Emily Chang - eHub Interviews

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eHub Interviews Fundable.org

Thanks to John Pratt and Louis Helm of Fundable.org for this email interview posted October 31, 2005.

eHub: What is your web application/service about?

Fundable: Fundable.org lets groups of people pool money for various purposes in what are called “group actions.” Similar to an online auction, a group action has its own page, describing how much money will be collected and what the money will do. No participant takes a risk: if the collection for a group action falls short of its goal on deadline, all money is refunded.

eHub: Why did you start this project?

Fundable: Fundable’s concept evolved while we were trying to find ways to fund audio content for a different project, which was somewhat similar to podcasting.

eHub: How much time do you devote to its growth?  Do you have a day job?

Fundable: Until recently we’ve been working full-time with no pay.

eHub: How large is your team and what are your backgrounds?

Fundable: The Fundable team is made up of Louis Helm and John Pratt.

Louis, Fundable’s software architect, studied Computer Science Engineering at the University of Michigan.  He is co-author of the Seventeen or Bust distributed computing project (seventeenorbust.com), which recently discovered the largest known non-mersenne prime number with the help of 5000+ users.  He worked as a software engineer at Jabil Circuits before leaving to work on Fundable full-time.

John graduated in Political Science at the University of Michigan last December, where he worked for the university’s paper as a photographer.  He also studied at the University of Havana, Cuba in 2003.  John programs, designs and writes documentation for Fundable’s pages.

eHub: What is your design philosophy?

Fundable: Keep it as clear and simple as possible.

eHub: What technologies are you currently using?

Fundable: We use Plone (a CMS that runs on top of Zope) to serve content.  PayPal’s API lets us handle payments.

eHub: If your project is live, what are the most requested features from your users/community?

Fundable: Group leaders want the ability to officially register payments that people have given them in person.  We’re working on this.

eHub: Does your user base reside in a primary geographic location or is it distributed?

Fundable: Most users are from the United States or the UK.

eHub: Where do you see the project heading in the next 6 months?  The next 2 years?

Fundable: We have a pretty cool payment feature coming up that takes advantage of PayPal’s new API.  We’re going to wait until it’s finished before making a big announcement.

eHub: What is the greatest challenge to your success?

Fundable: Not enough people know about us yet.  Outside funding for an advertising budget would help.

eHub: What is the one thing you need to get to the next phase of the project?

Fundable: More exposure.

eHub: Do you have a business model?  If so, what is it?

Fundable: The site is free for now.  Eventually we plan to take a percentage from each group action’s total, like eBay.

eHub: If you’re able to disclose this information, how much traffic or usage do you see on an average day?

Fundable: For every 2500 people who visit our site, we have one group action that finishes.  This ratio improves over time, which is promising. 

eHub: What is the one thing you’re most proud of about the project?

Fundable: After difficult months of work and planning, we have a site that people like and use.

eHub: How would you describe the shift that’s occurring with the web right now to future generations?

Fundable: Part of what makes this phase so exciting is that there are so many new practical possibilities, brought on by the release of some truly useful tools (API’s, CMS’s, etc.).  In 1999 two people would have needed the connections and budget of a Silicon Valley startup to create a group payment site.

eHub: What site(s) do you visit everyday other than your own?

Fundable: John: Del.icio.us, Waxy.org, Political Wire, NYTimes, Washington Post, BBC News, Wired.

Louie: arstechnica.com, anandtech.com, austinchronicle.com, slickdeals.net, cnn.com, roguerunning.com

eHub: How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

Fundable: Louie: 5, John: 6-7

Thanks to John Pratt and Louis Helm of Fundable.org for this email interview posted October 31, 2005.

Visit Fundable
Originally added to eHub on Sep 17, 05

» More eHub Interviews

eHub Interviews is a series with the creators of Web 2.0 applications and services by Emily Chang, author of eHub, designer, and co-founder and principal of Ideacodes, a strategic web consultancy in San Francisco that she co-founded with Max Kiesler.

Also see eHub Interviews in Japanese at CNET Japan