Innovation Calling - Fundraising Plus Technology Equals Big Money

Podcast Detroit Network

Often with tech we think of big ideas, or over the top solutions with the latest and greatest technology. However, sometimes the ideas that have the biggest impacts are those that fix a simple solution. In this episode, we talked to the successful company 99 Pledges who knew there had to be a better way to collect money for their kids' school fundraisers. We talked about turning their idea into a successful company, and what's on the horizon. 2:00 - Exciting announcements about live events and studios! 3:50 - The start of this business and why it was started 5:13 - How they were able to improve the amount fundraised dramatically 7:28 - How they’re helping prevent liars, cheating parents, etc 8:03 - The business model, and why they chose to go for-profit vs. non-profit 9:14 - Who can benefit from the platform’ 10:15 - The marketing strategy and what has worked well for them 11:25 - A look into their marketing plan 12:14 - Why they are still so far ahead in their industry 14:00 - Why customization wasn’t the win that they thought it was going to be 16:21 - Syya shares a random story about how her name is getting more popular and how she had a stalker 17:30 - The biggest challenges they’re facing in expansion 19:00 - How they’re managing various user groups 20:30 - Breaking down how they’re connecting with their customers 20:51 - Syya and Erin start break out into hives 22:30 - How they get through the legal issues of their customers 24:00 - How much data are they able to gather based on their business set-up 25:10 - How much market share are they gathering? 26:50 - The road to profitability 27:50 - The cycle of the business, and their strategy to get through the valleys 29:00 - Syya finds out they might not really be true friends 29:50 - Brad shares a crazy story of getting hacked 32:30 - How the experienced changed his view on security 33:30 - Why you're two-step authentication is crap and check out Yubi-Key 35:50 - More crazy stories about the information the hackers got 37:30 - Are we ruining our next generation of kids? 39:45 - Where is 99 Pledges going in the next 5-10 years?