The Dream team
We are Liam and Mariya, the founding team of Virtue, formally Pledger. We are both digital creators and product makers, building a simple yet powerful platform. Virtue makes it easy for brands to team up with and give to incredible social and environmental causes. Earlier this year we quit our jobs and built Virtue. We did this because sometimes you need to follow your dreams, especially when they make this Earth an awesome place.
We were later joined by Westen, who has a wealth of experience in leading growth in start-ups and sustainability.
From the left: Liam, Mariya, Westen
Why are we building Virtue?
It all started when we personally experienced the disconnect there is between conscious boutique businesses that want to do good through giving and the time, knowledge, and tools it takes to do it well. The world is increasingly doing business online. And with so many incredible organisations already out there tackling some of the trickiest social and environmental issues - it made sense that there should be a way for conscious digital businesses to support these organisations in a meaningful way.
We built a digital platform for ethical eCommerce stores to team up with causes for mutually beneficial partnerships. At the core is our belief that every person and business can be generous and we all can have a part to play in making the world an awesome place.
The Journey
We worked on the Virtue concept for at least 1.5 years before hitting the ground, pulling from our own insights and feedback from people we now call our partners. All together it took about 6 months to build Virtue. We started building in the middle of London lockdown. Having full-time jobs plus consulting gigs at the time - it was a pretty hectic (but worth it!) time. We officially released Virtue Giving App into the Shopify App Store in Feb 2021 and now have over 400 stores that love to give with the App.
Don't need Virtue but want to help out?
If you have an online store check out our integrations and share your feedback by emailing support@virtueimpact.com
Tell your friends about us!
Maybe you are a blogger or a podcaster - we'd love to share with your community.
This blog is about documenting our journey, sharing interesting collaborations on the platform and insights we learn along the way.
Thank you for reading & catch you soon,
Mariya, Liam and Westen
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