{"id":38424,"date":"2023-10-20T14:56:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/how-gofundme-ceo-rob-solomon-wants-to-change-the-world-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:56:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:24","slug":"how-gofundme-ceo-rob-solomon-wants-to-change-the-world-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/how-gofundme-ceo-rob-solomon-wants-to-change-the-world-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"How GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon wants to change the world – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon wants to change the world.<\/p>\n

Having lived and worked in Silicon Valley for decades, the entrepreneur and investor regularly sees high-flying startups rise to global dominance without making any real social impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost startups are doing a good job of doing the services your mother used to do for you, but that\u2019s not really advancing society all that much,\u201d Solomon tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology can create value and convenience but not a lot of tech companies are doing actual good.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he says GoFundMe, a crowdfunding platform for personal causes, is creating real change in the world and using the power of the startup capital of the world for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing what Silicon Valley can do and making the world a much better place,\u201d Solomon says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost companies don\u2019t have the good fortune of being in a space where every aspect of the company is in the social space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a unique opportunity to create a Silicon Valley-like platform that achieves massive scale and creates a lot of value for users and investors, with the added bones of being mission-driven.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Father<\/p>\n

Crossing the floor<\/h3>\n

GoFundMe has seen more than $US2 billion raised on its platform since it launched in 2010 thanks to more than 20 million donors. And it\u2019s growing quickly, with half of that funding completed in the last year.<\/p>\n

Through the platform, users can create their own fundraising campaign for any life event, personal challenge or project and has quickly become the most popular crowdfunding platform in Australia.<\/p>\n

Solomon was working at Accel Partners, a giant Silicon VC firm that has invested in the likes of Facebook and Atlassian, when he first came across GoFundMe.<\/p>\n

The firm eventually invested in the startup and Solomon, who missed the hands-on world of tech, became so enamoured with the company that he came on as CEO.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so interested in the company that I left the cushy VC world for GoFundMe,\u201d Solomon says.<\/p>\n

He says that while he enjoyed the high stakes world of venture capital, running a lean company is always where his heart lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cOperating roles are much more interesting,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOperating a company is a much harder job than investing in one. Operators and entrepreneurs are doing the hard work, it\u2019s much more hands on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a constant rollercoaster ride with amazing highs and dramatic lows all in the same day.<\/p>\n

\u201cVC is a funny game. If you\u2019re right 20-30% of the time you can be legendary. There aren\u2019t too many industries where you can fail that much. If you\u2019re operating a company and you fail once you can go out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Solomon took over, GoFundMe was still very much in startup mode, with a lean operation and 50 employees. Now it has 150 people on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty dramatic,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe early team was very lean and mean. There were maybe eight developers and no funding. Now we\u2019re really investing in the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/p>\n

A real difference<\/h3>\n

The types of successful campaigns on the platform have also shifted, he says, with it originally centring on medical, emergencies and memorials and now encompassing nearly every societal issue, with education proving to be a big theme.<\/p>\n

Solomon points to the Sleep Bus, a converted bus used as a homeless shelter in Australia, as one of his favourite campaigns, an example of how his platform and the good will of the people can help cover when protections fail.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the social safety nets that exist to cover these costs fail the community can come together and people are helping when life hits them with certain circumstances,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the platforms that came before us \u2013 Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter \u2013 disrupted a huge category in a dramatic fashion. In the giving space no-one has done that, nobody is using technology to help change the paradigm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solomon says Australians have proved especially philanthropic on the GoFundMe platform, with 700,000 people donating a total of $60 million to campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GoFundMe Australian community is very generous and giving \u2013 it\u2019s really exciting to be here,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The prominent entrepreneur is in Australia for a week, and has already had a good insight into the local startup ecosystem, and he likes what he sees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s unique about the Australian scene is that for a country of 24 million there\u2019s an amazing startup scene creating some amazing companies,\u201d Solomon says.<\/p>\n

He points to Atlassian and 99designs as world-leading startups built in Australia, and says that Sydney could well be the next global hub.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone out there is trying to recreate Silicon Valley, but you can\u2019t do it \u2013 New York can\u2019t do it, Los Angeles can\u2019t do it,\u201d Solomon says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if anyone can make a claim towards being a version of Silicon Valley, Sydney can as much as New York or Los Angeles based on the companies coming out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to do and it takes 30-40 years but Sydney has as good a shot as other contenders for the throne.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the ecosystem continuing to grow, he says we\u2019ll soon see more globally successful startups emerge from Down Under.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating companies like Atlassian from outside of Silicon Valley is phenomenal and we\u2019ll see more happening over the next decade,\u201d Solomon says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see more special companies coming out of special countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon wants to change the world. Having lived and worked in Silicon Valley for decades, the entrepreneur<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}