Build a new bridge each week
Notes from the road from Demo to Launch
Last week’s piece ended with ways of narrowing the gap between ideas and real solutions.
You might find them useful, so let’s pick up that thread.
My process in building GivingTree (specifically the GivingTree Map of the global impact economy) is what the cool kids call “building in public”. I’m deliberately showing my cards and publishing iterations of my platform before it’s fully formed.
This road has three phases. Demo. Beta. Launch.
Even though I’m still in Demo—all three phases are already teaching me lessons.
There’s a story about an engineering professor.
He has his students build model bridges.
Half the class will have the full semester to perfect their bridges. The other half will build a new bridge each week.
The best bridges are built in the final week, by the students in the second group.
Iteration, baby.
That’s the thinking behind the GivingTree Map demo.
I built the first version fast, to go to an event in São Paulo, Impacta Mais. Having the demo in my hands opened the door to more conversations. Better conversations. Conversations with real direction. Conversations that might bear fruit.
So if you’re building something, don’t discount the value of releasing a shabby rough-draft. Don’t hide behind the “need” for perfection. Put it out there. Start some conversations.
Here’s another metaphor—the stages of life—to complete the picture.
Imagine you have kids. Imagine that!
When they’re young, you let them try everything—sports, arts, sciences, and other areas of interest. You cast a wide net. You see what they’re drawn to.
When they’re teenagers, you let them gravitate toward the activities they love, where they excel. As they enter the “real world”, they can now focus on one area (maybe two or three overlapping) where make their mark in the world.
So.
The current GivingTree Map ‘Demo’ phase is childhood. I’m going wide, aiming to give knowledge and value to everyone, with no target more specific than the “global impact economy” except that I am, by default, tilted toward my two home countries of 🇺🇸 and 🇧🇷.
It’s contrary to the advice you often hear to “niche down”.
But that comes next. The Beta phase is adolescence.
I’m going to test the product-market fit of different aspects of the platform—tweaks, new features, different kinds of marketing and pricing.
If I get a clear signal from investors, I’ll work on institutional features. If I get a signal from entrepreneurs and businesses, I’ll move towards that market. If I get a signal from the “mass market” of individuals using this platform, I’ll move in that direction.
If I get signals from all three, I’ll figure out how to balance them.
When it’s time for the real world—the official launch—I’ll have a clear path.
Iteration, baby.
The official launch will come sometime in 2027, after the Beta has done its job. Because of the road I’ve taken to get there, it’s almost guaranteed to be valuable to people.
In a rough draft of this article, I had written:
“By then, the platform will be more than a map. It’ll be a comprehensive database of intelligence, data, information, and knowledge.”
But if I’m serious about this iteration-and-feedback loop, I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe the most valuable version—at least at first—is a map full of hard data.
Sometimes your visions are best held, on one hand, with great conviction, and on the other hand with pure non-attachment. Clear sight with an open mind.
A personal note to close.
The decision to build the GivingTree platform has been liberating.
I’d been teetering on it.
Now that I’m committing myself, I’ve had more clarity and sureness about my life than ever before. I see the world completely differently. I understand, better than ever before, why people do things they feel driven toward, where real courage comes from.
I’m going to keep building this thing. Nothing will stop me. With every ounce of energy I put in, GivingTree grows. When it grows to a certain point, GivingTree will give back—not just for my own life but for others and the world around us.
It’s just a matter of time and energy.
So my last message today is, if you feel the same way about something, follow that feeling.
If you’re struggling to make a decision that you know in your heart of hearts you need to make, make it. You can try to negotiate with it. You can resist it. It’s never going to stop nagging at you.
This certainly isn’t the first time you’ve heard this advice. But at some point it clicks. Just keep following your heart, even if you move toward it slow-and-steady. Let yourself be called toward it. When you reach the moment where it clicks, where the path opens up, run down it and feel the wind in your face.
More next week.
— Matt