Teaching diverse founders how to create investable pitch material through a scalable online platform and making it easy for investors to discover them through data-driven curation.
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Hi there,
As we lit the Hanukkah candles last night I thought about the growth that has occurred both within and around Scroobious this past year. Being a startup founder is a life in flux no matter what you're working on, but working as a female founder on a startup that focuses on helping other diverse-led startups takes it to a whole new level. I am humbled every day by the ambition and determination of the hundreds of founders in our community. Some select highlights within Scroobious: - Validated our low code MVP in the market and launched our custom software platform growing our community to over 350 founders.
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Hired Daniel Volkovich, our amazing Technical Head of Product.
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Granted nearly 100 sponsored accounts to founders courtesy of our corporate sponsors and partnerships.
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Brought our renowned Preparing the Pitch workshop to over 30 accelerators, incubators, and founder communities.
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Spread our message through earned media on major publications including Bloomberg, TechCrunch, BBC, Morning Brew, New York Post, Business Insider, and dozens of podcasts.
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I was invited to join the All Raise Boston leadership team and the Merck Digital Sciences Studio as Executive in Residence, both positions fully aligned with our mission and values.
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Our newsletter has grown to over 1500 organic subscribers and our investor waitlist is over 100 strong.
- Raised an angel round and are gearing up for a seed raise this Spring.
Some select highlights among our community:
Founding Scroobious just a month before the pandemic and school closures has led to a very interesting journey to say the least. I am so incredibly thankful to all of you reading this and to everyone who has joined our community at large to support both us and all the diverse founders we work with. We are at a pivotal growth mark here at Scroobious and I CANNOT WAIT to share more in the new year. |
Thank you for reading this. Thank you for helping us. I appreciate you. Wishing you a warm and restful holiday season, |
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Allison Byers, Founder & CEO |
Click on an update to learn more and access content. |
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Virtual workshop: Forming & Managing Special Purpose Vehicles , 1/19 12-1:00 pm ET How do you handle the headache of coordinating each investor check and the risk of a messy cap table? In this workshop, Halle Kaplan-Allen from Sydecar will share the ins and outs of how founders can use an SPV to run their own syndicates and fundraise on their own terms. |
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Virtual workshop: Understanding Preferred Stock, 1/26, 2-3 pm ET A company's first priced round of financing is a critical point in its development because the “preferred stock” typically issued to investors conveys significant rights that impact both the founders’ economics and their ability to control the company. Benjamin Hron of Brown Rudnick will take you through the most common preferred stock terms and help you understand their importance and how they relate to each other.
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Podcast: Effective Pitching for Women Founders Shubha Chakravarthy and I had a great chat on her Invisible Ink podcast covering key mindset shifts to increase your odds of getting funding, how to equalize the power balance when you’re seeking capital, how to avoid the hidden pitfalls that lurk unseen in every investor conversation, and much more. |
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Sign Up: Pitch Studio There's no substitute to practicing your pitch live, but underrepresented founders often don't have the network to do this comfortably. Investors, join a studio session to give honest pitch feedback in a safe, supportive space where you provide value AND meet incredible new founders. |
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| Read: The BuiltInFuture5 series highlights five innovative, up-and-coming Boston startups each quarter. We're in great company among these awesome founders and startups! |
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Apply: Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space (BGS) are requesting applications from innovative startups with founding and executive teams that are primarily made up of BIPOC leaders who are developing climate solutions for sectors including electricity, transportation, buildings, manufacturing, and agriculture. Applications due 12/23. |
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Application: The Capital Readiness Program is a one-week intensive curriculum designed to prepare medtech companies seeking to raise $1M - $5M in investment within 6-12 months. The program equips founders with the know-how to create a capital ready due diligence deal room, helps navigate sophisticated investor and partner capital related inquiry and due
diligence processes, and provides direct feedback from industry-relevant investors.
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Morse supports diverse founders through their Scroobious corporate sponsorship and their legal professionals create exclusive content for our community to help entrepreneurs. |
This month Scott Bleier and Elizabeth Resteghini provide an overview of convertible notes. Click here for the full article. Quick highlights include:
- A convertible note provides a startup company with a means of raising capital while effectively delaying the need for difficult conversations regarding valuation to a future date when the business is more mature.
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A note is a debt instrument and is structured such that the capital borrowed either converts into shares of stock with a future financing round at a lower price than that paid by future investors or is repaid, including accrued interest, upon maturity of the note. A typical maturity date is two years.
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Notes accrue interest over time, which can vary, but a typical range is between 4 - 8%.
- In recognition of an investor taking on risk at the early stage of a company, convertible notes typically include a discount rate or a valuation cap.
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Convertible notes represent debt on the books of a company while SAFEs are not technically debt instruments as they don't have maturity dates and can remain outstanding indefinitely. Read more in our Breakdown of SAFEs as an Investment Vehicle.
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Each newsletter features the perspective of one of our members. I encourage you to reach out to offer networking, investment interest, or expertise. |
This month's featured founder is Melis Dural, Founder & CEO of EKOS.ai. I first met Melis at an event where we were one of a handful of female founders attending. We immediately hit it off and, let me tell you, she is one impressive lady! Thank you to our fantastic corporate sponsor, SVB, for providing her a Scroobious membership as we are thrilled to have her in our
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I can honestly say that I have never met someone more passionate about connecting our online and offline professional interactions. Melis is originally from Turkey, went to high school in Switzerland, and now lives in Boston after attending Northeastern University and Babson College. It's no wonder she has recruited a top notch international team and has drawn investment from both Turkey and the US. Be on the lookout for some Scroobious & EKOS collaborations in the near future!
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"I have a background in entrepreneurship, starting with selling paintings as a child and working in hybrid environments throughout my career. I've lived through how challenging it can be to enable authentic, deep engagement in a hybrid community and I have the perfect experience and passion to address this problem with a technology solution. EKOS is an all-in-one engagement platform built for hybrid communities that brings together events, real-time networking, meetings, and conversations in one space seamlessly connecting online and offline interactions. I've learned over the course of my career that to be a successful entrepreneur you have to have a clear vision, be willing to pivot, surround yourself with a strong team, be resilient and persistent, and be comfortable selling."
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Do you want to be more Scroobious? Let's chat!
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