Inspiration This Tyme: Ethan Austin(Giveforward)

Ethan Austin is the co-founder of GiveForward, a website that makes it incredibly

easy to collect donationsethan-austin from friends and family for a loved one’s uncovered medical expenses.  Having lost his father at an early
age to colon cancer, Ethan has always had a soft spot for helping others and spent much of his early life volunteering for various cancer organizations.
In 2008, Ethan joined Desiree Vargas to launch GiveForward in Chicago.
As of August 2010, GiveForward has helped people raise over $2 million dollars for things like cancer treatments and organ transplants, leading the Chicago Tribune to call it “the future of medical fundraising in the Internet Age.”

In 2010, The company was nominated for a World Technology Network Award in association with TIME, CNN and Fortune for its innovative approach to medical fundraising. Following are some excerpts from the Interview he’s given via Ideamensch.

1.What are you working on right now?

“We’re currently rebuilding the entire GiveForward website right now from the ground up.
It should be major improvement over the current site with much more integration with Facebook.
We’re also in the process of raising money from investors right now, which we are learning can be quite exhausting.”

2.What do you like most about your job?

“The emails we get from users thanking us for creating GiveForward.”

3.What words do you live by?

“Have Fun. Do Good. Help Others.”

4.Three Trends that excite you?
The emergence of more for-profit, social ventures.
It’s exciting to see new models like TOMS shoes emerge that are shattering the status quo.
Big corporations are becoming more like non-profits and non-profits are trying to become more like corporations. I love the idea that a business can do well by doing good.

Crowdsourcing

Sites like CrowdSPRING, are turning the traditional RFP process on it’s head, saving time and money for businesses.

Group-buying

This is a pretty exciting movement we’re seeing, especially for poor entrepreneurs like myself who don’t have any extra spending cash to pay for full-priced meals.

5.How do you bring ideas to life?

“I surround myself with passionate people who are smarter than I am.”

6.What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

“Don’t be afraid to be yourself.  People like authenticity, so let your personality shine through.
If the objective of your company’s  communication strategy is to avoid offending people, your company
is going to come off as bland and no one is going to remember you. You might succeed in not offending
but you’re not going to win any fans this way.”

Connect:

http://www.giveforward.com/

Ethan Austin on LinkedIn

by addiemall

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