It's a soft sell, as the organization's CEO, Amy Lesnick, describes it. Her five-person team isn't asking VCs to fork over any of their ownership in pre-IPO companies. Instead, Pledge 1% — originally co-founded by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, among others — has enlisted VCs who are also "allies" of the organization to talk more systematically with founders whose companies are poised to go public within 12 to 18 months.