Hey everyone!
I am back after a hectic few weeks of building my startup, GiveWithTrust, and I wanted to share my experience so far.
If you have followed my previous posts, you know I have been building a platform that connects donors to NGOs through in-kind donations. Things have moved up since then. The platform is now live, multiple NGOs have been verified and onboarded, and we have already received a few donations. (Which is pretty exciting!)
You can check it out here: GiveWithTrust.
Over the past few weeks I have focused on three things. They are probably the three biggest areas I have learned to prioritise while building a startup.
1. Building the Platform 💻
The first priority has been building and improving the platform itself: adding features, fixing bugs, improving the UI, and making sure everything works as it should.
I relied heavily on Claude Code for most of the development, and it helped me build the entire platform into a functioning product, from start to finish. We now have live needlists, multiple verified NGOs, and a donation process that works all the way from payment to delivery at the NGO.
There are a few things the platform still lacks, but I will save those for an upcoming technical blog.
There were also quite a few challenges along the way:
- Getting the Razorpay payment integration working
- Setting up automated email notifications through Resend
- Building an easier back-office system so our operations team can manage things on behalf of NGOs that are not very tech-savvy
None of these were the most exciting problems, but overcoming them was the most rewarding part of development. It is the kind of challenge I was craving.
Now that the core platform works, we are looking at building a mobile app to make donating even more accessible. There is still plenty of work to do, but seeing actual donations go through a system I built is a pretty satisfying feeling.
2. Content Creation and Marketing 📱
Building the platform is one thing. Getting people to know it exists is another.
My co-founder and I have been creating reels, posts, and other promotional material, and sharing them across LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. You can follow us here:
- Instagram: GiveWithTrust on Instagram
- LinkedIn: GiveWithTrust on LinkedIn
- YouTube: GiveWithTrust on YouTube
Go follow us! Shameless promotion is part of the job now.😅
Coming up with content ideas, editing videos, reviewing analytics, and figuring out what performs well is a heavy load on top of everything else.
For graphics, I have mostly used ChatGPT, along with a few plugins to avoid the obvious AI-generated look. But ChatGPT struggles with brand consistency. The graphics look good individually, yet they do not feel like they belong to the same brand. Colours, typography, and overall identity start to drift.
To fix this, I have been building a graphic design pipeline with Claude Desktop. You have probably seen those Instagram videos about turning Claude into your personal video editor, so I thought, why not try something similar for graphic design? I have been feeding it our website, brand identity, typography, colour palette, and other visual references so it has the context to create consistent designs. I am still testing the workflow and will probably write about it once I have properly experimented with it.
Apart from social media, we are also exploring offline promotion. We are planning a donor fest affiliated with our school, school newsletters to introduce GiveWithTrust, and, of course, shamelessly asking our teachers to check out the platform.
Whatever works, right?
3. Networking and Building Connections 🤝
This is probably the most important and challenging part of scaling GiveWithTrust.
You can have a working product, a decent website, and great content, but getting the right people to notice it is a completely different challenge.
On the NGO side, my dad helped immensely through his connections at Kalyani. He introduced us to several NGOs, which made onboarding much smoother.
Getting the platform in front of the right donors, organisations, and people who can help us grow is still a major challenge. We are constantly reaching out, following up, and making the most of every opportunity. One of the biggest things we are hoping for is to connect with someone who believes in what we are building and can help us take it further. That could be an organisation, an individual, or someone who can introduce us to the right network.
This is probably the tallest obstacle we have right now, but we will find a way. Seize every opportunity we get. That is the approach for now.
What I Have Learned So Far
Over the past few weeks I have juggled coding the platform, content creation, networking, school midterm examinations, other competitive challenges, and, most importantly, my health.
Surprisingly, the grind has not been as stressful as I expected. Doing meaningful work day in and day out is genuinely fun and rewarding.
I am not speaking from extensive experience, but I have a hunch that most successful people enjoy the difficulty of the grind of pursuing something they care about. Whether it is building a startup, playing a sport, or making a painting, there is something satisfying about putting in the work and watching yourself improve.
I am still figuring out how to balance everything, and there is a lot left to learn, but I am enjoying the process. GiveWithTrust has come a long way from being just an idea, and we are only getting started.
If you would like to support what we are building, check out givewithtrust.org, follow our social media, or share the platform with someone who might be interested. And if you work with an NGO or would like to help us grow, we would love to hear from you!
See you guys in the next one!
