The Place: Cafe Medici

The Cup: Both Erine and I opt for regular jo this particular morning – which we each doctor up in our own unique way.

The Background: A little over a month ago when I was sitting down for coffee with Cup 74, Newt Hamlin, I overheard my name, looked up and saw my pal, Cup 7, Ruben Cantu. I grabbed a hug and then Ruben introduced me to his coffee mate as an incredible guy, doing hugely impactful work who has recently been named a TED Fellow. What?!? Ruben tells me Erine is someone I definitely need to have coffee with, and promises to make an email introduction later that day. A man of his word, he did just that, and here we are.

Before we get into the life and times of the amazing Erine Gray, let’s cover some:

Common Grounds:

1. What’s a food you can’t live without?  Meatball subs. It’s a comfort food. My  mom made them growing up, and I even had them at my high school graduation party.
2. What’s your guilty pleasure? I love watching Friday Night Lights. It’s a piece of art. I also have a sweet tooth.
3. How did you make your first buck? I had a paper route when I was 11 or 12, and then by the next summer, I had three routes.
4. What’s the best compliment you ever got? That I lead by example.
5. What is your favorite way to unwind? I used to run marathons, before I started a company; back when I had free time. When I run, and get into a groove – after about an hour, I just let go.
6. What was the last thing you fixed? Software – some sort of bug.
7. What is something you’ll regret not doing, if you don’t do it? Probably get married.  {I may need to start a list and call it Austin’s Most Eligible (and AWESOME) Bachelors. Off the top of my head, here are just a few: Cup 75, Doug Guller, Cup 1, Deep Nasta, Cup 7, Ruben Cantu, Cup 22, Tom Gimbel and Cup 48, Kevin Koym. All interesting, kind, successful, handsome and single dudes who are doing very cool things in Austin!}
8. What’s the best place to eat in Austin? Nau’s Enfield Drug – a little burger place; a diner actually. I also like Casa Colombia, which they are re-opening in February after a kitchen fire. I love diners. Magnolia Cafe is also a favorite.
9. What’s your favorite movie? Good Will Hunting.

I’ve often found it incredibly fascinating how life’s twists and turns, most of which make no sense at the time, wind up culminating into something so brilliant.  Erine’s story is one that illustrates this perfectly.

A small town in New York is where Erine grew up. When he was a senior in high school, his mom was diagnosed with a rare brain disease and became permanently disabled. I have to imagine this was a very difficult time in Erine’s life. He persevered; worked hard through high school and got into prestigious Purdue University, where he tells me he failed out twice. “I was not a good student,” he says. He opted to take a year off to travel some while he figured out his game plan. Eventually, he headed back to school. Summers were spent selling books, door to door, making money to keep going to school, which he did – eventually earning a degree in Economics from Indiana University.

His hard work had paid off.

Erine’s first job was a consulting gig for a Dell Ventures company. This led him to a job as a programmer at Dell in Austin in 2000, where he’d remain for the next three years. During that time, he made the decision to go back to school – a decision which was fueled, in large part, by a an even bigger choice Erine had recently been forced to make. At 26 years old, Erine had become the legal guardian for his mom. He flew to New York, packed up all her belongings, and moved to her to Texas where he would oversee her care.

This experience ignited a passion within Erine to find a way to make people’s lives better. He enrolled in The University of Texas at Austin – The LBJ School of Public Affairs, studied public policy and in 2004, earned his Master’s in Public Affairs. After graduation, he had a choice to make – go back to Dell and work as an analyst, or take an entry level position with the city of Austin, for half the pay, but actually get to put his new education to use. He asked himself the question, “What did I go back to school for?” And with his answer, chose the latter.

Two years were spent at the City of Austin working as a Project Manager, first focused on agenda items, and later focusing on a physical wellness program for city employees. During this time, Erine says he learned a lot about how laws and ordinances are passed – and sat through way too many hours of city council meetings to count. When a interesting consulting opportunity came along, he left the city and went to the State of Texas to work on an initiative promising to modernize the way people applied for programs like food stamps, Medicaid and CHIP.

The project was controversial and was widely regarded as a poorly managed project. When the original contractor and lead vendor on the project backed out, suddenly Erine found himself in a leadership position. It was his chance to step up and lead a team of 25 or so staff members in this worthy pursuit of making social programs more accessible. For four years, the Erine worked 60-70 hour weeks. He says, “It was hectic, but we were solving real problems. So it was worth it.”

The experience gave Erine a greater understanding of how the government worked. He experienced, first hand, how well-meaning government employees, working as a part of well-intentioned social programs, were still failing people. Serving people, yes. But not as efficiently, nor as effectively as they could have.

On Sept. 1, 2010, Erine’s experience with finding social services for his disabled mother, his project experience with the city of Austin and his state social programs experience combined with his programming skills and experience, his leadership training, and his public affairs education to spark an idea.  It must be possible to simplify the process of searching for and applying to programs for those in need. Surely, there must be a way that people could easily search for the programs in their area and learn whether or not they qualify for them. And thus, the creation of Aunt Bertha.

Aunt Bertha, as Erine tells me, picks up where Uncle Sam leaves off by making it easy for people to find food, health, housing and education programs in just a few clicks. Aunt Bertha’s mission is to make human service program information more accessible to both people and programs. If you want to hear Erine tell this start-up story for himself, check out this great video from a talk he delivered last year in NYC at Personal Democracy Forum 2013, or you might be interested in this video which he delivered after spending 12 weeks in 2012 as a fellow at the Unreasonable Institute.

As you might have guessed, Erine and Aunt Bertha have made quite a splash in the 41 months since it’s inception. Just being selected as an Unreasonable Institute fellow is truly incredible. The Unreasonable Institute website states it’s reason to exist is: To create a world in which no one is limited by their circumstances. Their mission: To unlock entrepreneurial potential to overcome our world’s greatest challenges. Which happens because: We work tirelessly to get world-changing ventures and entrepreneurs the resources they need to scale their social and environmental impact. Each year, just 12 entrepreneurs (22 the year Erine applied) from all over the world are selected. In 2012, Erine was one of the selected few.

I must say that it’s obvious to me why he was selected. He’s smart, articulate and he’s got great ideas. But that’s not the whole story. I believe as much as these other factors have come into play, the biggest answer is that Erine is one of the brave few who have risen up to take on a problem that’s much bigger than most of us realize.

Erine caused my jaw to drop when he told me that more than 75 million people in this country, or one in four of us, will apply for and receive assistance from one or more of the many social service programs that exist today.  One in six Americans are on food stamps. One in four kids in this country relies on government assistance for their meals. Those statistics are astounding! Erine and I both agree, the answer is not likely to come from the government. That’s not a political statement, it’s simply the reality.

Erine believes that we can take care of those in need, but first, the charitable sector has to get more efficient. And that’s a bet Aunt Bertha and Erine are both banking on.

Erine tells me, “A lot of non-profits are genuinely trying to address social problems. Many well-intentioned people are starting non-profits, and when they can’t figure out how to scale, wind up with large administrative costs. Maybe they are able to raise some money, but that money mostly ends up feeding the struggling non-profit. There are simply too many non-profits competing for the same dollars.”

Aunt Bertha helps those in need to find services they can use. But it also helps non-profits and charitable organizations be more efficient and effective through intake software and reporting. More people are helped, more efficiently. And, the service helps cut administrative costs by close to 50% – meaning more money is left to help those in need. Win, win, win, win….

2013 was a very big year for Erine and the company! In addition to continuing to help thousands of users, they signed up their first eight clients, they raised close to $1M in Series A funding, Erine got his first paycheck in December and he was named a 2014 TED Fellow.  From the TED website:

The TED Fellows program is designed to bring together young world-changers and trailblazers who have shown unusual accomplishment and exceptional courage.

Whoa! That’s amazing! I tell Erine.  He agrees, but he’s also very humble about the whole thing. I can tell for Erine, he has no need to be the star of the show. He’d rather Aunt Bertha take center stage and get all the attention. When I ask Erine how he’d make his living if happiness were the national currency, he says, “I’d be doing exactly what I’m doing now. I’d work on it 24 hours a day if I could.” Again, it has nothing to do with being in the spotlight, and instead is purely about affecting real change and giving everyone a fair chance.

When I ask him what drives him, he says, “It’s about giving all kids a shot at the American Dream. There are so many kids who don’t know about the programs out there to help them. I am driven to keep telling this story – it is possible! What bothers me is the nepotism that comes with money in this country. It’s all about who you know. I want to work toward leveling the playing field.”

Which leads somewhat into the issue Erine feels is one the greatest facing our society today – consumerism. “People are putting their self-worth in where they live, what kind of car they drive, what clothes they wear. Twelve year old kids think they need $50 t-shirts to fit in. It’s deplorable. I’m not saying you can’t have nice things. But there’s just so much money wasted…on crap,” Erine says.

How about a bucket list? For Erine, he’s got a novel in him and he says one of these days, he’ll publish it. He’s actually already written one. He’s not sure of it’s THE one, or if he might wind up writing a completely new novel. One thing is for sure though, it will be a coming of age, triumph over adversity type of story. Erine enjoys taking life lessons and making them very accessible through characters and a story.

Teaching is also on that bucket list. Erine says he doesn’t know whether Aunt Bertha will be successful (he’s hopeful), but he has no intentions of doing another start-up. Someday he hopes to find himself as an adjunct professor at a community college or a university teaching young people and imparting on them the belief that they can do anything they set their minds to. I can tell you this, those will be some very lucky students!

The best advice Erine says he ever got, was: “If you want someone to do something, make it easy for them to do it.” Simple, but exquisitely true. Erine has applied this lesson to his business and knows it’s true for users, investors and customers.

A daily practice that has been impactful in Erine’s life, and one he believes has contributed to his success over the years, is journaling. He has done it on and off for many years, but recommitted to the practice about four months ago. He tells me the effects have been remarkable. The process he follows is from The Artist’s Way and is called Morning Pages. It’s three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing – usually done first thing in the morning. Erine admits he doesn’t always adhere to this last rule. But says the process creates a framework for processing issues. He says he used to find himself hanging on his inbox waiting for good news. When he got it, he felt great. When it didn’t come, or the news wasn’t good, his mood tanked. “Journaling”, he says, “is a way for dealing with life’s ups and downs. I know now that it doesn’t matter what the results are as long as I’m putting in the right efforts. It’s the same lessons I learned early on in my door-to-door book sales days. Success isn’t about being discovered. It’s about journaling three pages every day. That’s my resolution for this year.”

Something that Erine tells me he believed to be true for a long time, that he now knows differently has to do with understanding people. He used to think there were two types of people – those of substance and those, well, who are not. The Aunt Bertha journey has exposed him to many new people and through these numerous new contacts, he’s discovered that it’s not a black and white issue. He tells me, “We’re all on different paths. Everyone has a lot to contribute. Life has a way of teaching us what we need to learn. Some learn it earlier and some learn it later. I now know that people are multi-faceted and we don’t have the benefit of knowing all sides of a person.”

If given 30 seconds to make a speech to the world, Erine’s message is this: “Life is not as complicated as we make it out to be. It’s actually pretty simple. Say what you’re feeling. Have faith that there’s a bigger purpose. And work hard.”

Erine’s story serves a reminder that simple is good. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by big problems. And it seems there’s no shortage of whoppers to choose from. But by taking a look at an issue and asking the question, “What do people need to do and how can we make it easier for them to do it?” just think how much closer we might be to real solutions. We tend to assume the bigger the issue, the more complex the solution needs to be. But often, the answer is staring right at us.

This much I know; all solutions start with people. People like Erine who stand up and declare they will be a part of the solution. People who take jobs that pay a fraction of what they could make elsewhere and instead of complaining about the injustice, set out to solve the problem. People who recognize that the problems facing our neighbors, are our problems too. When one in four kids in this country rely on food stamps in order to eat, we need people who see that statistic and decide to take action.

Compassion is terrific. Empathy is underrated. And prayers are welcome. But as the African proverb so astutely reminds us, “When you pray, move your feet.” It’s not enough to recognize the problem. It’s not enough to believe change is needed. The time has come, my friends, for us to take action. To be a part of the solution and commit to caring for one another in whatever way we can.

Erine was right – consumerism is a major issue in this country. We can all have nice things, sure. But I promise you – that $50 dollar t-shirt won’t make you feel alive or empowered. It won’t make you cool or make you a better person. But doing something kind for someone else? Now that will make you feel good; that will make you tingle and come to life. A selfless act of giving – I can’t think of anything more attractive and cool than that.

If you’re interested in supporting the worthy endeavors set forth by Erine and his team at Aunt Bertha, here is his request: At Aunt Bertha, our mission is to make human services information accessible to people and programs. We’re always looking to get to know innovative non-profits and foundations all over the country. If you know anybody at organizations with these types of characteristics, we’d love an introduction!