“It’s a simple idea.  Inspire action.  Change the world.  Have fun.  Because doing good shouldn’t feel like a chore.”

Those were the words that started our company…

A couple of years ago, Jerri Chou and I had a great idea to expand All Day Buffet.  We wanted to channel our creative energy into a company that allowed us to filter all of our charitable ideas through one company.  I dug up an interview from 2007 I did with Influx Insights that goes over this into a little more detail…

We noticed that even though people wanted to do good, the options to do something were very limiting. People are willing to subscribe to Good Magazine but may not necessarily want to spend their weekend planting trees. Up until now, there’s always been a separation between the things we like with the things that matter most. We want to break the conventions of doing good by infusing the somewhat prude non-profit/charity industry with the creativity and energy of the Creative Class. If we can make it easy and accessible to do good, as well as infusing creativity in everything we do, we can help raise awareness and inspire young people to take active steps to making change.

We were a lot younger back then but our goals were idealistic, pure, and simple.  We wanted to “make doing good cool.” Our team consisted of Scott Hechinger, Justin Hakuta, Adrian Lai, Victor Jeffreys, Nikki Bagli and about a dozen other awesome people.  We were tired of using our creative skills in the corporate world so we designed, coded, and brainstormed for weeks on how to make the world a better place.  They lived in NYC, and I worked remotely from New Orleans.  It was the best time of our lives because we had nothing to worry about but create something that would be appealing to us.

In August ‘07, we launched a spanking brand new website and our first project – Cause for Drinks.  The idea was simple. Host a happy hour.  Take $2 from each drink.  And donate it to a local charity.  It started in New Orleans and NYC and quickly spread across the country like wildfire.  By the end of the project, we were in nearly two dozen cities and raised over $10,000 for local charities.  But more importantly, we empowered creative professionals across the country to do something good in their own communities.

Holy shit.  We just built a community of creatives that were hungry to do more.  Cause for Drinks was their gateway drug to doing good.

A year later, at a BBQ in Brooklyn, Scott Hechinger, Justin Hakuta and I were talking about the TED Conference and how awesome it would be to attend.  There was only one major problem… the $6,000 price tag.  So, we did what anyone else would do in that situation.  We decided to create our own conference in our backyard — New York City.

It made sense for us because our goals were changing and all us were starting to get the entrepreneurial itch.  We also gave our community a taste of doing good and they wanted more.  So why not combine entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation together?  Why not channel all the energy from our network to create real change with massive social impact?  Thus, The Feast was born.

Our mission still holds true today.  Change the world through creativity and business.

We held the very first Feast at Scandinavia House in October ‘08.  I convinced Jerri that it was a good idea and she believed me (Jerri, I had no idea what I was doing back then ha).  We put together a conference in 8 weeks (I still don’t know how we pulled it off), and packed Scandinavia House with 125 of the most amazing social innovators, entrepreneurs, and non-profit leaders New York has ever seen.  (It will still go down as one of the most memorable experiences of my entire life.  The energy in that room can and probably will never be replicated anywhere else.)

A year later, we expanded to The Times Center and tripled to 375 attendees.  This year, we’re looking to double our attendees to a little under 800.  We’re also focusing on “the future” as our overall theme moving forward.  The growth has been tremendous and our goal is to make The Feast into the SXSW for our community.  We could not have done this with the support of from our community.  So, thank you!

Get full on good.

While working on The Feast, Jerri and I had a brilliant idea to create a new business model for startups.  Rather than working on one idea, why not throw a bunch of ideas against the wall and see what sticks?  So, in 2009, we went into prime brainstorm mode and emerged with By/Association, TBD, and Lovely Day.

Our business model has always been extremely simple.  It’s non-traditional but it works for us.

All Day Buffet is the parent company.
It advises, invests and incubates for-profit/for-good ventures.
Each venture has a CEO with their own teams.
Each venture has a 5.0% option pool that gets shared across all our ventures.
All Day Buffet takes the remainder of each venture.

If 2009 was about incubating ideas, 2010 will be about growing them.  So, it’s extremely hard for me to say that Jerri and I will be splitting our time to focus on our individual ventures.  Rather than spreading ourselves thin over 4 different companies, Jerri and I will be focusing on a few.  I will take over on The Feast and By/Association & Jerri will be taking over on Lovely Day and TBD.

Be an entrepreneur.  Not a social entrepreneur.

Throughout the past couple of years, we’ve worked hard to blend creativity, entrepreneurship, and social change together. It’s been our goal to show the world what our community is capable of when creative people get together to change the world.  Sprinkle that with some entrepreneurship and voila!  It’s a recipe for success.

What does the future hold for All Day Buffet?  In 5 years, we want to have a portfolio of companies that are profitable, sustainable, and world-changing.  We believe that New York City will be the epicenter of social innovation, and we hope to be the leaders that spearhead that movement.  Our end goal is to launch a venture fund that allows us to fund innovative startups that are changing the world with seed investments, lifetime personal investments, mentorship, advisement and support.

We achieved all of this without one penny from outside investors.  We couldn’t have done this without the support of our team, partners, community, and mentors.  And most importantly, I could not have done this without Jerri Chou who has wanted to punch, kick, and beat me up on numerous occasions for all my crazy ideas.  Without her as a business partner, All Day Buffet will not exist as it does today.  And to all of you that have helped and supported us along the way, thank you. We hope you’ll continue getting full on good with us.

This was written by Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Co-Founder of All Day Buffet.  You can follow his updates on Twitter.

We’re looking to add a web developer and interactive designer to our startup team.  We’re  doing something a little different though.  Rather than working on one startup (yawn!), you’ll be working across three different startups in 2010.  They include By/Association, TBD, and our third stealth project (which we promise is just as exciting and awesome).  There’ll be five of us so we’ll kind of be like an all-star basketball team.  We’re looking to pick up the Lebron and Kobe of the startup world.  Is that you?

1.  Web Developer
Yes, we understand that you can program and code in more languages than a foreign language teacher.  But, we’re looking specifically for someone that can solve through problems, manage freelance developers, and build shit from scratch.  And fix those bugs that no one in the world can figure out (we prefer Ruby Developers).

2.  Interactive Designer
We like typography.  We hope you do too.  We like clean interfaces.  We hope you do too.  And we like the movie Helvetica.  We hope you do too.  If you design in grids, and know how to design for the guy we’re picking up in #1.  We want to meet you.

You’ll get massive benefits, and get to work with an excellent team.  We’ll even let you DJ the office iPod. We’re growing fast, and looking to add some folks to our team! If you’re an entrepreneurial, awesome, creative, fun, and brilliant; please email us at hello[at]alldaybuffet[dot]org

Check our other positions at Lovely Day and The Feast here — http://www.alldaybuffet.org/2009/11/30/join-our-family/

Looking to do new something in 2010?  Come join our la familia.  We’re growing fast, and looking to add some folks to our team!  If you’re an entrepreneur/intrapreneur, awesome, creative, fun, and brilliant; please email us your resume at hello[at]alldaybuffet[dot]org.

1.  The Feast (feastongood.com)
Do you like putting together events… more specifically conferences?  We’re looking for an intrapreneur to take over The Feast and grow it to be one of NYC’s premier events.  If you like curating speakers, selecting organic caterers, and striking media partnerships; this is perfect for you.

2.  Lovely Day (itsalovelyday.com)
We’re looking for strategists to work with global brands on developing strategies on how to do well and do good.  If you have an interest in CSI (Corporate Social Innovation), and want to work with likeminded clients; send us your resume!

3.  Interns
We’re looking for New York based college students work with us a couple of hours per week over all of our difference businesses.

If you’re an interactive designer or developer, check out our startup positions here — http://www.alldaybuffet.org/2009/12/02/join-our-startup-family-part-ii/

LOVELY DAY

In partnership with Crush+Lovely, we’re excited to announce Lovely Day – the agency for (human) brands! Lovely Day will develop strategies for global brands to do well by doing good. We consist of thinkers and doers, strategists and creatives, change-makers and movers that will create and shape brands for the future.

Join us as we present a webinar on insights, strategies, and examples of global brands and corporations creating world-shaking change!

Webinar: Human Brands
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
3 PM – 4 PM EST
FREE, FREE, FREE!

Register for webinar>>
itsalovelyday.com >>

OUR FUTURE IS TBD

TBD is a free email newsletter that delivers one world-shaking idea and one collective action to improve our future. TBD is based on the concept that a better future is being created right now–whether that future becomes a reality is To Be Determined by whether we support and take action.

Sign up for ourfutureistbd.com >>

BY/ASSOCIATION

By/Association is a private service for personal introductions to remarkable people. We hand select our members for their exceptional creativity, vision, and cross-disciplinary networks. We then introduce them to each other. Because when two amazing people get together, their potential impact grows and the world changes shape.

We currently have chapters in New York, San Francisco, London, and Los Angeles. Applications are open so apply today!

Apply >>
byassoc.com >>

THE FEAST SPONSORSHIP

The Feast Conference gathers the world’s greatest innovators from across industries and society to empower, inspire and engage each other in creating world-shaking change. We’re currently looking for corporate sponsors for the 2010 Conference in New York City.

By supporting “The Feast”, you are supporting the people and projects developing our new economy. “The Feast” is about more than ideas, it’s about taking action and concrete steps to fix our world. Whether through sustainable design thinking, new technology, or monetary systems, The Feast is facilitating the most innovative ways of addressing global issues, but we can’t do it alone.

Contact us for sponsorship>>
feastongood.com >>

Join us TOMORROW (October 5th) from 3:00 -3:30 PM EST for our second All Day Buffet TV Episode.  We’ll be broadcasting a live webshow with Jerri Chou (@jchou) & Michael Karnjanaprakorn (@mikekarnj), Co-Founders of All Day Buffet with special guest Danny Wen (@dannyw) of Harvest.

We’ll be talking about our thoughts on The Feast Conference last Thursday as well as all the great things happening in the social innovation, creative, and entrepreneurial worlds.  We’ll also be answering any questions you guys have so tune in!

All Day Buffet TV
Tuesday, October 6th
3:00 – 3:30 PM EST

http://www.livestream.com/alldaybuffet

Join us and get full on good!

ALL DAY BUFFET MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

THE FEAST CONFERENCE

The most creative conference on social innovation is right around the corner. In less than 30 days, we’ll be feasting on some of the greatest insights and solutions to the most pressing issues. A gathering of the world’s greatest innovators from across industries and society to empower, inspire and engage each other in creating world-shaking change, The Feast is sure to get you full on good.

Speakers include:
- Annie Duke, Professional Poker Player
- Joshua Viertel, President, Slow Food USA
- Uffe Elbæk, Founder, The KaosPilots
- Rod Arnold, Chief Operating Officer, charity: water
- Becky Straw, Director of Water Projects, charity: water
- Matthew Bishop, Chief Business Writer, Economist
- William Drenttel, Partner, Winterhouse
- Ken Banks, Founder, kiwanja & FrontlineSMS
- Elizabeth Scharpf, sustainable health enterprises (SHE)
- Rahul Prakash, Business Development & Marketing, Virgance
- Bob McKinnon, Founder and President, YELLOWBRICKROAD
- Brian Bordainick, Founder, 9th Ward Field of Dreams
- Host: Cindy Gallop, Founder, If We Ran The World

Thursday, October 1st, 2009
9 AM – 5 PM
The Times Center, New York City

Learn more >>

LIVESTREAM: 10 LEARNINGS FROM SOCIAL INNOVATION

Here at All Day Buffet & The Feast, we come across game changing ideas all the time. Entire industries are evolving as we recreate and fix social problems for our future. Social innovation and social entrepreneurship are at an all time high, but do you know how or why? Where do you fit in? What can you learn from all of this? And most importantly, how can YOU do good and make money?

We have partnered with DreamNow to bring you some answers. Jerri Chou and Michael Karnjanaprakorn (Co-Founders, All Day Buffet) will present 10 insights, examples, and learnings about social innovation and world-shaking ideas. Join us for a livestream presentation, and feast on good!

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
3 PM – 4 PM EST
Free, Free, Free!

Learn more >>
Register >>

THE KITCHEN (FEAST SECOND DAY EVENT)

See what’s cooking in “The Kitchen” of the world’s most innovative and creative entrepreneurs looking to make the world a better place. All Day Buffet will flip over every rock and boulder to find stellar startups changing the world. They’ll have five minutes to pitch in front of judges and an audience full of investors, entrepreneurs, and press. We’ll turn up the heat even more with a grand prize for the best overall startup in show.

Friday, October 2nd, 2009
8:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Tribeca Grand Hotel, NYC

Register >>
Apply>>
Learn more >>

FEAST MICROSPONSOR: FEATURED CHANGEMAKERS

Our ticket prices directly allow the attendance of awe-inspiring vanguards whose brains get them where their wallets can’t. Meet and micro-sponsor these changemakers today!

Daniela Papi, PEPY
A hybrid model cause based tourism company, PEPY offers responsible, inspiring tours that connect participants to the sustainable educational projects they’re funding in Thailand.

Jeff Palladino, The Bronx Guild
An innovative Big Picture school that develops individualized learning plans for each student designed around how people learn, and that a student’s engagement is based on his or her passion.

Michael Mossoba, Goodness500.org
A new enterprise that simply ranks and educates consumers about the social responsibility of the companies that can affect the greatest change — The Fortune 500.

Microsponsor >>

It’s that time of the year again.  If you’re looking to go down a new path, we’re looking to add some young all-stars to our team.  If you’re into creativity, entrepreneurship, and social innovation; hit us up.  The positions are based in NYC and would require working out of our office 5-10 hours per week. We’re currently looking for interns to do the following:

-  Event Production and Planning (The Feast Conference)
-  Designer (All Day Buffet)
-  Trendspotter (All Day Buffet + The Feast)

At this point, you might be asking yourself, what exactly is All Day Buffet?  Our mission is to change the world through creativity and business. We put things into the world that make it a better place.

You’ll get to hang with our team, get free access to all our events, and have access to our network which spans from venture capitalists to digital entrepreneurs.   Unfortunately, the position isn’t paid but don’t worry, we won’t make you get coffee or stupid nonsense like that!  If interested, please email us at hello[at]alldaybuffet[org], and send along your resume and twitter style description of how you want to change the world (140 characters max).   Thanks!

As you know, All Day Buffet is an incubator for social innovation.  We partner with entrepreneurs to connect, develop, and launch purpose-driven ventures.  Today, we’re happy to announce the launch of By/Association.

By/Association is a private service for personal introductions to remarkable people. We hand select our members for their exceptional creativity, vision, and cross-disciplinary networks.

We then introduce them to each other. Because when two amazing people get together, their potential impact grows and the world changes shape.

Our goal is to reinvent the traditional notion of “networking” by enabling substantive interactions and long-term relationships.  By/Association is for people who want to make their lives, ideas, and networks richer by meeting other remarkable people. It’s not about getting help with your current need or project. It’s about connecting to people that make you better — to inspire more action, better ideas, and new ways of seeing the world.  The impact you have in your life is shaped by the people you meet. We simply seek to accelerate that process in a powerful, meaningful way.

Why you?  Because that’s where a better world begins.

We are opening up membership in New York City and San Francisco this summer and plan on expanding By/Association to every major city around the world.  As a gift, the first few accepted will be established as the “100 founding members” for their city, which includes waived membership dues through 2009.

After you apply and are accepted, you’ll receive one monthly introduction to another remarkable person in your city– all based on complimentary interests, goals, passions, and skills. And naturally with each introduction your own personal network will begin to grow.

For more information, check out the manifesto or apply today!

Big thanks to all of our partners on creating and developing By/Association including Red Antler, Crush+Lovely, and ArtPlugDesign!!

This post was written by Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Co-Founder of All Day Buffet.  You can also follow his updates on twitter.

I’ve always lived my life and made decisions based on a couple of key principles.  These may sound like tried and true cliches, but i actually DO follow them.  Stop and think about what they actually mean instead of letting them fall on deaf ears.

1) Never chase the money.
2) Every step moves you closer to your goals.
3) Do what makes you happy.
4) Live life with no regrets.
5) Trust your gut.
6) Most importantly, have fun because life is short.

When I graduated from VCU Brandcenter in 2006, I wanted to travel around the world. So, I did. At the time, it was probably not the smartest thing to do. When people were putting together their portfolios and going on job interviews, I was in the computer lab planning my itinerary and booking travel. Looking back, it was probably one of the best experiences I ever had in my life. And something I would have regretted if I didn’t do. I mean, what other times in your life can you travel around the world by yourself with nothing to worry about?

Looking back at the past 3 years, I’ve applied these simple life principles that guided me down many different paths to get me where I am today. I worked at Naked Communications in London to build up my creative skills. I moved to New Orleans to work for Trumpet and help rebrand the city of New Orleans. And most recently, I worked for creative startup Behance in New York. Each one of these experiences have taught me some valuable life lessons.

Like all good things, they must come to an end. Friday will be my last day at Behance. I’ve had a wonderful 1.5 years working at this startup and have learned so much in the process.  Before I decided to work at Behance, I read an article on the “Paypal Mafia” and I knew that I had to be in a similar environment.  Looking back over my experience here, I can truly say that it was everything I expected and even more.  I wish the team luck in all of their future endeavors and I’m thrilled to see them grow and be successful.

But, much like my decision to travel around the world, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to focus all of my time and energy on All Day Buffet. The next phase of my life will be to utilize my past experiences and skills to grow and build All Day Buffet to the point where it becomes successful.  I’ll be solely focused on working with Jerri Chou on growing All Day Buffet and The Feast Conference, working with Laura White to launch her own company, and internally developing some other brands we have brewing in the pipeline.  I’m a philanthropist at heart, and at the end of the day, I want to help as many people as I can.

Lastly, a real quick story to wrap things up.  A couple of weeks ago, I had breakfast with Annie Duke (professional poker player) who told me a great life lesson and story around sunk costs.  In the most basic terms, the concept is used in making good decisions (which is the secret to the success of professional poker players).  Wikipedia defines sunk costs as “costs that cannot be recovered once they have been incurred.”

So, for example, if you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, and the line next to you moves faster, most people won’t hop over to the faster line because of the time they “invested” in their current line.  This makes absolutely no sense as anything invested in your past shouldn’t influence your future.  Another example revolves around relationships.  Most people stay together because they’ve “been together for the past five years.”  Again, people shouldn’t make decisions based on past investments.  And if you’re wondering how this applies back to poker.  Once you make a bet and put your chips in the middle, that money is no longer yours (so you shouldn’t make bad decisions on getting it back).

Instead, you should look toward the future and look at all the different paths, opportunities, and possibilities presented to you right now.  The sky is the limit.  Everything in your past gets you to this point but it’s up to you to make the best possible decision on which path you want to go down. And that’s where gut intuition, happiness, and the rest of my cliche life principles come into play.  Because at the end of the day, if you make the right decision for yourself, there’s no way that it’s a bad one!

Here’s our recent submission for 504Ward along the different types of people that make up the All Day Buffet network.  We filmed this in New Orleans during The Feast Conference and thanks to Tung and Ben from Deltree for filming, editing and producing the video.

All Day Buffet from Tung Ly on Vimeo.