Twitter Colleagues: Melissa & Mike meet in Person for 1st Time

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In April after 1.5 years of trying, and failing, to launch a good website probono, twitter changed Ayllu’s ‘life.’ We learned how to use wordpress and in reading ‘how to blog’ articles, Melissa saw that twitter seemed important, so she created an account. Then everything changed. We put out good content so people ‘retweeted’ (forwarded) it. Soon we had lots of followers and our reputation grew. We were featured on other blogs and later asked to write for Beyond Profit Magazine and NextBillion. Most notably, twitter introduced Mike (@soccapital) to Melissa (@melissaricher). Mike began volunteering virtually…this is the story of how we met online and in person!

We strategically asked tourists and NOT New Yorkers to take this photo in Grand Central.

Mike Shoemaker:

I work everyday with people I’ve never met in person.  It’s entirely common in today’s world of virtual commuters and geographically dispersed workforces. You have virtual introductions over phone or email, followed by conference call after conference call, email after email. If you’re lucky, one day you may finally have the opportunity to meet face-to-face.  In the meantime, you better figure out how to make it work.

Meeting Melissa at The Feast, however, was a different scenario altogether.  We didn’t meet through a mutual acquaintance or based on the recommendation of a friend or colleague. There was no org chart or business process or other association forcibly linking us together; no “excuses” for having spent hours on the phone and over email discussing Ayllu and its direction. In true 21st century style, we met through Twitter based solely on a mutual interest in bringing social enterprise to communities around the world.

I’m making it sound very idealistic, but the great irony here is that  there were no external forces stopping our New York “reunion” from being a total disaster. I could have turned out to be an overbearing control freak, or I could have found Melissa to be entirely neurotic, and there would have been nothing stopping us from parting paths right then and there.

Obviously that didn’t happen. In fact, it couldn’t have been more opposite. We didn’t miss a beat, picking up our first in-person conversation right where we had hung up the phone a couple of days before, and we spent the next several days charting out Ayllu’s course for the coming twelve months.

All in all, a pretty amazing experience.

Melissa Richer

Mike flew into NYC for The Feast Conference, and then we worked for 2 days on consolidating the progress that was made in Brazil into a pilot and pitch. Leading up to the big meet, lots of people had expressed skepticism. I’ll admit, the night before he arrived I didn’t sleep very well; I tried to ignore doomsday scenarios flashing through my head (this actually happened: In one dream Mike had a Darth Vader costume and said ‘Melissa, I am your Failer’).

Actually, meeting was easy. I felt like a high roller at The Feast with Mike by my side, even without any dice (funding) yet. The next 2 days we got to imagine ourselves as corporative executives in the conference room overlooking South Manhattan that was graciously provided to us by a Board Member. This high-rise office with highly awesome uniball pens helped us think about high-impact change.

We had a blast working together – both of us like coffee and pacing, and I had a glimpse of what it would be like if I had a full-time business partner (it felt like going from stone age productivity to space age).

If you don’t make friends on twitter, you should. Mike and I met so many people at the feast who we know by avatars (twitter pictures) and twitter names (like @montero, @endeavoringe, @beunreasonable). I wonder what twitter will serve up next?

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