Meet Brian Jaffe | Founder, CEO, and Game Master

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brian Jaffe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brian, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
The truth is, the last few years have been challenging for a lot of people, and through Do Something: Trivia For a Cause I have been able to anchor myself in the things that matter: connection, impact, and joy; those are the values in which Do Something: Trivia For a Cause is grounded. When the world went virtual in April 2020, I, like many others, worried how we could continue to build and maintain the human relationships we need in life; however, we’ve come to discover that it isn’t the physical distance that drives connection but our shared experiences and a choice to spend time with those we care about. I’ve found that something as “trivial” as trivia can have tremendous power to bring people together, provide stability in an unstable world, and create a platform to use my privilege to do something good. Through fundraising, story-telling, and a diversity of language, topics, and questions, we are able to fuel connection, create impact, and spark joy – and we’ve had a blast doing it!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your
business, can you tell us more?

Do Something: Trivia For a Cause isn’t just another virtual trivia company. We use a live, virtual trivia platform to create space in the virtual world to fundraise for a variety of charitable causes while building connections and having fun. To date, we have raised over $25,000 for over 50 different causes.

We didn’t initially set out to establish a company; in fact, we started hosting virtual trivia as a way to support some friends and find ways to connect with friends and family at the start of the pandemic. A buddy and I decided to host a virtual trivia night to raise money for the staff who was suddenly out of work at our local trivia hangout – a pub in Houston, Texas. We reached out to everyone we knew and invited them to join us for a virtual trivia night. Honestly, at the time we didn’t know what we were doing. We’d never written a trivia game before, and like the rest of the world we were just figuring out how to use video-conferencing, but we knew we had a chance to make a difference and support our friends, so we did.

After the first game our audience wanted us to do it again. This time we raised money to support students at my school and then the next week to purchase a bunkbed for a family in need at Justin’s school. Before we knew it, we had a platform and a community of people coming back each week to connect, compete, and do something good for the world. We began to seek out organizations who would benefit from our modest donation, and it started growing from there. Ultimately, Do Something: Trivia For a Cause was born.

Today, we host virtual trivia games open to the public to raise both awareness of social, humanitarian, and environmental issues and raise money for a variety of small and large causes around the country (and world!), as well as support schools, companies and organizations – particularly those working in the virtual space – with team-building, social events, and private fundraising events through virtual trivia, having hosted events for law firms, consulting agencies, schools, and hospitals across the country. We use a “Robin Hood” model for private events in which companies can opt to pay at a higher rate to sponsor our charitable games and through doing so to date we have raised over $25,000 for over 50 different causes.

As I said, we aren’t just another virtual trivia company; we are a small group of people who have taken every opportunity we have found to create space to amplify the voices of those who may not have a voice, and to raise awareness and money to help people out there doing the work to make the world a better place. As our company has grown, every decision we make as an organization comes back to three core values: connection, impact, and joy. By grounding ourselves in our core principles, we have been able to have a tremendous impact on individuals, families, teams, and charitable organizations across the world. We will be hosting our 100th public charitable game this May as we celebrate our two-year anniversary on this unexpected journey, and we couldn’t be more excited about the future.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.                    

Houston is amazing. You can find the best and most authentic food, music, and art from all parts of the world coming together in this city. But the thing about Houston is that the best places in this city are hidden – they aren’t in any guidebook and many times you’d drive right by them if you didn’t know they were there.

I prefer an low-key day…coffee in the morning, then hiking or biking along Buffalo Bayou followed up by beers at Great Heights or 8th Wonder, and dinner. So many options for dinner, but some of my off-the-beaten-path favorites are at Himalaya for Indian, The Pit Room for BBQ, or Teotehuican for Mexican. But no matter what you do, don’t miss Griff’s Irish Pub in Montrose – steak night on Tuesday, pork chops Wednesday, the Trivia that started it all on Thursday, and Flaming Lips wings every day of the week.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many little moments and interactions over the last two years that have seemingly come at just the right time to push this project forward, but at the end of the day, DST comes back to the amazing community of friends and family – new and old – that support us week after week. It is their belief in who we are, what we do, and the living proof that what we do matters that keeps us motivated and having fun. I sincerely love you all.

Website: www.dosomethingtrivia.com

Instagram: @dosomethingtrivia

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dosomethingtrivia

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dosomethingtrivia