A company where profits mean saving the world — goimagine
The first time Jon Lincoln started a company was in his dorm room at Northeastern University. He booked comedians — and himself — at local colleges and eventually ran a comedy club at Faneuil Hall.
His next job, in the insurance technology industry, wasn’t quite as humorous but “I had a kid and it was time to grow up,” said Lincoln, who moved to Grafton seven years ago after spending most of his life in Northborough.
He started another company in the same field, promoting insurance tech software, but something was missing. He loved the entrepreneurial aspect, but it was lacking something. Maybe it was imagination. Maybe it was the need to sprinkle a little magic around to make the world better.
Maybe what the world needed was a place to buy unicorn hats for your cat, among other unusual goods.
The result is goimagine, a platform for independent craft makers to sell their wares. What makes it different from a more well-known site like Etsy, eBay or even Amazon? Goimagine donates 100 percent of its profits to charity.
“The sad reality of the world we live in is people are skeptical,” Lincoln said. “I want to be completely transparent with our finances — this is what it takes to run the website, these are the profits we can donate to charity.”
To build the business, he teamed up with two Grafton resident: Stephanie Romkey, with whom he attended Algonquin Regional High School, and Bill Rowell, who he met through his kids. Romkey handles the graphic and website design aspect of the business while Rowell takes on the backend.
Romkey also had special insight into the business — she has sold goods on Etsy and understood how to create a community for makers.
“It’s a two-sided marketplace,” Lincoln said. “You’re connecting buyer and seller. People say ‘oh, so you’re asking the seller to donate their goods?’ And I say no — in fact, they’re making more money than they do on other platforms because our fees are lower.”
The first challenge was attracting sellers, using a grassroots marketing campaign through Facebook. There’s now 2,000 sellers in the group chatting about their wares, buyers, and suggesting improvements to the website.
There’s something else that’s different about go imagine — not all who want to sell on the website will be accepted. They need to submit an application to sell.
“My personal belief is when companies go public, they become companies that only exists to make profits for the investors,” Lincoln said. “That’s when you see platforms accepting mass-made goods from China instead of handmade products. We want to establish that all our goods are made in the USA.”
Goimagine is modeled after Newman’s Own, the food company founded by actor Paul Newman that gives all of its after-tax profits to charities through its foundation. Lincoln has chatted with its past CEO for advice.
The site launched in beta mode in April and has already donated $1,000 to Horizons for Homeless Children. For now, they are focusing solely on charities that have a mission to help children who are homeless or hungry. As they grow, they hope to have charity recipients in every state, nominated by buyers and sellers.
Lincoln has other plans, too. In the fall, he’s hoping to host local sellers at a Grafton event where they can show off their wares. And goimagine is always looking for new sellers.
“The whole concept is to change the world,” Lincoln said.
