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.
Renee@DonationMatch.com – Renee’s email address
DonationMatch.com – Renee’s website
@ReneeZau – Renee’s Twitter handle
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders