America used value community, purpose, and fairness. But now it kind of feels like virtually every decision is based on what will make the most money. My guest today has a dream, a vision that this is changing. He has created a manifesto for a more generous world. Yancey Strickler is the cofounder and former CEO of Kickstarter, the mission-driven, global public-benefit company that helped pioneer crowdsourcing. He is also the author of the recently released book, “This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World.” I’ve been a big fan of Yancey’s work for quite some time and am so excited to have him on the show today. Join me as I learn more about Yancey and his inspiring manifesto!

2:08 - The Yancey 101 Yancey grew up on a farm in southwest Virginia. He didn’t have neighbors and farm-life forced him to be a bit more creative. He dreamt of being a writer and reading and writing is how he kept himself busy and entertained on the farm. He studied writing in college and after graduating, moved to New York City where he worked as a music journalist. While reviewing records and writing about musicians, he became friends with Perry Chin, the creator of crowdfunding. Together, Yancey, Perry Chin, and Charles Adler created and launched Kickstarter, which has since introduced crowdfunding to the world and generated more than $4 billion to creative projects. Along the way, Kickstarter also became a public benefit corporation. The three founders put a lot of effort into governing Kickstarter according to the values that felt most true to them. In Yancey’s last four years at the company, he also served as CEO. Two years ago, Yancey left Kickstarter to write his first book called “This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World.” It explores what our role models for success are and the optimistic direction families, work, and companies can take to evolve toward generosity. Yancey’s father was a musician who sold waterbeds to make a living for the family. Yancey has an artistic side from his father’s country and bluegrass interests and also grew up in a church that taught him about responsibility and caring for others. He loved listening to Indy Rock and Punk growing up, which also inspired a message about being true to your community. 10:45 – A Community Start at a Restaurant called “Diner” Yancey and Perry met in Brooklyn at a nice restaurant called “Diner.” They spent a lot of time bonding over a shared love of good eateries and basketball. One day Perry shared his idea for Kickstarter, but Yancey wasn’t a fan of the idea at first. Perry’s pitch reminded Yancey of a reality show like American Idol, but Perry assured Yancey that the idea was more about highlighting sub-cultures that don’t fit in to the mainstream, allowing those people to share ideas more widely. Yancey had no dreams of being an entrepreneur and felt very anxious about stepping over the line between business and creativity. It was a stretch far beyond his comfort zone. Once Yancey was fully on board and Kickstarter was launched into the marketplace, he was surprised to see that not only small passion projects idea were on board, but so were people with million-dollar idea projects. It was a real shift in the level of activity and responsibility of Kickstarter. The beauty is that it’s a platform for anyone to add their ideas. It is perpetually renewable for this reason. The hope is that Kickstarter remains a place where anyone can indulge their ideas rather than forgetting them or giving up. It’s for anyone young or old to keep their creative muscle flexing throughout their lifetime. 23:16 - A Generosity Manifesto Yancey’s book This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World explores both how our communities once valued togetherness, purpose, and fairness, and how in business, most decisions are made based on what’s going to make the most money. Some business owners are going outside of the current societal norm to not only run a business, but also make a positive impact on their communities and cultures. Can society get back to a place where that is more of the norm? The idea for Yancey’s book started when he was giving a talk for Kickstarter around the time that the company was becoming a public benefit company. They were changing expectations and accountability to not only maximize shareholder value, but also produce a positive benefit to society. As he started looking around at peer companies, he noticed that everyone seemed to be operating around an ideal that whatever will produce the greatest economic growth is by default the correct choice. Yancey started to explore debating clear economic decisions that could be predicted and the downsides of what’s less profitable. The ideas that make the most money often win, and the “everything else” that we feel emotionally but don’t actually have a concrete plan for just falls to the wayside....

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