Dear Universe,
Please help me to find this wonderful person or people to be a part of Matter.
Her or his qualities:
Please be a unique, inspiring, and intelligent individual who has skills different than mine while also having a heart and making decisions with that heart (not solely focused on large growth and profit). Skills and attributes such as being a financial maistro, an equity partner, and well connected to help Matter wisely & sustainably grow. Also, this person would be passionate about Matter’s mission to significantly create positive impact for our world’s most pressing problems and dedicated to triple bottom line business - Business for good.
I would also love to find a unique, lovely, and whip-smart person to thoughtfully and skillfully run Matter along in the day to day of the business. Most often this would include: Replying to emails, shipping orders, ordering and researching materials, and managing the books, all with care and thoughtfulness to details pretty please.
These two people would create such significant positive change for Matter and would also allow me to do what I do best most frequently, the creative thinking, research, and concept development. This would also allow me to be able to grow the consulting side of Matter, which would be a wonderful thing. I'd love for us to all to feel inspired, gratified, and enjoy working on Matter Projects.
Thank you for your help dear universe, I’m grateful for all that you have shared with me thus far, and I appreciate you.
With all my best and biggest thanks, Tippy Tippens, Chief Eternal Optimist, Matter Inc.
Â
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This was a special holiday, my family, gentleman friend, beloved furry friend Tonto, & I traveled to Key West. We roadtripped down and back from New Orleans, checking out Florida's west coast along the way.
Having never visited the Keys, the Everglades, much less Florida below the panhandle area, it was exciting to explore and make the trek down to the southernmost point of the U.S. I even discovered a fellow Tippy in the middle of the everglades! Pic below, his name was Elvis Tippy, founder of this shop & restaurant and also chief of the local Indian tribe, unfortunately he has passed along. Hemingway, alligators, and swamp boats beckoned and biking the island, taking in the sea, and hanging in salty dive bars was a true treat and am SO grateful to have spent a great time w/ my dear ones in such a relaxing, beautiful place.
2013 was a challenging one and I am all the more determined to create a timeline for this year (and stick to it!!) allowing for lots of 'X-factor' time to meet/get well ahead of important deadlines throughout the year & creating new products at smart times. (Noticed these cool calendars on design milk, ordering a BIG one today for the studio!)
For the new year I'm also determined to take better care of myself, exercising more, more vino than beer, writing more, & allowing myself to take more regular breaks/relaxation. Part of this too is also allowing/creating more quiet, creative thinking time - and drawing. I really miss drawing & want to promise myself to let my creative mind wander, pen in hand more often. I've started protecting my morning time, when my creativity is at its best & leaving the nuts and bolts for later in the day.
Having enough money to do new projects is also a constant challenge, as part of my plan for the year I also want to tackle finding grants and indiegogo campaigns (earlier in the year) as part of my schedule and not an add on for evenings and weekends.
All in all, I'm grateful and excited for the year ahead. To begin, I'll be working more on three new topics which the three interns via Tulane's service learning - Sally, Taylor, & Elizabeth - made some great discoveries last semester on the following: Water, Bees, & Gun Violence.
I should get back to it, I hope that your year is starting off happily & wishing you all the best, cheers from NOLA!
Yesterday I had my first consulting meeting over the telephone with Leslie Kingery in Denver, CO, I had offered this as a reward on Matter's recent Indiegogo campaign. This morning I woke up to the loveliest email, here is a quote:
" My day & my business totally turned around by this call with you! "
Leslie is in her startup phase for a new, social good/tech business & had questions about Benefit Corporations, business name ideas, & some overarching strategy ideas about her business. We had an inspiring talk for over an hour and I also gave her my backpocket hotel to stay in NYC when in a pinch (her day turnaround). I'm so excited about Leslie's Awesome new venture & to see it become real. I'll keep you posted when it launches & happy Thursday!
I am excited to have been selected to present at the Pipeline Pitch Summit in San Francisco! Matter is one of ten selected companies [from fifty applicants] to present to 10 women investors at Golden Gate University.
Dec. 7, each entrepreneur had time for a 5 minute pitch presentation with 15 minutes of follow up Q & A. This was my first pitch and am honored for this to have been the first! More on Pipeline here.
All ten of the selected businesses were required to be at least 50% women owned and the female founder had to present. The group of entrepreneurs was both diverse and impressive, I'm honored to have been selected.
A huge thank you to two of my board members that helped me fulfill the requirements for business analysis in the quick turnaround time - Gerard Cox & Jon Atkinson, a special thank you! It was great to get a leg up on this, it accelerated our timeline to complete and we are closer to ready for more pitches in the future.
While in SF, I stopped into Rare Device to check on the Birdies. Funnily, while I popped in a woman was buying a BirdSoap at the register when I went up to inquire about a product in the shop. I introduced myself in surprise & she was quite delighted, she took my picture with her bird : )
I had some extra time on Saturday so was really glad to finally make it to the California Academy of Arts & Sciences, this is a shot of the Living Roof, which I adore. It is planted with all native Californian plants, I overheard one of the guides mentioning to a tourgroup. LOVE it.
It was also a pleasure to visit with my dear friends Anne & Lauren, we all worked together at Kohler back in the day. They were so kind to lend me this awesome steed to bike around local stylee. I really appreciated the bike lanes that are ubiquitous & so well planned in SF, NOLA is getting there but has a ways to go.
ps - one of my fave pics from the trip, 'A Bobcat from Wisconsin' - taken at Buena Vista park
Excited for travels coming up next week! First I will be traveling to give talks to students in design & entrepreneurship at Syracuse University! So excited to visit & meet these students Oct. 3,4. And also for an added bonus of getting a little peek of fall!
Directly following that will be heading to my old/always hood NYC for a few days to attend the Feast for Social Innovation Week. And I am so honored for Matter's Goods to be for sale at the Pavilion on October 5, 6! Come on by, be so glad to see you!
Also** October 5, host a dinner for Social Good around the world, be a part of the Feast wherever you are! Details here.
In my book this is better than Christmas morning! Yesterday, August 1, 2012 - Matter joined five other companies to field trip over to Baton Rouge with two representatives from B-Lab [visiting from Philly & NYC, thank you!], Propeller, & the New Orleans Business Alliance!
Congrats to Rouler, Unicorn Booty,Future Proof, & Casa Borrega for being the first Benefit Corporations in the state of Louisiana - Matter is honored to be in your company!
We hit the highway early in the morning in order to be part of a press conference at the capital with Walt Leger & Tom Schedler, Secretary of State. I met up w/ my amigos Wes & Brian of Rouler to carpool in the new roulermobile, it was a real treat to hang with them & our fellow B-Corp buddies yesterday : )
Louisiana is the 9th state to pass Benefit Corporations in the nation! I am so energized by the new and good things ahead. Check the article here by Silicon Bayou News on B-Corps & impact investors. And here on the Benefit Corporation website to learn more about why they matter!
And the biggest thanks to Propeller, New Orleans Business Alliance w/ a special shout out to Joe Luchenta who instigated this great idea, B-LAB, House Representative Walt Leger, Mayor Landrieu, Tom Schedler secretary of state & to all of the law firms who made this possible! Thank you Baker Donelson & Fishman Haygood of New Orleans, very honored to be a part of this!
If you're curious, here are the major reasons that I wanted Matter to become a B-Corp: Â 1.Will help us best define and report on our environmental and social impacts, 2. Reinforce and protect our triple bottom line efforts, 3. Stand out in a dense marketplace as a sustainably & socially driven company, and 4. Be more attractive to impact investors.
Laissez le BON temps roulez : )
Hello friends! Hope your week is filled with good things happening : )
Two things that I'm really excited about this week: 1.The opportunity to receive a 250K small business grant 2. Matter is moving! So we're having a sale to help lighten our load - 20 % off tees + totes.
1. Have heard of the 250K grant 'mission: small business' grant being given to 12 businesses across the nation? Chase & Living Social are hosting it and in order to be considered as one of the grantees we first need 250 votes! We got a late start to the voting and currently have 77 votes, so we still have a ways to go to reach 250 by June 30. It's only 9 days away!!
The wonderful thing is if Matter were to receive this incredible grant we would in turn provide at least a 30K grant to Emily Manger Davis of Sweet Olive Soap Works [the cost of her new equipment]. Emily is the incredible soapmaker that we work with for BirdProject. Her business is right at the point where she needs to purchase new equipment to meet the great demand for her Nolamade goods! Voting for Matter also sends a vote for new equipment for Emily!
Matter would also give 3 NOLA businesses 10K to also help them grow! Upon receiving the mission small business grant, Matter then would accept submissions from local businesses to receive grants to grow or start their ventures! We will create an advisory board of Nola community leaders to select the three community businesses to give the grants to. Sharing is where it's at.
The rest, after taxes, would grow our business! This grant would aid us in moving Matter fully out of my home & into an inspiring workspace [see below], fund new product development for the next social good products, & hire additional employees! There is so much for Matter to do and I need to hire additional talented people to operate at our full potential. We would be so honored and invigorated to receive this incredible grant!! The most important thing is that it would accelerate the expansion of our product line, thus raising funding awareness for both new & current project partners!
Here are the instructions for voting:
1. Go to missionsmallbusiness.com click 'Log In & Support' and log in.
2. Search for our business by name 'Matter L3C' OR filter by our State and City: Lousiana, New Orleans
3. Click on the blue Vote button next to our business name to show your support for our business.
4. Thank you for your help!!!!
2. We are moving! The past year and a half BirdProject has occurred in my home, I am so excited to begin working in the lovely Civic Center space and with such wonderful people : ) If you need a tshirt or a recycled cotton tote, they are 20% off to help us lighten our load for the upcoming move! The discount code is 'MovingMatter20' at checkout
Thank you for your support and for all that you do! Â All my best, Tippy : )
Thrilled to see today's news that the B-Corp will soon be available for businesses in Louisiana! Such exciting news for social entrepreneurs and startups. The new law goes into effect August 15 & Louisiana is the 8th state to approve them!
A few weeks ago I was invited by the New Orleans Business Alliance to help testify in the House for this Bill's approval for passage, to then go on to the Senate. Local solar panel business, Joule, attended the following senate session to also testify in support of the Bill.
I met two members of NOBA to catch a ride up for the trip to Baton Rouge [my car needed a little pick me up]. It was a grey, stormy day & we needed to be there early in case the Bill was called first.
It was my first time to the art deco capitol & I believe also my first time to testify for a Bill's passage. We were lucky in that the Bill [HB 1178] was called pretty early & didn't have to wait the entire day. Although, I found the hearings interesting. The one prior to ours was a proposal to have all water pumps installed by a certified professional.. seems like a good idea.. and one that will become more political, especially as water becomes more precious in years soon to come..
Back to the B-Corp: All seemed to be in favor & it went quite smoothly. There was one question of a wary bent, which I was impressed with Walt Leger's response. The representative in somewhat opposition had asked his aides to do some research on Benefit Corporations. In doing so they found a blurb by the B-Lab [I think] stating that they would like to see all businesses eventually become B-Corps. The representative found this slightly offensive in that they would hence be taking over all other business structures I suppose. The jist of Mr. Leger's response was that he didn't see what would be wrong with that, if a business is doing good both financially and for the world, wouldn't it better if all businesses were doing that? I loved that response, especially said in the House of Representatives. Thank you.
My part essentially was to talk about being an L3C, how this had helped my business for social change, and how I thought businesses & communities would benefit with the option of a B-Corp in Louisiana. Also, how the L3C and B-Corp differ and how enticing it is to have both in Louisiana for new entrepreneurial ventures. I was thrilled to help!
Kudos to Walt Leger, the New Orleans Business Alliance, & Propeller for their work in bringing B-Corps to LA! Looking very forward to this exciting option!
... As part of the 'field trip' to the capitol, I also had to see the bullet holes still in the marble wall where Senator Huey Long was shot in 1935. Evidently they are now a little hidden behind a large statue, but still seen near the Governor's elevator.
New Orleans' Entrepreneur Week triple-filled NOLA with buzz & excitement from the generous kick off party at James Carville's home to the Water Challenge to the White House Forum to NOLAbound to Friday's grand finale event - the BigIdea, there was so much goodness going on, I can't wait til' NOEW 2013! Matter is thrilled to have been part of the BigIdea at Manning's - as 1 of 19 most promising New Orleans' startups. It was a pleasure to see good friends and meet new people there - as well as to compete for 50K! [Photo below: Ad for BigIdea in Times Picayune by IberiaBank]
Yesterday Matter was thrilled to attend Tulane's CPS Internship Fair  - excited to meet all of the passionate students and I look very forward to hearing from you! Would be wonderful to work with you via our summer & fall internships - please see all of the open internship descriptions here.
In developing Matter's pitch & presentation for the Big Idea event this Friday (come on out to support Matter!!), recommendations from a pitch coach included writing down Matter's process for product development and business. Please find this below, it was an enjoyable task : )
1. Identify social need.
- Â Â Â Â Â Â Must be relevant both locally and globally. This ensures the product is pertinent in more than one place and helps to solve shared issues, creating larger impact. Â In requiring this, we expand our addressable market and brand reach.
- Â Â Â Â Â Â Must be relevant to many people in scale, a BIG problem.
2. Find the poetic connection in the solution. This creates an enduring and substantive emotional connection between a person and a product.
Spend the time here - don’t rush it and don’t do anything close to anyone else’s products. Research, model, play, try & try again, test it with people, repeat if needed. Choose the sustainable technologies, materials, and collaborations that combine to create the most meaningful solution that clicks and makes real sense for the social need, product, and group.
3. Use only sustainable methods to create this solution.
4. Carry sustainability and ethics through ALL parts of the product. EXP: Work with local suppliers and manufacturers, use green materials, pay fair wages. Treat people well in business as you would treat people in your personal life. Matter embraces and holds this as inherent to and equally important as the actual product.
5. Be open in your process: blog, facebook, twitter
The path of each product is shared in goals, data, and processes as it progresses.
6. Enjoy the work. Collaborate, create and enrich community, and grow.
7. Partner with correlating, well researched group to donate % of net profits to & raise awareness, understanding, & exposure for the cause.
8. Create win-win-win collaborations, work hard, enjoy life, & sleep well.
Triple bottom line is where it’s at.
9. Communicate personally with customers, treat people as you like to be treated.
Create and build relationships with those who support Matter and its causes.
10. Spread the love of your work/products & share your news & learnings openly.
Mardi Gras, then Foburg, then Entrepreneur Week! [With all kinds of things tucked in between]! Wow, NOLA - what great energy! March 19 - 25, next year I will squeeze in SXSW also..
This weekend I'm excited about BirdProject being at The Front! Honored to be a part of this awesome, all-animal content show.
Spotted a nice article in Entrepreneur magazine today on L3C's - 'The new double bottom line' & Virginia is getting close to bring B-Corp's to its entrepreneurial citizens, I know a few who are chomping at the bit!
These posts will be dedicated to formulating the Batter which makes up MATTER, haha the rhyming is ridiculous and I like it.
MATTER's mission is to develop a sustainable and personal way of doing business. Once something becomes too large, the bottom line becomes the dollar - instead of the people involved and the matters at hand. In MATTER's products and business development - the people, the environment, and the needs at hand are the bottom line.
Do ideals and business really have to be separated? The search for happiness is not a new thing and highlighted in recent years - bankers turning to baking, people treasuring their homes and seeking lifestyles that merge with the environment, and finding the importance of making connections with people and nature in one's life.
I have started MATTER L3C in seeing the need for products that are designed to develop and fit with sustainable lifestyles as well as specifically for social needs at hand. I am also a complete information hog and love to find inspiration from all lines of topics, I will post these thoughts and findings here and would love to hear from you!
Two of my favorite and guiding principles in life, which I believe should be more frequent in business:
+ Einstein's definition of insanity:
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
+ Mahatma Gandhi - Be the change that you wish to see in the world. [We can do it!]
* photo by jefferyw on flickr
** your thoughts & feedback are welcomed here whether you agree or disagree!
Dear Universe,
Please help me to find this wonderful person or people to be a part of Matter.
Her or his qualities:
Please be a unique, inspiring, and intelligent individual who has skills different than mine while also having a heart and making decisions with that heart (not solely focused on large growth and profit). Skills and attributes such as being a financial maistro, an equity partner, and well connected to help Matter wisely & sustainably grow. Also, this person would be passionate about Matter’s mission to significantly create positive impact for our world’s most pressing problems and dedicated to triple bottom line business - Business for good.
I would also love to find a unique, lovely, and whip-smart person to thoughtfully and skillfully run Matter along in the day to day of the business. Most often this would include: Replying to emails, shipping orders, ordering and researching materials, and managing the books, all with care and thoughtfulness to details pretty please.
These two people would create such significant positive change for Matter and would also allow me to do what I do best most frequently, the creative thinking, research, and concept development. This would also allow me to be able to grow the consulting side of Matter, which would be a wonderful thing. I'd love for us to all to feel inspired, gratified, and enjoy working on Matter Projects.
Thank you for your help dear universe, I’m grateful for all that you have shared with me thus far, and I appreciate you.
With all my best and biggest thanks, Tippy Tippens, Chief Eternal Optimist, Matter Inc.
Â
Â
2013 was a challenging one and I am all the more determined to create a timeline for this year (and stick to it!!) allowing for lots of 'X-factor' time to meet/get well ahead of important deadlines throughout the year & creating new products at smart times. (Noticed these cool calendars on design milk, ordering a BIG one today for the studio!)
For the new year I'm also determined to take better care of myself, exercising more, more vino than beer, writing more, & allowing myself to take more regular breaks/relaxation. Part of this too is also allowing/creating more quiet, creative thinking time - and drawing. I really miss drawing & want to promise myself to let my creative mind wander, pen in hand more often. I've started protecting my morning time, when my creativity is at its best & leaving the nuts and bolts for later in the day.
Having enough money to do new projects is also a constant challenge, as part of my plan for the year I also want to tackle finding grants and indiegogo campaigns (earlier in the year) as part of my schedule and not an add on for evenings and weekends.
All in all, I'm grateful and excited for the year ahead. To begin, I'll be working more on three new topics which the three interns via Tulane's service learning - Sally, Taylor, & Elizabeth - made some great discoveries last semester on the following: Water, Bees, & Gun Violence.
I should get back to it, I hope that your year is starting off happily & wishing you all the best, cheers from NOLA!
We hit the highway early in the morning in order to be part of a press conference at the capital with Walt Leger & Tom Schedler, Secretary of State. I met up w/ my amigos Wes & Brian of Rouler to carpool in the new roulermobile, it was a real treat to hang with them & our fellow B-Corp buddies yesterday : )
Louisiana is the 9th state to pass Benefit Corporations in the nation! I am so energized by the new and good things ahead. Check the article here by Silicon Bayou News on B-Corps & impact investors. And here on the Benefit Corporation website to learn more about why they matter!
And the biggest thanks to Propeller, New Orleans Business Alliance w/ a special shout out to Joe Luchenta who instigated this great idea, B-LAB, House Representative Walt Leger, Mayor Landrieu, Tom Schedler secretary of state & to all of the law firms who made this possible! Thank you Baker Donelson & Fishman Haygood of New Orleans, very honored to be a part of this!
If you're curious, here are the major reasons that I wanted Matter to become a B-Corp: Â 1.Will help us best define and report on our environmental and social impacts, 2. Reinforce and protect our triple bottom line efforts, 3. Stand out in a dense marketplace as a sustainably & socially driven company, and 4. Be more attractive to impact investors.
Laissez le BON temps roulez : )
It was my first time to the art deco capitol & I believe also my first time to testify for a Bill's passage. We were lucky in that the Bill [HB 1178] was called pretty early & didn't have to wait the entire day. Although, I found the hearings interesting. The one prior to ours was a proposal to have all water pumps installed by a certified professional.. seems like a good idea.. and one that will become more political, especially as water becomes more precious in years soon to come..
Back to the B-Corp: All seemed to be in favor & it went quite smoothly. There was one question of a wary bent, which I was impressed with Walt Leger's response. The representative in somewhat opposition had asked his aides to do some research on Benefit Corporations. In doing so they found a blurb by the B-Lab [I think] stating that they would like to see all businesses eventually become B-Corps. The representative found this slightly offensive in that they would hence be taking over all other business structures I suppose. The jist of Mr. Leger's response was that he didn't see what would be wrong with that, if a business is doing good both financially and for the world, wouldn't it better if all businesses were doing that? I loved that response, especially said in the House of Representatives. Thank you.
My part essentially was to talk about being an L3C, how this had helped my business for social change, and how I thought businesses & communities would benefit with the option of a B-Corp in Louisiana. Also, how the L3C and B-Corp differ and how enticing it is to have both in Louisiana for new entrepreneurial ventures. I was thrilled to help!
Kudos to Walt Leger, the New Orleans Business Alliance, & Propeller for their work in bringing B-Corps to LA! Looking very forward to this exciting option!
... As part of the 'field trip' to the capitol, I also had to see the bullet holes still in the marble wall where Senator Huey Long was shot in 1935. Evidently they are now a little hidden behind a large statue, but still seen near the Governor's elevator.
In developing Matter's pitch & presentation for the Big Idea event this Friday (come on out to support Matter!!), recommendations from a pitch coach included writing down Matter's process for product development and business. Please find this below, it was an enjoyable task : )
1. Identify social need.
- Â Â Â Â Â Â Must be relevant both locally and globally. This ensures the product is pertinent in more than one place and helps to solve shared issues, creating larger impact. Â In requiring this, we expand our addressable market and brand reach.
- Â Â Â Â Â Â Must be relevant to many people in scale, a BIG problem.
2. Find the poetic connection in the solution. This creates an enduring and substantive emotional connection between a person and a product.
Spend the time here - don’t rush it and don’t do anything close to anyone else’s products. Research, model, play, try & try again, test it with people, repeat if needed. Choose the sustainable technologies, materials, and collaborations that combine to create the most meaningful solution that clicks and makes real sense for the social need, product, and group.
3. Use only sustainable methods to create this solution.
4. Carry sustainability and ethics through ALL parts of the product. EXP: Work with local suppliers and manufacturers, use green materials, pay fair wages. Treat people well in business as you would treat people in your personal life. Matter embraces and holds this as inherent to and equally important as the actual product.
5. Be open in your process: blog, facebook, twitter
The path of each product is shared in goals, data, and processes as it progresses.
6. Enjoy the work. Collaborate, create and enrich community, and grow.
7. Partner with correlating, well researched group to donate % of net profits to & raise awareness, understanding, & exposure for the cause.
8. Create win-win-win collaborations, work hard, enjoy life, & sleep well.
Triple bottom line is where it’s at.
9. Communicate personally with customers, treat people as you like to be treated.
Create and build relationships with those who support Matter and its causes.
10. Spread the love of your work/products & share your news & learnings openly.
These posts will be dedicated to formulating the Batter which makes up MATTER, haha the rhyming is ridiculous and I like it.
MATTER's mission is to develop a sustainable and personal way of doing business. Once something becomes too large, the bottom line becomes the dollar - instead of the people involved and the matters at hand. In MATTER's products and business development - the people, the environment, and the needs at hand are the bottom line.
Do ideals and business really have to be separated? The search for happiness is not a new thing and highlighted in recent years - bankers turning to baking, people treasuring their homes and seeking lifestyles that merge with the environment, and finding the importance of making connections with people and nature in one's life.
I have started MATTER L3C in seeing the need for products that are designed to develop and fit with sustainable lifestyles as well as specifically for social needs at hand. I am also a complete information hog and love to find inspiration from all lines of topics, I will post these thoughts and findings here and would love to hear from you!
Two of my favorite and guiding principles in life, which I believe should be more frequent in business:
+ Einstein's definition of insanity:
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
+ Mahatma Gandhi - Be the change that you wish to see in the world. [We can do it!]
* photo by jefferyw on flickr
** your thoughts & feedback are welcomed here whether you agree or disagree!