice. Arya will use the remaining amount to buy a gift of his choice. By the way, Arya has chosen to support Suyam. More on them and their Montessori school for under-privileged children at http://www.suyam.org/

Curious about ShareMyCake? Considering a similar celebration for your child – where he can ‘Make a Difference’? Please visit www.sharemycake.org . And don’t forget to pre-register and become a fan on FaceBook

Look forward to having [Arya's friend's name] at the party.

Best regards
Tina & Lux

Once in a blue moon, you come across someone...

At this point in ShareMyCake's life, besides building the site & service, we're focusing on:
.
(a) sharing the concept with as many people as possible towards...

(b) getting as much feedback as possible

We're soliciting feedback from friends who are parents, marketers or in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).

Yesterday, we come across someone who comfortably wears all of the above hats - and made the effort to give some really good inputs.

Our friend & well wisher, Aarti Madhuudan (a key force behind Give India and a hundred other initiatives) introduced us to Mr.M.Mahadevan. In this city that so loves its sobriquets, he's better known as Hot Breads Mahadevan.



The title couldn't be more apt. Meeting him was certainly a nourishing experience.

He had good feedback - as a parent whose kids attend and celebrate birthdays, as a marketer (besides marketing a gamut of restaurants, he's also taught marketing), and as someone actively involved in various CSR initiatives.

The best part was his down to earth persona. For someone who had achieved so much, his friendly approachable personality was a lesson in humility.

The best part...He said he loved the concept, and encouraged Tina to take it to fruition!

He had some practical advice - including how ShareMyCake should scale up its operations, and how we should refine our pitch to sponsors. He also offered to help in multiple ways - including allowing us (after launch) to leverage his restaurants geographical spread to distribute ShareMyCake collateral & messaging.

So, if you find yourself checking out a ShareMyCake poster at your nearest French Loaf outlet, you know how it all began.

PS: From 'food for thought' to 'thought for food'...
Mr.Mahadevan's (many) restaurants are detailed at his company's website. We've dined at six of them, so far!

Cardology

It's interesting how in this age of mobile phone address books, bluetooth, sms-able vcards, facebook, Linked In & Twitter, we still need that 4" x 2.5" piece of cardboard - the visiting card.

Tina recently attend a 'NGO fair' - part of the Joy of Giving week, and being card-less somehow seemed to reduce the legitimacy of interacting with people. After all, 205 seconds into the conversation, you're typically asked "can I have your card?"

So, the day before the event, a quick visit to "Adyar Student Xerox color printing and lamination done here" solved the problem.

Here's the "Maggi 2 minute design". We don't have an identity crisis anymore.



How do we move away from 'cards' altogether? Green Ideas, anyone?

Twitter & Room to Read - a Wine Wine combination

If you can't read, you can't tweet. How true!

Before you start searching for the non existent profundity in that line, here is something to cheer about...

Twitter, the increasingly omnipresent micro-blogging service, is getting into...hold your tweeting birds...WINE.

Yes, wine!

And no, this is not the elusive business model they've been looking for. It's an interesting play to generate money for Room to Read. More about this story on the Room to Read blog.

Incidentally...

"Leaving Microsoft to change the world" is a fascinating book. It's the story of how John Wood started RoomToRead. It was a big source of inspiration for me when I was leaving HCL to start ShareMyCake. Hopefully, ShareMyCake will grow as RoomToRead did. Fingers crossed.

...Tina

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elsie/ / CC BY 2.0

Our Google Moment

Heard the legend about how, in 1998, Andy Bechtolsheim wrote out a $100K cheque to Larry Page & Sergey Brin for Google Inc?

The only problem was, Google Inc didn't have a checking account yet! Additionally, the legend goes (albeit debatably), Page and Brin had planned on calling their start-up Googol - after the number but Bechtolsheim's typo 'sealed their fate' - rather, their name.

Hopefully ShareMyCake runs a similar path (for non profits)...

During Arya's birthday (the 1st 'ad hoc' ShareMyCake birthday), we received 2 cheques for ShareMyCake. Only problem is, we don't have our account set up yet. Our auditor currently has his hands full. After a lot of discussion on the pros and cons of registering as a trust vs. registering as a Section 25 company, we opted for the Sec 25 option. It's not that we love the extra paperwork required. Though it requires more effort, we believe registering as a Section 25 'not for profit' company paves the way for better transparency & accounting norms. Once we get the paperwork out of the way, and the bank account thereafter, we can encash these cheques.

For now, Tina will simply pay Arya and Suyam herself, and square off later.

Considering that the 2 cheques came from good friends / well-wishers, we see good times 'a la Google' ahead.

Now to chase our auditor....