Katherine Messier | Mobile Beacon founder and executive director
Seven years ago, I founded Mobile Beacon to help nonprofit organizations maximize their impact with the greatest communication tool of our time, the internet. My vision was to empower nonprofits to work more efficiently with $10 per month anytime, anywhere internet access.
Those early years were some of the most intense of my life. Running a startup was an all-consuming undertaking. There wasn’t an aspect of our operations that I wasn’t personally involved in – from answering the phone, writing marketing copy and making cold calls to packaging and mailing equipment, running to the bank and answering technical-support questions.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is no matter how much of yourself you pour into your company, your organization is not an extension of you. The best example of this was realizing my initial vision for Mobile Beacon – helping nonprofits “mobilize their missions” with anytime, anywhere connectivity – was barely scratching the surface of the impact our nonprofit customers have in their communities.
For example, with the money saved by switching to our service, a rural health clinic was able to buy more medical supplies. A small nonprofit program said it could feed more children. Additionally, libraries are loaning out our mobile hotspots to enable people who can’t afford home internet the ability to “borrow the internet.” And mobile caseworkers are able to provide real-time services.
Fitting into a much larger mission than our own continues to be the most rewarding part of the journey.