#248 - Matt Ostanik, CEO Grateful - on creating a sustainable network effect

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that connects nonprofits, businesses, and individual givers with an opportunity to support important causes in the world. My guest is Matt Ostanik, CEO of Grateful.Matt is an architect, creator, builder, and tech entrepreneur on a mission. He has founded four companies. First, in 2003, Submittal Exchange - a construction technology platform. He sold this company to Textura in 2011. He continued to grow the Submittal Exchange business unit by an average of 50% per year and served on the Textura executive team as the company completed a successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2013. In 2014, he founded CVG, a consulting company, and FunnelWise, a marketing and sales technology startup.Matt knows the ins and outs of building successful and mission-driven businesses. He believes businesses can use social good to connect with their customers and employees on a deeper and stronger level.Today, he's the founder and CEO of Grateful, a platform that helps socially good businesses participate in “Grateful Giving” by donating to their customers’ and employees’ favorite nonprofits.Its mission is to transform charitable giving for nonprofits, businesses, and individual givers.And this inspired me, and hence I invited Matt to my podcast. We explore what's missing in the way we build SaaS businesses. Matt shares his vision of how creating social and business impact amplifies each other when done well. He shares his lessons learned in creating successful SaaS businesses that leverage the power of the network effect. Last but not least, he provides his views on raising the bar for impact in SaaS companies.Here's a quote from him:I can tell you there are about 160 million people in the US that donate to charities every year. Those are people that care. When you ask them, 91% say they're more likely to do business with companies willing to support security that they personally care about. So there's a marketing and customer attraction value proposition with this. But we've seen with some of the companies we're working with already for the customers that participate in this type of customer giving program those customers spend 17% more with those businesses. So, it literally pays for itself.During this interview, you will learn four things:What value we can create for our customers if we'd understand what their customers desire from themYou'll understand what to look for in customers to accelerate tractionHow to engineer your solution, so it automatically brings you valuable leadsHow to go about building a business that creates a remarkable network effectFor more information about the guest from this week:Matt OstanikWebsite: Grateful