Heleo Manifesto

Our mission at Heleo is simple: We want to make it easier for regular, time-starved folks like us to discover inspiring ideas, consume them in engaging formats on our favorite devices, and interact with our favorite thought leaders. We believe that in 2016 media should be lighter, faster, more personal, and more responsive. People with great ideas, and the people who love them, are too far apart. Our mission at Heleo is to bring them closer together.

It wasn’t always this way. Not long ago, there were no media companies. There were storytellers – bards, minstrels, troubadours, wise men and women, soothsayers, would-be prophets – and they spoke directly to their audience, learning with each performance. The more they performed, the better they got, until news of their travels preceded them. Then, in the last several hundred years, mass media created a single, global audience – first through the printing press, then radio and TV. The upside of this was that people with things to say were suddenly able to reach a lot more people. This has been great for Cervantes, Darwin, Oprah, Honey Boo Boo and those whose lives they have touched. The downside has been that the large, powerful media companies that erect the radio towers, lay the cable, arrange lighting and powder noses have created a barrier between storyteller and audience. Storytellers became more distanced from their audiences, and a high counsel of editors and producers have become all powerful, deciding who gets heard, and who gets backstage.

The internet, of course, has begun to change all this. It’s now possible for creators to reach kazillions instantly on screens through text, images and video. And it’s a two way medium – writer and reader can communicate directly. Distribution is essentially free, so we don’t need titanic, lumbering companies in shimmering glass towers to connect thought leader and audience. We need a lighter, faster, internet-native, more humble version of the media company. Cue: Heleo.

What do we want to change?

First, we think it’s high time that content is organized around the brands of the people who created it. For too long, the most prominent brand has been that of the owner of the printing press, the trucks, the pipes – the newspapers, magazines and cable channels that delivered the goods. And we love many of those publications. But we are more drawn to the creators, the thinkers, the sources of the ideas. And we want to meet their friends, the other thinkers they admire. We want to meet great ideas the way you meet people at a cocktail party. Heleo will be a cocktail party of ideas.

Second, we believe that ideas should be liberated from format constraints. Not every idea should be a 300-page book. There are loads of great ideas stuck in books too few people get through. They should be liberated, distributed virally through social media, and distilled into a mobile experience that will delight readers. This, in the end, will build audiences for writers, make possible new revenue streams, and drive book sales.

Third, we believe that there shouldn’t be a clergy of editors and agents who alone decide what will be published. The process should be – and is becoming – more meritocratic. Anyone can earn an audience, reader by reader, and it should be easier to make a living by delivering to those readers the experiences and learnings they find most inspiring.

Fourth, we believe that creators, writers, thought leaders – the storytellers of our age –deserve a partner with deep expertise in building audience online, learning from user interactions, and generating revenue. In the last few years there has been a revolution in how ideas are packaged, distributed, shared and discovered. These strategies are carried out most effectively by those entities with the most data. We want to democratize these tools, and make sure writers big and small are empowered to build a direct, personal and financially rewarding relationship with their readers.

We are believers – we think that the right book, the right speech, the right new habit, the right cautionary tale or clarion call, the right I-just-can’t-take-it-anymore rant, the right insight on what makes us tick — perhaps even the right tidying tip — at the right moment, can be life-changing.

We are starting with a partnership with several dozen of our favorite writers – people like Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts, Daniel Pink, who wrote Drive and To Sell is Human, Gretchen Rubin, of The Happiness Project and Better than Before, Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From, and Eric Ries who wrote The Lean Startup (see our full list of advisors and writers here). We also have support from a number of more forward thinking big media companies who are adapting to the changing times.

We are focused on ideas that are based in science or rigorous research, but also ideas that are personal and actionable – ideas that can change our lives for the better while expanding our understanding of the world around us. This may sound Pollyannaish, but the intersection of science, inspiration and pragmatic advice has driven this country since Ben Franklin was polishing his bifocals. This culture, and the inspired people who feed it with fresh ideas, has never been stronger. So join us on this adventure! Sign up for Heleo emails, subscribe to our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. We will keep you up to date on the latest ideas from our expanding community of thought leaders.

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