Tulane University

She reached out to us a month later. “Would you be willing to come meet with us and give a complete demo of the product?” It was 2020, and we were still traveling to every product demonstration. Robb and I decided we both wanted to visit New Orleans to meet with Sara and to sample some Dooky Chase gumbo.

We gave one of our early presentations—heavy on storytelling, as the product was still focused on student scholarship beneficiary story collection and organization. Sara and her team had plenty of questions. Some were easy to answer but some were more challenging. We wished we had thought of some of those questions ourselves. Looking back, it’s easy to see the relationship we would form with Sara to make the product better, but at the time It was humbling. I wasn’t sure the meeting would go anywhere.

We heard back about a week later. “Can you send pricing?” Tulane signed a contract later that year, and so began our partnership with Sara. Our early product was focused on helping stewardship teams share the stories of student scholarship recipients. Sara’s input helped us understand the broader stewardship and donor reporting process. We added features, but more importantly, we began to develop similar relationships with other Mythos users. The product became a gift report publishing and donor communications platform with more community input.

Recently, we began working on Story Portal—our digital-first donor reporting tool. Sara should be listed as a co-developer of the final product. Her input was instrumental in its development and functionality. Mythos wouldn’t be the platform it is today without her input and support, but don’t take my word for it.