The 20 Something Year Old Entrepreneur

Back in October (2009) I got an email from RepNation asking me if I wanted to join an online think tank to build a brand called Project Muse.  They were looking for people like you (and me) to inspire the next jaw-dropping phone and help them develop ad campaigns.  I was told, “Working on Project Muse will earn you some serious bragging rights (and all the mystery will drop before the product hits the shelves).”

I joined because of my interest with new technology and I thought that it would be pretty cool to help a company develop a “jaw-dropping” phone.

Over the course of a few months I was able to take a few polls, responded to a few discussions, and when time permitted I participated in a few online live sessions.  They had a recruitment challenge where I could have invited you folks and to be honest, I didn’t invite anyone because I wanted to be the one to break the news to you folks as soon as this phone came out.

Last week I got an email from the Project Muse team asking the community to login and let them know who we thought was behind Project Muse.  It was at the same time where I started to hear some buzz about Microsoft’s Pink project, so I naturally thought that it could be Microsoft but I wasn’t entirely sure.  Then yesterday came, and they finally revealed who they were: Microsoft.

Microsoft’s newest and coolest phone the KIN is the product of over 2000 Project Muse community members insights.  I passed up the opportunity to be an Ambassador (which I am now regretting) mainly because I didn’t want to be an Ambassador of something I’ve never seen or tried before and now that I’ve seen the product and know who’s behind it, I can only hope they’ll allow us a second chance.

Here’s the two things I loved about Project Muse and Microsoft:

• They allowed a community of people to help shape the direction of the KIN
• Until recently, Project Muse remained brand neutral.  There was no mentioned of any specific brand attached to it

From an experience standpoint, we all want to say that we took part in something HUGE and Project Muse gave people that  chance.  The Project Muse team members were great (and they did interact with the community often).  What Microsoft did was nothing short of brilliance and I hope you all take a look at the KIN (ONE & TWO) and let me know what you think.

Tags: KIN, Microsoft, Project Muse