The following is a re-post from my friend Thad about some of the back story on MooLaLa. MooLaLa is a new discount buying option levergaing social media that not only gives you great deals like Groupon & Living Social but also pays you a percentage when friends in your network buy those same great deals. I share this with his gracious permission as taken from his blog www.thadthoughts.com
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I really think Moolala will become a success. I have told friends that Moolala is a disruptive viral economic model, and I believe that.
But if you want to really understand the motivation behind giving away 10% of revenue to the networks of friends that are members of Moolala, you really cannot do so without understanding the faith dynamic involved. Not faith in any sort of generic sense, but the Christian faith in specific.
Tony Dale grew up in Taiwan, the son of British missionaries who went to China to work with Watchman Nee. After the communist revolution in China, the elder Dales took their brood to Taiwan. Tony’s father was a physician, and that was a very great influence in a choice of careers for Tony after he completed high school at Taiwan’s Morrison Christian Academy.
Tony met his wife Felicity during university days (medical school) in London. They both trained as medical doctors, and following med school they worked in East London, providing medical care to the poor. They conceived of a ministry model involving physicians who would minister to the whole man, not simply the physical needs. As I mentioned in another post, the believe this ministry idea was so compelling that they moved their young family from home in the UK, to Austin, Texas in 1989.
But the failure of the idea to come to realization didn’t cause them to return to their home. No, it forced them to their knees for long years, and after different jobs, they launched a company called The Karis Group in 1996 from their home. I work at The Karis Group today, and can attest that we take seriously the Dale’s desire to assist uninsured and underinsured individuals, and we do so with much success. Tony is a strong believer in the inherent benefits of a market economy, believing that the God given talents of people should used to generate both a living and wealth for the individual (this is my interpretation of what I have heard Tony say in multiple settings).
So how does this impact Moolala, you ask? The vision to be both helpful to people while tapping the creativity of people, and to reward them thusly, is what has pushed Jon and Matt Dale. Matt Dale told me before Thanksgiving 2010, “We want Moolala to give away more money than any other company in history”.
Note that they don’t want to follow the model of Warren Buffett or Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerburg, as admirable as their intentions are in wanting to give away their wealth. The Dales believe strongly in the strength of weak ties, and, more importantly, they believe in the value of social relationships.
No, Moolala is not about concentrating great sums of money in the hands of (hopefully) altruistic people. It is about reorienting the economic framework around consumer purchasing. It is about creating value, again, in the relationships people have with other people. It’s like Groupon marries MaryKay and has this incredibly altruistic entrepreneurial child named Moolala.
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Thanks, Thad, for the insight! To learn more about MooLaLa, click here! Watch the video, sign-up free. Nothing to lose. Only gain! I am an independent member for MooLaLa and you can be, too, via this link!
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