Rabble

Elevator Pitch:

Rabble is a local marketplace for young people and the brands they love to drive social change at scale.  Think of us as a "Groupon for cause marketing" that gives local businesses a change to create authentic connections with the savvy Gen Y/Z consumer that drives loyalty.

Problem:

Activism has long been synonymous with youth culture. Brands are hungry for authentic ways to connect to young consumers. The problem - it’s so easy for businesses to get it wrong - from greenwashing to cancel culture.

Solution:

Rabble makes it possible for businesses* to help young people fix the world from the ground-up (and get creds for it).

1. A platform where people can discover and take action in modern movement making: create/view content, recruit, promote, attend, volunteer, share, and more

2. Offering local businesses an action wallet, where they can sponsor actions and events with perks/cash to find new consumers and show them their commitment to the community

3. A way for organizers, non-profits, and foundation to enlist the community for help, get support through events like fundraisers, gatherings, volunteer opportunities and track participation for reporting

Our secret sauce is our ability to rally the community of organizers - cultural, social impact, events - who create experiences that give the community opportunities to gather - in celebration, in times of need, in mourning, in coming together in solidarity, in communion. Rabble promotes these events to those who want to make a difference, namely "Generation Participation" who can earn points. These points are redeemable for local business perks. For a fee, businesses can associate their name with the perks/money/support they provide that gives back through organizational support and rewards those who participate.

We compete in the SMB local marketplace and customer loyalty software. We estimate that the market size globally is $96B. We also compete in the creator space, where 20% of creators say they create to advocate for a cause, and 40% say to make a difference in the world.  

Our competitive advantage is our startup experience, our relationships to grassroots organizers, our brand relationships, and our experience in web3/AI.  

Currently, we're launching to 250 Philadelphia and Bronx NY community organizers in food security to support 25K users within the next 3-6 months. We also have evolving opportunities with arenas supporting sports teams and musicians to gamify impactful engagement. We’re also working on a strategic partnership with a community bank and a sports league.  

We’re seeking angels, family offices, and foundation to complete our $500K raise as well as strategic brands to pilot with our growing number of non-profits and organizers.  

We began exploring the problem area in 2017, when Secretary Clinton assembled a task force to answer the question of "What Happened?" and the impact of digital media on real-world outcomes. What it afforded us is an opportunity to interview nearly 1000 young people about whey they were opting out of the formal process of democracy.

What we found was not only the underlying crisis of connection and isolation as a result of social media, but a sense of not belonging. As one of the most diverse generations, young people feel they don't fit into the boxes that current institutions try to put them in - they feel like they cannot be themselves in the current definitions.

As a result, they are opting out of traditional ways of participating with established institutions of media, education, employment, and speaking truth to power and taking direct routes to getting things done - creator economy, the internet, gig economy, and grassroots efforts and direct action.

What makes this youth movement different than previous generations is the way they are using technology for cause purposes.

The purchasing power of the communities that Gen Z belong to is 10x that of Gen Z alone.

According to the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that business holds onto its position as the most trusted institution, with even greater expectations due to government’s failure to lead during the pandemic.  “Business must now be the stabilizing force delivering tangible action and results on society’s most critical issues,” said Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman.

Brands that know this are looking for ways to create relevance (defined in marketing as the ability to create their own subcategory where customers are obsessed, believe the company/product is necessary, answers their needs in an innovative way, and distinctively inspired). Brand relevance also translates to loyalty which turns into business profits and better margins.

Not engaging millennial workers is a big miss for organizations. The millennial workforce is predominantly "checked out" -- not putting energy or passion into their jobs.  Corporate HR solutions like Benevity and Blackbaud rely on larger, more traditional non-profits that don't provide the type of experiences Gen Y/Z employees seek with grassroots impact.

ESG Data Reporting is a $158B estimated market size with a 32.3% CAGR! Foundations also benefit from this data.

The solution must answer a key need for consumers and the brands they love: create belonging through community and provide a solution for businesses that answers reputational and marketing and employee engagement drivers to the business.

When we bring together Gen Z, their communities, and brands, we unlock a new opportunity for donations, volunteerism, and now, marketing dollars.

Powered by marketplace and community tools, organizers list events and actions that increase the size, strength, reach of social movements that shape culture on daily basis - both online and IRL. Brands hungry for authentic ways to connect to young employees, consumers, and culture can know what matters, put their time, money, and attention to sponsor actions, and see the impact of what they do. Our platform leverages AI for insights, recommendations, and validation of actions for users, and web3 to give brands proof of their real world-impact in communities.  

The total available market comes from local business subscriptions and marketing spend, corporate subscriptions per user as well as for data, and a transaction fee for donations.

We're focused on onboarding organizers and non-profits to offer opportunities to donate and participate in community events. Initially, we will focus on a freemium SAAS platform model for organizers then tackle the donation model from employees through their companies, as well as supporting employee engagement.

What sets us apart from GroupOn is that our revenue comes from businesses, not consumers. Market surveys with local businesses reflect that current social ad spend delivers limited ROI compared to SMS, email, and other focused SMB marketplaces. Our focus is not on the transaction, but the brand association as part of the solution to community causes.

What's unique about our model compared to others like FeverUp, we can charge a marketing optimization fee to brands looking to provide greater sponsorship through marketing budgets.

Benevity has a unicorn status in 2019, generating $100M in revenue off of $10B in employee and corporate donations. Our model also allows us to tap into the marketing budgets, like other social platforms.

By end of Q2 of 2024, we'll have onboarded 400 activists / non-profits. We'll know our "k-score" (ie, for each organizer, how many users do we add and of those, who returns) - these traction metrics dimensionalize the business. This will solidify the B2C model. We consider this a marketing investment; what we charge is not meant to be a business driver, but to offset marketing costs.  

Currently,  in our B2B2C model - we're working with foundations to onboard ~100K users/200 organizations at a time by leveraging existing foundation-brand relationships around days like "Zero Food Waste Day" or "Ecofairs" through the network of cultural institutions that are already participating in these days.  We expect these to launch starting Q3 of 2024.

These days include National Observance, National Health Observance, and Impact Days, like Zero Food Waste or Earth Day across 3 regions: a mountain region city of 1MM pop - carbon credits for farmers to move toward regen farming, West Coast city over 10MM pop - food security, East Coast area population over 8MM - food security.

Why Web3? Web3 allows us to provide the transparency of dollars spent and provides the privacy layer that supports community organizers who are causing good trouble.