“You’re running a tech startup from where?”

That’s how people react when University of Louisville MBA Chris Head tells them about MobileServe a storytelling app designed for companies and service organizations who send volunteers out into the community.

Volunteers access the app on their mobile devices, log their volunteer hours, share photos, tell stories and connect with friends.

Before MobileServe came along, people were already “humble bragging” about their volunteer activities on social media. But MobileServe gives community-minded companies a way to aggregate the information and share it with their shareholders, employees and the public, to demonstrate the impact they are having in the community.

How it all started

The idea occurred to founder Chris Head when he was working with teenagers in a YMCA program that requires the youth to report their “service hours.” The YMCA CEO, Ben Reno-Weber, was on the trip with Head, and has since helped support the company.

“Ben was whining to me that the hardest part of the job was getting the kids to actually report their hours,” recalls Head. “His team hounded and nagged, but to no avail. At the same time kids were telling their volunteer stories on social media. So we were saying, ‘Why can’t we capture that content and use it to help tell their story more broadly?’”

“There’s gotta be an app for that,” Head insisted.

But there wasn’t an app for that. Reno-Weber and Head tapped into their network of contacts in corporations and service organizations looking for a solution. Instead what they found was a market.

So they created an app for that—right here in Louisville.

“We got a lot of help early on from InterApt, a local tech company, and a small group of advisors,” said Reno-Weber. “They helped us understand what our customers needed vs. what they wanted.”

As Head explains, “Creating a business with potential to scale is not quick or easy. We got some great mentoring and support from local entrepreneurs. After a few false starts and several months in the Velocity Accelerator, we have really given a lot of time and attention to the ‘user experience.’ We want to make sure that the app is simple and fun, so people will actually use it. It’s not enough to solve a technical problem. The app has to be intuitive and user friendly.”

They currently work with APAX software out of Lexington.

Doing Well By Doing Good

“MobileServe’s goal is to help build a culture of service,” says Reno-Weber. “Culture is built by storytelling. There’s lots of data that doing service makes people healthier. It brings people together. It makes companies more productive, and employees more loyal. Customers want to do business with brands that share their values. We want to make it easy to create that sort of culture.”

In a community like Louisville that prides itself on “compassion,” it’s no surprise that the product has taken off. But there has been great interest nationally, as well. Head explains, “Our target market is any organization that has people volunteering in the community and wants to tell their story effectively, using pictures, stories and ‘infographics.’”

Headquartered in Louisville’s Shelby Park neighborhood, MobileServe currently boasts 25,000 users and 300 organizations. In 2016, their target is 500,000 users.

Philanthropy is a Way of Life

For Head, promoting philanthropy is not just a business; it is a way of life. When he was a teenager, Head, now 26, started volunteering with the YMCA, tutoring homeless kids at Wayside Christian Mission three days a week. People Head met back then are counted among his best friends today.

When he’s not at MobileServe, Head acts as an expert advisor to nonprofits such as the KY YMCA Youth Association, where he serves on the board. He also works with Surgery On Sunday, a medical nonprofit which provides free surgery to patients who are uninsured or underinsured.

“I began to serve because someone told me a story about the work they were doing. I was inspired to come along, and since then I have brought hundreds of people with me.  I believe that a good story can change the world.”

That’s what MobileServe does.