Happy Birthday 7 Cups!

All my kids are growing up. My twins - Colin and Madeliene - are 15 (and driving!), Avery is just about 13 (2 weeks) and London just turned 8 yesterday. I was writing Londons card and thinking about the transition from 7 to 8. She has grown up a lot this year. She is becoming a big kid.

I often think of 7 Cups as a child that we co-parent together. We have helped raise 7 cups as it has matured. Children go through different stages of development. They learn to trust, they start exploring and venturing away from caregivers, they learn to be increasingly independent. I believe that startups go through a maturation process as well.

Virginia Satir famously said that families are people factories. We learn to be who we are in the context of our family. For example, my family had some struggles, so I learned that I needed to be more responsible to help provide structure/support/help. That impulse has stayed with me throughout my adult life and is one reason why I do the work that I do. It feels consistent to me.

Our community is the family that is collectively raising 7 Cups. 7 Cups grows in the context that we create. Early on, like new parents, it was all that we could do to keep the wheels on. Then, we started running out of money and realized we needed to pay the bills, so we figured out how to make money so we could keep the lights on and provide for ourselves. We have gone through a number of ups and downs, twists and turns, but through it all we have been good caregivers to 7 Cups. Many of us have sacrificed a lot to help see 7 Cups grow stronger.

When you have a new baby, each 6 month period brings a whole new level of quality of life back. 12 months, 18 months, 2 years - each 6 month increment means you have more and more space and more and more time to be thoughtful about things (you are not thinking about piano lessons when you are trying to get the baby to sleep through the night). 7 Cups is now 7 years old. We are now - finally, for the first time (!) - in a place where we can be really thoughtful about where we go from here. We have space and time to reflect, deeply listen to the community, and start to grow 7 Cups again from this new and mature place.

We can do this because 7 Cups is growing up. The demands are less overwhelming than they once were. You can see part of this in the new leadership initiative we announced. This is not something we could have done before. Im now working with the team to focus much more on quality so expect to see a lot of shifts and changes on this front. Weve always focused on quality, but we will be focusing on a much higher level moving forward. Another area - we will have a brand new app coming out in October. Itll be significantly better than the version we have now. We can do all of these things and more now because 7 Cups is maturing.

When I think back on the last 7 years, I think of how far we have all come together. There isnt a playbook for building something like 7 Cups. We had to discover it along the way. We had to fail, we had to make mistakes, we had to learn the hard lessons...and we have much more to learn as our 7 year old continues to grow up. There will be new mistakes to make and new lessons to learn. And all of that is okay and even good. We all grow up and become better parents and in the process, 7 Cups becomes stronger, wiser, and able to help many more people in an effective manner.

The birthday cake is coming out. The candles are lit. 7 Cups is 7! It will not likely reach true adulthood until about 15 years old. That is likely when itll meet its full potential. We have a lot of work to do over these next 8 or so years (might take less or be longer). Thank you for being a part of my family here on 7 Cups. Thanks for being caregivers, grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts.

As one last great example of our 7 Cups family - check out the 7 Cups 7th Birthday Video produced by @Tazzie. Shout out to Tazzie and all of our community members for the creative and celebratory work. Thank you!

Thank you for helping me raise 7 Cups. You all have helped me be a much better parent. I hope I have helped you too. Im thankful to be walking down this path with all of you.