Every new company draws its inspiration from ideas and concepts that have come before them. Here are some of the people we admire and have influenced our business model.

Clayton Christensen – Author: “The Innovators Solution”, Speaker, Consultant

Clayton M. Christensen is the architect of and the world’s foremost authority on disruptive innovation, a framework which describes the process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves ‘up market’, eventually displacing established competitors. Consistently acknowledged in rankings and surveys as one of the world’s leading thinkers on innovation, he provides unique insight into the power of a disruptive idea.

Pierre Omidyar – Founder and Chairman of E-Bay

Mr. Omidyar conceived E-Bay as the fulfillment of a democratic vision: the perfect market. He envisioned a market where the interconnectivity of the internet would empowers individuals to sell directly to other individuals on terms established by the participating parties. Through his ingenuity and leadership E-Bay became a free market, a community where anyone could buy or sell from anyone else. The individual could be both buyer and producer. He developed a worldwide community that policed itself and through communication resolved disputes inhibiting present and future transactions. In the process, Mr. Omidyar became one of the richest men on the planet. He later created the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm committed to creating and fostering opportunity for people around the world most in need of path way to self-sufficiency. Omidyar Network's work is based on the belief that business can create extraordinary opportunity and value, and that market-based solutions can generate significant social returns. The Network recognizes that sustainability, innovation, and scale are the hallmarks of the private sector that are critical to addressing the global challenges humans face today.

The Dalai Lama – Author, Head of Tibetan Government in Exile, Spiritual Leader

In some ways the Dalai Lama manifests many of the characteristics of the ideal brand. He enjoys worldwide recognition, has sustained and unquestionable customer loyalty, and maintains consistency of message throughout numerous and diverse communication platforms. He delivers a message and product that millions have endorsed and advocate. He has done so without compromising his standards or the quality of his product. He is consistently growing his audience and communicating his message in ways that finds resonance across cultures and generations. Nike, Pepsi and Microsoft might all find the Dalai Lama’s effective communication strategy worthy of deeper study.

Howard Rheingold: Author and Digital Visionary

His 2002 book Smart Mobs, which presaged Web 2.0 in predicting collaborative ventures like Wikipedia, was the outgrowth of decades spent studying and living life online. An early and active member of the Well (he wrote about it in The Virtual Community), he went on to cofound HotWired and Electric Minds, two groundbreaking web communities, in the mid-1990s. Now active in Second Life, he teaches, writes and consults on social networking. Howard is illuminating and illustrating the way forward for collaborative networks. His observations are technology agnostic and point to the potential inherent in collaborative action for solving global human problems.

Yochai Benkler: Writer, Educator, Internet Thinker

Yochai Benkler has been called "the leading intellectual of the information age." He proposes that volunteer-based projects such as Wikipedia and Linux are the next stage of human organization and economic production. Time Magazine says: "He has become an unlikely business guru, with a shop at the intersection of Commerce and Cooperation."

As our world changes and traditional media institutions are shaken to the core, visionaries like Professor Benkler points the way forward.

Clay Shirky: Educator, Author of “Here Comes Everybody”

Clay is another very effective voice in pointing out how the internet has helped unleash the disruptive and productive power of collaborative networks. He lectures about how collaboration is a force that can and is being applied to create new economic realities in the modern world. His TED lecture on Institutions vs. Collaboration is very illuminating.