In recent years, the city has become a hub for social entrepreneurs and startup companies. The new nonprofit, Generation Change Philly, has emerged to meet the needs of these businesses. Its mission is to help young people find jobs and wages that support the family. The organization is investing in five partnerships, which will explore unique challenges and opportunities in the community and make recommendations on how to improve the situation. In Philadelphia, efforts are focused on expanding the number of job opportunities available to young people.
The mission of Generation Change Philadelphia is to help young people in Philadelphia earn a high school diploma through work-based learning. It is a community-oriented and supportive place for young people to learn and grow. The company is a member of the Employment Opportunity Investment Network, a partnership of funders for workforce development in the Greater Philadelphia region. It also supports the Philadelphia Youth Network, which helps young people from low-income families gain skills, experience, and resources.
The Philadelphia Youth Network has helped needy young people in Philadelphia earn a high school diploma while gaining a work-based learning experience. The organization’s focus is on providing basic necessities, such as food and shelter, and connecting young people with career opportunities. These organizations are members of the Job Opportunity Investment Network (JOIN), a coalition of workforce development funders in the Philadelphia region that works to increase equity in the Philadelphia region. access to family support jobs. It also helps young people from low-income families gain skills, experiences, and work-based learning experiences.
Fortunately, the nonprofit sector in Philadelphia has seen significant growth in recent years. Many youth organizations lack the resources and expertise to provide comprehensive education and training for young people. As a result, they are struggling to provide wraparound services to help these young people thrive. The non-profit community is making great strides in improving the prospects of low-income residents. Its vision is to create a more effective and inclusive system that helps young people of color and low-income families access well-paying jobs.
Profit Sharer’s work is critical to the city’s future. The non-profit sector aims to create jobs, train and educate young people for life. Its mission is to improve the quality of life in Philadelphia by improving its communities. Founders should work to improve public schools and create more affordable housing. However, they need to be concerned about the impact of their work in the community. Nonprofits should also consider the impact on the city’s economy and its environment.
In addition to tackling poverty, the nonprofit sector supports programs that improve the lives of young people. Her work is important in increasing the number of young people in the community. Its mission is to create a better Philadelphia through the development of a strong workforce. By building a diverse community, Profit Sharer is able to reach more young people. They can also help improve the quality of public schools in the city.
Philadelphia’s nonprofit is one of the largest in the nation. The Founder’s vision is to help low-income residents of the city get a high-quality education and get a job. Its aim is to create a fairer workforce system in the city. In addition, this new venture will also benefit the city’s education and training sectors. They will develop workforces for the Philadelphia area.
The nonprofit Philadelphia community is also a critical partner in the Philadelphia Job Opportunity Investment Network. The partnership seeks to develop a collaborative workforce system in the Philadelphia area that increases the number of people with good jobs. By fostering these opportunities, Philadelphia’s nonprofit community is transforming the city into a vibrant center of innovation. The Founder will be able to identify and unite these organizations to meet the needs of its residents.
As a non-profit organization, it is crucial to build a community of volunteers in the neighborhood. The Profit Sharer is a member of several community organizations in Philadelphia. Currently, it is headquartered in the suburbs of the city. In this way, the organization has a diverse community of volunteer opportunities in the city. Its founders have a passion for the Philadelphia area. By giving back, the foundation will be able to support local organizations and make a difference in the lives of young people.
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December 9, 2021
About six years ago, when Wil Reynolds got his first multi-million dollar bid to buy his online search company, Seer Interactive, he faced a question that most others he was going to take it in stride: What would he do with $ 10 million?
People who said about the offer assured him it was “life-changing money.” So Reynolds thought about how his life might change: He could buy a bigger house, a second or a third, maybe in Rio, a city he likes, maybe some investment property. He and his family were able to fly on private jets around the world. He was able to walk away with a lot of cash, leaving behind the responsibility for most of the employees who now have over 200 who helped turn Seer into a huge success for another owner.
“It was very simple,” Reynolds says. “It simply came to our notice then. I will not raise my lifestyle. I’m fine where I am. “
“The things I was starting to do with that money I found too grotesque and indulgent and not aligned with my values,” says Reynolds. “I am not going to change my lifestyle. I’m fine where I am. “
So Reynolds, who started Seer in his living room 19 years ago, turned down that $ 10 million offer. And then, last year, he turned down another offer — for $ 50 million of $ 50 million that came to mind, “life-changing,” not even a joke.
Seer has already made Reynolds and his family rich in comfort. And the fact is that he does not want to spend his days doing anything but the work that has been so successful. The thought of how he was going to spend his greatness led Reynolds instead of realizing something that had become a bit of a mantra for him: He has had enough.
So instead of selling, doubling, spreading the wealth of his company to his employees through new minimum wages and profit sharing; spends money to encourage volunteering and charity among its workers and clients; and launch a determined effort to use Seer’s success to invest in the most needy in our community with an amount of $ 15 to $ 20 million over the next decade. This is because Reynolds is part of our Generation Change Philly, the new Citizen series in partnership with Keepers of the Commons about local visionaries, distractors and change makers.
SEO is—and can be—altruistic
“I run every morning, and I see a lot of pain in this city,” Reynolds says. “I live in North Liberty so I pass by Fishtown, Port Richmond, Kensington, I see people sleeping in their cars, stuck with heroin, struggling. I can’t be driven by all that, and then I won’t be more aggressive about how we will be part of the solution to that problem. I can’t live that life. “
One thing you need to make clear about Wil Reynolds from the beginning: He loves search engine optimization, what we refer to — when the rest of us refer to it — as SEO. That’s the term for behind-the-scenes technological magic that determines where companies appear on a page when they search for something on Google. Simply put: The higher the result on the page, the better. That’s why, perhaps not surprisingly, companies hire experts to see how to get them on top.
This is where Seer comes in. It markets itself as a “data-driven digital marketing agency,” helping customers ranging from small mom-and-pop stores to Fortune 500s reach more and more targeted potential customers when they do an online search. . . The firm’s growth speaks to its success: As noted in Fortune’s 2020 list of the city’s 100 fastest-growing indoor companies, Seer’s revenue grew by 127 in over four years, to $ 27 million in 2019, while the number of employees in its two offices — in the North. Liberties and San Diego — almost doubled.
Reynolds ’passion for SEO is partly due to the nature of SEO. For one thing, it’s deeply measurable, resonating with Reynolds ’competitive nature. “The beauty of the search is to get the numbers every day on how you’re going,” he says. “I love that level of responsibility.”
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That responsibility means that Reynolds’ work speaks for itself, so even as a black man who started his own technology business 20 years ago, he says he has faced little prejudice from potential clients. “Once I get the chance once, there’s a scorecard behind that,” he says. “Hiring people who don’t look like you becomes less important when I show you the portfolio of things I’ve been able to accomplish. Want to see what you did? Google this, that’s my client, my client, my client, boom. “
Well, Reynolds says, SEO is “altruistic”, like being an Internet monitor. (A concierge, by the way, is what Reynolds says he would be if not an SEO entrepreneur.) “I think it’s really cool that I get to work in a job where I get to help people find the thing they’re looking for. “I like to connect people to solutions that can solve their problems.”
Still, Reynolds did not come out into the world with the intention of being a search engine entrepreneur. A native of South Jersey, he grew up with parents who were a “perfect combination of DNA,” as he aptly describes it in an episode of the Hope Strategy podcast earlier this year: his father was a “hustler.” well-being; he never knew his own father, and he had three brothers, two of whom died of overdoses, while his mother died of cirrhosis. “The humility for me is to have a parent who is raised on welfare,” Reynolds says. “I realize you have to judge people by how far they’ve come, not where they are.”
Reynolds’ mother, meanwhile, is “super refined;” pushes him to exhibit, for example, appropriate manners on the table so that, especially being Black, people will not be able to judge him for poor behavior. It’s still “his biggest box to check.” “I want to make my mother proud,” he says. “Would you rather be proud of a company worth 100 million or 300 million? Le. ”
“I think we can show people what is possible. If I tell people to do business differently, and sell my own business, they’re like, Yeah sure Wil, you don’t do that, I can’t do that, “says Reynolds.” Every day I’m an operator who I do these things, I show people that this is bullshit, and that it is possible to do that and I build these values within these organizations. “
Like so many successful entrepreneurs, Reynolds as a child has already exhibited many of the same sophisticated values that Seer brings. When he delivered newspapers in middle school, he always knew his clients and was careful to make sure they got their papers in the easiest way; which led to great advice. As a computer-obsessed high school student, he got a job at Staples; when management would not allow him to sell them, he printed out business cards and handed them out to customers who might need help setting up their machines at home. In college, he worked in an Amazon store, which gave him a window into the world of mass work that the Internet fosters. Reynolds taught school for a few years, until his passion for computers led him into the world of technology, where he fell into internet marketing.
Reynolds says he never wanted to run his own business; he felt he had no choice. In his first aughts, while working at AON Reynolds he asked his boss if he could work through the meal one day a week so he could leave early for his shift as a volunteer at the Children’s Hospital of AON. ‘Philadelphia, a role that was increasingly important to him. She told him it was not possible. Already, Reynolds felt that the company was not in line with his values, and had been looking for a new job for several months. (“The number of companies that have tried to buy me that I didn’t agree with is insane,” he laughs.) That was the last straw.
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With Seer, Reynolds tried to build a workplace that was the opposite of what he had experienced in those early years in technology. At first, he kept his team super small, so he could stay deeply connected to everyone who worked for him. About 10 years ago, however, he realized that limited size was also limiting his employees: It meant putting aside jobs that could help them learn, grow, stay engaged, and challenge him to be better. Seer now has about 215 employees — with 25 openings — about half of them in San Diego because Reynolds was unable to find enough skilled workers here during the company’s biggest hiring boom.
During the pandemic, of course, both company offices were emptied, and the bikosta team spread even further. Now, Seer is becoming a “first-rate” company, with 85 percent of all remote-run business. In part, this is a reaction to Seer’s reality: With two offices, the company already has colleagues collaborating on projects from different cities, so it’s not a huge change; and a ubiquitous employment policy allows Reynolds to employ the best people for job openings, no matter where they live.
But it’s also part of an employee-centric Seer culture that Reynolds hopes to delve deeper into his business. As part of the new first remote policy, for example, no one is allowed to be in the same meeting room in person, if someone else is joining remotely because if everyone is connecting via Zoom, then no one don’t be odd. man outside. “I’m willing to accept that potentially not being so collaborative to prevent second-class status for people who are remote,” says Reynolds. “I want everyone to be empathetic to distance.”
Seer is also doubling the culture of volunteerism and charity that are key to the company’s origins, starting with Reynolds and his closest associates. Two of the company’s long-time executives are people Reynolds met through work at Covenant House, a shelter for homeless seniors. “I was out in the world doing some good and they fell in front of me,” he says. “When you’re doing a good job, people want to connect with other good people. That’s what people often overlook. “
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Each new Seer customer receives a $ 500 donation on their behalf to a charity of their choice because, says Reynolds, “we need to strengthen our customers in the sense that this dirt is important, too.” Instead of holiday bonuses, the company donates about $ 50,000 in donations to employee lawsuits, and another $ 30,000 to charities on behalf of clients. Each month, the company donates $ 1,000 to employee charities that have spent time volunteering; Reynolds is working on adding next year by pushing employees to spend more time giving back, for example, linking regular company donations to the number of hours they have volunteered.
“We don’t just want team members to distribute the money,” Reynolds says. “We want to get back to our roots around volunteering and give time to communities that need companies like ours to add to the bad.”
Seer also plans to hire the company’s first community impact director, whose job will be to help focus Seer’s charitable efforts on a few particular areas of need in Philadelphia and San Diego. Currently, he is thinking of basic needs, such as Covenant House; veterans, returning citizens and immigrants. All of this will cause Seer to have an impact of $ 15 million to $ 20 million on communities over the next 10 years, including about half in Philadelphia.
Sharing the wealth
“We have a sizable thing here on Seer,” Reynolds says. “It simply came to our notice then. I need to put a flag on the ground and say what Seer’s commitment to our community will be in the next 10 years. ”
As the sole owner of Seer, Reynolds has the right to accept or reject any offer of sale from the company, which these days amounts to about two to three per week from various entities. But he is not the only one who benefits if and when he decides to sell. Currently about 40 percent of Seer is owned by employees, selected by Reynolds, who have “phantom equity” shares in the company; Reynolds says he has up to 25 percent more to give as the company grows. This means that those shareholders get a cut from any money that comes from the sale of the business.
It also means they lost when Reynolds refused to sell. In other words, “If you never sell, never take a shit,” Reynolds notes.
“It was an interesting conversation, as you can imagine,” says Larry Waddell, Seer’s executive vice president, digital, who has been with the company for more than nine years. But, says Waddell, it was also the right decision, not just for Reynolds, but for Seer. The company, which Waddell says has seen 50 percent growth year after year, doesn’t need the money to grow, like some startups. And its unique culture does not benefit financial owners who interfere with the way they run their business — including, says Waddell, re-employment contracts if they no longer benefit customers.
“In business, you don’t have to be right all the time, but you have to be right rather than wrong. The man is more right than wrong, ”says Waddell. “He is living a life that is good for him and his family. From my point of view, where we will create more value. We don’t need foreign capital to do that. “
For the rest of the “ghost” shareholders, sticking to Reynolds means deliberately deciding to go along with his vision for Seer; the day of the great payment may yet come, but how it will end, as Waddell says, is unclear. What is clear to him is that losing the power given to him as CEO of Seer would also mean losing something fundamental to Reynolds: the ability to change the world.
“In business, you don’t have to be right all the time, but you have to be right rather than wrong. The man is more right than wrong, ”says Waddell. “He is living a life that is good for him and his family. From my point of view, where we will create more value. We don’t need foreign capital to do that. “
Meanwhile, Seer is sharing wealth with its employees through a bonus program launched this year that distributes the company’s profits to each employee every six months. (Waddell notes that if he had sold to a foreign firm, much of that money would have gone up instead.) The first batch of bonuses, worth $ 1.4 million, came out over the summer, with higher amounts go to phantom shareholders. , according to their number of shares; Reynolds expects February distribution to be around $ 1.6 million.
And in November, Reynolds announced that Seer would set a minimum wage of $ 65,000 per employee — even the cleaning lady of the company, who is an employee of Seer, with all her generous benefits. As I wrote on a LinkedIn post about the change:
Yes my Financial will look bad for a few years, still worth it
Yes Some people may be pissed, still worth it.
Yes Now we have 30 new questions to solve, still worth it.
Yes I ran my assessment for the next few years, still worth it.
Reynolds says he was inspired by Dan Price, the millionaire owner of Gravity Payments in Seattle who famously reduced his salary by about 90 percent to ensure that everyone who worked for him has a minimum of $ 70,000 in -sena. (“It’s a little altruistic even for me,” says Reynolds, “but at the end of the day, a man puts his money where his mouth is.”
This follows the benefits of last year’s Seer pandemic extended to employees early on, when government assistance was lagging behind. Reynolds opened a $ 150,000 fund and distributed $ 1,500 stipends to 100 employees who lost their jobs to help them survive. Seer also turned one floor of the office into a “Camp Seer” play area, with games, movies, snacks and a ball pit so families could have a place to go during the winter pandemic.
Reynolds is the first to admit that all this is difficult, and sometimes still not enough to satisfy employees; these bonuses and minimum wages are still new, and Reynolds says they are still evaluating the best way to spend the profits he decided to share with staff. But the ethos stands: So business owners can run their own business, with their eyes set on sharing wealth, knowing when enough is enough for themselves and their families.
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Reynolds, who has been on the board of Philly Startup Leaders, is known to have talked little with other entrepreneurs about his great success; that story, of creating a coveted tech startup, taking a fee and going happy at sunset, is paved with too much grandiosity and, frankly, falsehoods for him to perpetuate.
But he started blogging, writing posts on LinkedIn and talking about — and, most importantly, showing by example — what it means to say no to that big pay and yes to a change in the normal way of doing things. business. That’s the decent thing to do, and it should end there.
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