TIMELINE OF THE PROJECT
In its 19 monts of existence, IdeasLux has evolved from an unexpected idea into a viable startup with microenterprise certification and a few successful ventures, which give it credibility and leveraging for future plans. This is a chronological synthesis of what was accomplished thus far.
- Original idea to create a fundraising project is born. The original idea was to be specifically partnered with medical-related NGOs.
August 2015
September 2015
- Operation Smile is singled out as a good option for a partnership based on their engagement in Brazil, tradition, reputation, and openness to new partners.
October 2015
- The American School of Rio de Janeiro hosts the annual South American Global Issues Network (GIN) conference on October 22nd-24th, which incentivizes upper school students to brainstorm local solutions to the 20 global problems delineated in a book called High Noon. As part of the organization team, Erik Novak recruited 22 NGOs for one of the event fairs, which was his first close contact with nonprofits.
- Operation Smile is approached during the fair to introduce the idea.
December 2015
- Further contact is established with Operation Smile, with plans for 2016 being furthered.
- For a principal fundraising avenue, given the market growth of food trucking events, it is decided that building a philanthropic food bike would be original, trendy and effective, and eliminate the high initial capital investment of a food truck.
- The fundraising idea is revamped due to an increase in the magnitude of the project. The original, more personal feel is substituted by a more corporate and internationalized identity.
- The American School of Rio de Janeiro selects Erik Novak as its core applicant for the Global Citizens Youth Summit, a selective project incubator 9-day program for social entrepreneurship, for him to develop the project professionally.
January 2016
- A functional food bike is built by hand as a first prototype.
- A company name for the fundraising initiative, IdeasLux Philanthropic Initiatives, is decided upon
- An adequate logo is created.
February 2016
- The startup is officially founded March 2nd, ahead of participation in the first larger-scale event at Trezena.
- The partnership with Operation Smile is officialized. The project name becomes “I also want to smile”.
- The event is highly successful, and pointed the flaws that the food bike had while also validating the idea. The biggest issue was the lack of professional appeal and storage space regarding the vehicle.
March 2016
- A professional food bike is commissioned by Evolux (a special vehicles manufacturer).
- The financial investment is covered partly by crowdfunding campaigns online, partly with the assistance of Operation Smile, and partly from Evolux lowering prices to help the cause.
- Erik Novak is accepted into the Global Citizens Youth Summit program.
April 2016
- The American School of Rio de Janeiro commissions an 100-sandwich catering service to support “I also want to smile”. Their support finances one full surgery.
June 2016
- A search for partners to engage in punctual fundraising projects with results in an engagement with Naam Yoga, who had just started a fundraising campaign to purchase a new international headquarters in Los Angeles.
- The project is originally brainstormed as a keynote speech by Erik Novak meant to inspire 300 yoga practitioners at the annual Naam Yoga Divine Spiritual Alchemy Retreat in Los Cabos, Mexico, in August 2016.
- The idea was to demonstrate that small individual contributions can cause significant group impact if all participate.
July 2016
August 2016
- The Global Citizens Youth Summit, occuring from July 30th to August 7th, is an excellent opportunity for IdeasLux to increase its corporate identity and plan next steps in Design Thinking fashion.
- A vision, mission statement, timeline and future projects files become the guiding principles of the initiative, now branded as a startup.
- Upon reaching Los Cabos on August 8th, Erik Novak decides to change the original project with Naam Yoga into a practical representation that individuals can make a difference.
- Instead of conducting a keynote speech, the project morphed into the selling of symbolic pens for at least 10 dollars each, nicknamed “Don’t Forget your pen” with proceeds headed to the Naam House campaign, to show that with a large enough participation, a difference could be made. The pens were originally going to be given out after the lecture.
- Between August 9th and August 11th, 198 pens were sold, with several being purchased for quantities much larger than $10 (one was purchased for $1,000). The total fundraised value was 4,426 dollars.
- Evolux delivers the professional food bike. However, a few minor technical difficulties stall total functionality by another month.
September 2016
- Two small, day-long events guarantee the bike’s functionality while raising money for “I also want to smile”.
- Research into possible events for the full inauguration of the bike yields Babilônia Feira Hype in December as an excellent opportunity.
- Contact is established with Casa Arte Vida via a mutual contact, for future projects.
October 2016
November 2016
- The organizers of the fair are approached at another iteration of the event and become interested in the idea of a philanthropic food vendor in their fair.
- A further encounter blesses IdeasLux with Hype’s decision to annul all registration costs for its food bike stall due to the philanthropic nature of the initiative.
- Panetones and cake are selected as the menu for the highly vendor specialized fair (with over 50 exhibitors) due to the Christmas theme and low ingredient costs.
- On December 16th and 17th, the professional food bike participated in its first large-scale event, Babilônia Feira Hype.
- The novelty of the idea and effectiveness of the bike in attracting attention during the fair elicited some spontaneous media coverage.
- The American School of Rio de Janeiro recognized the participation at Babilônia Feira Hype by publishing one of the media press releases in their weekly bulletin.
- On December 23rd, Operation Smile entrusted IdeasLux with the distribution of thank you gifts to their six corporate sponsors in Rio de Janeiro. Thus, the gifts were not coming directly from Operation Smile, but as IdeasLux in the name of Operation Smile, which was an incredible vote of confidence by the NGO.
December 2016
January 2017
- On January 21st, Naam Yoga LA invited Erik Novak to become a founding member of its fundraising committee, which enabled planning for future, even more impacting punctual fundraising campaigns with Naam Yoga.
- The organizers of Babilônia Feira Hype invited IdeasLux to participate, under similar tariff-free conditions, of its next edition in March. This will guarantee, if all works out, a consistent and significant source of cash flows for the Operation Smile partnership.
- The IdeasLux logo lightbulb had its copyright officially authorized.
- Operation Smile invited Erik Novak to represent Brazil in an annual leadership summit in Rome, Italy, July 17th - 24th, the International Student Leadership Conference.