Nancy Lublin
Founder & CEO of Crisis Text Line & founder of Dress for Success
Discussion
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
Hi, I'm Nancy Lublin. I don't sleep much. I founded Crisis Text Line, a free, 24/7 text line and one of the first “big data for good” orgs. I ran DoSomething.org and Dress for Success before that. I believe in building things that matter. I know a bunch about tech, data, teens and start ups so ask me anything!
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Theoharis Dimarhos
@theo_dimarhos · Marketing+Biz Dev at AngelouEconomics
When it comes to approaching celebrities, what have you found to be the best ways to reach and work with them?
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
@theo_dimarhos Hire someone like Diane@dosomething.org (or Colleen or Calvin) who are all genius about thinking about landing and leveraging talent in smart ways.
Zameer Ansari
@xameeramir
Hey, @nancy_lublin How do you decide building products that matter? It's the big skill. Can you share some advice on how do startups shall make product decisions?
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
@xameeramir Prioritizing what gets built first, what can wait a few weeks--thats hard. We have 4 organizational KPIs. The entire staff (and our board!) can see them every day, in a Slack channel at 7am. Every product we build has to relate to a specific KPI--and have a hypothesis about how much it will move the needle. Makes it easier to set priorities.
Alexandru G
@alexg0g · MBET student at UWaterloo
Hey Nancy, did any of the Crisis Text Line counsellings fail terribly and how did you react to that? If luckily not, how do you keep yourself prepared if someone for instances takes their live after being counselled and the situation just couldn't be addressed accordingly...?
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
@alexg0g Being a Crisis Counselor (or a 911 operator or a social worker or any of these jobs that are on the front line of human pain) is hard work. Even for people who have been doing it for multiple years, its emotionally draining. The hardest part is that you don;t always know what happens after that interaction. To me, its the most generous act of kindness I have ever seen: strangers communicating about very personal things, with no promise of resolution. Frankly, I couldn't do it. I'm not that altruistic. I would need to know. I would want to crawl through the phone and hug someone (or shake them.) So, I am not a Crisis Counselor...and I am in awe of the 1500 volunteers who do this with us.
Theoharis Dimarhos
@theo_dimarhos · Marketing+Biz Dev at AngelouEconomics
Hi Nancy! At DoSomething you worked with big sponsors. What are your top 3 lessons in dealing with them and getting the funds needed for your campaigns?
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
@theo_dimarhos Cold call. Give them something THEY want. Be a nice person--everyone would prefer to work with nice people.
Joey Tawadrous
@joey_tawadrous · Software Dev, Designer & Entrepreneur
How do you manage to stay focused with minimal amounts of sleep? :)
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
@joey_tawadrous Have children. Seriously. After having 2 kids, I learned that sleep is something optional and I can focus like Luke bringing down a death star.
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
Hi Nancy. Thanks for being here today. What are some of the biggest challenges you've had to overcome founding Crisis Text line?
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
@ems_hodge Funding new things is really hard in the not for profit space. Foundations are set up to fund specific program areas. New things don't fit old buckets! It took me 2 years to raise the original 4 mil to start Crisis Text Line. (And I'm kind of a safe bet!) So, yeah, landing $ for new things is hard.
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg · Former Product Hunt
Hey Nancy! Thanks for joining us :)
What's something you used to fundamentally believe that you now see as fervently misguided?
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
@eriktorenberg I went to law school. I was trained to hold things close and be skeptical of sharing. Now I 101% believe the best ideas are not in the room, ideas get stronger by sharing them. And, that opening our stuff will only lead to more people being helped. Kimono, open. Always.
Theoharis Dimarhos
@theo_dimarhos · Marketing+Biz Dev at AngelouEconomics
Nancy, you've had some very influential people support your causes. How do you storytell in order to attract important/busy people?
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
@theo_dimarhos Actually, I think the key is to LISTEN more than you TALK to those types of people. We have 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...
Andrew Ettinger
@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)
Where do you draw the line on things that matter vs. things that don't?
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Nancy Lublin
@nancy_lublin · Founder & CEO, Crisis Text Line
@andrewmettinger I'm actually very good at that. I'm not one for grudges or second guesses. When I do sleep, I'm out. Something matters if it has a relationship to one of our KPIs...or the team. Culture, morale, learning--that all matters too. So, sometimes something is worth doing, even if it doesn't make sense via the math.