GoodStart

James Currier, founder and CEO of GoodTree, got back to me after really putting it out here.

I am very impressed by the brave move to end the silence even if they are not ready for “scrutiny” as he describes it, and making the time to answer the questions that have arisen. Some of the interesting bits in James very detailed comment include:

• “We give 50% of the money to charity”
• “We’re sending out the first checks to the charities [...] totaling close to $9,000.”
• “We’re hiring independent auditors so you can know we are accounting properly and paying the charities.”
• USA, UK, Canada, Australia, India
• “But there is a reason I have refused to talk to journalists: We’re not ready!”
• “You don’t like the results layout the way we have it now, we hope to provide you with alternative in the coming weeks.
• “We will be publishing a blog, describing the ongoing efforts to bring GoodTree to life, and do good in the world.”

James does confirm one thing that is concerning to me. GoodTree enables people to “send an email to the people in their address book on Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail”. He suggests this is “a very common practice used by many online companies”. Like many people, I don’t find blanket emails compelling, worse many people find them undesirable. Myself and many others actually thought these emails were spam or worse a phishing attempt (definition).

Anyway, I am now excited to see what comes next from GoodTree.