Our Story
Dauction started with a disappointing night, not a business plan.
I was at a fundraising event — a colourful and joyous event that included a silent auction, done the traditional way — and watched item after item sell for a fraction of what it was actually worth. The event was full of people who clearly cared about the cause. The support was there. The generosity was there. What was missing was a system that could turn that goodwill into the kind of result the cause actually deserved.
That gap stuck with me. I'm retired now, living in Sydney's western suburbs, after a career spent in software product development. I'd assumed that chapter of using those skills professionally was closed — but this problem was too obvious, and too solvable, to leave alone. Dauction is what happened when a genuine "someone should fix this" moment collided with someone who actually could.
The idea is simple: a well-designed, donation-based auction can raise significantly more for a cause than a traditional one — not through gimmicks, but by making generosity visible, competitive, and a little bit fun.
There's a second part to it I care about just as much. A platform like this doesn't just help charities raise money — it gives businesses a genuine reason to donate products and services, because a well-run campaign gives their contribution real visibility and promotion in return. Done well, it's a symbiotic relationship: the charity raises more, the donor business gets meaningful exposure for supporting a cause, and the community benefits from both.
I built Dauction because I believe that idea is worth putting into the world — not to build an empire, but because it's a genuinely useful thing to spend this stage of my life doing.
— Founder, Dauction