I know you’ve all been waiting with baited breath to hear about the results of Honest Egg’s… With such a strong start, did we hit our goal?

Well the answer is that yes – at 12pm on Tuesday, August 31, we hit our very ambitious Honest Egg’s goal.

With big grins on our faces, we celebrated not only achieving that specific goal, but also the launch of TalentEgg 4.0. We had pink champagne, snacks from Starbucks, and a send-off for one our beloved summer interns, Daisy.

We all then returned to our desks and buckled down. With the new site still in testing mode, a million “Focus” specials launching on the site in the next 6 weeks, and the result of a successful August meaning the on-boarding of 14 new employers and educators on the site, we’re busier than ever.

Not to mention, we have another hefty goal for September.

Now let me take it back a step and say that when I announced that the prize associated with hitting our Honest Egg’s goal (a trip to Honest Ed’s where we all chose out an outfit to wear to work the next day), there were certain members of the team (coughDANCASSANDRAcough) who were actually hoping we wouldn’t hit the goal so they wouldn’t be subjected to the Honest Ed’s adventure.

So when we actually hit the goal, Steph had a great idea: Let’s take the cash we were going to spend on our own wardrobes at Honest Ed’s, and instead use it to purchase supplies for a charity. We’ve decided that that charity is going to be Red Door Family Shelter, which provides services for families and individuals who need safe and supportive emergency shelter.

In fact, we all liked the idea so much that we’ve decided to make Honest Egg’s a monthly event where, upon successful completion of our goal, we make an in-kind donation to a different charity each month. What do you think? We’re pretty egg-cited about it.

If there is a charity that you feel passionately about, send us along the link. For September, we’ve chosen the Toronto Humane Society.

With that said, I better get CRACKING! We all have tons to do, heads spinning, and a big goal to egg-ceed.

For the past 5 months, we’ve had a bit of a surprise up our sleeves. In fact, if you stay glued to your screens for the next few hours, you’ll probably catch the surprise hatching right before your eyes.

What am I referring to? TalentEgg 4.0 of course! Yes, you ‘read’ me right – the 4th reincarnation of the TalentEgg site. The 4th re-launch of a site that’s only just celebrating 2.5 years online! More on that tomorrow, including a full tour of our new Events, Education and Career Toolbox sections (egg-cited yet?).

But before the big launch, and in honour of it, I wanted to reflect on the week that’s just passed… A week where we inched closer to our Honest Egg’s August goal, and became aware of what 52,000+ visitors each month really means.

Why? Because in between bringing new employers onto the site, welcoming new educators for our brand new section of the site, troubleshooting TalentEgg 4.0 and working with our wonderful web developers, creating content for Canada’s largest national newspaper, and generally doing our day-to-day thing, two very special events took place:

1. Impact Apprentice: On Wednesday, we welcomed two teams to our office to compete against each other on solving a real business challenge we face at TalentEgg. Aside from a wonderful experience and getting some really great, actionable ideas for our business, I cannot express how special it was to have these 16 super-bright, super-ambitious students get up and present to US about TalentEgg.

It’s hard to explain, but I think most entrepreneurs would understand … TalentEgg is my baby. And to have outsiders – virtual strangers – stand up and give 20 minute, well-researched, well-thought-out presentations about it was a major and fantastic milestone.

2. The plane story: I got a call from my mom on Thursday morning. She had just come off a flight from New Brunswick to Toronto, and was sitting next to a man from Calgary on her flight. They got to talking and he started to tell her all about his son – a recent graduate from the University of Calgary – who was struggling to find a meaningful job. He went on to say that he’d recently seen a young lady on BNN who had a website for recent graduates and that his son was now using the website and absolutely loved it.

I think you can all guess – he was talking about TalentEgg!

…On Friday, at our weekly let’s-reflect-on-the-week-with-a-beer meeting, the team here at TalentEgg discussed these two milestones. From our office in Toronto, we sometimes forget just how far and broad the reach of TalentEgg is, and how fast we’re growing.

In fact, when we launched TalentEgg 3.0 last year, we had 15,000 visitors each month. We’ve more than tripled that now.

Who knows how big we’ll be when I undoubtedly announce TalentEgg 5.0 next year 🙂

Enjoy the new site!