There are two people primarily responsible for $0$, Alan Underwood and Tug Brice. I’m here today to tell you a little bit more about the co-founders of this project.
Alan has been a designer for the better part of two decades. He started in marketing, and quickly discovered he had a gift for seeing things in ways that others did not. This different perspective gave him the ability to ask questions that others wouldn’t consider, and see opportunities where others see challenges. He grew jaded working at a marketing agency, and instead moved into design. It was in design where he first really engaged with what would quickly become the theme of his work life: complexity theory. He grew fascinated with the idea of emergence and self organization, and began to weave these principles into his work. It is now part and parcel of everything he does, and has resulted in some of his most brilliant designs. $0$ is built on the principles of self organization, and Alan hopes to use the project’s success to launch his own design studio devoted to exploring the concept more fully, and producing products that exploit self organization to its fullest.
While it might have been his fascination with complexity that gave shape to $0$, the impetus behind it was driven by his innate drive to do good. Alan was raised in the Baha’i faith, and is a devout follower to this day. He sees himself as someone on whom life has bestowed many gifts, and has spent much of his time and money giving back. Before starting $0$, he gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities and various friends in need because they needed it, and because he felt it was the right thing to do. Alan is driven by a deep need to do what he sees as right, and that drive caused him to look at the world around him and use his skills, the skills life blessed him with, to make a real difference. $0$ is the result.
His co-founder, Tug Brice, is just as driven, but for different reasons. Although raised as a Presbyterian, Tug follows a path much more akin to Buddhism these days. Born with bipolar disorder, Tug went through his entire childhood without ever getting diagnosed. He showed incredible intelligence on standardized tests, but his grades were lackluster at best and his class participation was frustrating. He would read in class every day, paying no attention to the teacher, answer every question they asked correctly, then proceed to fail the test. He would write fantastic papers and forget to turn them in. In hindsight, all easily recognizable symptoms of depression, but also of a bright student frustrated by being held back. Diagnosis was further hampered by the fact that instead of the typical happy manics, his up moods manifested as anger, irritation, and a violently explosive temper. His parents did the best they could, teaching him meditation and enrolling him in martial arts for anger management, but it was a losing battle without medication.
He barely passed high school, dropped out of college, and barely held onto a series of contract jobs, each 3 months or so before things finally came to a head. On one terrible day, he was fired, evicted, and dumped within the span of a couple of hours. That brought it all crashing down. Recovery took 15 years. A correct diagnosis was made, medication was prescribed and therapy was started. Tug was resistant to therapy at first, but when he finally agreed, he committed fully. He went every two weeks, or sometimes even every week for over a decade. He studied multiple forms of therapy, internalized therapeutic techniques, stared unflinchingly into his own soul and slowly learned to be a human.
The process taught him a level of self awareness that few people have, and that brought him the ability to empathize with others on a deep level. His degree in psychology, and his time as a tech support technician honed that talent to a precision instrument. Although he is now very high function, Tug is quite aware that he had a lot of help to get to where he is, and feels driven to give back by helping others. Using his empathy to help shape $0$ into an organization that can touch people’s lives is a great way to do that.
Alan and Tug have had radically different life paths, but ultimately want the same thing. Both are driven by a deep, internal motivation to help others. Both bring a unique set of skills to the table. Both understand the value of success AND failure. Both believe in putting people first. It is these values that brought them together with the goal of transforming the social services industry, and create $0$.
