Abdullah Tharoo was successful during his 19-year career at the family jewelry store, Tharoo & Co. in Orlando, but he wasn’t satisfied.
“I was wearing rolexes, driving nice cars, but it wasn’t fulfilling,” Tharoo told Orlando Inno.
He left Tharoo & Co., and he and his wife, Taz Tharoo, in 2015 founded Orlando-based fintech firm PayKoncept. Still, that wasn’t the end of their entrepreneurial endeavors.
The husband and wife in 2020 launched Tuesday, a fundraising software for nonprofits. Tuesday lets nonprofits manage auctions and oversee donation campaigns. Meanwhile, donors can use Tuesday to search for auctions supporting nonprofits and causes they care about, no matter where they're based. This enables nonprofits to potentially land new supporters.
After two years of work on the platform and customer outreach, Tuesday seeks to raise $2 million this year to expand its team and grow its reach.
Helping nonprofits
Tuesday began with a list.
Through philanthropic work with multiple nonprofits, Abdullah Tharoo saw common operational flaws that limited the nonprofits’ success. Frustrated, he began a bulleted list of the issues he saw, thinking he one day would help nonprofits fix them. That day came in 2020.
Spending more time at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Mumtaz Tharoo told her husband it was time to launch the platform. They used their savings to start Tuesday.
Tuesday makes money through a 5.99% transaction fee, plus a $0.25 cent fee per finalized transaction. Those transactions include auctions, donations and campaigns.
Next, Tuesday anticipates closing a $2 million investment round by the third quarter. That money will help Tuesday add 20 employees to its team of seven people. Those new positions will vary, including administrative, marketing, operations and technical talent.
In addition, Tuesday plans to grow its client base from 27 nonprofits to 50 by June, Abdullah Tharoo said. To encourage early adopters, Tuesday will never charge its first 50 customers the software’s monthly $39.99 fee, he said.
A 'game changer'
In its first two years, Tuesday has tapped multiple resources in the Central Florida business community.
One was Rally, a business accelerator for companies and organizations with a social mission. Tuesday was one of six firms accepted into Rally’s summer 2020 cohort, out of 60-plus organizations that applied, Abdullah Tharoo said.
Plus, Central Florida Foundation President and CEO Mark Brewer is one of Tuesday’s four advisors. In fact, Brewer, the top executive at one of the region’s top nonprofits, originally encouraged Tuesday to apply for Rally where Brewer serves as a board member.
Tuesday’s auction capability is a “game changer” for nonprofits trying to build their donor databases, Brewer told Orlando Inno. “Tuesday is a good example of new technology that is changing the way retail philanthropy can scale for nonprofits.”
The growth of innovative small businesses like Tuesday is important for Central Florida for several reasons. They create solutions that other companies and nonprofits can use. Plus, they can create high-wage jobs and economic impact as they scale.
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