Three student entrepreneurs at the University of Michigan think they can use their phones to make the world a better place, one download at a time.
Three weeks since its launch at
Subscribers to the free application are prompted daily with a "DoGood"--a simple task from conserving water, to turning out a light, to beautifying the world. When they've accomplished their good deed for the day, they click the application's "done" button.
The program tallies how many users are fulfilling that day's deed, and users can share what they have done on Facebook and Twitter. So far, it's up to 209,214 good deeds.
"[I] contacted my estranged brother ... after more than 2 years of silence. Used LinkedIn! I guess we truly are a technology driven society ;-)" one user commented in response to a DoGood that prompted users to connect with a family member.
Another DoGooder wrote, "Left a post-it note on my work bathroom mirror: You are awesome," when the day's good deed was to leave an inspirational message in a public space.
Bornhorst says the goal behind DoGood wasn't just to do good works but to experiment with "leverag[ing] the network effects of 40 million mobile devices." Even better: Bornhorst says that DoGood draws users back. "We're seeing people coming back everyday, doing deeds, leaving stories and making fans out of it," he says.
Mobil33t is tiny, just two engineers and a designer and no marketing arm or advertising campaign behind DoGood. Word got out via Twitter, a site Bornhorst admitted he loathed just a mere three weeks ago.
"We quickly saw it begin to propagate," Bornhorst says of DoGood's presence on Twitter. "Now, every 10 minutes there is a tweet about the company." (You can follow DoGood on Twitter at #dogood.) DoGood's Web site, Bornhorst says, has between 1,500 and 2,000 unique visitors on a good day.
The team of three currently operates out of the basement of a parking garage in Ann Arbor, which has been converted into TechArb, a student business incubator that is independent of the university. The space houses 11 ventures, providing student entrepreneurs with a bare-bones collaborative environment that includes wireless Internet access, a phone line and some desks and chairs.
Bornhorst and co-developer Kunal Jham were both enrolled in a course called Mobile Development for the iPhone and Android when the idea for DoGood began to take shape. The course, which discussed developments in the mobile computing industry, really had no curriculum but instead "encouraged students to do what they already want to do," says its professor, Elliot Soloway.
Soloway believes that it is the self-reflective nature of the app that has allowed DoGood to take off.
"It makes people think," he says. "People need an opportunity to reflect on their own lives. It's a very crystalline, pristine statement. It makes you reflect on who you are and what you're doing."
Bornhorst has no specific plans to monetize DoGood anytime soon. The application, he says, has virtually no operating costs.
"Good products market themselves," Bornhorst says, adding that the team's goal has always been to "let [DoGood] grow as organically as possible."
Soloway agrees that the Mobil33t team will not see any profit from the app, but says that the exposure from DoGood will "do good" for the start-up in the future.
"My hope is that Oprah will find it interesting," Bornhorst says.
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