Circles, Networks and Ideas - Home

San Ramon Valley YMCA - Basketball Pilot Launched!

2010-01-15T14:28:00Z

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the complete online member experience for the 2010 Winter Basketball Session of Y-Basketball at the San Ramon Valley YMCA! The StrongCircles vision was for an online experience that connects the member community at a local hub, engages program participants through online tools that are relevant to the program they’re taking and provides an avenue for an organization like the YMCA to benefit through local sponsorships, and we’re extremely proud to announce that it is now live! Take a look at http://srvymca.strongcircles.com

In working with Eric Leffler, the Program Director at the San Ramon Valley YMCA, we’ve targeted an initial group of around 90 participants in the Rookie Division (5-7 year olds) for this release.

For the program participants, this release provides

Easy, online access to game schedule and upcoming events – no more confusion about when and where the games are

Set and view player availability – a lifesaver for volunteer coaches to know which players will be able to play

Send messages to the entire team – central place for team messages; no more sifting through emails and lists

Share and view photos – experience again those memories by sharing photos from the games with other team members – priceless!

And of course, the premise of the platform is that this provides an avenue for local businesses to support their local YMCA or other non-profit through meaningful sponsorships that can have an online representation, arguably much better than an ad that is not as targeted or localized.

But more exciting updates soon, we’re grateful to our team, to the YMCA and even as there are a lot of struggles all around with the economic conditions, we hope that this is a step forward in social innovation – using technology to help community organizations CONNECT, ENGAGE and BENEFIT! FInd out more at http://www.strongcircles.com

Presenting StrongCircles - A Platform for every Hub

2009-09-08T17:01:00Z

We are thrilled to announce our first product launch for StrongCircles, a platform that is designed to bring an enterprise-class web presence to every local Hub.

Whether it is a local YMCA or a sports league, we believe that the local institutions that bring us together in the real-world have long suffered from the inability to invest in a world-class online platform. Often running on registration fees, charitable contributions and local sponsorships, these Hubs have never been able to afford their community with a web site and online tools to support the many programs they offer. The web site is often a cost-center that is a volunteer activity in many cases and hardly representative of the value these organizations bring to their neighborhoods.

We are thrilled to announce our first product launch for StrongCircles, a platform that is designed to bring an enterprise-class web presence to every local Hub.

We would like to present StrongCircles – an idea that has been a year in the making, but founded on three objectives that are perfectly aligned, including

An online presence for every Hub that is world-class in its design, implementation and capabilities, built to support the many programs, leagues and events that are offered by the Hub,

A collection of online messaging, collaboration and calendaring tools that support the many families who engage in the activities offered by the Hub,

An avenue for local businesses and organizations looking to maximize their marketing dollar to be able to reach specific local audiences and be associated with nationally renowned brands

All this at a fixed cost to the Hub with unlimited upside on the revenue opportunities derived by deploying the platform. We believe that this is a game-changer that cuts across topics of how non-profit organizations like the YMCA operate, as well as how small businesses choose to spend their money in reaching locally relevant audiences.

We are proud and privileged to unveil the first launch at the Mt. Diablo Region YMCA, based in Pleasant Hill, CA. The Mt. Diablo Region YMCA, with branches in Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Concord/Clayton and Oakley and has been serving the communities in Contra Costa County for over half a century. Along with the Association Office, this venerable institution serves nearly 15,000 households, almost 38,000 individuals and is the single largest provider of child-care, afterschool and other programs for the community in the area.

StrongCircles brings to them a web site that not only helps members find programs and activities nearby, but creates a revenue-generating platform for post-registration community development and sponsor-based communication.

Look no further, but the social web has become finally real and grounded and connected to individuals and communities and businesses in your neighborhood!

A conversation with the SBA

2009-06-30T16:12:00Z

Yesterday, we met with SCORE®, at the Small Business Administration office in San Francisco looking for feedback and ideas and exploring funding opportunities. Excellent dialog and props to the gentleman from SCORE®, for listening to us, challenging our concepts, providing us some excellent feedback and really helping think through some key product and business questions.

It turns out that the Small Business Administration works through a volunteer network of entrepreneurs to provide counseling to small businesses in various stages of their lifecycle and getting an unbiased perspective based on experience, and for free, is completely worth it. The primary question for any of these product ideas is ultimately one of fundamental economics, how do you connect the buyer and the seller. There are lots of surrounding questions, such as how to create the demand, how to market the product itself, how to convince the buyer of the return on investment, which are all sound questions, but listening to our counselor ask some of these was very helpful.

The Strong Circles concept is ultimately one of bridging the gap for a small business that is looking to do more in the community as an integrated way of marketing itself and promoting not only its products but its local presence and its roots in the neighborhood. Now, if we could only talk to each one!

We can't ignore our legacy

2009-06-25T18:03:00Z

As much as we would love to focus 100% of our energy building out Strong Circles and leveraging open source technologies, we as a company get pulled back in working on the ATG Platform based on our track record. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great thing… now tell that to our team :)

Strong Circles – It’s no longer an idea!

2009-06-24T20:58:00Z

About a year ago, we couldn’t come up with a product idea even if our lives were dependent on it. Understand that we’re career consultants, meaning we’re quite good at solving other people’s problems (pain point for consulting speak).

Well now, we’re now in the process of bringing one of our ideas to life – Strong Circles.

A good indicator Strong Circles might have some legs is we’re collaborating with a local Hub. If all goes well, we will have an initial release of Strong Circles this coming Fall. Stay tuned!

A transformation in uncertain times

2009-06-24T20:55:00Z

No time like the present, they say! After nearly 3 and a half years of successfully building web sites for a number of clients across the country (and even one in Latin America), we are about to set forth into uncharted waters.

We are about to pilot our first product offering, which is specifically targeted towards non-profit organizations, local community groups, schools and sport leagues, for whom the current economic climate has created more than a challenge, but a real crisis of enormous proportions. These organizations can barely afford the cost of a sophisticated web presence, and often make do with volunteer webmasters and still struggle to effectively use the online medium for communicating with their members. What if there was a way by which we could not only provide these organizations with a state-of-the-art web presence and tool set to help streamline the mechanics of communication, but it was also a way for them to supplement their fund-raising efforts?

Rather than build more interesting social networks between people who have never met each other, which certainly pays well at times, we’d like to believe that perhaps the best use of the technology is for the network that is social. Your local little league team, your neighborhood YMCA, your local PTA are all networks based on a significantly deeper and stronger relationship. Yet what tools do these groups use? And at what cost? And who benefits?

This is a summer of opportunity much as it is a summer of an economic recovery that is struggling to find its gas pedal. Rather than look at the next enterprise web site or shopping experience, not that those are plentiful, we have consciously turned our attention to creating a platform and an operating model that gives back as much as it gets. We’ve never been clearer that the time is now, the need is now and the technology is both affordable and elegant and useful.

What remains is execution with a sense of purpose! (A pilot customer doesn’t hurt either, hopefully to be launched this summer)