Growth Lab Entrepreneurs from our Current Cohort Share Their Stories
By: Pete Holmberg
We hear it all the time: Being a founder can be a very lonely experience. When the past participants of The StartOut Growth Lab, sponsored by DLA Piper (we are currently on Cohort #6) tell us what they appreciate most, camaraderie always makes the top of the list. In addition to compassionate high-level mentoring, a key component of the StartOut value proposition is the safe harbor that develops when highly ambitious entrepreneurs discover like-minded people with whom they can be vulnerable. The biggest challenge of this year has been working to foster those connections without the in-person contact we all hold so dear.
As the Founder and CEO of AuditMate, the first ever property maintenance auditing software with an initial focus on elevator maintenance contracts, Ashleigh Wilson is disrupting an industry so niche and tightly owned that it’s basically an oligopoly. “Being a founder can be really lonely, so just having a room full of people to gut check you and offer perspective on a host of issues is just so invaluable. As a queer female entrepreneur who has successfully completed a friends and family round, I’m often sitting at tables where I don’t encounter LGBTQ counterparts, so I’m especially grateful for StartOut, where people are so accepting, generous with information and anxious to pull you in. One big plus now is that geography is no longer an issue and my Cohort has definitely benefited from the speakers who were added to the curriculum after going digital. I only had one week of the in-person Growth Lab, but it was a vital one because introductions to my new colleagues were made. While I met some in person, and others online, I can say without hesitation that I’m equally close to all of them.”
For Brianna Rader, CEO & Co-Founder of Juice Box, a sexual wellness startup and creator of Slutbot, a choose-your-own-adventure sexting bot, the shutdown has detracted a bit from her StartOut experience while fueling her business. “It just kind of happened overnight. We were in week three of the program and had really settled into the office space when San Francisco put in the shelter in place and everyone made the temporary transition to working from home. We thought it was going to be maybe a few weeks until everyone got the systems set up appropriately, but we continue to fail to do that as a country so now we’re here months later. One of the hardest things about being a startup founder is that it’s lonely and there aren’t a ton of people to relate to. I was really excited to go through a program where you would have these other companies who all understood what you were experiencing and you would get to work with them every day in the same space. The Zoom calls definitely still help though. As for my business, the shutdown has affected it in a positive way. People are bored, on their phones more, and lonely. I think that they’re hungry for some kind of intimate attention or connection, and so in that way, Slutbot has become more relevant and we’ve seen more usage. We’re excited to continue to capitalize on this special moment and I’m grateful to have the support and sounding board of my Cohort as these new opportunities arise.”
Johann Moonesinghe, Founder of inKind, a restaurant finance company, wasn’t scheduled to arrive in San Francisco until mid March, so his entire Growth Lab experience has been conducted remotely from his headquarters in Austin, Texas. “I can’t make the comparison to the in-person experience but overall Cohort 6 has been awesome. I can easily make the argument that it’s been slightly better because I can stay here with the team and continue to build the business in Austin. Connecting two times a week with Growth Lab has helped me make great meaningful connections already. I just did a call last week with somebody who’s thinking about Cohort 7, and I told him to absolutely do it. This experience is very real for me and I love the structure. Wednesdays are the peak engagement day when we have speakers who are subject matter experts in a particular area. They brought in this brilliant computer scientist from Stanford to audit all of our websites, give us like specific pointers for how to do SEO, and then make himself available to all of us afterward. inKind has financed over 400 independent restaurants, so with COVID-19 devastating the restaurant industry, we’ve been making adjustments to our underwriting model and credit fund structure. The feedback and support from StartOut has been phenomenal.”
For Chris Davidson, Head of Growth Lab for StartOut, the shutdown provided an opportunity to know his colleagues at a deeper level. “What is fascinating about this is you’re just getting to know everybody and we’re having these very intimate conversations about trust and life and you know the pandemic and no one really knows what the future holds. So it created this amazing bond for everybody that was really special. The shutdown democratized the program in sense by removing the stigma of not being live and really allowing us to bring some amazing speakers without considering geography. That was our best a-ha moment of going virtual and we expect to have many more. The world has pivoted and we continue to pivot right along with it.”
Everyone has a different date for when the pandemic became real for them, and with Cohort #6 beginning in March 2020, the collective experience of our latest group of entrepreneurs is providing us plenty of anecdotal evidence to support our belief that StartOut Growth Lab can indeed grow and thrive in our remote new normal.
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About StartOut:
Founded in 2009, StartOut, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is the largest national organization to support LGBTQ entrepreneurs with 17K members nationwide. Its mission is to increase the number, diversity, and impact of LGBTQ entrepreneurs and amplify their stories to drive the economic empowerment of the community. StartOut helps aspiring LGBTQ entrepreneurs start new companies; supports current entrepreneurs as they grow and expand their existing businesses; and engages successful entrepreneurs as role models and mentors, on its online portal, and through targeted events nationwide. For more information, please visit www.startout.org.
