As a part of our Lift Your Spirit series, we like to introduce you to innovative people and ideas. We find these people and what they do to be inspiring, so we sit down with them and ask them about their creative spirit. We hope you find your spirit lifted in reading about what inspires their work and ideas.
Imagine a world in which the solutions to real life problems could be directly shared with the governing forces. Enter CitizenLab with the brilliant idea of “citizen-sourcing,” proposing that citizens have valuable ideas that can help to improve their communities. The result is a civic engagement platform that helps to connect the valuable ideas of citizens to their cities. We are truly inspired by the CitizenLab team’s entrepreneurial spirit and innovative solutions! Aline, one of CitizenLab’s co-founders, was kind enough to spend time with us to discuss the startup and what inspires her.
Changing the City… Through Citizensourcing
-What inspired you to get involved with civic engagement?
My cofounder and I have been living in Brussels for about four years now and we love it. We started to think about how we could improve it. In our travels, we saw nice things in other cities that we wanted to bring to Brussels. Then, we began to think about how we could communicate with the government. We wanted to be personally involved, but didn’t have time to attend events. Technological improvements can empower the government, but it doesn’t use it much.
-What do you think is the most valuable tool that CitizenLab can offer?
CitizenLab is a co-creation platform. You can see what this means by trying our demo in a fictive city at demo.citizenlab.co. Citizens have the power to vote on ideas! This being said, I think that citizensourcing, or asking for input from citizens, is our most valuable tool. The intelligence and creativity in a city are unused, and citizensourcing lets us use the wisdom of the citizens.
With an Entrepreneurial Spirit
-What were some of the challenges you encountered when developing CitizenLab?
We started CitizenLab when we were travelling through Asia for 3 months. We were both still studying during this time; I was at the end of my masters in Business trying to learn more digital skills. We both had our laptops and spent time coworking. Our idea for CitizenLab came in the first week, and we started working on it immediately!
One of the beginning challenges was definitely finding internet. With travelling, we had some focus because our friends and family weren’t there to distract us, but there was a lot of moving and trying to find new places to stay and work from. In the end, we made fast progress and the platform was ready in a month.
My co-founder then went to Tokyo for an exchange program and I went to Ethiopia for my thesis. In October, the four of us, we were separated all over the world and this was definitely a challenge. It was also difficult to find a pilot city– it’s a long sales cycle.
-Do you have any advice for those with an entrepreneurial spirit in getting started with an idea?
It depends on the idea. Our context is a tech startup, so I would say definitely learn a little bit of coding. If you know coding, you can develop a website and something to show people while you are making progress. My co-founder knows a lot more coding than me and he was able to build our application.
In general, focus on your startup. Build your MVP as soon as possible so you can validate your program or idea. You can move a lot faster if you have something to show people, something tangible.
-What is the most rewarding experience that you’ve had while working on CitizenLab?
When people can relate to our idea and are excited and enthusiastic, it’s very rewarding. For us, at the end of September, we received seed funding from iMind’s iStart.light program. This gave us a lot of room to experiment as well as pay some expenses.
Last week, we had our own booth for 3 days at the Smart City Expo in Barcelona. We were able to meet together and see eachother, which was rewarding personally. We also saw other people and made some great contacts. In our conversations, we learned that there was a clear need for our product!
-What are some of the pros and cons of your team working remotely?
I’ll start with the cons! Time zones are very hard to work with. At one point, we were working with an 8-hour difference between Tokyo and Belgium. We use Slack to communicate ideas with each other, and would wake up and see lots of messages of things to be done and new thoughts. Working remotely, you don’t have the same funny moments like you would in person, but we try to have a little fun still!
For the pros, it forces you to become effective communicators. I like to talk to people, but I’ve learned how to effectively communicate what I am doing and what I did in written form.
Lift Your Spirit
– In regards to your work, what lifts your spirit?
Positive feedback from citizens and cities. I love the enthusiasm! I also really enjoy building something for and with people.
8. How does coffee lift your spirit when you work?
For me, coffee is equal to having a break. I can take a step back from my work for a moment. In the 3 months this summer that we were working together, coffee was a way to discuss things in a quiet way. It’s a fun moment, especially now in the winter when you need something warm!