There was a clear need. NGOs need funds and marketing campaigns to the public are their lifeblood, yet there was no agency dedicated to supporting their marketing needs in Asia. Over half the world’s population live in Asia, so it was clear if they were going to achieve the most impact possible for their causes, NGOs here needed help. We had a vision to change our industry – and grow it! In starting OmniRaise we really wanted to raise the bar and had a vision to do fundraising differently. If you look at lists of the most admired companies in the world, it’s dominated by technology or consumer brands – but why isn’t there one known and admired in fundraising and marketing? We wanted to build a company people would love and be proud to work at, creating formidable impact in this world. We had the support. The conventional wisdom is don’t mix friends and business. Maybe that’s true for some -but we’d been working together in fundraising since uni, and had been friends and colleagues for over 15 years. Starting a business can be hard – staring over the cliff – but we were in this together from the start.