Howard Gottlieb created and sold several businesses before starting a school fundraising website in 2003 called Easy Fundraising Ideas. It grew into the most popular Internet website for school fundraisers. He experimented with many business models and ideas while the fundraising industry still wasn’t changing or growing.
In 2012, Howard started Read-a-Thon as a literacy-based fundraising platform that helped students raise money while boosting education. Their easy platform and simple fundraising approach created amazing results. The Read-a-Thon business grew steadily and profitably without any outside funding.
Their relentless focus on elementary school fundraising and their culture of continuous improvement helped them grow faster and create a much bigger impact. In 2022, Read-a-Thon helped thousands of schools and students to raise over $30 million in donations. Their platform has tracked over 30 billion reading minutes by students who have used the platform to earn donations.
Best quote from Howard:
“I think that a founder’s worst enemy is their own self-confidence and their own self-importance when they think they know the answers and they want to be right. If that’s you, don’t start your own company. Because you’re going to be wrong more than you’re right. It doesn’t take being right a whole lot of times to have a big success.
“If your ego needs you to be the smartest person in the room, you know you’re destined to struggle. I want smarter folks in the room to say, Howard, you’re a moron, that is stupid what you just said, and here’s why. And maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong. And do that to yourself, question everything.”
In this episode, Howard explains:
- How Read-a-Thon has impacted literacy in the US in a material way as they reach more schools, students, and donors
- Why they changed their business model from pledge-based to one-time fundraising
- How he experimented with many business models in school fundraising before starting Read-a-Thon
- Why he didn’t sell the company to a private equity buyer that had an offer on the table
- The power of specialized focus on elementary school fundraising vs. being a generalized platform for any type of fundraising
- Why he is constantly testing, improving, and optimizing everything inside the business and in the customer experience
- What he learned from the previous companies he created and sold before starting Read-a-Thon
Read-a-Thon Company Facts
- Founded: 2012
- Description: Literacy-based fundraising platform used by over 4,000 elementary. Read-a-Thon has tracked over 3 billion reading minutes by students
- Number of Employees: 17
- Funding: Bootstrapped inexpensively with founder investment and profits from a related fundraising website
- Location: Mansfield, Texas
