EP 473: Raising $500k To Help Charity Event Organizers, $16M Donated with DonationMatch CEO Renee Zau

Renee Zau, co-founder and CEO of DonationMatch, a product donation network for school and charity events that works similarly to match.com. She's obsessed with increasing a win-win partnership between brands and non-profit that don't cost money but can generate more for everyone involved.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – E-myth Revisited
• What CEO do you follow? – Craig Newmark

• Favorite online tool? — Streak and Asana
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Almost
• If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – "Believe in yourself and talent even if it is different from someone else's' idea on what you should do"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 – Nathan introduces Renee to the show
• 02:08 – It takes 300 hours to secure in-kind and other donations from a benefit event
• 02:31 – DonationMatch streamlines the product for companies and reduces the work for school and charities
• 02:50 – Sahara Sam's receives 100s to 1000s requests of tickets a year to raffle off at charity events
• • 03:26 – Doing a research and checking legitimacy takes time for companies
• 03:55 – DonationMatch has matched $ 16,000,000 worth of donation goods
• 04:14 – DonationMatch offers premium model
• • 04:22 – DonationMatch can be used for free
  • 04:35 – Companies can upgrade to premium which is $ 49 a month
  • 04:48 – DonationMatch is a SaaS business
  • 04:54 – DonationMatch has around 100 active companies at the moment
  • 05:02 – DonationMatch has a low customer churn
  • 05:40 – DonationMatch still get a value from their non-paying customers
• 06:09 – DonationMatch started in 2010 but officially launched in 2013
• 06:37 – DonationMatch is bootstrapped
• 06:49 – DonationMatch had $ 100,000 credit card debt
• 07:10 – Renee and her co-founder are also doing stuff outside of the company
• 07:33 – 2015 revenue is $ 19,000
• 07:37 – Goal for 2016
• • 07:49 – As of October 2016, they have around $ 40,000 revenue
• 08:00 – DonationMatch is usually getting an annual payment from non-profit organizations
• 08:25 – Holiday season is when companies usually hire DonationMatch
• 08:40 – September 2016 revenue
• 09:10 –Total number of paying customer
• 09:44 – DonationMatch has 100 customers
• 10:12 – DonationMatch is currently raising $ 500,000
• 10:40 – Renee feels their valuation is $ 1.5 to 2 million
• • 10:47 – Based on their traction
• 11:05 – Customer acquisition cost is about $ 1
• 11:55 – DonationMatch has 13,000 non-profit users
• 12:30 – DonationMatch has about 10% of non-profits in San Diego
• 13:25 – They also have national brands in their system
• 14:05 – DonationMatch is open to offers and already talking to people and investors
• 14:30 – Connect with Renee through her email, website and Twitter
• 16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• You can create a win-win partnership if you know the right ingredients.
• Believe in yourself and your talent even if it is different from someone else's idea on what you should do.
• Take the risk – even if it means having a $ 100k debt.

Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• [email protected] – Renee's email address
• DonationMatch.com – Renee's website
• @ReneeZau – Renee's Twitter handle
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives