Saving the World, One Petition at a Time

I no longer felt like I should do something, or it would be nice to do something, but that I needed to do something, and it needed to be big, said Dylan Husted after he finished a climate change course with Professor Fleischmann at Babson.  Dylan is a 20-year old who started working on SaveOhno during his freshman year.  Dylan is now in the middle of his junior year and when he’s not partying with Delta Tau Delta, he’s hard at work on his startup or busy cramming for the next exam.  I got in touch with Dylan after a friend of mine told me about SaveOhno, a startup providing people with opportunities to combat environmental issues

Did you have prior startup experience before SaveOhno?

Yes I did.  I launched a web design company in high school called Husted Web Design, where I had a few small business clients, and I launched a mobile app called 'bulletn.' in Babson's first-year course, FME, where student-teams are given $3,000 to launch a business.

How did you have the idea for SaveOhno?

After a bit of research and talking to people knowledgeable about climate change my research showed that over 75% of college students understand that climate change is a real, human-caused threat but very few actually take action themselves.

The reasons I found for inaction (excluding the 25% skeptics/deniers) were:

• "It's a huge, global issue, and my actions won't make a difference"

• "It's such a negative topic that I don't even want to talk about it let alone spend time taking action"

• "I don't even know where I'd go or what I'd do to help out"

• "It's just not how I want to spend my time"

So I set out to create a platform that solved all of those reasons for inaction. We've partnered with 8 organizations and sourced over 7000 online petitions that give you the ability to take action in a way that can actually drive change, and we're delivering them to you in a fun, positive, and easy-to-use way. We've branded ourselves positively and used gamification to create an uplifting experience. We're making it easy, and hopefully something you do truly want to spend some of your time on.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I wake up around 8am and dive into SaveOhno.  It usually involves a lot of coding and making sure the website works the way I want it to.  I stay away from email until noon in order to be entirely focused on SaveOhno.  After lunch I have class from 1-4:30 and try and go kickboxing or play basketball in order to get some sort of daily physical activity.  Afterwards, I hit the book and get back to SaveOhno only to start the cycle again the following day.

What’s the biggest challenge that’s coming up in the next 3 weeks?  6 weeks?  (after SaveOhno launch & currently)

SaveOhno has been getting a lot of traffic, positive feedback, and investor interest lately, so the biggest challenge moving forward is keeping up with that momentum while simultaneously learning from it. There are tons of different ways I can take SaveOhno: countless potential markets, several traction channels, and even multiple platform concepts within the company vision. Over the next 6 months, we have to continue on the course we're on, while also interpreting whether it’s even the best course. It can be really challenging to be in both of those modes at the same time.

In the nearer future, like 3-6 weeks, I'm focused on improving the onboarding process (traffic has been high, bounce rate low, conversion decent, but engagement needs improvement), setting up a committed team with specific functions under my vision and leadership, and forming a board of advisers. I also want to utilize Gabriel Weinberg's 'Bullseye Framework' to identify potential traction channels, and push out the first draft of our pitch deck to get feedback so we're ready to start seeking investment in the near future.

Oh, right...and midterms. Still gotta pass those :)

What's been the most difficult part of SaveOhno?  

You know, I always thought working crazy hours, throwing away my social life, finding the funds to stay afloat, or even web development and design would be the hardest part about launching a startup. I never would have thought it'd be managing emotions, but it is. I've always been a level-headed person, like extremely level-headed, but there's no truer test to composure than entrepreneurship.

How do you not get burned out?

Well, I actually have felt burned out.  When my two founding partners left, it was just me and SaveOhno, that was a rough time.  Nothing was going my way even though I dedicated my life to it.  That period is behind me now though and I’ve just recently brought two Babson graduate students on board to help.  We three manage a team of eleven volunteers across the country and are always looking for new people that share our mission.