Best Startup
Follow William Yeack
Member.buzz is a member management platform. Our mission is to become one of the top membership management platforms to help businesses and organizations manage their members and attain their own goals. It is a one-stop platform that offers a diverse range of functionalities that other website builders and member management sites don’t offer.
Tell us about yourself?
I started Member.buzz for my alumni club. I felt that there was a gap in the market where you had to stitch together a whole bunch of different platforms to grow an organization. I wanted to create one platform where you could go and do all of the things that you might do as a membership organization from one place.
And so in order to sort of get it going, I taught myself to program, and I taught myself how to run a business, did a bunch of infrastructure, and basically everything else that needs to go into a business.
Outside of Member.buzz, I really like to scuba dive and travel.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
I would tell myself to prepare for the hardships that come with starting your own business. It takes a lot of work, but it pays off.
What problem does your business solve?
If you are running a small business or a nonprofit, you’re not super technical and you don’t want to have to figure out how to use 15 different pieces of technology. Our platform is very easy to use and offers a lot of features all in one space. You don’t have to sign up for multiple other platforms to achieve your business or organization goals.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
I want help people attain their goals, and I especially enjoy helping nonprofits succeed. A big part of the origin of the company was to help nonprofits achieve their mission. And, you know, make it a lot easier for them. It shouldn’t be so hard to collect donations and get your organization up and running.
What is your magic sauce?
I am not able to give up for some reason. If I run into a roadblock, I teach myself how to get over it. When we first started we needed someone to cover sales, so I taught myself sales. The same thing happened with programming. No matter the problem, I learn how to adapt and overcome.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
I would like to see Member.buzz continue to grow and become more profitable. This year we experienced more growth than ever before, and I would like to keep building on that.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far? How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
Fundraising has been very difficult, that has been the greatest challenge.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
By showing them our product and show them how it can help them be successful.
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