What Is Your Instead? Q&A With Josh Alltop, Co-founder of Instead App
By Chris Oddo | January 20, 2012 at 7:42 am
A Texas startup named Oven Bits is creating a stir in the app community by developing Instead, a simple and easy way for users to donate to nonprofits. In the process Oven Bits is also raising awareness about personal consumption, spending habits and expanding the breadth of the phenomenon known as micro-donation. With Instead (available in the iTunes app store), users can pair their chosen sacrifice (something as painless as choosing a small coffee over a large latte) with their chosen nonprofit (choose from a list of more than 300 and growing). Then the whole transaction is processed seamlessly on your smartphone. Thanks to Instead, it really is that simple to make a difference.
Halogen spoke with co-founder Josh Alltop from Dallas, where he and his crew are working overtime to ensure that Instead is available on Android and desktops in the upcoming months.
Is the app available on the Web for luddites like myself who don’t have an iPhone?
You can run it off Instead.com. Technically, the iPhone App is a Beta version, and it just took off faster than we expected. The online experience will be fully integrated soon, as well as the Android. It’s not meant to be iPhone only, it’s just that the majority of our community is on the iPhone, so we thought we’d start here and build everything else out.
When did you guys formulate this idea?
We formulated in 2007. Between Micah Davis and myself, and a bunch of others, this mindset of living within and below your means so that you can help others, it wasn’t so much based around nonprofits as it was around each other. We had been trying to come up with ways to help nonprofits, we just hadn’t come up with the right way, then Micah came up with this “Instead Of” philosophy, and we just started going down the path. It’s gone crazy ever since then.
Can you talk about some of the feedback you’ve had from both nonprofits and users?
The feedback has been pretty amazing. There’s nothing really out there right now that is giving people the point-of-decision opportunity to make a difference. People haven’t had the opportunity to say “I’m inside a Starbucks, I can afford a venti, but if I get a tall and take the difference of two dollars or so, and give to the nonprofit or charity of my choice, I can really make an impact right now through micro donations.” The feedback we’ve gotten has been overwhelmingly positive.
From a user standpoint, people have actually said, it’s almost so simple that it makes it fun.
“People, if you give them an opportunity, they will do greater good.”
Where do potential users find you, how do they find you and is everything ready to roll?
Right now everybody can go to the iTunes app store and download Instead. Shortly, we will have the Android and our desktop experience up and running – we are literally working overtime on that.
The experience is very simple. You go to the app store, you download the app, and you just start living the everyday life. You make a choice. One day you might say, “Hey, I’m going to brown bag my lunch and I’m going to give the difference to a local food bank.” It’ s pretty simple, you open up the app, you walk through it, you choose an action. We also have another spot, where you can write in. We’ve had a 13-year-old boy rake leaves and mow yards, and he said, “Instead of buying video game stuff, I’m just going to give it to a local charity.” It’s crazy. People, if you give them an opportunity, they will do greater good. Especially when a dollar actually can make a difference.
What are some of the nonprofits that users can donate to?
We’ve got the National Breast Cancer Foundation. They’re doing amazing things with early detection. Hello Somebody creates products that they sell, and with that money, they help out and join campaigns. I think they took hundreds of thousands of dollars to Japan when the Tsunami hit, now they’re in Rwanda. You’ve got North Texas Food Bank. There’s a ton. You name it. Invisible Children, charity: water. There’s over 300 charities on there now, and Instead also gives you the opportunity to suggest your own favorite nonprofits that are not on the list.
You’ve got everything covered.
We’re trying. We really do want it to be a great experience. Here’s the biggest thing: It’s not a one-time thing, it’s a lifestyle change. In your everyday life, from lunch to dinner to anything you can think of – the sky really is the limit on what’s your Instead. What’s your Instead? What’s going to be the thing that for you keeps you living within and below your means and allows you to still do something great?
Have you downloaded the Instead app?
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