 The inspiration for Omaze came as the two founders walked out of a high-end charity auction. A very rich person had just paid a tidy sum to nab the night's top reward. The proceeds went to charity, but the founders thought, what if we opened up this auction to everyone? Not just a small room of very rich people. How much could we raise then? Omaze is basically charity giving meets Kickstarter. They partner with movie studios or stars and organizations that they like to give to and offer the chance for these one-of-a-kind experiences. We've done everything from have John Legend sing at your wedding to be in the next Star Wars movie to crush things in a tank with Arnold Schwarzenegger. But where we're different than most companies that do this is then rather than make these available to one wealthy person who can donate $25,000 or $50,000 to have this experience, we make it so that anybody in the world can donate $10. When Matt and I started this, there wasn't really anything that was taking talent partners, causes, and fan bases and bringing them together as one community that supports a campaign. Individual giving in the U.S. is a $240 billion market annually. Right now, only 6% of that is online. So it's incredibly inefficient. We see that this is a huge opportunity to really go in there and focus on building a charitable giving platform and make fundraising much more fun and easy for a much larger base of people. Omaze had a big idea, but they were also having a hard time convincing investors to back them. Traditional charity was, well, not for profit. And that doesn't appeal to venture capitalists looking to find the next Facebook. We didn't have a model. We really spent two years trading ideas back and forth to try and come up with something that could leverage our passion for storytelling around causes but have a sustainable revenue stream to it and could really grow in scale. We got told several times that there would never be a Series A or venture capital in the charity space, that that was impossible, and we were foolish to have that aspiration. What we knew was our talent was storytelling around cause content, and that if we built a technology that could ultimately support that, we could pull together, just through our own hustle, the charities that we've worked with historically, the talent partners that we've worked with historically, and put up these once-in-a-lifetime experiences. We did combat training with a team of Navy SEALs. We did play a game of Risk against four-star general Anthony Zinni. But it turns out that if you're going to market something to the masses, when you're working with a four-star general who doesn't really have a Facebook channel, it becomes difficult. They're a non-traditional startup, so getting awareness, I think, is probably an issue for them, not just amongst their partners but also amongst consumers. One thing that's really, really smart about what they've done is that the founders have ties to the entertainment community, and all of their big moves have been tied to that. We first became aware of them largely when they had a big deal about Star Wars Episode VII. We could go and be in the movie. I think a lot of people first became aware of them and what they're doing through that. It gives them a level of visibility that a regular charity organization on its own is probably not going to get. We did a Linkin Park experience, and we blasted that to their entire fan base, and that made nearly $100,000. We're starting to see that the success was coming. Then we did a Breaking Bad experience, and that raised $1.7 million. At that point in time, we knew, all right, there's a model. We can really build off this model and grow. Omaze was the first to create a three-way marketplace for charitable giving online. But so far, it has had to personally engineer almost every campaign. Critical to reaching scale is finding a way to become a software platform that anyone can tap into for their own charitable giving, no matter how big or small. The opportunity to democratize these experiences to the masses has really changed the way that fundraising is taking place for causes. These last three years, we've worked with over 100 different charities, and now we're raising anywhere from 2 to 20 times what they could do through traditional models. Our audience is actually very broad. Leveraging social media and cutting-edge technology in the way that we do obviously appeals very much to a younger audience. But that notion that only younger audiences engage in social media, that's just not the case anymore. My mom's on social media, and she knows what's going down. People inherently feel more connected to each other now, and as a result, they give more. It's very impressive what they've done. I think they've gotten on a lot of people's radars very quickly with some very, very smart strategic partnerships. But long-term, what's going to stop somebody else from coming around offering a better service that can steal all those partnerships away and have their own version of Omaze that everybody will run to? Because ultimately, people are coming to Omaze for the experiences, not for whatever omaze.com has on their site. Omaze earns money by taking a percentage of what's raised in each campaign. To defend that business and avoid being undercut, they need to create a community. Like Kickstarter, they will thrive from the network effects of the audience that gives. Historically, investors have looked at the philanthropic sector in a much different way than they looked at the for-profit sector, but those worlds are merging right now. We see this as a huge opportunity for us to basically be at the epicenter of that change and provide tools for anyone out there to raise money for those causes. There's our self-service platform. We're going to make it a school or a charity and actually use our experiences to fundraise for themselves. And then there's other things we can do to support that marketplace, which is build out high-end, high-quality merchandise that is branded with the cause and can do live events. We're actually mobilizing this community around giving and really making an impact. When they first started out, a lot of investors didn't think there could be a non-for-profit-related startup like this that would actually work or be worth investing in. They did the heavy lifting of proving that can work, and now it's a question of what does the next level for them look like? And that was still very much unanswered.
 The inspiration for Omaze came as the two founders walked out of a high-end charity auction.
 A very rich person had just paid a tidy sum to nab the night's top reward.
 The proceeds went to charity, but the founders thought, what if we opened up this auction to everyone?
 Not just a small room of very rich people. How much could we raise then?
 Omaze is basically charity giving meets Kickstarter.
 They partner with movie studios or stars and organizations that they like to give to
 and offer the chance for these one-of-a-kind experiences.
 We've done everything from have John Legend sing at your wedding to be in the next Star Wars movie
 to crush things in a tank with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
 But where we're different than most companies that do this is then rather than make these available to
 one wealthy person who can donate $25,000 or $50,000 to have this experience,
 we make it so that anybody in the world can donate $10.
 When Matt and I started this, there wasn't really anything that was taking talent partners, causes, and fan bases
 and bringing them together as one community that supports a campaign.
 Individual giving in the U.S. is a $240 billion market annually.
 Right now, only 6% of that is online. So it's incredibly inefficient.
 We see that this is a huge opportunity to really go in there and focus on building a charitable giving platform
 and make fundraising much more fun and easy for a much larger base of people.
 Omaze had a big idea, but they were also having a hard time convincing investors to back them.
 Traditional charity was, well, not for profit.
 And that doesn't appeal to venture capitalists looking to find the next Facebook.
 We didn't have a model. We really spent two years trading ideas back and forth to try and come up with something
 that could leverage our passion for storytelling around causes but have a sustainable revenue stream to it
 and could really grow in scale.
 We got told several times that there would never be a Series A or venture capital in the charity space,
 that that was impossible, and we were foolish to have that aspiration.
 What we knew was our talent was storytelling around cause content, and that if we built a technology that could
 ultimately support that, we could pull together, just through our own hustle, the charities that we've worked with
 historically, the talent partners that we've worked with historically, and put up these once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
 We did combat training with a team of Navy SEALs. We did play a game of Risk against four-star general Anthony Zinni.
 But it turns out that if you're going to market something to the masses, when you're working with a four-star general
 who doesn't really have a Facebook channel, it becomes difficult.
 They're a non-traditional startup, so getting awareness, I think, is probably an issue for them,
 not just amongst their partners but also amongst consumers.
 One thing that's really, really smart about what they've done is that the founders have ties to the entertainment community,
 and all of their big moves have been tied to that. We first became aware of them largely when they had a big deal about
 Star Wars Episode VII. We could go and be in the movie. I think a lot of people first became aware of them
 and what they're doing through that. It gives them a level of visibility that a regular charity organization on its own
 is probably not going to get.
 We did a Linkin Park experience, and we blasted that to their entire fan base, and that made nearly $100,000.
 We're starting to see that the success was coming. Then we did a Breaking Bad experience, and that raised $1.7 million.
 At that point in time, we knew, all right, there's a model. We can really build off this model and grow.
 Omaze was the first to create a three-way marketplace for charitable giving online.
 But so far, it has had to personally engineer almost every campaign.
 Critical to reaching scale is finding a way to become a software platform that anyone can tap into for their own charitable giving,
 no matter how big or small.
 The opportunity to democratize these experiences to the masses has really changed the way that fundraising is taking place
 for causes. These last three years, we've worked with over 100 different charities,
 and now we're raising anywhere from 2 to 20 times what they could do through traditional models.
 Our audience is actually very broad. Leveraging social media and cutting-edge technology in the way that we do
 obviously appeals very much to a younger audience.
 But that notion that only younger audiences engage in social media, that's just not the case anymore.
 My mom's on social media, and she knows what's going down.
 People inherently feel more connected to each other now, and as a result, they give more.
 It's very impressive what they've done. I think they've gotten on a lot of people's radars very quickly
 with some very, very smart strategic partnerships.
 But long-term, what's going to stop somebody else from coming around offering a better service that can steal all those partnerships away
 and have their own version of Omaze that everybody will run to?
 Because ultimately, people are coming to Omaze for the experiences, not for whatever omaze.com has on their site.
 Omaze earns money by taking a percentage of what's raised in each campaign.
 To defend that business and avoid being undercut, they need to create a community.
 Like Kickstarter, they will thrive from the network effects of the audience that gives.
 Historically, investors have looked at the philanthropic sector in a much different way than they looked at the for-profit sector,
 but those worlds are merging right now.
 We see this as a huge opportunity for us to basically be at the epicenter of that change
 and provide tools for anyone out there to raise money for those causes.
 There's our self-service platform.
 We're going to make it a school or a charity and actually use our experiences to fundraise for themselves.
 And then there's other things we can do to support that marketplace, which is build out high-end, high-quality merchandise
 that is branded with the cause and can do live events.
 We're actually mobilizing this community around giving and really making an impact.
 When they first started out, a lot of investors didn't think there could be a non-for-profit-related startup like this that would actually work or be worth investing in.
 They did the heavy lifting of proving that can work, and now it's a question of what does the next level for them look like?
 And that was still very much unanswered.