Dear friends, Well, now it’s definitely over, the summer of the century. But don’t worry, there’s also some good news for you. Here comes our fifth newsletter.
Tomorrow goes B Corp.
B Corp is to companies what the Fairtrade mark is to food. While Fairtrade guarantees consumers that individual products are produced sustainably, B Corp has the whole company in mind. B Corps are audited by the non-profit organisation B Lab for compliance with strict standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. The B Corps movement is a growing community of certified companies from over 50 countries and 130 industries. With Tomorrow, we want to be a part of it.
We still have some work to do, because our business is very new. But, a few days ago, we became an official candidate. To this end, we have explicitly stated in our social contract that, with Tomorrow, we want to create sustainable benefits for all stakeholders (that is, the environment, society, employees and customers). In addition, we have ploughed through what felt like a 457-point assessment - which above all reveals how much there is still to be done: from clear reporting structures, to more diversity in management, to an accurately measured Co2 footprint. All right, let’s do it!
We are beta, you (testers) are brilliant.
The public beta phase, for which around 300 users had applied, has been running for a few weeks now. About two thirds of them have now opened an account - and are testing furiously. We knew it already, but now it’s official: Tomorrow has the best banking beta community in the world. The ideas and suggestions for improvement you have given us over the last few weeks are really impressive. We’re still quite busy processing the large pool of input.
Tomorrow meets 1,000 young visionaries.
We were guests at the “Festival of New Visionaries”, organised by Zeit Online. Z2X is a community of people aged 2X, that is, from 20 to 29. They meet at local events all over Germany - and, once a year, at a big festival in Berlin. A few weeks ago the time had come again, and more than 1,000 young visionaries set out to improve their ideas for the world - and to listen to those of others. Sophie Passmann spoke about feminism, #nogroko initiator Kevin Kuehnert answered the Z2X community’s questions, Flavia Kleiner introduced the Swiss “Operation Libero” … and hundreds of as yet unknown new projects were further developed. We were not just passive, but active participants, presenting the Tomorrow project on a big stage. A precisely timed 5 minute slot, no pictures, only one microphone and thousands of interested listeners live on location - and millions, virtually, via the Zeit Online website. Here you can watch Jakob’s lecture in full.
“How on earth can money be sustainable?”
A legitimate question, which we often get asked. And it’s not so easy to answer. For many, money is above all a medium, a means to an end. It looks like it’s playing a neutral role. However, appearances can be deceptive. Money has an enormous effect. By that we don’t mean that it spoils the moral character (which can happen), but that it has a decisive role in how the “big picture” changes. Here we give you an insight into our impact strategy and explain how we want to ensure that your money is used wisely in the future.
We are now officially “a small, fantastic company”.
At least that’s what the online magazine “Mit Vergnügen” which is featuring Tomorrow in his charming series “Small, fantastic companies”, thinks - click here to read the article. The “banking of tomorrow” has been attracting even more attention: we talked about how the transition to a sustainable economy can succeed with the philosophical business magazine Agora 42. (It all gets a bit philosophical). Meanwhile, in the PayTechLaw podcast it all gets a bit nerdy - we not only discussed Tomorrow’s great vision, but also technological challenges, with the makers.
“That’s all well and good,” you probably think. “But what’s next?”
That’s what we’d like to tell you. We would like to use October to further polish our app: Eliminate bugs, extend existing features (e.g. the Impact Board), adjust the design a bit. Then, as far as we’re concerned, we can get going, by inviting the first few hundred users from our waiting list to open an account. And so it continues, in small but determined steps - and together we herald the long overdue sea change in the banking market.
If you would like to know where you are on our list of several thousand “People of Tomorrow”, please just hold on for a short while: In the course of the next few weeks, we’ll add a function to the website to let you view your waiting list place yourself. Until then, follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram - or get actively involved in the heated discussions about current and future features in our brand new forum. That’s all from here.
See you soon,
Your team from Tomorrow