This didn’t need to be a business
If you’ve ever watched Shark Tank or listened to How I Built This, you’ve heard the refrain that your business should solve a problem.
It’s good advice. I’ve certainly been the founder who lost sight of the problem I’m trying to solve for my customer because I got starry-eyed about a solution.
But what I realized recently is that not every problem needs a business to solve it.
Back in February, I shared that Gateway Coaching wasn’t working.
I thought I had three options:
Rework the business model.
Sell the company.
Dissolve the company.
Turns out there was a fourth: stop trying to make Gateway Coaching a business.
I started Gateway Coaching to make coaching more accessible and to help trained coaches earn their experience hours. Trying to make a profit was impeding the impact I wanted to have, and the impact was one piece of the project that was most compelling to me.
So I started reimagining Gateway Coaching, incorporating feedback and gut feelings from the first iteration.
I wanted it to be accessible to the people who would benefit from coaching most without creating a pricing race to the bottom a la Groupon.
I didn’t want to overwhelm potential clients with too many coach options.
I wanted people to work with the same coach, since that was what was happening anyways
I didn’t want to build the next iteration alone.
Gateway Coaching 2.0 is slowly re-emerging as a volunteer-run initiative, rather than a company, and I’m working with a small steering committee to bring it to life.
There’s still more to build out, but the gist is that we’ll open up client applications a few times a year.
In order to qualify as a client, you must either be:
A recent graduate who graduated less than a year ago
Currently unemployed
Making less than 35,000 a year
For $119, we’ll match you to a coach who you’ll work with for four sessions. $100 goes straight to the coach. $19 covers our operational costs. Once operational costs are covered, we use the $19 to subsidize the cost for future clients.
Yes, there’s money exchanged. I believe coaches deserve to be compensated, and there is some truth to the saying, “People who pay, pay attention.”
But there’s no profit motive. I’m donating my time to solve a problem, and other people care enough to donate their time and skills to build it with me.
This didn’t need to be a business, but it does need to exist.
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