People with Purpose: Why the best ideas need believers, not proof

Do you remember the first time someone believed in you? It was probably a parent figure, and they probably didn’t have a “good” reason to believe in you, except love and hope. There wasn’t any data telling them you’d be a good person, or make something of yourself. They chose to believe in you regardless, and that choice changes lives, and whole industries. It certainly changed mine.

My mum raised my sister and me mostly on her own, and still found a way to put us through 14 years of Montessori schooling. She had no idea whether I’d go to university, start a business or build a good life. That was the first time someone believed in me.

Straight out of school, I went to university in Brisbane to study engineering, robotics and AI, and I lasted four weeks. I couldn't handle the city. What followed was a year of medication, drugs and self-harm that ended when I crashed my car.

Inflection point!

At 19, I became a support worker, started DoorDashing, and began going to Co-Exist Australia, a youth-led charity running hikes, tree plantings and beach clean-ups. That's where I found my people, including its founder, Kurt Jones, who was 21 and had a massive number of people who believed in him. He kept inviting me along, introduced me to his contacts and mentored me, with no history between us. To this day he’s my best mate.

My mum, my school and my mate: I didn’t have a track record with any of them, but they believed in me anyway. Imagine if they’d asked for one, because that’s what we ask of the organisations doing the hardest work in this country. Show us your DGR status, your audited accounts and three years of outcomes, prove you’re ready, and then maybe we’ll back you. We ask the groups with the least to prove the most, and then we wonder why so many good ideas die young.

That’s why, at 21, I started a software company, Ecodia, to put software into the hands of the people planting the trees, protecting the reefs and giving young people opportunities. We build custom software for not-for-profits, charities and social enterprises, and right now we’re in a golden period.

Good software has traditionally come with a six-figure price tag, which is why some of the most important work in the not-for-profit sector still runs on spreadsheets and goodwill. But that’s changing fast. AI tools are allowing small software teams to build custom systems much more quickly and cheaply: work that once required a team of developers working for several months can now, in some cases, be done by a small team for a fraction of the cost.

At the same time, philanthropists are putting more money into helping NFPs improve their technology. In May, NFP Digital Futures launched with $16 million in philanthropic funding from Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Ian Potter Foundation, Minderoo Foundation and others, with the aim of eventually attracting $50 million. The initiative is designed to help NFPs strengthen their digital capability and invest in technology that has often been beyond their budgets.

So, the cost of building good software is coming down, while the amount of money available to NFPs to invest in it is going up. For the first time, those two numbers are starting to meet in the middle. It’s BEAUTIFUL.

Yes, AI writes a lot of our code, but it can’t sit with a volunteer coordinator at 9 pm and understand what’s breaking their app. People do that, and it’s the part of this job I love most.

Six months in, Ecodia is blowing up. I’ve built the Co-Exist app for the charity that got me back on my feet, I’m working with some of the biggest conservation and social impact organisations in Australia, and honestly, I’m making so much money. Next year I’m hiring two people, and one of them is my mum. She’ll finally be paid what she deserves, and live the life she sacrificed so I’d have the best chance at mine. So I’m doing what was done for me. 

Ecodia operates an in-kind grant program called the Next World Grant – the current round closes tonight, Wednesday September 30! The winning organisation receives a free custom software build plus three years of support, valued at $50,000. To apply, you don’t need DGR status, charity registration or a technical spec. You do need to be a not-for-profit, social enterprise or charity. Just tell us, in your own words, what you’d build if money wasn’t a problem.

Next year we’re running three rounds, plus offering smaller cash grants and impact investment for the bravest ideas and young people we can find.

If you fund this sector, I’m asking you to back someone before they’re ready, before the track record, before the data. And if you’re running something on goodwill and spreadsheets, bookmark ecodia.au/next-world-grant, because the next round opens in February.

I want Ecodia to be a mentor, a supporter and a parent company to everything we back, and to believe in people the way my mum believed in me – through love, hope and action.