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This seems like a slap in the face of the investors. Giving a chunk of your startup capital to a charity is basically throwing it away. Good for the charity but

This seems like a slap in the face of the investors. Giving a chunk of your startup capital to a charity is basically throwing it away. Good for the charity but this startup seems too early stage to be giving that kind of cash away. I hope it pays off for them.

SteliE 16y ago
Steli here from SwipeGood! On average our users donate over $20 per month to charity and stay enrolled for a very long time...so this move is a win/win/win. It's great for our users to be able to instantly give away money for charity ; great for our partner charities who receive the donations and good for SwipeGood since it makes economic sense for us :) Cheers, Steli
- spencerfry 16y ago
  That doesn't really answer reynolds' question at all. How is this better than spending $150k on hiring, for example, 2 engineers for a year? Or 1 engineer and 1 designer? Or 1 customer service person, 1 community manager, and 1 developer? Etc.
  - ulugbek 16y ago
    It is better if NGOs are promoting the service to their existing and potential donors. It is possible that revenue from giving away $150,000 with a buzz brings in more users than 2 engineers can.
  - SteliE 16y ago
    Our investors are really happy with us... we are in fact hiring engineers & designers right now as we speak. And this money is accelerating our growth today. Believe me when I tell you that if you can acquire new users for less money than they generate you revenue your investors will be happy to see you invest money this way! Let me know if this answers the question :) Thx, Steli
- reynolds 16y ago
  That makes sense. At least you guys are using it to get user referrals rather than throwing it in a wheel barrow and burning it :)
  - spencerfry 16y ago
    Even PayPal with millions in funding only gave away $5/referral. $150,000 there brings you 30,000 users, but "SwipeGood is giving every user who enrolls on the service $1000 that they can give away to charity." That's 150 users or am I missing something?
    - reynolds 16y ago
      It looks like $10/referral up to 100 referrals. If they make $20/user/mo this is a no brainer.
      - russell_h 16y ago
        I think they only get 5% of that $20/user/month. That being said, here are two options for how to use $150,000: 1. Hire an engineer for a year 2. Sign up 15,000 users and generate $15,000/month in revenue. Hire an engineer permanently and net an extra $30,000/year in profit. I know which I'd choose.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - SteliE 16y ago
    Every user can invite up to 100 people who each get $10 if they sign up (thats a max of $1000 for 100 users). Hope that clarifies it a bit :)
Jabbles 16y ago
I disagree. The article gives the distinct impression that this is a marketing strategy - a very noble one, but I don't see how you could equate this to "throwing it away", as a moment's calculation will tell you it will bring in ~15000 new users.
- reynolds 16y ago
  You're right. After jumping the gun I realized they're not "giving it to charity", but rather using it to acquire users.
  - gridspy 16y ago
    SwipeGood is hoping that many people will make the same mistake you made. It is a savvy business move that lines up very well with their business model of supporting charities.
  - Jabbles 16y ago
    I feel inclined to disagree with you again... nothing personal, but I think I should point out that they are "giving it to charity", and using it to acquire users...
    - reynolds 16y ago
      It was just bad wording on my part. What I tried to say was that there's a difference between giving $150k to a charity outright and donating money on behalf of the users who refer more users.

SteliE 16y ago

Steli here from SwipeGood! On average our users donate over $20 per month to charity and stay enrolled for a very long time...so this move is a win/win/win. It's great for our users to be able to instantly give away money for charity ; great for our partner charities who receive the donations and good for SwipeGood since it makes economic sense for us :) Cheers, Steli

spencerfry 16y ago
That doesn't really answer reynolds' question at all. How is this better than spending $150k on hiring, for example, 2 engineers for a year? Or 1 engineer and 1 designer? Or 1 customer service person, 1 community manager, and 1 developer? Etc.
- ulugbek 16y ago
  It is better if NGOs are promoting the service to their existing and potential donors. It is possible that revenue from giving away $150,000 with a buzz brings in more users than 2 engineers can.
- SteliE 16y ago
  Our investors are really happy with us... we are in fact hiring engineers & designers right now as we speak. And this money is accelerating our growth today. Believe me when I tell you that if you can acquire new users for less money than they generate you revenue your investors will be happy to see you invest money this way! Let me know if this answers the question :) Thx, Steli
reynolds 16y ago
That makes sense. At least you guys are using it to get user referrals rather than throwing it in a wheel barrow and burning it :)
- spencerfry 16y ago
  Even PayPal with millions in funding only gave away $5/referral. $150,000 there brings you 30,000 users, but "SwipeGood is giving every user who enrolls on the service $1000 that they can give away to charity." That's 150 users or am I missing something?
  - reynolds 16y ago
    It looks like $10/referral up to 100 referrals. If they make $20/user/mo this is a no brainer.
    - russell_h 16y ago
      I think they only get 5% of that $20/user/month. That being said, here are two options for how to use $150,000: 1. Hire an engineer for a year 2. Sign up 15,000 users and generate $15,000/month in revenue. Hire an engineer permanently and net an extra $30,000/year in profit. I know which I'd choose.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- SteliE 16y ago
  Every user can invite up to 100 people who each get $10 if they sign up (thats a max of $1000 for 100 users). Hope that clarifies it a bit :)

Jabbles 16y ago

I disagree. The article gives the distinct impression that this is a marketing strategy - a very noble one, but I don't see how you could equate this to "throwing it away", as a moment's calculation will tell you it will bring in ~15000 new users.

reynolds 16y ago
You're right. After jumping the gun I realized they're not "giving it to charity", but rather using it to acquire users.
- gridspy 16y ago
  SwipeGood is hoping that many people will make the same mistake you made. It is a savvy business move that lines up very well with their business model of supporting charities.
- Jabbles 16y ago
  I feel inclined to disagree with you again... nothing personal, but I think I should point out that they are "giving it to charity", and using it to acquire users...
  - reynolds 16y ago
    It was just bad wording on my part. What I tried to say was that there's a difference between giving $150k to a charity outright and donating money on behalf of the users who refer more users.