In 1971, Nike famously hired a student named Carolyn Davidson to create them a logo. The company paid her $35 dollars for the design.
You might recognize it:
“The swoosh” is now one of the most universally recognized cultural artifacts around the world. And not only do you surely recognize the logo, you probably haven’t gotten this far without the phrase “Just do it” popping into your head, either.
The logo didn’t become famous on its own, of course. As slick and timeless as the swoosh might be, it took more than just a design to get Nike to $50-billion in annual revenue.
But what amounts to $262.83 in 2023 gave Nike one of its most valuable assets. And that’s the point.
In the world of city building, making these types of low-cost investments (typically as temporary teasers and tests of a more built-out, permanent solution) is what Mike Lydon and Tony Garcia famously dubbed “tactical urbanism.”
But this “portfolio of small bets,” as Strong Towns often puts it, doesn’t have to stop with infrastructure. And it shouldn’t. There are all kinds of innovation waiting to flourish with even a minor investment.
Some examples of this, again using our sub-$300 budget:
$262.83 is nearly the exact cost of an annual Vimeo subscripton, which could help an ambitious teenager in town finally launch their video editing business.
It’s also roughly the cost of a Squarespace annual subscription, which could finally help a local business get themselves on the web in an effective way.
It’s enough to fund renting a low-fidelity event space for someone looking to host a local networking event or conference.
It’s enough for an aspiring baker to buy the ingredients to produce some samples to sell at the next farmers market
It’s enough to help a local resident who is struggling with getting some much-needed counseling.
It’s enough to relieve $26283 in local medical debt
It’s enough to buy a bike for a local resident that currently walks long miles to and from work each day.
It’s enough to build a pretty epic lemonade stand
Here’s what Stanford d.school innovation expert Jeremy Utley says about small bets in his book Ideaflow:
”To arrive at a single successful product, 2,000 ideas become 100 working prototypes. Those 100 prototypes become 5 commercial products. Of the final 5, 1 will succeed . . . .What we’ve found working with innovators of every kind is that the scale of this approach applies universally.”
To achieve true breakthroughs of any kind in your community, it’s going to take a lot of trial and error. And the freedom of investing more holistically in your community is that even those investments that don’t directly create long-term ROI still bring the community value:
The lemonade stand that doesn’t raise up to rival the beverage titans of the world is not a failure.
Four counseling sessions may not lead to a true breakthrough, but perhaps they equip someone with the necessary coping mechanisms to keep going while they seek further help.
The conference in town may not lead to a meetup between the next Jobs and Wozniak, but it will start and foster a local culture of partnership
And all of it begins to build a community ethos of innovation, wellness, entrepreneurship, and investment in one another. That not only checks the “feel-good” box, but also creates the kind of environment where people can truly find both healing and the kind of support and boldness needed to create and launch the products, services and businesses that will make your town thrive.
We all want to live in cities where minor miracles happen. And for just a couple hundred bucks, we can make that true of the town we call home.
This is wind in my sails, Michael. Now, I’m thinking even deeper of that portfolio of small bets that can make the difference in my community, Ogbomoso.