Zaadz

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**Zaadz.com**

A typical Zaadz profile, Uberman @ Zaadz
URL	http://zaadz.com/
Commercial?	Mixed
Type of site	Social network service
Registration	Required
Owner	Zaadz, Inc.
Created by	Brian Johnson, CEO and Philosopher Aaron Eisenberger, CEO and Wizard

Zaadz (from the Dutch word zaad, meaning seed; pronounced "Zahdzz" ^[1]) is a social networking website launched in 2005-12. Zaadz clearly states its purpose as “changing the world.”

“...you be the change + you follow your bliss + you give your greatest strengths to the world moment to moment to moment + we do everything in our power to help you succeed + you inspire and empower everyone you know to do the same + we team up with millions like us = we just affected billions = we (together) changed the world.” ^[2]

1 History
2 Mission and unique features of Zaadz
3 Notability
4 Criticisms of Zaadz
5 Trivia
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] History

Zaadz was founded in December 2005 by a duo of "spiritual" seekers and entrepreneurs, Brian Johnson ^[3] and Aaron Eisenberger ^[4]. Both of them previously started and eventually sold eteamz.com. After their successful venture, both of them took a sabbatical and pursued their own spiritual paths. Brian went on to travel around the world and focused on "the more intellectual and practical side," while Aaron went towards "shamanism, energy work, chi kung...". In Brian's own words:

"Zaadz is the integration of our desire to understand and live at our highest potential while inspiring others to do the same (Philosopher/Wizard) with our equally strong desire to create businesses that can change the world (CEO)." ^[5]

[edit] Mission and unique features of Zaadz

Zaadz sets itself apart from other social networking services by its high ideals, great deal of transparency, and unique features which are not found in other social networks. Zaadz is also very explicit in its mission of "changing the world."^[6]

To maintain its high ideals, Zaadz instituted a basic signup process which requires new members to tell something about themselves, how they found Zaadz, and what inspires them to join. These responses are manually reviewed by a dedicated team in Zaadz who then decides whether to approve or reject the applications.

Zaadz members are called Zaadzsters. Zaadzsters have the option of elevating their membership by applying for the Zaadz Ambassador program. Members who apply for ambassadorship are required to answer a series of questions such as "How are we going to change the world together?", and "What is your Philosophy in two sentences?"^[7] Members who are approved as Zaadz Ambassadors receive special privileges, such as access to the latest functionality, and the infamous Zaadz Ambassador Kits.^[8]

In the area of transparency, CEO+Philosopher Brian Johnson published Zaadz's business model on his blog^[9] -- a bold move, which was well-received by many, while frowned upon by some--most of whom are those uncomfortable with intermixing spirituality and Capitalism.

Like other social networks, Zaadz has standard features such as user profiles, contact lists, emails, blogs, and photo-sharing. In addition, Zaadz has a number of unique features which are integrated seamlessly throughout the site:

Zaadz Pods (zPods) -- pods (or groups) are threaded discussion boards where users can join in and engage each other in healthy conversations about various topics.

Zaadz Events (zEvents) -- a feature where members can post upcoming events, or schedule their meetups, "searchable by category and location (region/zip code soon!)"^[10]

Zaadz Pages (zPages) -- a feature where members can post local and global business listings. Its goal is to create "the most comprehensive 'Conscious Yellow Pages' in the world."^[11]

Zaadz Books (zBooks) -- a book-sharing and book-organizing feature wherein members can create lists of their favorite books "by category–from Buddhism and meditation to business and cooking!"^[12], post book reviews, and add quotes from their favorite books.

Zaadz Quotes (zQuotes) -- a massive collection of inspirational, intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual quotes. Members can add quotes from their favorite authors, teachers, fellow Zaadzsters, etc.

Zaanghas -- "gatherings of Zaadzsters with the intention of connecting, inspiring and empowering one another to be the change and change the world in the process. Its goal is to bring Zaadzsters together–both online and offline–so that they can build communities all over the globe and make this world a better place."^[13]

Generally speaking, the majority of members using Zaadz's service are adults in Europe, the United States, and Canada aged about 18 to 45. However, even that cannot be used as an accurate demographic representation, as there are members representing over 100 countries worldwide in a variety of different age groups.

[edit] Notability

Zaadz won the Conscious Community award for 2006 from VegNews Magazine ^[14]. It was featured in the June–August 2006 edition of What is Enlightenment (Magazine) ^[15].

[edit] Criticisms of Zaadz

Despite, or because of, its high ideals, Zaadz has its own critics. Some critics cite the Tribe.net incident^[16] during the early days of Zaadz, using it as leverage for labeling Zaadz as a "den of rattlesnakes"^[17], while other critics simply don't like the "semi-closed system" and the "dreaded c-word" (capitalism) on Zaadz's mission statement.^[18]

In general, criticisms of Zaadz fall into two camps: one camp being against intermixing spirituality and capitalism, labeling Zaadz as "greedy capitalists just trying to capitalize on a market," and the other camp labeling Zaadz as "new agey, hippie, tree-hugging freaks."^[19]

While Zaadz is open to everyone, it's not for everyone. In general, Zaadz is a social network for people who are "much more interested in cultivating a community where discussion and learning are key and the status of how many friends you have is far less important."^[20]

[edit] Trivia

Zaadz has an easter egg on its site. "Each time someone requests a page at Zaadz, our servers, like a prayer wheel, release the mantra." ^[21] The mantra is the Tibetan mantra, Om mani padme hum.

Kelly Perdew, the winner on the second season of The Apprentice, used to work for Brian Johnson (CEO+Philosopher of Zaadz) over at eteamz.

"Kelly and I worked together at eteamz. He’s a stud. West Point grad, Airborne Ranger, UCLA JD/MBA, all that good stuff. You might have seen him winning the Apprentice II. (I always get a kick out of hiring him before Trump did. :)" ^[22]