About Us
5050 Cafe Friends (fifty-fifty for short) is an online platform for businesses, cafes, clubs or organisations who are interested in acquiring customers/rewards and meeting people in a social setting.
We're a small team of dedicated individuals who built 5050 from the ground up in Auckland, Aotearoa NZ. Interested in helping businesses, cafes, clubs or organisations succeed. We started experimenting with ideas at the beginning of the pandemic and found that although all types of establishments (and people) were suffering greatly during the outbreak, it was hospitality that seemed to suffer the most - hence it became part of our domain 'Cafe Friends.' We thought we might be able to bring about a turn-around in hospitality by enabling cafes to attract customers and as they did, they could make a little extra revenue along the way to offset bills.
What we underestimated was the utter devestation many 'cafes and coffee shops' were enduring - especially those situated in malls. Eventually the crisis ended, but now we're all having to endure the global economic downturn which for small to medium businesses can have severe consequences. Customers make businesses tick, so what we've invented is a way for listed businesses (and other establishments) to increase customers in their suburb/area.
What we're hoping to achieve is a way for organisations to list their establishments and acquire customers by joining as Friends. Tupperware parties back in the day, seem to be the best comparison to what we're trying to achieve - where people can be a little chuffed at being invited to a social event in their area, meet a few other people and make a few purchases along the way. If we can bring back a little social activity (the fun part of work) to the workplace then we feel we're achieving our goals.
About the 5050 part...
As we're interested in the social activity the workplace brings, we also care about attitudes and behaviours. 5050 is about gender equity leading to gender equality. All we're saying is remain independent and pay for yourself. So we've invented something called the 5050 Protocol and request that everyone who joins this web platform checkboxes it, to bring about an awareness of equality. This way we hope that no one feels obliged to anyone else and that everyone feels part of a level playing field.
How 5050 Was Founded
The Barista, The Book and The Diploma
Some times you wonder why your life has gone the way it has, but then you realise that things have happened the way they have for a reason and that the way it has come together - all makes sense. In some ways it can feel as if things were preordained and that your life’s experiences have all contributed to ‘what you’ve created.’ I realise now, that being a barista, writing a book and gaining a Diploma all contributed in some way to ‘the now’ or how 5050 has come to be fashioned in the way it has.
- Julie MacCulloch, Founder 5050
The Barista
Julie first started to learn how to make a cappuccino back in about 1980 in Sydney, Australia. ‘I was young and it was a job. I never really thought I’d ever use that skill again as it was quite pressured, hard work and anyhow, I had dreams of becoming a film-maker. Back then, I was just the Patisserie Girl, the term barista hadn’t been coined yet.’
The Book
Desirous of wanting to create a black African/American type of female character and inspired by the William's sisters (Venus and Serena) gutsy tennis playing as a role model for children, Julie started writing her first novel. Many years on, the ‘black lives matter’ movement has been much needed to force change. It was the racial inequality instinctively felt by her back then, that she regarded as a close cousin of gender inequality which formed the basis for 5050.
‘I think without attempting to write that book which I’m very proud of, I wouldn’t have thought it possible to change attitudes and behaviours around gender equality. But I do think it’s possible - at least on my website as everyone has to agree to the 5050 Protocol in order to join. We have to start somewhere as females and non-binary people, but we also need the support of males to get there. Luckily they’re into it.’ Says Julie.
The Diploma
Film-making was a long held dream that wasn’t possible when I was young, because there were no courses or guides available, but enabled by The Right Honourable Helen Clark who made education for single, older women such as myself accessible, it came to be. She handed me my Diploma in Film-making (which was pretty amazing for someone of her position to afford the time to do this) and I believe that none of this (5050) would have been possible without her. Because it was only studying film-making which was transitioning from analog to digital at that time and mostly confined to Adobe applications such as Final Cut Pro that forced me to learn about computerisation. Without this experience of computers, I don’t believe I would have ever considered building a website. Before this course and as a stay-at-home-mum, I had no ability to even send an email. Thanks Helen - you made the impossible, possible.