My frustration with the lack of access to capital led me to business school, where I aimed to democratize funding and eventually co-founded Indiegogo.

As we neared our launch, we officially became a couple and launched our company in 2015, aiming to raise a million dollars through crowdfunding.

My reason for starting Indiegogo was to democratize access to capital, a problem that affected my family and me personally.

AngelList is the world's largest platform for online fundraising and recruiting for startups, bringing venture capital online.

Starting a venture capital firm in 2009, we aimed to create a platform that provides entrepreneurs with the confidence and support of a seasoned CEO, enabling them to connect with influential figures.

I brought on two technical co-founders who started building the website, and while they were working, I decided it was time to fundraise.

Despite having a promising product, we struggled to secure investment, leading us to consider launching on Kickstarter, which was suggested by Paul Graham. We built our Kickstarter page and filmed the video ourselves, starring our friends and interns.

We launched a crowdfunding platform where donors can see the families they are helping, ensuring transparency and accountability in our operations.

The easiest way to fundraise is to have a good metric that's growing; when I ran a startup that wasn't growing, I spoke to 140 investors and only got two angel checks, but now that I'm working on a growing startup, it took us one week to raise our seed round.