Liliana Maz hasn't ever been the face of The Busking Project, but she is undoubtedly the brains behind it. If busk.co was a train, she would be the infrastructure (tracks, signals, switches and so on) that determine the direction of travel, ensure we don't get derailed, and so rarely get the praise and recognition they deserve for keeping the whole thing running.
Most of our strategy comes from her mind. For example, Lily planned, designed and oversaw the development of almost every tool, feature, product and...well, everything, from our initial business plan right up to BuskPay, which was just one of her recent inventions.
I'd also like to mention that she used to work unholy hours and never (unlike me) lost focus or slowed down, shepherding (and taking care of) our entire staff along the way. She almost single-handedly created a nonprofit organisation (Fundación Arte y Cultura de Calle), which she then used to produce a busking festival in Bogotá, Colombia. Astonishing stuff. We (and I mean our staff, you, the world) are blessed to have a mind like hers dedicated to a mission like this!
Working half days every week from his home in the unlikely city of Manizales, Colombia (it's built on the steep slopes of a mountaintop), Pipe has been the most reliable and dedicated member of our team since he started with us as CTO 6 years ago. Continuing with the train metaphor, if Lily is the infrastructure upon which this all rests, Felipe Botero is the wheels upon which this all runs.
Literally every part of our technology that you've ever interacted with has been partly (and in some cases entirely) constructed by him. And Pipe doesn't just make the code; he’s a meticulous problem solver who always finds a way. We'll send Pipe a whole document describing every little part of a new feature, and he'll reply with the hundred ways the system would break, if we don't do X, Y and Z. It's not glamorous work, but Pipe's digital trickery and attention to detail have helped to create a technological ecosystem that is much bigger and more complicated than you or I will ever know.
Perhaps most impressively, he and Jansen Adan (another brilliant coder who unfortunately decided to go down a different track) created the fastest web-based tipping method our there, beating all the billionaire-backed financial technology firms in Silicon Valley. Not many programmers can say that!
The lubricant in our gears (forgive me, I'm running out of train-parts I can name) are the wealth of people who've helped over the years with our marketing, design, development, crowd funding, accounting, filmmaking, strategy, social media, content creation, customer service and more.
I could name fifty people who wholeheartedly deserve to be featured in this email for their invaluable input, plus hundreds of advisers (including the innumerable street performers who've offered help and suggestions), and hundreds more people who've donated to us over the years. This has been a huge team effort.
I'm beating this metaphor to death here, but I'm like the steam engine at the front of train. Actually, that metaphor works quite well; a train needs thousands of parts to go anywhere, but I get all the credit; without continual input from others I quickly run out of steam; parts of me keep breaking; I produce a staggering amount of hot air; and I'm surprisingly inefficient.
I write the content you read, I give the interviews and I fill in the grant requests. I generate the festival list, I respond to buskers' emails and messages, I run the numbers, pay the bills, buy the things we need, create partnerships, hire freelancers, make the tutorial videos, and every so often I run ideas by Lily to see if they're any good.
My day is largely spent typing. Recently, that has been at an adjustable 'standing desk', in an effort to rid myself of an RSI that earlier this year threatened to break this engine entirely. And although generally speaking I love what I do (helping people while being your own boss is great), I've also been having nightmares about work, on and off, for years. Just two nights ago I woke up from three separate work-related nightmares, one of which actually starred a corrupted excel spreadsheet.
I shudder to think how quickly my brain and body would melt if I had to perform my heart out every day to a crowd of complete strangers!
Which brings me to you, the passengers. You've noticed this train needs a new paint job, some parts need replacing entirely and we aren't always headed in the right direction, but it looks like you don't mind a bit of discomfort while riding on the BuSK Express.
The fact that some of you have been sitting on this train for so many years, despite all our flaws, is mind blowing to me. Perhaps it's because the tickets were free, or perhaps it's because the view out the window has been looking pretty bleak of late, and it's nicer in here than out there. Whatever the case, I'm truly grateful to you all.
Fingers crossed we end up somewhere you wanted to go all along.
Where exactly are we headed?
We're still chugging along with an as-yet undetermined destination, but I can tell you what's coming around the next bend:
we're about to implement a feature that will reduce the fees buskers pay on their tips to Stripe and PayPal, while increasing the average donation you get.
and we're hiring an agency (ByYuto) to finish the development they started on buskers.guide.
Thanks for choosing the BuSK Express! There's a restaurant car in the rear, and please listen for announcements about status updates,
Nick
P.S. I forgot to mention, please don't mind the hobo freeriding in the last carriage. That's Pisco, our dog, who's very sick right now, and could use a bit of love.
