Screw Business as Usual winners - Raise5
- May 14, 2012
Richard Branson and Jean Oelwang today announced the winner of Virgin Unite’s ‘Screw Business as Usual’ competition. After coming out on top of a very strong field it was Raise5, the fundraising platform that gives people a creative way to raise money for their favourite charities, who claimed the top prize. Here’s a guest blog from the winners on what it means to them…
It was only six months ago when Raise5 was born out of an intense 72-hour programming blitz at Startup Weekend Toronto, with the vision of starting a community where talents and skills could be exchanged for donation to causes. Today we feel so honoured to have users from over 20 countries in the Raise5 community and the recognition of being Virgin Unite’s first ‘Screw Business as Usual’ contest winners.
We can’t express enough the admiration we have for Virgin Unite, the judging panel, and of course Sir Richard Branson; not only for his paramount achievement in business, but also his unwavering commitment to helping entrepreneurs and supporting important causes such as renewable energy. Starting our business felt like a daunting task at times but learning about ‘Screw Business as Usual’ brought us some reassurance; knowing that there were people and groups out there that supported social entrepreneurs like ourselves.
We worked hard and did whatever we needed in order to be the best. The support we received through Facebook, Twitter and personal blog posts were truly uplifting. Making it to the top ten list certainly reinforced our belief that we were onto something that resonated with the community. But never did we envision that we would be selected out of the 500 entries. When we got the news, we had to take a moment to process what just happened to us. But after a few moments we burst out with joy, cheers and high fives going all around! To share the good fortune, we’ve decided to give a $5 credit (enough for one purchase) to the first 100 readers who sign up and let us know what they think of Raise5 at feedback@raise5.com.
As great as the journey has been, we look forward to continuing our adventure and strengthening our relationship with great folks, like those at Virgin Unite and Richard Branson.
By Raise5
