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Planning Through the Pandemic – Part 4

April 2, 2020 / Leave a Comment

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On Monday we began a week-long series on how to plan through this current pandemic. We identified four steps that every organization should be taking within the context of three planning horizons. Today we are looking at Business Modeling. This is a big topic, so today’s article is longer than normal.

The Business Model Canvas was developed by Alex Osterwalder starting in 2005. It effectively summarizes an entire business into nine elements. The Business Model Canvas has become an essential element for entrepreneurs following the Lean Startup methodology.

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When you look at the canvas, there’s an obvious break between the top section (business decisions) and the bottom section (the financial impact). Less obviously, the canvas can be broken in half left and right. At the center is the “Value Proposition” and this truly is the core of the business model. We like to call the right half, the “Front End” of the business model, and it represents the decisions made in order to bring that value proposition to market. The left half, or the “Back End” of the business model, represents all the decisions that enable the business to successfully deliver that value proposition to the target customers. Successful execution of the Front End results in the Revenue Streams. Successful execution of the Back End requires investment represented here by the Cost Structure.

While your business model has likely already been well established, it is important to understand how it might change, or where there may be stresses on the business model during each of the three planning horizons under different scenarios.

The most important elements to deeply understand first in building out a business model are the Value Propositions and the Customer Segments. Osterwalder and his team at Strategyzer have developed an additional tool for understanding these elements, which they call the Value Proposition Canvas.

On the right side of the Value Proposition Canvas is the Customer Profile which provides a structured approach to understanding the targeted customer segment and their thought process in purchasing a certain type of product or service. This profile is developed entirely from the customer’s perspective using their language and based on their values and perspectives. The Customer Profile begins with the Customer Jobs section which describes what customers are trying to get done in their work and/or non-work lives. The Gains section describes the specific benefits they hope to receive and the outcomes they hope to achieve through those Jobs. The Pains section captures the risks, obstacles, and bad outcomes that make it hard to achieve the Gains when doing the Jobs.

The left side (the Value Map) corresponds to the Customer Profile, but starts with the list of Products and Services being offered to help customers do their Jobs. The Pain Relievers section describes how the Products and Services (and how they are delivered) specifically work to reduce the Pains, and the Gain Creators section similarly describes how they specifically work to deliver the hoped for Gains for the customer.

For many businesses, customers’ Jobs, hoped for Gains, and anticipated Pains will vary significantly across the scenarios and different planning horizons. Similarly, what you and your partners can do, and how best to reach and serve customers are likely to change over the coming months and under different scenarios. Therefore, it’s important that you create versions of your business model for each of the twelve combinations of scenarios and planning periods. You need to understand what changes between scenarios so that you can be ready for whatever happens. It’s also important to think through what will change when you move from the “right now” to the “restart” and finally to the “new reality”.

Proverbs 19:2 warns us “Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.” Take time to understand your customers and your own operations through these transitions. Your employees and customers depend on it.

Top Photo Credit: JESHOOTS.COM

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Planning Through the Pandemic – Part 3

April 1, 2020 / Leave a Comment

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On Monday we began a week-long series on how to plan through this current pandemic. We identified four steps that every organization should be taking within the context of three planning horizons. Today we are looking at Situation Analysis.

Yesterday we talked about the scenario planning for three planning periods: “right now”, “restart” and “new reality”. Scenario planning will give you four different named scenarios for each period. The remaining planning steps will be performed for each of the scenarios. I know that sounds like a lot of work when you’re already overwhelmed — developing 12 different sets of plans — but there’s likely lots of overlap in plans across scenarios and deeply understanding the differences will be critical to being prepared in this time of very high uncertainty.

In Luke 14 Jesus warns us to understand our situation before charging forward, saying “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?… Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?”

In business, Situation Analysis is traditionally captured as a SWOT – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. I’ve found it helpful to start with the external environment — opportunities and threats. Two frameworks that can help think through these external factors are six segment analysis (demographic, sociocultural, political/legal, economic, technological, and global) and Porter’s five forces (buyers, suppliers, substitute products, new entrants, and competitors). For each of these eleven sectors or forces you will document the current situation, known trends, and uncertainties and then evaluate how those realities, trends, and uncertainties all translate into opportunities and threats for your business.

The internal environment (strengths and weaknesses) is evaluated within the context of the external environment and relative to current and future competitors. A tool I like to use in developing the internal environment is the Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas.

In their book Blue Ocean Strategy W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne introduced the Strategy Canvas which plots performance of different competitors against key factors upon which the industry currently does or could compete. Creating a Strategy Canvas for your industry will make clear where your organization underperforms or outperforms competitors. Focus on those areas that matter the most to customers and where there’s a significant difference in performance.

The resulting Situation Analysis provides a critical perspective for continuing your planning. As I’ve said before, it’s important to do this 12 times – once for each of the four scenarios in each of the three planning periods.

Top Photo Credit: S O C I A L . C U T

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Planning Through the Pandemic – Part 2

March 31, 2020 / Leave a Comment

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Yesterday we began a week-long series on how to plan through this current pandemic. We identified four steps that every organization should be taking within the context of three planning horizons. Today we are looking at Scenario Planning.

But first we need to understand what is true about each of the three planning horizons.

The first timeframe is the “right now” – between today and when lockdowns start to ease and operations can start returning to “normal.” Planning for the “right now” is all about survival and will focus on critical scarcities. Most organizations have limited cash on hand and revenue sources have dried up, so planning will be focused on getting cash to last through the pandemic. For other organizations, demand may be outpacing supply (either raw materials, fixed infrastructure, or people for operations), and for these, planning will be focused on how to maximize output with minimal inputs.

The second timeframe is the “restart” – the transition period that starts when the lockdown ends. Employees and customers can return, but we can’t yet call this period “normal.” People will still be (rightly) wrestling with fears. Every business in the ecosystem will also be in transition. Partners and suppliers will need time to be fully supportive of our businesses. Business customers will take time for their demand to return to “normal.” Many that we do business with will also be in a cash crunch, impacting their needs and expectations, and sadly, some organizations will not have survived this crisis.

The third timeframe is the “new reality” – for planning purposes it probably makes sense to think of this starting at the beginning of 2021. This is “business as usual” but it’s probably not the “normal” we knew in 2019.

As Proverbs 16:9 tells us “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” We are to plan, but only God perfectly knows the future. We can’t accurately predict any of these three planning horizons. There are simply things that, at this point, we can’t know. How long will our markets be in lockdown? When can employees return? When will customers return? Will it make sense for us or our customers to adopt a distributed model more permanently? Have customers’ needs and desires changed through this experience?

Planning Through the Pandemic Scenario planning provides a way to simplify these uncertainties to get to a few manageable and representative future scenarios around which you can plan. Traditionally scenario planning involves choosing the two most impactful uncertainties (e.g. “When can employees return?” and “When will customers return?”). While those uncertainties may have an infinite number of possible realities, for planning purposes, choose two – perhaps an optimistic and a pessimistic value (e.g. “May 1” and “November 1”). Those two values for each of two uncertainties creates four possible scenarios you can then plan around. It helps to assign likelihoods of each scenario, as well as writing a narrative to describe each scenario. It’s also very helpful to assign a name to each scenario to simplify planning and communicating plans to all stakeholders.

Top Photo by Mark Fletcher-Brown on Unsplash

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Planning Through the Pandemic – Part 1

March 30, 2020 / Leave a Comment

The past few weeks have been unlike anything our economy has ever experienced. As the world has gone under lockdown, nearly every business has been dramatically impacted. For a few businesses, demand has exploded and they are struggling to keep up with the amount of new business. For others, their businesses have either been completely or virtually shut down as employees can’t report for work and customers can’t visit the business. Many businesses have had to quickly learn how to operate as a distributed organization and serve customers with minimal physical interaction.

This is our reality today, but all organizations need to be planning for a future that won’t look like today and probably won’t look like 2019 either.

This week we will look at four steps that every organization needs to take in planning for the future, and those steps need to be taken for three planning horizons.

The four planning steps are:
scenario planning,
situation analysis,
business modeling, and
strategy development.

The three planning horizons are:
“the right now”: how to survive the pandemic
“the restart”: how to relaunch after the lockdown, and
“the new reality”: what is our business next year and beyond

For each day this week we will look at each planning step, considering how to perform that step for each planning horizon. If you need help with any of this, please let me know.

As Proverbs 16:3 tells us “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”

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VisuALS

August 2, 2017 / Leave a Comment

“What do I want those witnesses to see in my own life? I need to run with perseverance the goal set before me. It’s easy for me to say, ‘I don’t know how’ or ‘I can’t’ but I need to throw off those hindrances, get out of my comfort zone, and do what needs to be done.”

The August 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine features VisuALS Technology Solutions, LLC, a young startup I’ve been blessed to work very closely with:

Sometimes things just come together in a special way. The world calls that coincidence, but we know it to be God’s providence. This month I’m excited to share the story of VisuALS Technology Solutions, a company that has sprung forth from the Oklahoma Christian University campus where I serve, and the story of Jevon Seaman, a young man being used by God to give a voice to the voiceless.

Human Flourishing

Six months ago my monthly column talked about entrepreneurship and human flourishing, and throughout the Spring semester, that was the theme for my discussions with students. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that God would bless us with a student project that is becoming a business that can greatly enrich the lives of thousands.

About three years ago, Ash Srinivas, a student in OC’s Masters of Engineering program approached Professor Steve Maher with a proposed project for an undergraduate senior capstone electrical engineering systems team. Ash had a friend from church with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease) who was losing the ability to control much of his body, including his voice, his hands, and his arms. Ash knew that technology was advancing fast and a communications solution should be possible for much less than the $20,000 price on existing products.

In the Spring of 2015, a team of three engineering students started working on software to enable ALS patients to type, and with text-to-speech, to speak with their eyes. Before their graduation in the Spring of 2016, Ash’s friend tried it out and said it was a good start. The team handed it off to a new team of four engineering students, who called the project VisuALS. Professor Maher recognized the commercial potential and asked me to help. I recruited a marketing student and an accounting student to help build a business plan.

An Accountant with Heart

Jevon was that accounting student. For as long as he can remember, he’s been serving in the church. Being in a small congregation, everyone in his family finds ways to serve, and they’ve taken missions trips to help another small church in Germany with community outreach.

When Jevon arrived at OC, he thought he wanted to study English, his dad thought Marketing would be better, but God had something else in mind. Jevon wasn’t able to get in all of the classes he wanted, so he found himself in an accounting class, and he loved it. He truly felt called by God to working with numbers to help businesses prosper.

When he heard about the VisuALS project, it was an answer to prayer. While Jevon felt called to be an accountant, he struggled with how he could use accounting to love God and love his neighbor, beyond just making good money and being generous with his giving.

“I Love You”

The engineering team did a great job with the software, and by January of this year, they were ready to get some feedback. The team, including Jevon, went to a local ALS Support Group meeting and explained what they’d been working on.

Carl Phelps had been diagnosed with ALS two years before and had been unable to speak for the past year. He could still walk, but was losing the ability to use his hands and typing had become very difficult. He walked over and sat down in front of the VisuALS system and started typing and talking with his eyes. For the first time in a year he was able to say to his wife Janice, “I love you.” He also gave the students feedback on how to make it better, and after using the system for 45 minutes, told them “I’m not giving this back until you tell me when I can have my own.” Two weeks later, the students brought the system to the Phelps home and got it set up. You can see the impact on their lives in a video on YouTube titled “VisuALS – Christian Entrepreneurship at OC”.

Through that interaction, VisuALS became more than just a school project. Jevon shared, “Getting to know Carl and Janice, and giving Carl a voice, showed a world beyond his disease – who he was and continues to be. Carl was able to share with us that he still wants to be a disciple of Christ and he shared his favorite verse, Hebrews 12:1.”

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”

Impacted

Jevon has been personally impacted by this encounter and has also adopted Hebrews 12:1 as his own mission. “What do I want those witnesses to see in my own life? I need to run with perseverance the goal set before me. It’s easy for me to say, ‘I don’t know how’ or ‘I can’t’ but I need to throw off those hindrances, get out of my comfort zone, and do what needs to be done.”

That’s the mindset of an entrepreneur, and doing it all for the glory of God as a Christian entrepreneur. The engineering students have graduated and started their corporate careers. Jevon will be an accounting senior at OC this year, but he’s also stepped up as Chief Operating Officer for VisuALS Technology Solutions, LLC. He’s helping launch the business to help thousands of more Carl’s. Lord willing, at the beginning of September, VisuALS will begin selling their product for $3,000, a fraction of the cost of existing solutions, so that many who couldn’t previously afford it, can now regain their voice and say “I love you” to those around them.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture. Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com

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Piktochart Part 2

July 6, 2017 / Leave a Comment

We are trying to do great things for God, but we so often get caught up in the craziness of the latest javascript framework, the new trendy web design model, or the next big thing. We lose sight of the fact that God is doing a great work in us and through us. It’s not about conforming to the patterns of this world, but about seeking Him, and being transformed by Him to His glory.

For the June and July 2017 issues of MinistryTech magazine, I interviewed Ai Ching Goh and Andrea Zaggia. Their startup story passes through Italy, England, Malaysia, the United States, and Korea. Here’s part 2:

Last month, I introduced you to Andrea Zaggia and Ai Ching Goh, husband and wife and co-founders of Piktochart. In sharing their story, we learned how God had used technology, and even their web-based business, to bring them to Himself and to saving faith. This month I am pleased to share how God is using them and their business to bless others.

A Transformed Life

As you may recall, Ai Ching was raised in Malaysia. Her family is Buddhist. Growing up, she didn’t even like Christians. She told me “I was wrong my whole life!” Andrea was from Italy where his family identified as Catholics, but the church wasn’t an important part of their life. They met over Skype, then in person. Andrea moved to Malaysia to be with Ai Ching. They started a business together and were married. But they were lost.

Ai Ching said “it’s so hard to work with your spouse. In retrospect, it seems impossible without Christ in the center.” She said that they would often get into heated debates over trivial aspects of the business. They each had a “rights” mentality, insisting on what they thought they deserved.

In Ephesians 4, Paul commends us “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph 4:22-24) He goes on to describe it this way “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph 4:31,32)

Andrea and Ai Ching admit that they aren’t all the way there, but after joining the church, they are being transformed as Paul describes. Now, they always pray together. No longer is it a zero-sum game with one winning and the other losing. They strive to make every decision in one spirit.

Challenged by Scripture

When they joined the church, they also joined a care group in the church that met weekly. The group was studying the book of Daniel. In the first chapter, we see Daniel’s faithfulness demonstrated in verse 8 “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.” We don’t know exactly why Daniel thought the food and wine would defile him, but his faith required separation from the culture around him.

Likewise, Ai Ching was challenged to consider whether she was defiling herself by continuing to engage in the cultural practices with which she had been raised. In her hometown of Penang, there are many idols. It is a common practice to literally eat food offered to idols. Twice in a very short time, Ai Ching ate food that had been offered to idols. Each time, she came down with a very high fever that lasted exactly one day. She understood that she, like Daniel, was to separate herself from the cultural norms that had been defiling her.

Not long after, the care group looked at Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being bold and standing for their faith. Ai Ching realized that she also needed to be bold. She had been lying to her parents about what she did every Sunday. She realized that she needed to tell them the truth and she shared with them her testimony. Her parents were not happy, but Andrea and Ai Ching were strengthened and encouraged as they continued to grow in their walk with the Lord.

Business and Technology Connections

Being in a country where less than 10% are Christians made it hard for Andrea and Ai Ching to learn how to build a business with Christian values. They turned to Google to try to find Christian mentors. One of the top results was Praxis, who I have featured before. Later, they attended SXSW in Austin and there met Evan Loomis, co-founder of TreeHouse, who had been through the Praxis program. They applied and were accepted into Praxis where they built great relationships with mentors and peers that continue to serve them as they grow in God’s grace.

To summarize some of their key takeaways, each of the Piktochart co-founders shared a verse that guides them. Andrea recited Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” By the world’s standards, entrepreneurs are expected to follow a pattern – raise money fast; fail or succeed fast; fire struggling workers fast. At Piktochart, by God’s grace, they haven’t conformed to this pattern. As I mentioned last month, they had the opportunity to take money from investors, but didn’t feel at peace with the offers. If they had accepted those offers, they now would have investors that would be opposed to many of their current decisions, including tithing from the business to support Kingdom work. God has provided. They haven’t needed outside financing and the business is still growing five years in.

Ai Ching quoted Jesus from Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” As a businessperson, we have so many responsibilities to juggle, including serving customers and employees, ensuring product quality, dealing with never-ending new versions of browser and web standards and technology trends, and adapting to changing market conditions. She says “It is so important not to be focused on these ‘waves’ but on Christ, our Head, who is ready to pull us out when we start to sink.” As Jesus said in John 14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

As technology entrepreneurs, Andrea and Ai Ching have learned lessons that can benefit us all. We are trying to do great things for God, but we so often get caught up in the craziness of the latest javascript framework (jQuery, Angular, Vue), the new trendy web design model (one page, responsive, material design), or the next big thing (virtual reality, augmented reality). We lose sight of the fact that God is doing a great work in us and through us. It’s not about conforming to the patterns of this world, but about seeking Him, and being transformed by Him to His glory.

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Piktochart

June 6, 2017 / Leave a Comment

“It was as if Ai Ching was seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Everything was new and bright and beautiful. She was overwhelmed by the beauty of God’s creation.”

Ai Ching Goh was raised Buddhist in Malaysia. Andrea Zaggia was raised a non-practicing Catholic in Italy. God used technology to bring them together, helped them launch an innovative web business, and, most importantly saved them. I am blessed to share their story with you over the next two months.

A Global Scholar

Ai Ching was born and raised in Penang, Malaysia. Her culture and her family life were permeated with Buddhism and Taoism. Both religions deny that there is a personal God. She was ambitious and had the opportunity to study abroad. As a teenager, Ai Ching was an exchange student to southern Italy. While there she started to learn the Italian language, and when she returned home, she used Skype to find Italians with whom she could practice her language skills. One of the people she began conversing with was Andrea.

Andrea’s family, like many in Italy, was Roman Catholic, but faith wasn’t an important part of his life. Andrea studied computer science in high school and began studying it at university.

Meanwhile, Ai Ching had the opportunity to go to university in Bristol, England. During a school break, she visited her Skype friend in Venice, and Andrea visited his friend, Ai Ching, in Bristol. Their virtual friendship was becoming a real world romance. Ai Ching earned her degree in Experiential Psychology and tried to start her career in Europe, but the global recession was in full swing and there were no jobs to be found. She returned home to Malaysia and Andrea joined her.

Moves and Pivots

They both immediately got jobs in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia’s capital city, Ai Ching in marketing for a large corporation and Andrea working for a web development firm. But they weren’t happy in the big city. Before long they moved to Penang and started their own web design firm. They enjoyed working together, and loved the creative work. Doing digital work on the Internet was efficient and liberating, but managing demanding customer relationships seemed to take all the joy out of it. They began searching for a way to build a business where the customer relationship could be simplified as well.

In 2011 they came up with the idea for Piktochart – a simple online tool for creating infographics. These fun, graphical ways of presenting information and telling a story were becoming popular online, but there was no easy way to create them. Andrea and Ai Ching set out to change that.

That’s not all that changed.

At the end of 2011 they joined a startup accelerator in China. When they returned to Penang at the beginning of 2012, they launched the Piktochart beta and began chasing startup capital. They made many pitches of their new business to investors and in pitch competitions. They won a scholarship to a program in Silicon Valley which meant more pitching. They received funding offers, but none that they felt compelled to take.

They also got married – in two ceremonies – a Buddhist one in Malaysia and a one in Italy for family and friends who couldn’t make the trip.

Broken

As you can imagine, this was an emotionally challenging time for Andrea and Ai Ching. In fact, it was too much for Ai Ching and the day after the first ceremony, she suffered a breakdown.

Ai Ching’s housemate in Bristol, So Young, attended the wedding and was staying at her house. She watched the breakdown and prayed for Ai Ching. Ai Ching had always been very focused on financial success, and she had achieved much. But no matter how much success she enjoyed, it was not fulfilling. She had chased fulfillment down many paths, including new age and occult practices, but it continued to elude her. Now, after a simple Christian prayer, for the first time she felt peace. This peace intrigued Ai Ching.

So Young lived in Korea and Ai Ching visited her for a week. Her stated reason for going was to pursue opportunities related to Piktochart, but it was clear that God was at work. So Young attended a very large church and it was hard to schedule a meeting with the pastor, but God created an opening and Ai Ching sat with this godly man. Her first question for him was a challenge “If God is good, why does he allow bad things to happen?” Ai Ching’s friends had nicknamed her the “iron woman”, but through her own question, God broke her heart. For most of that meeting, she was in tears.

Restored

For the rest of her Korean visit, it was as if Ai Ching was seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Everything was new and bright and beautiful. She was overwhelmed by the beauty of God’s creation. The Korean pastor found a good church for Ai Ching and Andrea in Penang, and Ai Ching began reading the Bible using the YouVersion app on her phone. She had come to believe that there is only one God and that Jesus is real.

But God wasn’t yet finished with this newly married couple. As Paul wrote in Romans 10 “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Andrea and Ai Ching decided to attend the church in Penang once, out of respect to So Young and her pastor. The sermon was from James 1. The pastor spoke on anger and the Biblical way to deal with it. “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” Ai Ching cried uncontrollably through the entire sermon as God put a magnifying glass on the sin in her life and she had an intense desire for repentance and a clean heart.

At first Andrea thought that, since he was raised Catholic, he already was a Christian. He thought that Ai Ching’s emotional response and interest in Christianity was a passing thing, as many of her previous religious pursuits had been. But they continued to attend the church every week and, thanks to the multilingual Bible app, they began reading the Bible together. He started to learn what true saving faith looked like, and God used the dramatic change in his wife to minister to him as well.

It was less than three months between when Ai Ching first learned about Jesus and her baptism into the faith.

This month I have focused on how God used technology and even their nascent business to minister to this young couple’s deep need for the Savior. Next month, I will share with you how God is using them and their business to minister to others.

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Hero Factor Games

May 5, 2017 / Leave a Comment

“As a Christian man seeking to know God, as an entrepreneur seeking to glorify God through business activities, it’s easy to get distracted. The most important thing is to seek God first. Getting caught up in ‘doing for God’ rather than ‘seeking God’ can happen to anyone, whether in ministry or business, so this requires my fullest diligence.”

For the May 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine, I interviewed Tim and Sara Kilpatrick of Hero Factor Games. Here’s their story:

When Sara Kilpatrick was in the 1st grade, she contracted the Chicken Pox and was confined to her home. All she could do all day was play video games. From that moment on, she was determined that she would grow up to be a video game designer. Today, Sara and her husband Tim are co-founders of Hero Factor Games. Their website describes their products as “creative video games that support positive, moral, and biblical decision-making.” What does that look like, and how did the Kilpatricks get here?

A Personal Revival

Both Tim and Sara were raised in the church. Sara was baptized at age 8 and was always pursuing a closer relationship with Christ. Tim, on the other hand, left the church in high school and explored other ways to “find god.” After a few years of wandering, including studying music at a conservatory and studying philosophy and literature at a small Christian college, he found his real callings, first to the one true God of the Bible, and then to writing software.

After completing his Bachelor’s degree in CIS and beginning the MSCS program, Tim was recruited to work at a mobile app development company where he met Sara. Sara had also earned an MIS degree, but with a graphic design minor, and an MBA. Tim and Sara discovered a mutual love for developing games, and for each other. Soon they were married and developing a business plan for a video game company they could start on the side as they continued in their full time jobs.

But God had other plans. He placed it on their heart that He wanted them to quit their jobs and pursue this passion full time. They spent much time in prayer and God provided confirmation that this was His will. Their time in the Word kept pulling them towards going full time with their business. One of their advisors told them “often times God won’t give you what you need until you really need it” – counseling them to make the jump. And, to cap it all off, an angel investor approached them about investing in the business before they had even started looking for money.

While starting Hero Factor Games has taught them many business lessons, they cherish more the spiritual lessons they’ve learned. As a couple, they have drawn closer to God and rested more faithfully in His ability and not their own. This time has been somewhat of a personal revival for them with incredible blessings for them personally, for their marriage, and for their business.

Sara summarized some of their lessons in this way: “We’ve learned to always seek God first, before even seeking His direction or blessings (John 17:3). Then, in light of who God is, the rest of the day is the opportunity to apply what we have learned about Him – to trust that God really is who He says He is. We believe that this business is God’s ministry, that He will use it, that He will get the glory, and that He will provide everything we need. We submit everything to Him.”

Use Your Powers for Good

When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (Mk 12:29–30)

The motto for Hero Factor Games is “Use your powers for good.” It comes from Mark 12:30. As they develop their games, Tim and Sara especially focus on the choices that players make and how that shapes how we think and who we become. C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity “every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself.”

Tim and Sara’s first game is atomidoodle, a fast action game that teaches about chemistry and God’s creation. It won the silver medal for mobile apps in the 2016 Parent’s Choice Awards. They spent over a year building various prototypes of different game concepts before their time with the Lord led them to pursue atomidoodle, and within a week they had a prototype working. They are now developing several other games in various genres. Tim told me “The most important thing is to build a fun game first. Then we can figure out how to build in God-honoring content without being pedantic or contrived.”

The Kilpatricks are obviously very thoughtful about how their work is a ministry and how it can bring honor to God, but also about how it’s not really on them to make it happen. In our interview they referenced George Műller, the German Christian who God used to touch so many lives in Bristol, England in the 19th century. Beyond even the initial angel investor, God has continued to provide what they need when they need it, including developers showing up on their doorstep, willing to work for free until they could afford to pay them.

Tim uses a quote from A.W. Tozer to summarize their priorities, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Tim applies this to his life in this way: “As a Christian man seeking to know God, as an entrepreneur seeking to glorify God through business activities, it’s easy to get distracted. The most important thing is to seek God first. Getting caught up in ‘doing for God’ rather than ‘seeking God’ can happen to anyone, whether in ministry or business, so this requires my fullest diligence.”

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Cornerstone Technologies

April 10, 2017 / Leave a Comment

“Tentmakers can have a tremendous impact on the country where they serve. As successful businessmen, they have credibility with the locals and often have access to the true leaders in the country. God can use their business success to open many doors that are closed to other missionaries.”

In the April 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine, I introduced Jason Fisher, entrepreneur and tent-maker. This is the original draft I submitted to the magazine.

In my March 2015 column, I quoted Jason Fisher: “Tentmakers can have a tremendous impact on the country where they serve. As successful businessmen, they have credibility with the locals and often have access to the true leaders in the country. God can use their business success to open many doors that are closed to other missionaries.” Jason believes in the tentmaking model and has been living it for the past 20 years. This month, I’d like to share his story with you.

A Tentmaking Vision

Early in life Jason felt called to ministry. While in high school, his study of the Bible and church history, specifically the apostle Paul and the Moravians, inspired him to pursue “tentmaking.” Practically, God gifted Jason with an analytical mind and computer skills. While pursuing a double major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Memphis, Jason found time to serve on staff with Youth for Christ and to take on software development projects to help pay for school.

As demand for his development services grew, Jason hired friends to keep up with demand. One of their projects for a local church became the EventU/ServiceU event management platform used by churches and other organizations around the world. But in his heart, Jason wanted to be sharing the gospel overseas and in his mind he thought God was calling him to a closed country like Russia or China. At twenty-five years old, he had no idea how to make that happen.

One day Jason went to meet a customer. When he came out, he found that his car had two flat tires. The man who helped him was Warren Creighton, a very successful Christian businessman who was in Memphis for a board meeting. As they worked together to resolve the tire issue, the two men got to know each other and Jason began to understand why God had arranged the encounter.

In the midst of his business success, God had saved Warren. In some respects that radical turn led to several crises in his life. Warren used his influence to begin to take the gospel to the nations and found himself in Romania in the days following Communism’s fall. His business success in the country provided an open door to the most powerful men in the country. In business meetings, Warren would often share his testimony, and he always opened business meetings in prayer, sometimes praying the gospel for 10 minutes or more if he felt that there were unsaved people in the room that needed to hear it. He started the Romanian National Prayer Breakfast and initiated Bible studies in Parliament. Warren was having an impact at every level of government.

Warren invited Jason to join him in Romania for a month. Bucharest’s Politehnica University was turning out thousands of talented programmers who had few opportunities to use their skills. During Jason’s visit, Warren and Jason met the dean of Computer Science at the Politehnica, Dr. Trandafir Moisa. Over dinner, they sketched out the details for a new business, Cornerstone Technologies. According to their back of the napkin math, the business would break even if there was enough work for 8 programmers, and would be profitable at 9.

The only issue was that Jason was engaged to be married. He shared with Warren Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken.” Warren agreed. Jason returned to Memphis and enjoyed the bliss of marriage.

Almost exactly a year later, Warren called with the news that he had two customers ready to sign two-year contract with Cornerstone Technologies, one needing four programmers and the other needing five. Jason and his wife, packed up and moved to Romania. Providentially, as Jason was arriving, Warren’s family situation required him to leave. Jason had to step into some very large shoes, but the Romanians looked at Jason as Warren’s right hand man, and, by God’s grace (but not without some stumbles), Jason grew into the role.

During the dot com boom, Cornerstone employed 120 developers working for large multi-national companies. When the dot com era came to an end, Cornerstone spun off several software companies. When Jason meets with companies anywhere in the world, even in the U.S., he doesn’t hesitate to use the methods that Warren taught him to share the gospel with customers, vendors, and employees.

More than Bits and Bytes

Although Cornerstone has been Jason’s tech startup with the greatest impact, it’s not his only focus. Jason completed his Masters of Divinity while overseeing one of the spin-off software companies. After leaving that business, he reconstituted Cornerstone and began helping others start kingdom businesses. His LinkedIn profile lists seven other startups that he’s currently involved in as founder, co-founder, board member, or chief technology officer.

An encouraging example of the tentmaker model is Highland Harvesters, an apple orchard in Ethiopia that Jason co-founded. After acquiring 150 acres of land, God amazingly provided 28,000 seedlings at the perfect stage of development in August 2016 and the orchard expects its first harvest in 2017. Already the business has provided employment for 100 people, most from unreached people groups who have been very closed to the gospel. Local evangelists have consistently been turned away from these villages.

Each workday begins with prayer and scripture reading. After a few months, the workers asked if there was some way that their families and friends could come and hear these “stories.” The orchard hosted a special event and brought in a local evangelist to tell the “stories” – sharing God’s Word with the lost. Six hundred people came to the event, and it went so well that they invited the evangelist to come and live in their village. God is good!

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” (Genesis 12:1-3)

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EPA Made

March 18, 2017 / Leave a Comment

“In the scriptures, we see God’s heart to care for the widows, the orphans, those who are forgotten, those who are weak, those who can’t take care of themselves. It’s a community response. We as a neighbor have a responsibility to care. And if we are given enough, or more than enough, then we should care; we should share. That is the heart of EPA Made.”

In the March 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine, I introduced Allen and Ayaka Lu, founders of EPA Made, which is helping hope rise in East Palo Alto.

Allen and Ayaka Lu live in Silicon Valley and they run an eCommerce startup, but their story is not your typical entrepreneurial story and their business is not your typical Silicon Valley startup. For starters, EPA Made is part of their non-profit ministry, and while the goal is to be a financially sustainable business, the real goal is to impact lives, in a very tangible way, for God’s glory.

A Single Mom

Allen and Ayaka weren’t raised in Christian families. They met Christ and they met each other at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Allen studied Information Systems and Ayaka is a graphic designer who studied Communication Design and Human Computer Interaction.

After graduation, Allen became a programmer with a focus on eCommerce. He developed a passion for helping people connect with the brands that they love, leading major projects for American Eagle Outfitters and GNC. Ayaka and some classmates started a new venture doing youth education design and they were recognized for their work with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Family Communication, the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood corporate entity.

While in college, Allen and Ayaka were very active in discipleship and felt that ministry was a “full-time” part of who they were. They had a little girl, and God was blessing them. But then, Allen had a moral failing. He left Ayaka and their daughter, and moved to Silicon Valley to continue to build his career.

Ayaka had become a single mom. She looked to scripture for guidance, spending much time praying to God through Matthew 19. She committed to live that truth, to not divorce, but to pray for Allen for two years. She spent that time crying out to the Lord through Psalm 25, Psalm 73, and Romans 5 and learning how to find hope in Jesus and survive as a single mom. It was hard and it was lonely, but God would redeem even this.

Broken Hearted for Single Moms

In time, God answered her prayers. Allen, in his words, “came to his senses” and asked Ayaka if they could restart their marriage. They spent two years in intense marriage counseling. They worked really hard, and today, they say that their marriage is “way better” than it originally had been, and see in it a picture of the redemption that God is working through Christ.

Allen continued to have success in his career, and God provided an opportunity to combine his work and ministry when his cousin, Jeremy Lin became an overnight basketball sensation. Allen produced a film, Linsanity!, and continues to manage Jeremy’s brand, which provides a platform to share the gospel and encourage Kingdom values around the world.

Meanwhile Ayaka was praying for God’s direction for her life. While we tend to see Silicon Valley as a place of wealth and happy endings, that’s not the complete picture. In 2011, she met an executive director of a home for single mothers in East Palo Alto, and she started volunteering. Palo Alto is home to Stanford University, Hewlett Packard, and Tesla, and was the early home of many companies including Google, Facebook, Pinterest, and Intuit. But East Palo Alto is like a totally different world. About 65% of EPA is Latino, with another 15% being African-American. The prosperity of Silicon Valley has largely passed by this community.

When Ayaka met the ladies at the home, it broke her heart. She could relate to the challenges of being a single mom, but she saw the cycle that many of these families went through, going from group home to group home and eventually ending up back on the street. Ayaka and Allen prayed for wisdom in what they could do. They felt convicted that they had been primarily using their God-given talents to help rich people get richer. They especially felt convicted by Leviticus 25. The Lord is speaking to Moses and says “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you.” (Leviticus 25:35-36)

Working With Single Moms

Even before feeling called to start a ministry, Ayaka used her skills to work with the ladies to make a product and sell it at a fundraiser for the group home. For the first time, they didn’t feel like they needed to cash in on pity, but were proud of the product they produced and how it was valued by the buyers. This experience became the basis for EPA Made. Ayaka works with the ladies to develop new products and produce them. Allen’s eCommerce leadership helped make them available around the world. They have also opened a Thrift Store and a physical shop for the EPA Made products.

EPA Made is providing more than a job for single-mom families. It is providing them with practical skills in design, manufacturing, pick-pack-and-ship, retail, and eCommerce that can prepare them to participate in the economy growing around them. They also provide discipleship and accountability towards change in important life skills, such as financial literacy, healthy parenting, and growth mindset. More than anything, EPA Made provides hope to the hopeless.

Ayaka says “In the scriptures, we see God’s heart to care for the widows, the orphans, those who are forgotten, those who are weak, those who can’t take care of themselves. It’s a community response. We as a neighbor have a responsibility to care. And if we are given enough, or more than enough, then we should care; we should share. That is the heart of EPA Made.” She goes on to explain “People are so stuck in depression, so stuck in generational poverty, so stuck in this dark pit that they think they can’t get out of. But that’s not true. We want to let hope rise in EPA.”

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