Ryan Stephens Marketing

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Brenton Gieser who is a new media rockstar and he’s telling me about this new venture/movement he’s getting involved with. A couple of days later I’m on the phone Arielle (see below) and I’m learning all about GenJuice’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Tour. Needless to say it’s definitely something I wanted to be affiliated with and so I sat down (virtually speaking) with the three co-founders of the tour, and wanted to share with all of you what I learned and why you should be interested.

1.) What is GenJuice and why should people care about it?

Arielle: Well, GenJuice is simply an annual Gen Y innovation and entrepreneurship tour. This is our first year doing this and we are learning a ton, but this year we will travel to 13 different cities and videostream our entire experience on our blog. We will shoot video with young incredible entrepreneurs in each of the cities and hold our “unconference” events in each city.

Virgilia: Nice one Arielle. To add to that point, GenJuice is an avenue for aspiring and early stage Gen Y entrepreneurs to network with other similar minded individuals and hopefully solidify their own business ideas and find a potential partner/team member/co-founder. As well as having live videostreams on our blog, we will also broadcasts from each event through online podcasts.

2.) What was the inspiration behind launching this initiative?

Arielle: I can tell you a little about what inspired me to launch GenJuice and Virgilia & Danielle can tell you about what inspired them to come on board. I started GenJuice for a variety of reasons. It started off as a way to bring entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds but all under 30 together. We would just meet in coffee shops and help each other, trade intros, etc. In February, the concept of the tour came about as a way to expand the entrepreneurial mindset of the Silicon Valley beyond just this area. We wanted to promote Gen Y innovation and entrepreneurship nationally (and feel like rockstars while we did it).

Danielle: I first worked with Arielle when I was Editor-in-Chief of a student magazine at Berkeley. She managed the marketing for our magazine launch party, and it was a huge success. I was really impressed by her energy and her ideas and strategy around buzz marketing. From that point on, I knew that we would co-found a company or work together very closely in the future. When the GenJuice Tour came about, I was ready to jump on board. Sometimes, you just have to take that leap!

Virgilia: I initially had the notion of launching a project with a very similar mission to GenJuice. After briefly chatting with Arielle, I realized that GenJuice had the potential of being a truly viral movement with endless possibilities ensuing from our pilot tour. It’s a good learning lesson – understanding that instead of going off and doing your own project, partnering with other brilliant individuals with similar goals will result in a more powerful and sustainable organization. We want to empower young innovators and trendsetters to follow their dreams, just like we are!

3.) It’s relatively easy to make introductions, but what kind of resources will be provided to enable these new friendships, partnerships, etc. to thrive AFTER the tour is over?

Virgilia: We will keep track of all the attendees through Google Docs (the 6th member of the GenJuice team) and will share this document with each city’s attendee following the tour. We will essentially create a database of everyone who attended the tour and allow various methods using our online blog to facilitate constant communication and encourage lasting relationships.

Danielle: Yes, through planning the GenJuice Tour and what I learned previously from attending various conferences, it is very important to extend the online engagement that you make with people via email or twitter to an offline exchange. That’s where the meeting of the minds happens in real-time and where the magic happens. We’ll be creating this effect with GenJuice.

4.) What makes the GenJuice team special? What can a young professional learn from this team in particular that they couldn’t get elsewhere?

Virgilia: Great question Ryan! Our team is unique in the fact that we have come together to produce this nationwide tour in just 3 months. Organic growth has been our mantra not only for GenJuice, but for our team. We anticipate facing roadblocks and thus when we encounter them they only spur more ideas and we tailor our overall strategy immediately. We are continuously changing and learning from our mistakes, taking these lessons learns and implementing them, and growing our team with rockstar team players who help balance out the rest of our team.

Arielle: I completely agree. I’ll just add that our team does one thing well that I’ve never seen done anywhere else. We are fluid. We’ve had several mistakes. Many problems and issues came up when planning our first national tour, as you can imagine. Yet, whenever a problem arose, we already had three or four ideas on how to shift our strategy and still get the same result. I’d say all entrepreneurs need that ability; the ability to move quickly and solve complex problems in the heat of the moment.

Danielle: I would say that we are three, unstoppable women who are phased by no amount of obstacles. Lack of press? We’ll get the word out. Lack of funding? We’ll find a way. I think it is the leanness of our organization that makes us strong because at the end of the day, we know that if we don’t do it, then it’s not getting done.

5.) Why focus on just Gen Y?

Arielle: Oh pick me! I want to answer this one. Personally, what inspires me more than anything is seeing my peers do incredible things. Sure, it’s great to see older or seasoned entrepreneurs discuss their success – but it’s ten times more powerful to see someone who looks like me, sounds like me and is a part of my generation talk about how we can innovate. The Gen Y leaders we’ve met and connected never fail to inspire me and I want GenJuice to do the same for everyone we meet across the nation.

6.) How can we get involved and/or start supporting the cause?

Danielle: I’m glad you asked, Ryan! You can visit our site GenJuice.com to purchase your tour tickets. We have some amazing Gen-Yers coming to our unconferences, so you definitely want to be there to make those connections. Then, follow us on Twitter (@meetgenjuice) and give us a shout out to let others know about the GenJuice movement. If you’re interested in donating your space for the GenJuice Tour events or want to let us crash on your couch, reach out to us. And lastly, we are welcome to additional tour partners and sponsors. Visit our Indiegogo site (http://indiegogo.com/GenJuiceTour) to find out how you can help. Thanks so much, Ryan!

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Who is Arielle Patrice Scott?
Arielle is a student entrepreneur obsessed with innovating while young, and encouraging other young people to do the same. She launched GenJuice as a way to encourage more young people to launch new ventures and projects. GenJuice is a national 12-city wide tour with events to help young aspiring entrepreneurs meet potential co-founders and team members. For more details about Arielle you can follow her during the tour at GenJuice.com, read her blog at TheArielle.com or follow her at @ariellescott.

Who is Virgilia Singh?
Virgilia is in love with the concepts of innovation and sustainability and has founded and managed a variety of projects. She collected experiences in the corporate world while working for Booz Allen Hamilton, building a product innovation strategy for Intel, and advising a UN Ambassador on how to empower women economically worldwide. Virgilia recently left her stable full-time position in DC to co-found GenJuice, a tour launching this summer that is geared towards connecting and highlighting young innovators and entrepreneurs across the nation. You can get in touch with her at virgilia@genjuice.com or follow her at @virgiliasingh.

Who is Danielle Leslie?
Danielle Leslie left her Sales and Business Development role at social gaming startup RockYou to take a risk on a fast-moving project called GenJuice. Danielle will be evangelizing innovation and youth entrepreneurship in Summer 2010 during The GenJuice Tour. Danielle loves discussing marketing and new business models and believes that with the right marketing strategy, anything can become a home run venture. You can get in touch with her at danielle@genjuice.com.

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