Part III: Transparency
One thing we learned through 7 Cups is that being vulnerable is powerful.
When we pretend like things are fine or that we have everything under control, we inadvertently isolate ourselves from others. We wall ourselves off, protect ourselves, and, in the end, this ends up hurting us as individuals and the people we love.
Im going to be vulnerable with you all today and ask for your help. Ive invited you to help with 7 Cups in every conceivable way, except when it comes to sustainability. Ive tried to carry that burden on my own shoulders. For better or worse, after many sleepless nights and struggles, Ive realized that it isnt good for me and it isnt good for our community.
Founders of startups normally dont talk about financial components of the company publicly. There is supposed to be an unspoken line that is not crossed. Certain things are not supposed to be shared. 7 Cups is its own unique enterprise. Many of the rules that apply to ‘business as usual do not apply to 7 Cups. We set it up that way on purpose. We wanted it to be different. We designed it to be different from the very beginning. This post is the logical extension of the way that we have already been operating.
I love what we have built here at 7 Cups and want this to continue to be a free emotional support site available to all as long as possible.
In order to do that, 7 Cups has to find a way to earn enough income to pay for its operating expenses. For the past two and a half years, 7 Cups has relied on startup investors to build the infrastructure into what it is today. At the current rate of expenses with no additional income, that investor funding will last through April 2017. If the income cant be increased beyond what it is now, then operating costs will need to be reduced accordingly. Currently, the operating costs pay for servers to host the site and below-market salaries for the the community managers and our product team (7 Cups has a staff of just 9 people) .Thats it. I dont pay myself from 7 Cups. All of the other roles on the site are filled by unpaid volunteers, including Listeners, Mentors, and Ambassadors.
We started sustainability efforts three months ago. As we stated then, we need $65,000 / month to cover expenses with the size of the team we currently have. In February, we had $5,500 in revenue. Thats barely enough to cover the server expenses for the site for a month, let alone the staff. Were not in panic mode, because we still have the investor funding in the short-term, but we need to be responsible as an organization and work very hard to address this in the coming months.
Ultimately, our community is the thing I care most about on 7 Cups. It is remarkable, therapeutic, and powerful. Ive said before that it is magical. It is something different from anything else that Ive ever encountered.
At our current rate of progress towards sustainability, we will be able to keep a small team on that would enable 7 Cups to continue to make progress towards reaching our mission. However, we would not be able to continue with all of the staff that we have now. We would have to lay people off. This is painful and sad to consider, but it is also a potential reality. We will work very hard to overcome this challenge in the next couple of months. If we can, then that will be wonderful. If we cannot, then it is a problem that we will have to face and solve directly. Here are the potential ways that our sustainability could unfold:
1. Ideal Scenario - we make more progress on revenue, keep the team intact, add more people to help, and make faster progress towards our goals.
--If we earn more than $65K+ / month in income, or more than $780K+ / year
2. Positive Scenario - we make more progress on revenue, keep the team intact, and continue mostly how things are now with a prioritized list of site and service improvements.
--This would require a revenue of $65K / month, or $780K / year
3. Reduced Team Scenario - we continue with similar revenue levels and have to lay off people from our team. We are less effective, but 7 Cups continues on without making major improvements to the site or its services going forward.
--This would require a revenue of at least $20K / month, or $240K / year
As you all can see, we have a ways to go and I do have a plan to get us there! Ive done this before and I know how to do it again.
Ive been working pretty hard to get to the positive scenario. There are several ways that we can increase our revenue to the site to meet the positive scenario that I have outlined above. The product team is working on the therapist directory and the school, business, non-profit support systems. We have made some significant progress there and we have evidence that this could be a large contributor toward getting us to our sustainability goals. There is still a lot that needs to come together, but I have been working really hard to get us there.
Between the upgrades/backing, therapists directory, and the school, business, non-profit support systems, I believe that we can bring in enough additional revenue to sustain and continue to improve the free support system that we have built here at 7 Cups.
In order to sustain the 7 Cups community, I need your help!
Unfortunately, for a certain amount of time, this is going to take a lot of hard work from me and the Product Team. It has already meant a lot of long hours and sleepless nights. Im going to need some time and space and some extra understanding and compassion to work toward the goal of becoming sustainable in the ways that I have outlined above.
As much as you can, please spread the word and talk to your school or workplace and tell them the ways in which 7 Cups has helped you and how you believe it could help others around you to find the emotional support that they need.
I need you to continue to believe that we as a community can do this. We have overcome many challenges together in the past and I believe that we can overcome this challenge to become sustainable, too. This is a time, though, where we need to stand together in order for our community to continue to thrive. Im still willing to hear concerns and feedback, but I need your support in bringing these things to light in a constructive way so we can address the concerns and move forward. While you certainly don't have to do this, I would encourage you to check with a mentor or ambassador prior to bringing concerns to admin to see if we are already aware of the concerns and working on a solution (even if the solution is slow). I will still hear you either way, but this would help.
I promise that I hear all that you have been saying and I respect the courage that it takes to bring up these issues. I have a lot of respect for the level of trust that we have built in the community for people to feel that they can be open and express their concerns. One of the impacts of focusing on sustainability is that the Product team and I have been hard at work on that and less available for the community as a whole right now. Im doing that for the continued success and longevity of our community. I hope that you can understand why that is so important to me and I hope that it is also important to all of you.
In order to move forward with sustainability, I need your support and compassion. I think we need to be aligned - all rowing together - to meet or exceed the positive sustainability scenario so that we can continue to do great things in this community going forward. I have shared the things that keep me up at night with you in this post in an effort to be honest and transparent. I need your support in continuing to grow and improve the mission of 7 Cups: to be the largest free emotional support system in the world. Are you with me?
For further reading:
Making 7 Cups Sustainable - https://www.7cups.com/forum/GlensNook_84/Community_547/Making7CupsSustainable_29951/1/
Back 7 Cups: Part I of Making 7 Cups Sustainable - https://www.7cups.com/forum/GlensNook_84/Community_547/Back7CupsPartIofMaking7CupsSustainable_31025/1/
Sustainability Update - https://www.7cups.com/forum/ListenersOnlyForums_38/GlensThoughts_143/SustainabilityUpdate_32682/
Thanks @GlenM I appreciate you sharing this information with us. :)
@PolarCat Thank you!
I'm a little confused and hope you can clarify. According to what I saw (below) Scenarios 1 and 2 require the same revenue. How is that possible if in Scenario 1 there's more people and faster progress? Is there a typo in there?
1. Ideal Scenario - we make more progress on revenue, keep the team intact, add more people to help, and make faster progress towards our goals.
--If we earn more than $65K / month in income, or more than $780K / year
2. Positive Scenario - we make more progress on revenue, keep the team intact, and continue mostly how things are now with a prioritized list of site and service improvements.
--This would require a revenue of $65K / month, or $780K / year
@GlenM Thank you for being vulnerable and honest with what it takes to make the site run. I'm glad we are not a business as usual place. I like that you are sharing your struggles with us and also offering several scenerios the future of the site can go. We are all in this together. Whenever there are issues lets try to band together and face them respectfully and making sure everyone feels heard.
@Pam Well said Pam! Let's band together and figure it out. We've already done the impossible. We can surpass this challenge as well!
I will just leave one comment and one comment alone.
After I read this thread I thought about another thread which I read that is also on the feedback section. Perhaps some of you might know who I'm referring to. That person made a lot of points . I feel like the financial side of things was answered but I also thought that it would include some other topics as well. This might alarm a lot of people . I feel like they're hidden messages within the thread. certainly makes you think a lot.. I really do not know how all of this is going to turn out. Ultimately it is 1 persons ultimate choice. I am curious to hear from members and listeners about all of this.
Crunching the numbers for you math oriented folks :)
Note: I also posted this on Isaac's thread here. It's the same post
If server cost runs about $5,500 a month, that leaves the remaining $59,500 to be accounted for and I'm sure many of you are thinking that this is an incredibly high number (it's 10X the cost of the servers alone!). I wanted to break down the numbers to show how this makes sense and is a realistic expectation of operating costs.
Assume that office space and miscellaneous costs run 7 Cups anywhere between $1,500 to $4,500. That would leave between $55,000 to $58,000 for salaries for 9 people (remember, Glen already said he doesn't pay himself).
On average, this means everyone on the team receives at most a salary of $73,000 - $77,000. For the amount of work involved, especially on the programming side, that seems reasonable if not on the low side. I also used my spectacular Googling skills and I estimate that Glen makes ~$90,000 a year. I believe that most of the team members on 7 Cups took a pay cut to be here. Looking through the 7 Cups team bios, I find that many of the team came to 7 Cups after widely successful careers, including The Dr. Oz Show, YCombinator, AOL, and private clinical practice.
When questioning the decisions made by the admins, please consider that they're not here out of personal gain, but because they believe in a bigger picture of free mental health care to people who in need.
I fully support listeners questioning how 7 Cups operates, but I don't think we should be questioning is why 7 Cups exists - if that makes sense.
@AdVictoriam Thanks for crunching the numbers. I'm totally okay with what you wrote and the team all ok'd the post, but I'd just ask that we be careful not to go much further here. Salary etc is all still pretty sensitive and I'm a little concerned that people will start trying to break down individual amounts. That would make folks start to feel uncomfortable. Again, totally okay with what you wrote but really want to protect the teams privacy as they were okay to take a risk in allowing us to be this open and transparent.
Suffice it to say that your summary is spot on - every single person on the team could easily make double what they are making now. Many of them left or turned down offers that would have been much more lucrative. Fortunately, they like us and happen to find a lot of meaning in what we are doing :)
@GlenM
Thank you for listing that concern. It's a good point to make and yes I agree that breaking it down further may be crossing privacy concerns, especially when it comes to competitors and copycats.
Thank you and the team for allowing this much info and analysis to be shared though!
I think it was kind of gutsy to post: "One thing we learned through 7 Cups is that being vulnerable is powerful." As the first quote, considering everything that's been happening in the community lately.
And honestly, while this transparency is good, it's just been reiterating things said before. Which again, is fine, but I just think that other issues should have been brought to the table before this one.
Anywho, good post, Glen.
Hey there, @Cadence ~ I am curious, what other issues are you referring to?
@GlenM
@Lilylistens
I think I mainly just want to see a sincere apology for all that took place this week, along with an actual plan to make things better. Like, I think everything that happened needs to be addressed. I don't need to explain everything in this post; it's a culmination of all the threads in the past week.
When they built a rocket to get to the moon, it must have felt a bit like this. Remember it was 1960's technology. It must have felt like madness to most people. Would you sit in a 1960s lump of metal with 1000s of gallons of explosive material under your butt, and say "I fully believe that I am going to walk on the moon, and get back down in one piece" ?
That's what real ambition is like. You are leaping between skyscrapers with a blindfold on. Falling backwards into someone's arms when you don't even know who they are or if they are there. Blowing up hydrogen to get to the moon, standing out like a madman and taking the flak from everyone. It looks like you are nuts to most people. It's only your own vision that supports you, and keeping the theme of transparency, it produces some immensely lonely and forlorn moments.
But
The world needs ambitious people, just as it needs every single other person that is in it. And it desperately needs more compassion, and it desperately needs 7cups to help make that happen.
Don't look down. Go for the moon.
@MikeMadrid Thanks Mike! I loved the paradoxical commandments post.
This is kind of an impossible challenge, but we've already made way more progress than many thought was possible. The odds are long, but what do we have to lose? Plus, the evidence is stacking up that we'll get there.
I feel like we've unlocked something powerful with this collaborative problem solving process that has emerged. The key is we need to have a culture of building one another up and steadfast support - even in challenging times and with limited resources - in order to further build and maintain a virtuous cycle. That piece is a tough one to figure out, but seems essential to reaching the goal.
The hour or two I spend listening on this site nearly every day has become such a meaningful and rewarding experience for me. If 7 Cups were to cease to exist due to a lack of funding sources it would be difficult , if not impossible, to find a satisfactory replacement. You have my full support, Glen, in your efforts towards sustainability. 
@Harry53 I appreciate it Harry! We need the support :). Thanks for hanging in there with us for so long!
@GlenM My pleasure!
@GlenM
Thank you for taking a chance on being vulnerable, in restrospect this seems like a bold move that you probably had to give a lot of thought to. I am sorry to hear you are facing a slew of difficult decisions in light of the financial situation and I do hope things pick up for the better. I love this place to bits because its a brilliant way to help others get the support they deserve.
2017 might seem far for many but from a business standpoint, its tomorrow. From a startup's perspective, its also a critical year since it would signify about 4 years of existence, which is commendable as its past the yardstick of about 3-5 years. So I can relate a little to the struggle you are having as 7Cups is still in its infancy so to speak.
I do hope that transparency brings back some positivity into the community too and show you a pathway forward. I think one of the thing about 7Cups is that a big part of the product or service is provided by volunteers, who by one way or another, chose their own leaders and are not beholden by salaries which makes for very interesting and tricky dynamics! Although at its core I think we all have the same goals, which is why we are here in the first place. I do appreciate your time and dedication in this so very much, and look forward to more from you and your team and transparency too!
@WarmChocolateMug Thanks Warm! Yes lots of challenges but also a lot of opportunity. From what I can tell, I've been asking lots of folks, it does seem like things are healing and the positivity is coming back and some are feeling like we'll be even stronger soon. That is my hope as well :)
Why not make this post public? A fair number of users are currently being excluded.
@wonderfulMagic99 Good question! We wanted to share this with the listener community but not everyone in order to still have some level of privacy.
