Strategy Meeting
Artifact info
Title:

App Alternative Discussion

Engagement:

Holomovement App Ecosystem

Client:

Holomovement

Meeting Date:
November 14, 2025
Next Meeting Date:
December 30, 2025
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People
Hera Rose
Mariko Pitts
James Redenbaugh
Artifact Image
Meeting Summary

🎯 Executive Summary

The team evaluated a breakthrough approach to building the Holomovement's digital platform using modern, modular tools that dramatically reduce development time and cost while maintaining flexibility. James demonstrated working prototypes of assessment tools and explained a technical architecture that could replace the previously considered platform, enabling the team to create a custom, beautiful, and scalable ecosystem aligned with the movement's essence.

🚀 Product Demonstrations

Assessment & Profile System

James showcased a numerology assessment tool that demonstrates the platform's potential:

  • Interactive geometric visualizations generated from birth data and names
  • AI-powered personalized readings using Claude to analyze results
  • Automated email delivery with custom imagery and profile links
  • Expandable framework ready for astrology, Myers-Briggs, Gene Keys, and other assessment types
  • Public profile pages where users can view their results and explore others' profiles

🏗️ Technical Architecture

The Modern Stack vs. Legacy Platforms

New Approach:

  • Webflow - Front-end interface and CMS
  • N8N - Automation engine (the "brain" of the system)
  • Airtable - Data storage and management
  • Claude AI - Agentic response generation and analysis
  • Custom JavaScript - Interactive features and visualizations

Key Advantages Over React App Development:

  • Old hard code requiring expensive dev teams for every change
  • Weeks/months for new features vs. days with modular approach
  • Multiple approval layers vs. rapid iteration
  • Rigid structure vs. flexible, drag-and-drop workflows
  • High cost vs. lower cost
How N8N Works

James showed the automation workflow visually - a flowchart where each node represents a function:

  • Form submission triggers automated processes
  • Calculations, AI analysis, image generation, and database updates flow through connected nodes
  • Modular design allows copying/reusing workflows across different features
  • Visual logic makes it easy for non-developers to understand and maintain
  • Can run on N8N servers or self-hosted for complete data sovereignty

💰 Cost & Scalability

Affordable Pricing

Current Costs:

  • N8N automation: $20-29/month
  • Claude AI usage: $7 used from $27 credit despite extensive testing
  • Airtable: Pro plan already in use for podcasts can handle assessments
  • Storage: Text-based data scales efficiently even to 10,000 users

Scalability Path:

  1. Phase 1 (Web-based): Iterate quickly while community is small
  2. Gather feedback: Test with real users, validate features
  3. Phase 2 (Mobile apps): Export Webflow as HTML/CSS/JavaScript, translate to native apps
  4. Maintained flexibility: Backend automations continue working regardless of front-end platform

The architecture supports growth from prototype to thousands of users without significant cost increases.

🌊 Strategic Vision: The Living Network

The "Engine for Good" Regenerative Model

Mariko articulated a comprehensive vision for a purpose-driven economy within the Holomovement ecosystem:

Core Principles:

  • Small donations over big funders: Activate 300+ community members at ~$15/month rather than seeking family offices
  • Regenerative funding flow: Contributions fuel the ecosystem, support micro-projects, and enable community voting
  • Impact tokens or voting mechanisms: Community members vote on which projects receive funding
  • Resource sharing: Not just financial—skills, courses, meditations, expertise flow between participants

The "Dining Hall" Metaphor:

  • Multiple organizations maintain sovereignty while sharing a common space
  • Regional hubs (like Asheville) serve as connection points
  • Holons (purpose-aligned groups) form organically and receive support
  • Everyone brings resources to the shared table while maintaining their identity
Integration Requirements

The platform must:

  • Capture the vibrancy and essence of in-person Wave events
  • Support assessments → profiles → connections → collaboration → funding
  • Enable storytelling that converts to participation
  • Display Purpose Earth grantees and micro-projects on the global map
  • Facilitate alliance partnerships with custom-branded spaces
  • Create pathways from inspiration to active contribution

What it replaces:

  • Soul Guide (previous recommendation engine attempt)
  • Hylo (failed chat-based platform)
  • Boldly (expensive, rigid app solution)
  • Scattered tools across Zoom, Google Docs, WhatsApp

🎨 Design Philosophy & User Experience

Non-Negotiable Requirements

Must capture the movement's essence:

  • "Can't be a gray room" - visually stunning, aligned with Holomovement's aesthetic
  • Custom, curated experience rather than plug-and-play templates
  • Matches the "high frequency" feeling of in-person events
  • Beautiful geometry and sacred design principles integrated throughout

Technical Features That Support This:

  • 🎥 Custom video lounges with themed backgrounds (different rooms for meditation, collaboration, etc.)
  • 🧬 Geometric profile visualizations based on assessment data
  • 🍃 Interactive elements that feel alive, not static
  • 📚 Seamless integration of media (podcasts, magazine, videos) into the experience

🔄 Platform Capabilities & Features

What Can Be Built

Assessment & Matching:

  • Multiple self-assessment frameworks (numerology, astrology, Myers-Briggs, Gene Keys, Z)
  • AI-generated insights and recommendations
  • Visual representations of results
  • Matching algorithms using assessment data + location + interests + skills

Community Connection:

  • User profiles with multiple dimensions of data
  • Chat/messaging functionality
  • Email communication system
  • Video meeting rooms with custom environments
  • Holon discovery and joining flows

Resource & Project Management:

  • Micro-grant application and review systems
  • Community voting on projects
  • Impact reporting and visualization
  • Purpose Earth project integration
  • Evolving Global map of active projects and members

Financial Infrastructure:

  • Stripe integration for donations/memberships
  • Transparent fund flow visualization
  • Impact token mechanisms (if desired)
  • Multi-tiered membership models

Content & Media:

  • Podcast and interview recommendations based on profiles
  • Event archives and recordings
  • Transformation stories
  • Live stream integration

Automation & Intelligence:

  • AI-powered facilitation and recommendations
  • Automated onboarding workflows
  • Smart matching for collaboration
  • Notification and engagement triggers

🎯 Next Steps & Roadmap

Immediate Actions (Next 1-2 Weeks)

James to deliver:

  1. Cost proposal covering design & development costs software subscriptions, and support plan
  2. Initial phased roadmap outlining multi-phase deliverables

Team collaboration:

  • Weekly meetings for rapid iteration and prototyping
  • Form a tight decision-making committee (avoiding broad input that slows progress)
  • Include: Mariko, James, Hera, Emmanuel, Laura, Michael Sean (strategy/marketing), Daniel Bellchamber (technical advisor)
Development Priorities

Before the paywall (free tier):

  • Basic profile creation
  • Assessment tools (starting with numerology, expanding to others)
  • Global map viewing
  • Holon discovery
  • Initial connection features

Behind the paywall (member tier):

  • Full messaging and chat
  • Video lounge access
  • Advanced matching
  • Micro-grant applications
  • Community voting
  • Course access (Purpose Lab, etc.)
Infrastructure Decisions

Data migration needs:

  • Move from Lightnet Airtable to Holomovement-owned Airtable
  • Migrate global map data and synergist profiles
  • Establish data sovereignty and ownership

Integration points:

  • Purpose Earth grantees
  • Zone of Genius assessment (potentially license from IOS)
  • Existing media content
  • Wave event registration and follow-up

⏰ Timeline & Milestones

Critical Deadline: The Wave Event 2026

The platform must launch before the next Wave to:

  • Provide a place for event attendees to continue connecting
  • Demonstrate the movement's "walk the talk" on radical collaboration
  • Avoid repeating the pattern of high-energy events with no follow-through container
  • Show potential funders and partners tangible infrastructure

Mariko's perspective:

"We cannot spend another multi-hundred thousand dollars on an event and not have a living network for people to play in. It hurts our reputation. We're done playing small."

Phased Approach

Phase 1: Web-based MVP (2-4 months)

  • Assessment system live
  • Enhanced synergist profiles
  • Basic messaging/connection features
  • Map integration
  • Testing with early adopters

Phase 2: Beta community testing (overlapping)

  • Onboard Wave attendees immediately
  • Gather feedback and iterate
  • Validate matching algorithms
  • Test financial flows
  • Refine user journeys
  • Creative lab/holon facilitation tools

Phase 3: Mobile apps (8-16 months after Phase 1)

  • Native iOS and Android apps
  • Maintained backend processes
  • Enhanced mobile-specific features

💡 Key Insights & Breakthroughs

Why This Approach is Different

Traditional development challenges:

  • "We've been paying people who talk about what the Holomovement is without building it"
  • Multiple stakeholders slowing decisions
  • Expensive dev teams for every small change
  • Platforms that don't capture the movement's essence

This solution addresses:

  • Speed: Prototypes in days instead of months
  • Cost: Predictable, affordable, scales with usage
  • Control: Full data ownership and customization
  • Alignment: Built by someone who deeply understands the movement
  • Flexibility: Easy to iterate based on user feedback

The iOS Lesson Learned

The team reflected on the iOS (Integral Operating System) collaboration from last year:

  • iOS team promised assessment and matching features
  • After a year, had a prompt but no working prototype
  • Never demonstrated what was possible despite claims of having a dev team
  • This validates the choice to build in-house with modern tools

"What James just showed in 3 days is what iOS should have built a year ago."

Technology Enables the Vision

Hera's insight on flexible infrastructure:

"We need tech that's going to allow for growth. It's like creating the right foundations for a home. As people come in, they choose which rooms they want to be part of, and eventually we need to make renovations... until we can't count how many floors there are in this house."

James on interoperability:

"Different online schools could have the same dining hall. An assessment you do in one zone could feed into what you're doing over here. The internet becomes more open and inside out—spaces already know things about you when you arrive."

🌎 The Bigger Picture

Movement of Movements Architecture

The Holomovement operates as a network of networks:

  • Not a single organization but a living ecosystem
  • Multiple fiscal sponsors (Purpose Earth, Lightnet, Unity Earth, Foundation for the Future)
  • Regional hubs hold different aspects
  • Projects maintain sovereignty while participating in the whole
  • The digital platform mirrors this distributed, collaborative structure

The Logo as Blueprint

The Holomovement logo itself encodes the architecture:

  • Center: The dining hall where everyone communes
  • Radiating circles: Individual holons, alliances, projects maintaining autonomy
  • Whole: The interconnected consciousness binding it together

The digital network must embody this geometry - not through abstract metaphor but through actual functionality that enables sovereign entities to collaborate in shared space.

📋 Action Items:

👨‍💻 James Redenbaugh
  • Prepare cost proposal including development time estimates, software subscriptions (N8N, Airtable, Claude AI), and hosting needs
  • Create video walkthrough of digital lounge/video spaces for Emmanuel and Laura
  • Record demonstration of assessment tools (numerology, podcast recommendations) for stakeholder review
  • Draft initial roadmap outlining Phase 1 vs Phase 2 features, paywall structure, and timeline
  • Continue prototyping assessment tools and invite more users for early testing
👩‍💼 Mariko Pitts
  • Schedule follow-up strategy call for early next week with core committee
  • Coordinate with Harold on Airtable migration budget and data ownership transfer
  • Form decision-making committee (Mariko, James, Hera, Emmanuel, Laura, Michael Sean, Daniel Bellchamber)
  • Brief Emmanuel and Laura on demos and strategic pivot
  • Engage Michael Sean for marketing strategy and Engine for Good campaign development
  • Notify Boldly officially of decision (Laurie already indicated likely pivot)
  • Define paywall structure - what's free vs. member-exclusive

🎨 Hera Rose

  • Complete the assessment to provide feedback on user experience
  • Collaborate with James on technical budgeting and software cost forecasting
  • Support roadmap development with feature prioritization input
👥 Team Collaboration
  • Establish weekly check-ins for rapid iteration and decision-making
  • Create Phase 1 feature list with clear MVP scope
  • Design onboarding flow from assessment → profile → connections → pathways
  • Map existing assets (podcasts, videos, Purpose Earth projects) for platform integration

🔮 Long-term Vision

This platform represents more than a technical solution—it's the digital embodiment of the Holomovement itself. By building infrastructure that mirrors the movement's values (sovereignty + collaboration, beauty + function, local + global), the team is creating a template for how purpose-driven networks can organize, fund, and scale themselves in the 21st century.

The "Engine for Good" model positions the Holomovement to demonstrate regenerative economics in action, where small contributions from an activated community create more sustainable impact than traditional philanthropic models. This becomes not just a platform for the Holomovement, but a replicable model for other movements.

As James noted: "It feels like many things are combining... I'd love to build one thing that has many facets and capabilities that can be tailored to different communities, but also enable sharing between them."

The timing is right. The technology is ready. The vision is clear. Now it's time to build.

Relevant Initiatives

Assessment Development

Priority: 
Medium
Size: 
Planning Stage

Phase 2 of Community Engagement

Priority: 
High
Size: 
L
Creation Stage

Holomovement App

Priority: 
Very High
Size: 
XXL
Planning Stage
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