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