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Apr 2, 2020 · 16m · top-founders

1713 Is this a better way for schools to fundraise?

Mark Abbott · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Nathan Latka interviews FarmRaiser founder Mark Abbott about modernizing the school fundraising industry by replacing junk food sales with healthy, locally produced goods through a digital marketplace and B2B SaaS platform.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 36.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.8 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 3.0
05100:0010:001:02–3:32 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Reinventing School Fundraising with Healthy Local Products Nathan seeks to understand the customer avatar, initially guessing local grocery stores. Mark clarifies that PTA organizers use it to sell healthy, locally sourced products instead of junk food.3:32–8:33 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Presale Mechanics and Take-Rate Revenue Model Nathan breaks down unit economics, margin splits, and platform volume, calculating that 350 campaigns at $270 take-rate yields around $100k in annual platform revenue.8:33–11:19 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 The SaaS Platform for Fundraising Companies Nathan drills into the SaaS software pricing model and firmly clarifies a discrepancy when Mark mentions monthly figures after quoting annual SaaS tiers.11:21–13:38 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Funding History, Burn Rate, Runway, and Team Structure Nathan inquires about capital raised, burn rate, and runway. Mark transparently shares their $35k monthly burn and rolling fundraising runway.13:39–15:32 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard Famous Five sequence. Mark candidly admits he forgot the questions and hasn't read a business book recently, while highlighting Hotjar and Jeff Bezos as his new Amazon HQ2 neighbor.1:02–3:32 · Guest teaching 4/10 Reinventing School Fundraising with Healthy Local Products Nathan seeks to understand the customer avatar, initially guessing local grocery stores. Mark clarifies that PTA organizers use it to sell healthy, locally sourced products instead of junk food.3:32–8:33 · Guest teaching 4/10 Presale Mechanics and Take-Rate Revenue Model Nathan breaks down unit economics, margin splits, and platform volume, calculating that 350 campaigns at $270 take-rate yields around $100k in annual platform revenue.8:33–11:19 · Guest teaching 3/10 The SaaS Platform for Fundraising Companies Nathan drills into the SaaS software pricing model and firmly clarifies a discrepancy when Mark mentions monthly figures after quoting annual SaaS tiers.11:21–13:38 · Guest teaching 2/10 Funding History, Burn Rate, Runway, and Team Structure Nathan inquires about capital raised, burn rate, and runway. Mark transparently shares their $35k monthly burn and rolling fundraising runway.13:39–15:32 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard Famous Five sequence. Mark candidly admits he forgot the questions and hasn't read a business book recently, while highlighting Hotjar and Jeff Bezos as his new Amazon HQ2 neighbor.1:02–3:32 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Reinventing School Fundraising with Healthy Local Products Nathan seeks to understand the customer avatar, initially guessing local grocery stores. Mark clarifies that PTA organizers use it to sell healthy, locally sourced products instead of junk food.3:32–8:33 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Presale Mechanics and Take-Rate Revenue Model Nathan breaks down unit economics, margin splits, and platform volume, calculating that 350 campaigns at $270 take-rate yields around $100k in annual platform revenue.8:33–11:19 · Guest disagreement 2/10 The SaaS Platform for Fundraising Companies Nathan drills into the SaaS software pricing model and firmly clarifies a discrepancy when Mark mentions monthly figures after quoting annual SaaS tiers.11:21–13:38 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Funding History, Burn Rate, Runway, and Team Structure Nathan inquires about capital raised, burn rate, and runway. Mark transparently shares their $35k monthly burn and rolling fundraising runway.13:39–15:32 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard Famous Five sequence. Mark candidly admits he forgot the questions and hasn't read a business book recently, while highlighting Hotjar and Jeff Bezos as his new Amazon HQ2 neighbor.1:02–3:32 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Reinventing School Fundraising with Healthy Local Products Nathan seeks to understand the customer avatar, initially guessing local grocery stores. Mark clarifies that PTA organizers use it to sell healthy, locally sourced products instead of junk food.3:32–8:33 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Presale Mechanics and Take-Rate Revenue Model Nathan breaks down unit economics, margin splits, and platform volume, calculating that 350 campaigns at $270 take-rate yields around $100k in annual platform revenue.8:33–11:19 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 The SaaS Platform for Fundraising Companies Nathan drills into the SaaS software pricing model and firmly clarifies a discrepancy when Mark mentions monthly figures after quoting annual SaaS tiers.11:21–13:38 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Funding History, Burn Rate, Runway, and Team Structure Nathan inquires about capital raised, burn rate, and runway. Mark transparently shares their $35k monthly burn and rolling fundraising runway.13:39–15:32 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Standard Famous Five sequence. Mark candidly admits he forgot the questions and hasn't read a business book recently, while highlighting Hotjar and Jeff Bezos as his new Amazon HQ2 neighbor.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 52.2% · guest 47.8%0:00 · Nathan 52.2% · guest 47.8%3:00 · Nathan 28.6% · guest 71.4%3:00 · Nathan 28.6% · guest 71.4%6:00 · Nathan 29.9% · guest 70.1%6:00 · Nathan 29.9% · guest 70.1%9:00 · Nathan 29.4% · guest 70.6%9:00 · Nathan 29.4% · guest 70.6%12:00 · Nathan 30.2% · guest 69.8%12:00 · Nathan 30.2% · guest 69.8%15:00 · Nathan 70.5% · guest 29.5%15:00 · Nathan 70.5% · guest 29.5%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 9:46 Mark insists SaaS software fee exists

When Nathan claims the platform only charges a transaction success fee, Mark directly refutes him by clarifying that partners also pay a fixed annual SaaS fee.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 10:54 Nathan challenges monthly versus annual revenue framing

Nathan halts the conversation to make sure Mark reconciles stating a $1,200 monthly run-rate against an earlier statement of $500 to $1,500 annual software fees.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:41 Explaining the PTA school fundraiser mechanics

Mark corrects Nathan's assumption that local grocery stores buy the product, explaining how school PTA organizers coordinate pre-sales of local produce to avoid junk food.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 7:01 Nathan calculates total marketplace revenue

Nathan performs live arithmetic multiplying 350 campaigns by the $270 average platform cut to pin down the business's actual ~$100k revenue scale.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Reinventing School Fundraising with Healthy Local Products 4412 Nathan seeks to understand the customer avatar, initially guessing local grocery stores. Mark clarifies that PTA organizers use it to sell healthy, locally sourced products instead of junk food.
Presale Mechanics and Take-Rate Revenue Model 6413 Nathan breaks down unit economics, margin splits, and platform volume, calculating that 350 campaigns at $270 take-rate yields around $100k in annual platform revenue.
The SaaS Platform for Fundraising Companies 6326 Nathan drills into the SaaS software pricing model and firmly clarifies a discrepancy when Mark mentions monthly figures after quoting annual SaaS tiers.
Funding History, Burn Rate, Runway, and Team Structure 5213 Nathan inquires about capital raised, burn rate, and runway. Mark transparently shares their $35k monthly burn and rolling fundraising runway.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 3101 Standard Famous Five sequence. Mark candidly admits he forgot the questions and hasn't read a business book recently, while highlighting Hotjar and Jeff Bezos as his new Amazon HQ2 neighbor.

Statements from this episode (13)

Disclosure
Mark Abbott: FarmRaiser runs zero-upfront presales at ~50% wholesale margins
“No money changes hand up front. It's all a presale. So if it says suggested retail, 28 dollars, they're going to buy it for about 14 dollars. And so they're going to, so they're, their wholesale cost is about 50% of retail in general.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 3:53
Disclosure
Mark Abbott: FarmRaiser charges suppliers unit fees and takes 5-10% of retail
“We do, we have, we take out from both sides of the platform. We take a little bit from the supplier. So by adding on a small fee to each unit sold, not dissimilar to what Airbnb does. And then on the backside, we take five to 10% of the retail price.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 4:49
Assertion Not checkable as stated
FarmRaiser nets $270 in platform revenue on typical $3,000 campaign
“So a typical fundraising campaign will sell about 3000 dollars with a product, which is about 270 dollars for us, right?”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 5:48
Assertion Not checkable as stated
FarmRaiser ran approximately 350 campaigns over the trailing 12 months
“So we did about 350 campaigns.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 6:57
Assertion Not checkable as stated
FarmRaiser has sold over $1M in products across 2,600 platform SKUs
“So over, over the course of the last three years, we've sold over a million dollars in products, and we've got 2600 SKUs available on the platform.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 7:29
Assertion Contradicted
Abbott: North American product fundraising is a $20B industry
“To completely automate this product fundraising business, which is about a two, a twenty billion dollar industry in North America.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 8:38
Disclosure
FarmRaiser charges fundraising companies $500 to $1,500 annually
“It's between 515 hundred dollars for every fundraising company that signs up on the platform.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 9:54
Disclosure
FarmRaiser has 30 B2B clients, adding 2-3 monthly
“So we've got about 30 of those companies on the platform and we add two or three a month right now.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 10:12
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Equal Exchange, a $70M company, moves catalog fundraising to FarmRaiser
“Some of them are large, like Equal Exchange is a seventy million dollar a year company that does, you know, organic coffee and tea and chocolate. They're moving their entire catalog fundraising business onto the farm raiser platform.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 10:17
Disclosure
Abbott: FarmRaiser has raised just over $1 million
“Raised just over a million dollars.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 11:23
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Abbott: FarmRaiser will reach breakeven volume by year-end
“So we should be there by the end of this fiscal year we should be looking at a real volume that allows us to break even.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 12:00
Disclosure
Abbott: FarmRaiser burns around $35,000 per month
“We've tabbed down to around 35.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 12:46
Opinion
FarmRaiser founder claims platform can beat Amazon on marketplace flaws
“Of course I'm following Bezos cause he's going to be my new neighbor and much of what they did in their marketplace we like, and much of it that we don't like, we think we can beat them at.”
Mark Abbott Apr 2, 2020 ▶ 14:04
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