Mateo: What if we volunteered once
a week over the course of a month to

create a new home or to do a clothing
drive, to donate a lot of clothes?

Like there are so many more opportunities
to create a deeper impact if we're

able to strengthen the connection
with nonprofits and companies.

I think that would be the long
term vision once we're able to, I

guess, get our feet off the ground,

Raphaël: That's super cool.

Yeah, I hadn't thought of it that way,
but it is like, it's almost like what

you're providing is like dipping your
toe into the water and then there's this

opportunity after that to really dig in.

and how did you get to this
point in your life, your career?

Like what, what led you
to start this company?

Mateo: it was during the pandemic,
me and a few friends not having

much to do over the summer.

we said, hey, why not,
build a volunteer website?

And that's where I met my co founder,
Alex, who helped us basically build

out our directory of different
organizations you could volunteer with.

And what started out as initial, like a
side project, when we started working with

different high schools to help students
fulfill their graduation requirements.

That's when we started, like, licensing
an actual product and turning it into,

like, from a side project into a company.

Raphaël: Hey folks, and welcome to
another episode of the small tech podcast.

I'm your host Raph, and we've got
another wonderful guest today.

He is Mateo Jeanneau, the CEO and co
founder of Keen to Help, the company that

makes it easy to help your community.

They connect companies and their
employees with volunteering opportunities.

One of the ways they do that is
with these really neat boxes that

companies can order, and which create
a really cool team building exercise.

But even better, is that what comes out of
that exercise is actually something that

is useful and valuable to a non profit.

I first connected with Mateo's co
founder, Alex, a little while ago

around the idea of of measuring impact.

Eventually that turned into some
conversations about Keen to Help

and I thought it'd be really cool
to talk about it on the podcast.

I learned a lot from Mateo about launching
a company during COVID, transitioning

from a side project into a company,
and testing product assumptions.

I really enjoyed the conversation,
and I hope you do too.

Hey, Mateo.

How's it going?

Mateo: Doing well.

How about yourself?

How are you doing

Raphaël: Yeah, I am doing all right.

Um, so I just want to dive
right into it , how about you

tell me what is Keen to Help?

Mateo: Yeah, absolutely.

So, um, Keen to Help.

we make it easy to help your community.

So, we've worked with a few different
groups, but we narrowed in on companies

and helping you plan the ideal
corporate event for your employees.

So, helping you get engaged with
different causes and different activities

that you can do together as a team,
that's going to enable you to give

back to the community and also have
a great time doing it, basically.

Raphaël: Awesome.

That's, uh, that's super cool.

And how did you get to this
point in your life, your career?

Like what, what led you
to start this company?

Mateo: Yeah, absolutely.

So, I mean, it was during the
pandemic, me and a few friends not

having much to do over the summer.

And we said, hey, why not,
build a volunteer website?

And that's where I met my co founder,
Alex, who helped us basically build

out our directory of different
organizations you could volunteer with.

And what started out as initial, like a
side project, when we started working with

different high schools to help students
fulfill their graduation requirements.

That's when we started, like, licensing
an actual product and turning it into,

like, from a side project into a company.

And from schools, we've now, we've helped
basically, like, over a dozen schools and

more than 2, 000 students, um, volunteer.

And, um, are now trying to take what we
less like, what we learned with the school

environment and applying it to different,
um, companies across Canada and the U.

S.

Raphaël: cool.

So do I understand correctly that when
you first started to do this, it was

just like a, kind of like a side project?

Yeah,

Mateo: of boredom and like me having an
internship and all summer plans lined

up and having everything just go to
zero, like during lockdown, everything

getting canceled and being like, Oh, wow.

Okay.

What am I, what am I going
to do with my summer now?

Like, how can I be productive?

And yeah, I'm glad it turned
into that and didn't end up

with me just like being lazy.

Not doing anything, you know, I guess.

Raphaël: yeah, totally.

Um, with that in mind, I'm kind of
curious, like, what, what did you,

like, how do you manage that transition
from like, Oh, this is just like

a side project that I'm doing to.

Oh, like, let's turn this into a company.

Let's turn it into a real product.

Mateo: Yeah, that's a,
that's an excellent question.

I think number one thing is like delusion,
especially at that age of being like,

Oh, like I can actually make this
huge company that's gonna like connect

millions and millions of volunteers and
holding on to that vision for dear life.

I think over the years now I've realized
like what it actually takes and, um,

more of the challenge now that I didn't
realize at the beginning, which is like,

Kind of gave me that ignorance to really
just say, okay, go, like, I'll go for it.

Um, but I think more than that, it's
like the support of the people around

me, whether that's my family and friends
that like give me the confidence to

then know that if I, if I fail, and
even if I've like put like multiple

years now into it, and that doesn't
work, that I'm not going to be like.

Viewed as a, as failure.

Cause I know that my friends
and my family will still support

me no matter what, I guess.

Raphaël: That's, yeah, I
feel like that's so key, like

having a strong support system.

Uh, so yeah.

Awesome to hear that you have that.

Um, I'm kind of curious though, with
that question in mind, like, did you,

as you transitioned from like project
to company and you have this support

system and this network, did you also
actively go out and like seek, I don't

know, like startup communities or other,
like did you build out that network

beyond what you had when you got started?

And if so, like how, like
what places do you go to?

Like how did you make that happen?

Mateo: Yeah, for sure.

Well, so I got really lucky.

Well, um, being like at McGill, they
have their Dobson entrepreneurship

center where we were able to do a
pitch competition and we earned about

like $15,000 um, to really start going
from this product from a business.

So that was, a huge help, um, but what
I would recommend even beyond just like

different programs that you may or may
not have available to you is the network

that you're going to be building out.

Like, um, there's so many resources that
I would have never known without talking

to someone who had been through what I
had been through, recommending me those

exact resources, whether it was government
funding to help us get off the ground.

Um, it's going to be different
for your, your journey.

So just finding people on LinkedIn that
have been through or that you aspire to,

that you look up to that you want to have
a career like that, really reaching out

and asking okay, How did you do this?

Where did you get the money?

How did you set up your sales?

All of that.

It's very likely they have all
the answers to the questions,

um, that you're looking for.

So, getting out of your comfort zone
and doing that research to see who

you want to end up like, and then just
asking them the right questions, um, I

think is the The best is more important
than any, any individual program

that you're going to be able to find.

Raphaël: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Um, I'm curious, how does, uh Like,
how does finding a co founder,

so you've got a co founder,
Alex, and how did you meet him?

How did you two decide, like,
yeah, let's do this together?

Like how did that all work?

Mateo: So it was really off of, uh,
like a coffee chat, like a virtual

30 minute meeting where we'd been
connected through like, uh, this other

internship I did, and he was like
the, the big tech guy, like the VP

engineering , at another software company.

And I just had 30 minutes with him,
but I asked him, okay, like, Let's

say, hypothetically, you were to
build or launch a website, like, what

would you, how would you do that?

Like, what if it is something
that I wanted to do?

And you said, okay, like, I recommend
you do this, this, and this.

And then, so, I went back, and me and
my friends that were all students at

the time, we, um, we kind of, like,
cobbled together a website following

exactly what he said, like, using
WordPress, a combination of different

plugins, without needing to know
any software, like writing no code.

And having done exactly what you said,
like six months later, I reached back

out and I was super excited to like
show him what we'd been working on.

And he was, he was thrilled.

He wanted to be more involved.

And, uh, that's how ultimately
he came on board as a co founder

after like multiple calls.

But like showing that we took his advice
seriously and that we valued his, uh, his

opinion and that we wanted more of it.

I think.

It like, it showed that we were really
more interested in having him on board as

opposed to just, just talking about it.

So I think that made.

Things a lot easier.

And, um, I would highly
recommend finding a co founder.

It's going to be a lot
more difficult, um, alone.

So I'm so grateful that that had happened.

Raphaël: That's awesome.

Yeah, that's super cool.

Um, you bring up, uh, WordPress I'm
kind of curious, Did you have any

experience doing any sort of tech,
like building anything tech related?

Had you ever used even like those kinds
of tools, like a WordPress, uh, with a

plugin or yeah, anything like that before?

No nothing, like zero at all

Mateo: all.

Like I had no coding
background whatsoever.

And so taking on that challenge,
I mean, it was very lengthy and a

learning process, but I mean, It
wasn't really that hard, I don't think.

Like, anyone can do

it, highly likely, you just have
to get over that hump and be like,

okay, I'm going to become a computer
engineer, even if you don't have any

of those skills, maybe not to that
level, but that wasn't even needed.

For what we were doing.

So that kind of worked out.

Raphaël: Cool.

Can you walk me through a
little bit, like, how do you

actually operate this platform?

I don't know, the different tools,
whether it is WordPress and the plugins,

are there other things that you use?

Like, how does it all,
how does it all work?

Mateo: Yeah, definitely.

Um, so it's very, I don't know if
it's like the best way to go about

it, but it's very like reactive.

So like we started off the most
basic setup, most basic features,

just a very simple directory with
like profiles and nonprofits.

And it's only when we like talk to schools
or different companies now, um, where

they tell us, Hey, can this do this?

Like, can you, can we have this
feature and blah, blah, blah,

And that's when we just Google search.

Okay.

Like what's the best way to like
incorporate that or add this new feature.

And very often it's just as simple
as adding like a new plugin.

And so it's kind of like a Frankenstein
to get a solution, but it's primarily

driven by the customers and our
conversations with them that then

tell us, okay, let's build this in.

Because so many of the features
that we, that we had, um, even

customers will tell us themselves,
Hey, this is really important.

Like I want this before I'm going to
move forward, um, with the contract.

And then even if we add it in, they're
not even going to use it sometimes.

So I think there's so many, like it's
easy to get lost in over engineering,

like putting too much into a product
development, if it's not going to be

something that's really needed, like make
sure it's really, really important before

spending all that time to build that out.

Raphaël: I love that.

I feel like I see that so much where
there's like, you know, someone will

spend a ton of developer hours trying
to build something super custom and it's

like, well, you could have done that.

I should have tested this maybe, like,
without building it, um, from scratch.

Yeah.

Mateo: For sure.

Now we're also guilty of that.

So it was a lesson learned
the hard way sometimes, but

no, definitely very important.

Raphaël: Cool.

Do you have any tips in terms of
customer discovery, actually figuring

out, like who needs this, like why they
might want this feature or, you know,

like, those kinds of conversations,
like, how do you approach that?

Mateo: There's no way of knowing until
like you test it and you make so many

assumptions where you're like for example,
we thought, okay, like the companies

that are going to be the most social
impact driven, that are going to mention

social impact on the websites the most,
that's going to be our target audience.

When in reality, it was the companies
that had some care about it, but

it wasn't their primary focus.

So it was more like, we worked with like
a, a semiconductor manufacturing company

that said, Hey, we actually do nothing for
social impact, but we want to get started.

can you help us set that up for you?

And so it completely made us question
our initial strategy and made us.

Make a pivot and say, okay, maybe this
is going to be the better audience for

us.

Um, but you're not going to know that
without sending your first 5,000 or

maybe even 10,000 emails to really test
those percentages because yeah, there's

so much more to be learned, I think,
by testing and just seeing what happens

as opposed to just thinking about it.

Raphaël: Yeah.

When you talk about like sending out
those like thousands of emails, how

do you manage that sort of thing?

Like, are you crafting messages like per
organization or are you doing a bunch

of cold emailing just to first like get
something in before you start, I don't

know, building up a relationship or yeah.

How do you do all of that?

Mateo: From my experience and how we
went about it is like starting off very

cold and then iterating over time to get
better, based on the, whether it's reply

rates, so doing a lot of A B testing.

Understanding, just like testing it out.

Obviously at the beginning we got a lot
more, like whether it was like unsubscribe

rates or angry email responses, like
why did you email me three times.

And I did feel bad about it at first, but
we use those as like kind of guinea pigs

to understand, okay, what was, what not.

Working and what wasn't working

and

as tough as it might be.

That's just how we were able to learn
quickly is by just testing that,

but you can always iterate later.

And now I think we're at a
much better place than we are.

And maybe in a couple of years,
it will be even better, but yeah,

definitely growing pains along the way.

Raphaël: Yep.

I was talking to someone, a
few months ago who kind of

had that, that sort of story.

He was kind of like, you know what, it
feels a little awkward, those cold emails.

But he was like, once we started
like really increasing the volume

and sort of not caring too much about
people being angry about the, the

amount of stuff they were receiving,
it just helped them out so much.

So yeah.

Yeah.

Mateo: No definitely.

And there's a way to do also respectfully.

Like if they ask you to take you
off their list, like obviously

you can easily comply with that.

You can make it easy
for them to unsubscribe.

So, um, as long as you do it.

In a respectful way, I think,
um, it's naturally understood

that it's, um, part of the way to
reach out and build new contacts.

Raphaël: Yeah, totally.

I love, I love the way you, you
frame these things where it's like,

you know, you have to do the thing.

We understand, like, that we're all
in this ecosystem trying to build

stuff together, but as long as you do
it respectfully, um, you think about,

like, the person that you're reaching
out to and it should all work out.

Mateo: No, definitely.

And there's always, you'll always
be on both sides of things.

Like even myself, I'll get a bunch of
emails and, before I might, now I kind

of understand more why they're doing it.

And so it doesn't bother me as much.

I'm like, okay, they're just trying to get
the word out, like sell their products.

So, yeah, I guess part of the business.

Raphaël: Yeah, so you've got like
different stakeholders, right?

Like you've got the nonprofits
that you're trying to help, the

companies who are participating.

You used to do schools.

Tell me about how you manage
those different stakeholders

and the transition between them.

Like you went from
schools to now companies.

How did that all work?

Sorry.

I feel like that was a lot, but

Mateo: No, yeah, I mean the first
transition, well, schools, um, the biggest

mistake we made was we took what was
working with schools and then we tried

to copy and paste that for companies
and that did not work very well at all.

At least, at the beginning.

That was, it was almost, we thought
we had one product that was going

to work with for two markets.

But it ended up being over time as we
iterated and like changed our pitch,

changed the pricing and everything,
like two completely separate, separate

models and even separate businesses.

And I think with the schools,
it's really more software based.

What we ended up developing was
a way for students to be able to

log, track their hours and sign
up for volunteer opportunities.

For the companies, what we saw the
biggest gap is that a lot of them had

either their own software or their own
way of tracking those hours, but they

needed the volunteer opportunities.

And so that's when we worked
with nonprofits to co create.

Basically new volunteer opportunities
that employees can do like at their

office, because we saw, like both
volunteer rates and donation rates.

And that's largely also
due to the pandemic.

We're just not spending as much
time outside as we used to.

And even donors, donor rates have been
falling both in the US and Canada.

So it's a new way that we've developed
for employees at these companies to

be really involved in the cause of
the nonprofit, where they're going

to be creating something of value.

That we can then donate to the nonprofit
that's going to be getting them really

that excited feeling, uh, the good feeling
associated with giving back, which we try

to create for as many people as possible.

Raphaël: Yeah.

So actually, because I feel like we
haven't really dug into this a whole lot.

So what are the mechanics of like
the experience that you provide?

So you have boxes, if I understand
correctly, and those go out and

people do something and then it
comes back ready for a nonprofit.

Something along those lines, right?

So can you tell me, uh, A, you can clean
that, clean up that, that explanation,

uh, to the extent that it needs to be.

Um, but, uh, also just how did
you come up with the specifics

of like how this, this works and
how do you, how do you manage it?

Like how do you manage who needs what,
how you package it, deliver it, like

the, the operations of, of all of this.

Mateo: Yeah.

No, absolutely.

So, um, when we started out basically
getting employees say, Hey, we want you

guys to volunteer as a team, getting you
out in the community, well, the response

we got from a lot of nonprofits We're like
actually getting a half, like a team of

employees just for a half day, like once a
month, isn't going to be that beneficial,

um, to our cause and to our mission,
because it's just inefficient to have

to train these employees, like find easy
tasks that they can do without getting

them involved, um, on a longer term basis.

Whereas, um, companies, they really wanted
to do just that half day of volunteering.

So it was kind of an imbalance
of what companies wanted and

what would work for nonprofits.

And so to try to balance that out we
worked with nonprofits to say, Hey, what

are some things that could be useful
that they could, they could do basically.

And a lot of them do accept or
need in kind donations of different

things, depending on different
times throughout the year.

So, like, for example, Toys for
Tots, they do a huge, like, toy

collection around the holidays and
are in need of, like, thousands

and thousands of toys to be made.

And so, what companies can do is,
through our, like, our volunteer kits,

um, that we send all the materials
that they need to do the volunteer

activity, um, at their office.

At their own pace to then
create those items of value.

For example, can be Lego kits or with
back school around the corner, or like

doing backpack stuffing activities,
that they like complete the items with

their personal touch that they can send
back to be donated to non-profits so

it's really trying to balance because
we have a two sided marketplace, finding

something that's going to work for
both sides was kind of the the idea

behind it, but that was definitely
no straight road to get there.

Raphaël: So how do you
manage all of the stuff?

I feel like whenever I think about
businesses that have to handle like

inventory of some kind, and I started
thinking about like warehousing, whether

that means like your apartment or an
actual warehouse or like an office space.

Like, how do you, how do
you handle all of that?

Mateo: No, yeah.

So, um, a lot of it is just
like in my room right now,

if I show you like up here.

I like boxes everywhere.

That's like a small pet habitat
that we have to show off.

So I bought like a bunch of boxes
here, to do all the shipping that

I'm hoping is a temporary solution.

But I realized, like, a lot of it is,
like, You have to like do yourself

and just to learn how to do it.

And so Alex also has a bunch of
boxes at his place, but obviously

the dream is going to be one day to
like work with a shipping partner,

like have our own warehouse,
but as long as the demand isn't.

Isn't there?

Um, we're also learning how to do it
right by doing it ourselves before

we can offload it and have like other
people support us with that process.

So it does give us.

A lot more control, in the meantime.

So if you can do it yourself before
working with someone else I would

definitely advise going that route.

Raphaël: Yeah.

That makes a lot of sense.

Does that all tie in with like, so you
get someone comes into the platform they

pay directly on the website and then
you have like a system where you like

see, okay, like this is what's come in.

Like we got to pack up these
boxes and you ship it out.

Is that basically the flow.

Mateo: Yeah, exactly.

So, um, they just placed an order and
now it's directly through our website.

With our new website, we're
releasing launch to make the

logistics easier with Shopify, it's
basically just an e commerce store.

And so those are for the on site,
like, volunteering activities that

we ship out, we also have a full
database of volunteer opportunities

you can do directly with a non profit.

For the ones that do accept employees.

So, there are a lot of different
options based on what you're looking for,

because whether you're volunteering with
OneRightKids or directly with a nonprofit

really the goal is to get as many people
getting back to the community as possible.

Raphaël: Super cool.

Nice.

I'm kind of curious then, like, what are,
what are your next steps looking like?

What's, uh, what's coming up?

Mateo: Yeah, that's a great question.

I know we've been like very focused
like in the short term and so I

haven't done, I don't know the stuff.

The right way to do it, but like the
medium to long term planning, we just

like really spend a lot of time and
say, okay, let's try to make this

like work as best as possible and
see like how many of the volunteer

kids can we send out to the community.

As far as that, I mean, we have a lot
of like lofty ideals, I think the

number one thing that would be really
cool to do would be to, once we have

like different clients set up to
create more long term partnerships

between nonprofits and companies.

So once employees like get a positive
feeling of, okay, that was really

fun to give back for a half day.

What can we do that's going to be more
impactful as opposed to maybe just like

creating and donating like 12 Lego sets?

What if we volunteered once a week
over the course of a month to create

a new home or to do a clothing
drive, to donate a lot of clothes?

Like there are so many more opportunities
to create a deeper impact if we're

able to strengthen the connection
with nonprofits and companies.

I think that would be the long
term vision once we're able to, I

guess, get our feet off the ground,

Raphaël: That's super cool.

Yeah, I hadn't thought of it that way,
but it is like, it's almost like what

you're providing is like dipping your
toe into the water and then sort of

getting comfortable and then there's this
opportunity after that to really dig in.

So

Mateo: right?

Like for now, it's just trying
to make it as easy as possible.

so anyone can get involved,
but ideally we'd be like more

advancing, the impact as we go on.

And once they, we can
build that, that trust,

Raphaël: Super

cool.

Um, yeah.

And I guess, We are on
the small tech podcast.

So I am curious, what is the, uh,
the small tech product that you'd

like to plug, uh, who do you want
to shout out for this episode?

Mateo: Yeah, absolutely.

I want to shout out BuddyBoss, the
plugin that we basically use to set up

our like school volunteering software
that really helped us go from like

from zero features to a hundred because
they just have so many different ways

you can create an online community.

It can be for any idea, really
that you're looking for to get

like users onto a platform.

So I would highly recommend
you checking them out, they're

also a fellow Canadian company,

Raphaël: I

didn't know

that.

Mateo: So, highly, highly recommend if
you're looking to start out with a SaaS

product with different, different users.

Raphaël: Super cool.

Awesome.

Thanks, Mateo.

Mateo: Yeah,

absolutely.

Raphaël: And yeah, this is
a, this is a great chat.

So, uh, I appreciate you coming on
the podcast and I hope to see Keen

to Help grow massively and start,
uh, start or keep, keep helping

people volunteer and get those people
volunteering once a week instead of

just dipping their toes in the water.

I'm looking

Mateo: No, absolutely.

I really appreciate that and the
opportunity to be here and say,

like, a little bit more about us.

So, no, it's been, uh, it's
been an absolute pleasure.

Thank you so much.

Raphaël: Awesome.

Cool.

Thanks.

See ya.

Mateo: Thank you.

Take care.

Outro: Folks.

That was my conversation with
Mateo Jeanneau of Keen to Help.

I had a blast chatting with
him, and I learned so much.

It's always inspiring to see how
people are using technology to make

a real difference in the world.

If you work with a nonprofit or a company
that could use their product, their

platform, you should definitely reach out.

We'll put some links in the show notes.

But if you want to check them out
right away, it's keen to help.com.

That's all words.

K E E N T O H E L P .com.

If you're enjoying the podcast and
haven't subscribed yet, you can find

us at sustainabletechpodcast.com.

Subscribe in your podcast app of choice.

And don't forget to check us
out on YouTube, and hit the

subscribe button there as well.

If you like the work that we're
doing, we would really appreciate a

rating review, et cetera, on whatever
platform you use to listen to us.

Give us some feedback.

We'd really appreciate it.

And if you're building a small
tech product that is having a

positive impact on the world.

I'd love to talk to you as well.

It's always fun to see what
people are building out there.

In the meantime, we all want to
do something good in the world.

So go out there and build something.

Good, folks.

I'll see you in the next one.

See