Entrepreneur Meetup: Matt Pfaltzgraf of SoftGiving
Early on the morning of October 24, 2018, we hosted a Q&A with Jon Birdsong and Matt Pfaltzgraf, Founder & CEO of Softgiving. Matt Pfaltzgraf is a payment processing expert whose mission is to revolutionize the way people can support Nonprofits through passive recurring fundraising technology. In the Community Center at Atlanta Tech Village he shared about the ups and downs of moving to Atlanta, starting a tech company, navigating investor relationships, and more.
Starting Out
Matt started out as many entrepreneurs do, in sales — selling shirts on eBay to be exact. Another stop on his startup journey included a short stint in politics. On a whim, he ran for office! While he didn’t end up winning the election, it helped equip him for what was next: starting a ‘different’ company.
“Nobody wants to be the same. No one joins a startup to be the same.”
Creating SoftGiving
When speaking about the beginning of Softgiving, Matt said it’s about “an idea that just gets stuck in my head that I just can’t shake. It festers.” Everyone was trying to solve things the same old way they always had. He wanted to make a meaningful change.
“I worked for big organizations like community foundations and political campaigns. It was a constant frustration because these organizations only valued donors that could give them large sums of money.”
Matt in his 20s learned that even though he and his friends wanted to give, they weren’t prioritized. He was committed to changing the industry, uprooted his entire life and moved to Georgia to solve that problem.
Customer Discovery
Matt had a lot of hunches about fundraising and found Nonprofits to be notoriously bad at raising money. He identified early customers such as The Boys and Girls Club of Seattle and tapped into existing customers in his networks to really expand his reach.
“I’ve known since day one that this is going to be successful! I never had a doubt. There were gonna be bumps in the road. The biggest thing for us was just surviving.”
The One Skill Matt Tells Entrepreneurs to Sharpen
“The key to our success, and what I’d suggest they do, is look at other markets and be able to take those good ideas and combine them into what you’re doing.”
Commitment to the Cause
“We are trying to build our solution so that no matter what you’re doing, you have access to the same giving.”
The best marketing for Softgiving has been the virality of Nonprofit sharing. Matt and his team are trying to democratize giving and they are paving the new way to give.
“If you’re not one hundred percent confident in what you’re doing, then you shouldn’t be doing it. The stress and time commitment and life commitment are not worth it unless you believe in it.”
Photos by Chris House