Uloop

Corey Cleek was one of the founders of Silicon Valley Fellowship and one of the original ten consultants who participated in our Repurposing Business training and traveled to South Africa with REP in early 2003. After returning from Cape Town he made determinations to prioritize relationships, and explore kingdom business opportunities. He is a co-founder of Uloop, working with other REP alumni, Ryan MacCarthy and Michael Ho (both Venture 4).

Corey came to the Repurposing Business Training class on February 8, 2012. He shared about some highs since leaving the REP community and moving back to Tennessee - from publishing his book, Devotional Ventures in 2007, to marrying his wife Sally in 2008, and the birth of their first son, Drew in 2011. He also shared about the devastating news of Sally’s battle with breast and brain cancer over the past two years, but Jesus has the victory and she’s now cancer free and on her way to a full recovery!

    “Rep has provided me with a view of business that has helped me see work and business from a Biblical perspective.  I also appreciate and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity through our trip to South Africa to spend time with various businesses to better understand and practice the application of the principles we learned.  I’ve loved being a part of the Rep community, and I’m very thankful to Brett and Lyn for their leadership and mentorship over the years.”

 - Corey Cleek

HISTORY OF ULOOP

Uloop is a network of online marketplaces for college students, featuring classified advertisements (with textbooks, jobs, carpools, housing, for sale, travel, and events categories).

The Nashville, TN based company first launched at University of California, Santa Barbara in January 2007. As of November 2009, the resource is live on over 1500 colleges and universities across the United States, and employs 80 part-time college students, who hold either a campus marketing position or a local sales position. 

Uloop currently reaches around 3.5 million college students, or 10% of the total college students in the United States. Their website generates around 50,000 views per month and they have over 500,000 active listings.

Stacie Nishimine - Certified Photo Organizer

As a photo organizer, I’m fascinated with photographs. I delight in helping people manage and truly enjoy their photos again as they remember the stories of a special event or milestone. Over the years, my methods have evolved from scissors, glue and construction paper art projects to professional Photoshop editing in timeless archival-quality photo albums. But this fascination, mixed with how God has wired me and my background in interior design would not have culminated into a business if it weren’t for the way both Lyn and Brett encouraged, guided, and inspired me over the years. They challenged me to dream bigger, and helped me to uncover and realize my God-given potential in all facets of my life.

 I made my first archival-quality scrapbook album after returning from my first rēp venture in 2004. Lyn gave each of us on that team a beautiful (blank) album to fill with the photos and memories of our two week experience in South Africa. I loved putting together that album almost as much as the trip itself, and out of that, a creative calling was born. Since then, I’ve collected and compiled photos from every rēp trip. I’m passionate about chronicling our collective history because our photos are visual memorials. They point to the miracles we’ve experienced, the lives that have been transformed, the companies that have impacted their communities and nations, and the many ways that God’s moved in our midst. God has used the written word to tell stories that he wants us to remember, and I believe we can partner with him to use photos in a similar way.

Photos not only tell the stories of our lives, but also help to remind us who we are. If we can look beyond the funny hairstyle or dated outfits of our past, we are able to see who we truly are: full of power; great love; kind-hearted; a force to be reckoned with. We can pull out photos from our childhood and be reminded of who we were created to be: fearless; full of adventure and mischief; overflowing with dreams of the future. One of my favorite albums is from a trip to Cape Town in 2005. As I look back at each page, it takes me through a range of emotions remembering the amazing ways God knit us together, and seeing the incomparable worth in each person. At the back of this album, I saved the affirmations that had been written for me on the last day of that trip. I strive to create albums that affirm loved ones through photos and the written word.

Through my work, I have the opportunity to go into a stranger’s home and see their most intimate moments. Inevitably, deeper sharing takes place and I’m given the opportunity to encourage, bless, speak truth, and even pray. At the moment I’m organizing 30+ years of photos into albums for a client whose adult children have never seen a family photo album. Together we’ve poured over thousands of photos, and it’s truly become a journey of thankfulness and praise. As I put together albums I am reminded to fix my thoughts on what is “pure, lovely and admirable” (Phil 4:8) so the God of Peace will be with my clients as they think about their stories.

I am very grateful to be able to launch a business that weaves together the experiences I’ve had with the skills that God’s given me to be able to do work I’m passionate about. It is a joy to help affirm individuals, couples, and families as they come to recognize their undeniable worth through images that reflect the the beauty and wonder of the way God created us.

Olive

At Olive, we are building a personal wellness guide for body & soul.  Our mobile alpha product helps people engage holistic wellness activities with their loved ones.  

It all started with a rep venture to Capetown in 2006.  At the end of the trip we (Bart and I) both (separately) felt a prompting to invest in a friendship together.  Four years and roughly 200 breakfasts later we sensed the Spirit leading us to start a holistic wellness company. 

At the moment we’re just getting started.  Right now about 200 people are using the alpha product and sharing encouraging results.  We’re hearing amazing testimonies of people accomplishing their spiritual, emotional, and physical goals.  Over time we hope the product will help millions of people experience radically higher holistic wellness so they can pursue their life missions with greater vitality and capacity.  We also hope the company culture will foster authentic community and holistic transformation for team members.

Rep has helped us think clearly about doing business differently.  One of the tangible manifestations of this thinking is our company’s values and how aim to apply them.  We strive to align the whole operating model (hiring, firing, product, marketing, etc.) with these values in hopes that venture itself would become a vehicle for the common good. 

Here are our foundational values:

 Pursuing the Truth (even if it hurts):  More than honesty and curiosity.  Articulating between what seems and what is.  Striving for openness and accountability. Taking a sober view of ourselves (humility) and the resources we’ve been entrusted (stewardship).  Seeking the best idea, not my idea. Identifying root causes and addressing them.  Performance, not face time. 
Taking New Territory:  Becoming and achieving.  Passion for dreaming, learning, innovation, and creating, and the boldness, ownership, and prioritization to transform ourselves and the world.  Inspiring others with our tenacity and thirst for excellence.   
Affirming Human Worth:  Honoring each other through empathy, clear communication, and reliability.  Serving customers through our products.  People are foremost ends.  Embracing the holistic (e.g. whole persons) and the beautiful.    
Cultivating Authentic Community:  Active collaboration.   Authentic, direct but not harsh, and vulnerable.  Celebrating doing good and doing well.  Having Fun :)

Interested in joining us on the wellness journey?  Sign up for our Alpha product at olivealpha.com.

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