Status update 8 – Day 113/139

The summer has arrived and for the first time it feels that this project is actually going to end one day. A lot has happened and a lot keeps happening all the time but unfortunately sometimes behind closed curtains.

Here are some current milestones:

• I just hit the 100 found items mark today on FinderBase. This raises a question on what to do with a basket full of lost&found stuff? What would be the best way to recycle the stuff to reasonable use? NetCycler, Huuto.net, Kierrätyskeskus, charity?
• FinderBase just hit the 1,000 found items mark! We could soon be one of the biggest lost and found offices in Finland.
• Last week we got 3000 hits on one lost item alone.
• It’s safe to say about 100,000 Finns have seen our brand in the media one way or another.

Now that we’ve been in business for a month we can already say something about the business we’re in. Some observations:

• We’re in societal business. We don’t expect anyone to actually pay us for anything and believe that will pay us in the end.
• We’re in trust-building business. Our success is decided on whether people trust us or not.
• We’re in value-creation business. Putting even a worthless object on our website raises it value, as weird as it sounds.

It’s a funny business. And I love it.