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Renee Zau, co-founder and CEO of DonationMatch, a product donation network for school and charity events that works similarly to match.com. She\u2019s obsessed with increasing a win-win partnership between brands and non-profit that don\u2019t cost money but can generate more for everyone involved.\xa0

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 E-myth Revisited
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013\xa0 Craig Newmark

• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Streak and Asana
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 Almost
• If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 \u201cBelieve in yourself and talent even if it is different from someone else\u2019s\u2019 idea on what you should do\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 \u2013 Nathan introduces Renee to the show
• 02:08 \u2013 It takes 300 hours to secure in-kind and other donations from a benefit event
• 02:31 \u2013 DonationMatch streamlines the product for companies and reduces the work for school and charities
• 02:50 \u2013 Sahara Sam\u2019s receives 100s to 1000s requests of tickets a year to raffle off at charity events
• • 03:26 \u2013 Doing a research and checking legitimacy takes time for companies
• 03:55 \u2013 DonationMatch has matched $ 16,000,000 worth of donation goods
• 04:14 \u2013 DonationMatch offers premium model
• • 04:22 \u2013 DonationMatch can be used for free
  • 04:35 \u2013 Companies can upgrade to premium which is $ 49 a month
  • 04:48 \u2013 DonationMatch is a SaaS business
  • 04:54 \u2013 DonationMatch has around 100 active companies at the moment
  • 05:02 \u2013 DonationMatch has a low customer churn
  • 05:40 \u2013 DonationMatch still get a value from their non-paying customers
• 06:09 \u2013 DonationMatch started in 2010 but officially launched in 2013
• 06:37 \u2013 DonationMatch is bootstrapped
• 06:49 \u2013 DonationMatch had $ 100,000 credit card debt
• 07:10 \u2013 Renee and her co-founder are also doing stuff outside of the company
• 07:33 \u2013 2015 revenue is $ 19,000
• 07:37 \u2013 Goal for 2016
• • 07:49 \u2013 As of October 2016, they have around $ 40,000 revenue
• 08:00 \u2013 DonationMatch is usually getting an annual payment from non-profit organizations
• 08:25 \u2013 Holiday season is when companies usually hire DonationMatch
• 08:40 \u2013 September 2016 revenue
• 09:10 \u2013Total number of paying customer
• 09:44 \u2013 DonationMatch has 100 customers
• 10:12 \u2013 DonationMatch is currently raising $ 500,000
• 10:40 \u2013 Renee feels their valuation is $ 1.5 to 2 million
• • 10:47 \u2013 Based on their traction
• 11:05 \u2013 Customer acquisition cost is about $ 1
• 11:55 \u2013 DonationMatch has 13,000 non-profit users
• 12:30 \u2013 DonationMatch has about 10% of non-profits in San Diego
• 13:25 \u2013 They also have national brands in their system
• 14:05 \u2013 DonationMatch is open to offers and already talking to people and investors
• 14:30 \u2013\xa0 Connect with Renee through her email, website and Twitter
• 16:10 \u2013 The Famous Five

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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\u2019s idea on what you should do.
• Take the risk \u2013 even if it means having a $ 100k debt.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal\xa0\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal\xa0 for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal\xa0 developers.
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages\xa0 \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to \u2013 The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Acuity Scheduling \u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip \u2013 Nathan uses Drip\u2019s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• Renee@DonationMatch.com \u2013 Renee\u2019s email address
• DonationMatch.com \u2013 Renee\u2019s website
• @ReneeZau \u2013 Renee\u2019s Twitter handle
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives