Ethan Austin

Founding Partner

2022

Outside VC is a pre-seed venture firm investing into outsider founders building a more equitable and just financial system. We write $100K-$250K first checks into companies with the aim of lifting up 100M people to the middle class over the next decade.

Lecturer

2023 - 2023

Co-teach an entrepreneurship class to undergrads.

Chief Strategy Officer

2020 - 2022

Managing Director

2019 - 2020

Director

2017 - 2020

Advisor

2014 - 2017

Arcadia is a clean energy startup backed by Tiger Global that gives consumers the opportunity to choose clean energy alternatives through their monthly electric bill.

Board Director

2014 - 2016

Climate Cycle is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded out of a concern that today’s youth lack the tools necessary to respond to global warming or benefit from the emerging green economy.

Co-founder and President

2008 - 2015

- GiveForward was acquired in 2017 and is now a part of Gofundme - Built team from 0 to 37 employees and millions of dollars in annual revenue - Raised $7M in capital (Founder Collective, First Round Capital, Techstars, Naval Ravikant, etc) - Generated $5M/month in GMV + 3M unique monthly visitors - Featured in thousands of articles including NYT, WSJ, TIME, INC, ATLANTIC, WAPO, FORBES - Built product with NPS of 80+ OUR STORY We built the world's first medical crowdfunding platform in 2008. Over the course of eight years we helped people raise $200M for their loved ones' medical expenses and saved an estimated 10,000+ lives. GiveForward's early success helped spawn a new global category (medical crowdfunding) and the creation of platforms like Youcaring, Gofundme and Facebook's personal cause fundraising platform. By normalizing vulnerability and providing a platform for compassion, we helped create a new way for friends and family to offer love and for recipients to receive love during life's most difficult moments. OUR IMPACT - Honored at White House; Named Best New Social Innovation in the United States in 2012; - Saved an estimated 10,000+ lives directly through the platform - Reduced total medical bankruptcies in America by more than 4% (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c4c7/148df6f372a853ac6f9f7f56701ce165188c.pdf) MY ROLE Operationally, I was responsible for marketing/growth, customer experience, team culture / people ops and talent acquisition, fundraising and investor relations.

Co-founder

2009 - 2012

E-commerce site where proceeds benefitted local non-profits and schools.

Class of 2010

2010 - 2010

Writer

2008 - 2009

I wrote a humor column about goofy, pop-culture stuff on the Interwebz. Miraculously, I somehow managed to attract over 1 million unique visitors to my column and had the highest fan rating of all authors on the site.