As an SMU junior, Daniel Poku enlisted friends Paul Curry, Marc Feldman, Tyler Hayes, Stephen Nelson, Tyler Scott and Kyle Spencer to start CauseCakes, a cupcake business with a philanthropic twist. They raised funds through a social media blitz, earned their University degrees in 2014 and are “unwrapping the movement” September 5.
Inspired by fortune cookies, Poku came up with the idea to print suggestions of random acts of kindness – for example, “Pay the bill of the person behind you the next time you’re in Starbucks” – on cupcake wrappers. CauseCakes are now sold at The Original Cupcakery in Dallas’s Uptown neighborhood.
CauseCakes is active on Facebook, Twitter and on Instagram (@CauseCakesTeam), and customers are encouraged to share their CauseCakes experiences on social media. More information also is available online at www.UnwrapTheMovement.com.
SMU Magazine writer Leah Johnson ’15, who is majoring in journalism at Meadows School of the Arts, has covered the CauseCakes story from its beginning as a reporter for The Daily Campus, SMU’s student newspaper, and other media. Here, she catches up with the young alumni as they take their idea to the public:
Are all the members of the CauseCakes team still participating?
POKU: Except for Stephen Nelson, all members are participating in the same roles. There is one addition, Lauren Packer, who handles advertising.
What is new? New websites? New strategies? New flavors ? New wrappers?
EVERYTHING IS NEW! We have been working hard to develop a better looking and functioning website; that has been our biggest challenge. We also have rebranded and developed our wrappers to embrace Dallas, so you will see the city skyline now decorating our wrappers.
How does your collaboration with The Original Cupcakery work?
We negotiated a partnership with the bakery that gives us a portion of cupcake sales. We plan to reinvest in CauseCakes initially.We hope to quickly get to a point where we can begin to partner with charities and/or perhaps use the profit to fund acts of kindness that the CauseCakes team wants to pursue.
What did you learn from the process of starting CauseCakes?
When you have a crazy or innovative idea that you think might have promise, run with it and see it through to the end. Every roadblock or challenge, though frustrating, could not stop us because we had this very powerful resolve: We have nothing to lose, only something to offer.
I think there were times when we had to evaluate whether or not CauseCakes was worth our time as it pushed up against other demands. It was beautiful to see us come to the conclusion that the opportunity to create something that can spur someone to do something incredible for another person is priceless.
We also learned a great deal about social media and leading and following one another.
Switching gears, let’s talk about your time at SMU. What organizations were you involved in?
At SMU, most of us found each other through Mustang Heroes, the community service organization. A few of us were involved in Greek life.
How did you balance academics and extracurricular activities with trying to start CauseCakes?
It was incredibly difficult to balance all of life and school’s demands to launch something like CauseCakes. It was time-consuming to do the research regarding the cupcake wrappers and the feasibility of putting messages inside the wrappers. Raising funds was an incredibly strategic and time-consuming activity. Much of our time was devoted to hundreds of meetings that we tried to fit into our busy schedules; sometimes these meetings were physical meetings, but they were often virtual, especially during breaks at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
How has SMU helped all of you get to where you are in life? And with CauseCakes?
SMU allowed each of us to be introduced to someone with a different life background and academic background. We were able to partner and use our synergies in business, advertising/marketing, design, vision sharing and grassroots organizing to create something like this. Without being able to learn from one another and shape each others’ ideas, a concept like CauseCakes might never have come about in the form it is now.
What are some of your favorite memories at SMU?
CURRY: To be completely honest, one of my favorite memories of SMU was CauseCakes. We all put so much time and dedication into something over the years, something that we believed in. It was rewarding. The culture of SMU had a big part to play in it, seeing professors and other students accomplish so much really made us realize that we could, too.
As for classes, anything that I had with Dev Gupta. He teaches all of the creative portfolio classes in advertising and does it in a way that really focuses on making cool stuff and learning along the way. Needless to say, that was the way we approached CauseCakes and how I try to approach everything.
SCOTT: Attending the George W. Bush Center dedication with all five living presidents in attendance will always be one of the most special memories of my entire life. Susan Holland of the SMU Sport Management Program (APSM) was by far my favorite professor.
HAYES: I would have to say my favorite class at SMU was Project Management with Karin Quiñones. Joan Arbery taught first-year Rhetoric II and that class helped develop and change my way of thinking.
POKU: My favorite class was Organizations and Their Environment with Professor Matthew Keller. This class armed me with valuable frameworks I use to critically analyze organizations and groups I work each day, including my team.
FELDMAN: I really enjoyed Mustang Corral both as an incoming freshman and later as a leader. I also enjoyed watching the men’s basketball team climb their way into the Associated Press Top 25. That 3-point shot Nic Moore hit in the last seconds to beat the California Bears in the National Invitation Tournament was one of the happiest moments in my life!
SPENCER: My favorite memory at SMU had to be my sophomore year when I went to Altus, Arkansas, with Alternative Breaks. My experience in Arkansas was life-changing as I realized that I wanted to devote my life to helping others. Also, this trip was the beginning of my friendship with Daniel Poku as we spent time discussing how we can better help the people of Dallas. Soon afterward, the idea of CauseCakes came about, and the rest is history.
There are classes that I enjoyed and learned more from than others due to the incredible gift for teaching that the professor had. Among them were Ellen Allen, Thomas Osang, Patricia Kriska, Pamela Van Dyke, Karin D. Quiñones, William Nanry and the late Robert Van Kemper, just to name a few.
What advice would you give to other SMU students/ young professionals wanting to start their own business?
POKU: Figure out what it is you want to offer to someone, whether that is a service or a product. Starting a business is something that always has a level of risk, but the entrepreneurs who push and put the effort to start it are the ones who truly believe they have something important to offer.
Last words?
Come buy cupcakes! We promise they’re good.
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