# Brad Damphousse

> Brad Damphousse is the San Diego-based co-founder and former CEO of GoFundMe. He built the personal fundraising platform with Andy Ballester after earlier savings and fundraising concepts, led its bootstrapped founding years, and stepped back from daily operations following a majority-stake sale in 2015. His public interviews emphasize customer service, clear product design and early revenue.

- **Role:** Entrepreneur, product designer and former chief executive
- **Organizations:** GoFundMe, CreateAFund, Paygr
- **Education:** Double major in New Media Design and Marketing, Emerson College, Central Catholic High School
- **Known for:** Co-founded GoFundMe and led its early growth as CEO without outside funding., Named a finalist in the Established category of Entrepreneur magazine’s Entrepreneur of 2013 award., GoFundMe reported more than $95 million raised from over 1.5 million donors in August 2013.

## Career timeline

- **1998** — Helped create Central Catholic High School’s first website in a web design class.
- **2003** — Graduated from Emerson College after completing his studies in three years.
- **2004** — Joined a Boston advertising firm before relocating to San Diego for startup website design work.
- **2008** — Explored Coin Piggy with Andy Ballester and launched predecessor fundraising service CreateAFund.
- **2010** — Launched GoFundMe with Ballester in May, focusing on personal fundraising.
- **2012** — Publicly described A/B tests improving fundraiser signup and donor payment conversions.
- **2013** — Named one of five finalists in Entrepreneur magazine’s Established Entrepreneur award category.
- **2015** — Sold a majority stake to an investor group led by Accel and TCV; stepped back from daily operations and retained a board seat at the time.
- **2018** — Identified as a GoFundMe board member in a September CTO Studio interview with Ballester.
- **2023** — A UC San Diego Rady student publicly thanked Damphousse and Greg Smith for speaking to a New Venture Finance class.

## Achievements

- Co-founded GoFundMe and led its early growth as CEO without outside funding.
- Named a finalist in the Established category of Entrepreneur magazine’s Entrepreneur of 2013 award.
- GoFundMe reported more than $95 million raised from over 1.5 million donors in August 2013.
- Co-led the company before a 2015 majority-stake transaction reported at a valuation of approximately $600 million.

## Latest updates

- **2023-03** — Publicly thanked by a UC San Diego Rady MBA student for sharing startup and growth insights in a New Venture Finance class.
- **2023-05** — Recognized by GoFundMe employee Jordan Philyaw in a ten-year work anniversary post for customer focus and encouragement of staff development.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/braddamphousse

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/brad-damphousse
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-14