The Story behind ThoughtBasin

http://www.thoughtbasin.com

Bio

My name is Roger, and I decided to become an entrepreneur because I was tired of waiting for a typical career path to make as much of a difference as I knew I could. I am a recent McGill graduate who founded http://www.thoughtbasin.com while in school to create a voice and a forum for students who want to go above the stereotype of unemployed, entitled youth. I have deferred and rejected Canada’s top law schools in order to carry out what has been my dream: to change the world through entrepreneurship, starting with ThoughtBasin.

Elevator Pitch

ThoughtBasin.com is a fun, and engaging way for students to explore different organizations, and be recognized and rewarded for contributing solutions to their problems. We connect students with cash prizes, recognition, and job opportunities, and organizations with promising student talent. With our innovative social approach to crowdsourcing solutions, and our game within the platform that allows students to be recognized and rewarded for gaining real-world experience, we aim to revolutionize campuses around the world.

Aha! Moment

Our Aha! moment was when the co-founders were having trouble finding a job. We decided that we weren’t getting enough recognition for what we could do, and so we decided to found a platform that could help us flesh out how we could contribute beyond mundane resume points.

Biggest Challenge

Our biggest challenge has been assembling the technical team to build the platform. We wasted a year with different options, and the product we had initially was far below expectations. We overcame this with a through search across all options, and tons of networking to find technical people who would love the concept. We pitched our hearts out to everybody who had coding skill, and now finally, we have a solid five-man technical team that is complete in most aspects, after running around both McGill campus, and tons of programming events.

Biggest Accomplishment

As a startup, we have done cases for both the Canadian Liver Foundation and Movember that not only drove ideas for those great organizations, but motivated people to connect with them, and even some to volunteer! As a result, both were so impressed, that one of the co-founders now sits on the provincial board of directors for the Canadian Liver Foundation, and Movember has referred us more organizations who want to use our services.

Advice

I would tell beginning entrepreneurs to always listen to what others have to say about your concept, and to take their advice to heart. ThoughtBasin was built through engaging others in discussion.

Team

Our team is full of engaged students who want to make a difference for fellow students. Among our ambassadors is the student behind Marty the Martlet, students who have worked for Microsoft and Deloitte, and chairs of large case competitions. Our technical and design team include people who have worked on national campaigns for Rona, and worked for Moneris as a PHP architect after 10+ years in the programming industry.

The Future

We see ThoughtBasin as being the premier online platform where students and organizations come together to tackle issues of substance. We want it to be a global forum that engages and evangelizes students into become great problem-solvers, while reaching out and finding organizations that can help guide them along to relevant and tangible problems that require their skills. We want to be somewhere people will gather to solve organizational, societal, and global problems with great ideas and solutions.

Looking For

We are looking for awareness of the concept, especially for organizations and students. We offer unparalleled value for both. Students get cash prizes, recognition, and internship opportunities for getting real-world experience. Organizations get student eyeballs, brand engagement, potential new employees, and a ton of great ideas. In line with this need to make people aware of this new platform, we would require funding and partners to be able to fully broadcast this message, and grow the platform to the point where momentum will take it around the world. We believe that what we are doing here has immense value, even on a societal level. We want to create a forum that has the potential to attack youth unemployment, and the innovation gap, huge problems in Canada. With the help and support of others, we aim to build ThoughtBasin into a global forum where students and organizations can come together to think about issues of substance, and go about proposing ideas and solutions to resolve them.

Related articles

• Introducing our Ambassadors – Nicolas (thoughtbasinblog.wordpress.com)
• Introducing Wali, an ambassador with a story to tell (thoughtbasinblog.wordpress.com)
• Introducing our Ambassadors – Ibrahim (thoughtbasinblog.wordpress.com)
• Introducing our Ambassadors – Jamie (thoughtbasinblog.wordpress.com)

About rogerhuang2013

Dreaming about helping other people to dream.

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