61. Stephen Colbert + DonorsChoose's Charles Best — The power of small goals

Masters of Scale

WaitWhat

Entrepreneurship, Business, Management, Reid Hoffman, Mindset, Diversity & Inclusion, Jeff Berman, Bob Safian, Startups

4.6 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Startups are audacious. They’re big. They’re world-changing. But you can’t achieve scale on day one. Sometimes the best way to achieve that monumental success tomorrow is to take a teeny tiny step today. This is what Charles Best did when he founded one of the world’s first crowdfunding platforms, DonorsChoose. For 20 years, the nonprofit has been helping public school teachers get funding and supplies for classroom projects and it all started with just a handful of projects in the Bronx, where Charles was a public school teacher. Now it funds thousands of projects in all 50 states, raising almost a billion dollars in the process. Charles did it by adeptly creating a flywheel that matches for donors and grantees, allowing them to connect directly with one another, and doing it all one small step at a time. Cameo: Stephen Colbert!!!

Visit DonorsChoose.org

Learn more about US campaign funding laws: https://www.fec.gov/introduction-campaign-finance/understanding-ways-support-federal-candidates

Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com/charles-best/

Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dlirtX

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi listeners, it's Chris Goethea, producer on Masters of Scale.
0:03.2	Quickly dropping in with an invitation for you to join us at an upcoming strategy session with Reed,
0:07.9	along with a few very special guests. During this live virtual event, you'll hear some game-changing
0:14.0	wisdom and insights that will help you make smart and financial decisions for your business.
0:18.4	So take a second to save the data in your calendar for Monday, May 8th at 3.30pm Pacific,
0:23.2	and register at mastersofscale.com forward slash strategy session to receive your link to join.
0:29.6	We'll be tackling some of the most top of mind questions for entrepreneurs,
0:32.8	with a special focus on how your business can thrive even amidst an economic downturn.
0:38.0	It's a really important topic, and you'll hear timely strategic insights that will help set you
0:42.8	and your business up for success. So go to mastersofscale.com forward slash strategy session to
0:49.2	register for free. Now on to the show. Microphone recorder, mic stand base, okay.
0:57.4	Here we go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
1:01.4	Stephen Colbert is the kind of guy who always has a goal.
1:06.7	Currently, his goal is to set up the microphone we sent him for our interview.
1:10.7	It arrives in a serious looking Pelican case.
1:16.5	It looks like I've just been given the nuclear football.
1:20.3	There goes him there.
1:25.2	Although daunting for some, Stephen is now accustomed to being his own production team,
1:29.9	thanks to three months of filming at home during quarantine.
1:34.2	Mike has a knife.
1:38.2	He also knows that to achieve any goal, you have to start somewhere.
1:43.0	In this case, start screwing in the mic stand.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WaitWhat, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WaitWhat and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.