Geek Speak: Sara Ruthnum, community outreach coordinator for BucketList.org

Do you dream of eating kangaroo meat, learning to belly dance, or visiting the Cliffs of Moher? These are all goals posted by the users of BucketList.org.

Sara Ruthnum is the community outreach coordinator for BucketList.org, which was acquired by Vancouver entrepreneurs Jason Lindstrom and Bart Wisniowski in 2013. The social networking site has over 140,000 members who have shared more than two million goals.

On Tuesday morning (April 29), BucketList.org plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. They’re hoping to raise $60,000 to fund the development of a mobile app. The app could be released as early as this summer.

The Georgia Straight reached Ruthnum by phone in downtown Vancouver.

Why do we need an app for bucket lists?

From our members, that was the biggest feedback we got. They would love the mobile experience. We also find that a lot of inspiration comes when you’re away from your computer. The app will allow you to add your goals on the go when inspiration strikes. It’s just a necessary feature that we feel our members need. An additional feature that the app will have over the site is a coaching feature.

There’s a lot of crowdfunding efforts out there. How are you going to make your Kickstarter campaign a success?

We believe that our members are highly engaged. There’s a very active Facebook and Twitter community, and from that, along with some of our own contacts, they’ll see the urgency in the app and where it really does fit in. We’ve put out a few emails about launching the Kickstarter campaign soon and got nothing but positive feedback. So we really do see this taking off.

How would you describe the community that the site has created?

It’s very engaged. We get so many goals added every single day. What we want to create is a sense of accountability and achievement really. I get so excited talking about it, because it really does have the possibility of changing the way people approach their own goals in life and make these goals now a reality. The community aspect has been huge for inspiration and motivation.

How does the site make money?

Currently, we don’t. But hopefully, with the development of the app, there’ll be a few enterprise channels we could take. We’ve been approached by quite a few vendors who want to advertise with us. We just want to really foster the community aspect, and that’s our primary goal right now.

What’s on your bucket list?

My own bucket list is a lot of travel-related goals. I want to experience the world. I’ve been lucky enough to travel as a child, and now I just think I’ve got the travel bug. Right now: climb Mount Kilimanjaro; go to lots of music festivals; go to lots of cultural festivals, like Tomatina in Spain and run with the bulls. I have pretty standard ones like bungee jump and skydive. But then there’s some other ones, like I hope to have an impact in the world, which I know is a bit vague and we always talk about having specific goals. I think it’s an awesome concept to get people to talk about their life goals and take the next step as well.