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Endeavor Atlanta is excited to announce the second cohort of ScaleUp BHM: an 8-month, nondilutive program designed to equip Birmingham’s fastest-growing, highest potential entrepreneurs with the resources and confidence they need to take their companies to the next level. After a competitive interview process, including panel interviews with leading entrepreneurs and mentors from Endeavor’s regional network, four companies were selected for this year’s Birmingham cohort:
When I made the decision to leave my role as Director of Marketing at Pack Health to lead Endeavor Atlanta’s Birmingham operations, I knew there would be a learning curve. Those first few months were marked by existential questions for which I had hypotheses and data points but no definitive answer. Did we have enough companies at the scale and growth rate required for Endeavor’s global network? Once entrepreneurs lock in on product market fit and achieve meaningful year over year growth, shouldn’t they be focused on executing the model? Beyond a few impressive connections and the buzz of international affiliation, what value could another network or program really add?
It is absolutely possible to build a business without a curated network or program, but here’s what I’ve learned. With the growth of a team and customer base, entrepreneurs’ needs become more specific and complex, the risk of failure becomes higher, and (on a more positive note) the impact of success can grow exponentially. Looking back on our first year in Birmingham, I’m excited to report that the time is truly ripe for Endeavor to select and support high impact entrepreneurs.
Birmingham is having a moment.
I was quite thrilled when, at a virtual Endeavor Event a few months ago, a global mentor observed: “I keep hearing about all these amazing companies in Birmingham, where did they come from?” Help Lightning’s $8M round and impact with enterprise customers, Fleetio’s $21M Series B, and more recently Landing’s $100M raise have put a national spotlight on Birmingham Tech.
Birmingham’s ecosystem of support for early stage founders is now light years ahead of where it was when I moved here for VFA in 2015, with much of the momentum building this past year. The passing of the Alabama Incentive Modernization Act catalyzed the launch of Techstars Alabama EnergyTech and Bronze Valley’s Accelerators. Innovation Depot and the EDPA are leveling up their programming under new leadership. Birmingham Bound and RedHawk Ventures have spearheaded a new initiative to redefine relationships between larger businesses and startups.
These resources can all be pivotal in helping entrepreneurs access capital, search for product market fit, and establish year over year growth. It would be unrealistic, however, to expect entrepreneurs to graduate these programs ready to start Endeavor’s global selection process, where the typical company selected in 2020 made over $5M in 2019 and is doubling their revenue year over year. And what about companies that did not leverage these programs to establish their model, but do need mentors and investors to realize their full potential?
Our solution to nurture a robust pipeline of Endeavor Entrepreneurs in Birmingham was launching ScaleUp: a non-dilutive program that exists in different forms around the Endeavor world to select and support the most promising pre-Endeavor founders and accelerate their growth.
Zooming with the ScaleUp 2020 Cohort: Josh, Mandi, and Jared of O3 Solutions, Hassan and Wayne of Smart Alto, Andy and Lauren of Case Status, and Ethan and Weida of Fledging.
High growth drives high impact.
Endeavor selects and supports the fastest growing, highest potential entrepreneurs because they predictably create the most jobs, reinvest the most capital, and become the best mentors for other entrepreneurs in their communities. What really excites me about Endeavor in Birmingham is that the same way international business leaders unlock doors for Endeavor Entrepreneurs, we have seen our national and local networks of Endeavor Entrepreneurs provide lightbulb feedback for ScaleUp participants. ScaleUp founders are similarly primed to pay their success forward in mentoring earlier stage entrepreneurs.
Endeavor’s merit-based approach to selecting and supporting entrepreneurs protects an intimate “Network of Trust” that ensures connections of real value. Making 10 connections without focused goals or relevant skill sets at best is a pleasant diversion and at worst wastes 10 people’s time. Making just one connection with clear context and applicable experience to address a strategic priority can completely change the game. Time being the most precious of resources in the world of high impact entrepreneurship, careful curation builds trust with entrepreneurs and mentors alike.
This test proves particularly critical in the event of touchy topics like changes in executive leadership or industry news that threatens a company’s market position. In the words of one of our 2020 ScaleUp participants, there are times where mentors who “don’t pull any punches” are essential. The empathy and rapport of shared experiences, combined with the commitment across the network that individuals’ specific challenges will not be repeated in other contexts, is in many ways Endeavor’s “secret sauce”.
Birmingham can also go bigger!
When Endeavor selected Tony Summerville of Fleetio, many asked: who else has made it to this stage and is growing at this pace? A year later, we actually have two Birmingham entrepreneurs who have passed Regional Selection Panels and are on track to interview at an International Selection Panel (ISP) for Endeavor’s global network in 2021.
Endeavor Entrepreneur Tony Summerville after passing his International Selection Panel, October 2019
Looking back, it’s likely not a coincidence that both ISP candidates have past experience founding and leading companies through substantial exits and IPOs. Another thing they have in common is that they see an opportunity for outsized growth and Endeavor is a network that can provide them the resources to go bigger than any of their earlier ventures.
The “Big Hairy Ambitious Goal”
As you may have gathered, Endeavor is an organization of, by, and for entrepreneurs. This means that everything we do is designed in partnership with the entrepreneurs we serve and relies on entrepreneurs who give back.
The underlying premise is that high growth entrepreneurs become high impact leaders when they think bigger, scale up, and pay forward their success to support the next generation of founders. Without this transformation, moments pass and opportunities for an ecosystem multiplier effect are lost. Endeavor’s “Big Hairy Ambitious Goal” for Birmingham is that the entrepreneurs we select and support will have an enduring impact on local, regional, and potentially global scales.
Endeavor Atlanta has selected four Birmingham companies for the inaugural cohort of ScaleUp Birmingham: a non-dilutive 6-month program that equips founders who’ve achieved strong product-market fit and high year over year growth with the resources and confidence they need to take their companies to the next level.
The ScaleUp Birmingham application process included a written application, panel interview with the Endeavor team, and Second Opinion Review with a mentor in the Endeavor network. Candidate companies were rated according to the following evaluation matrix:
Business Model: Market size, go to market strategy, scalability
Business Timing: Growth rate, customer traction
Entrepreneur Mindset: Entrepreneur focus, coach-ability, ambition, “pay it forward” mentality
Financial Position: Months cash on hand, burn rate, access to capital
In order to keep the bar high and ensure an intimate experience focused around the dynamic challenges that come with scale, Endeavor selected only 4 of the 14 teams that qualified for interviews:
● Case Status enables law firms to engage and update clients with ease. CEO Lauren Sturdivant and cofounder Andy Seavers (CTO) completed the Techstars Atlanta program in 2018 and moved their headquarters to Birmingham after receiving investment from Alabama Futures Fund in 2019. Their recently announced funding round from BIP capital was well timed as the influx of legal firms adapting to remote work fuels a period of hyper-growth.
● Fledging provides premium electronics for everyone, starting with storage products. Cofounders Weida Tan (CEO) and Steven Robbins (CSO) met at the University of Alabama Birmingham and completed the Velocity Program at Innovation Depot in 2019. Ethan Summers (Director of Commercial Operations) joined the team in June 2019. The rapid and steady growth in sales of Fledging’s flagship product is fueling their dominance on e-commerce platforms and expansion into key peripherals categories such as hubs and docking stations in 2020.
● O3 Solutions is an agile project management solution for industrial construction. CEO Josh Girvin previously worked with cofounders Mandi Coker (VP Education & Engagement) and Jared Elliott (VP Product) to scale a company in the same industry before founding O3 in 2016, and the team has leveraged their shared experience to build strong partnerships and customer traction.
● Smart Alto engages leads and schedules appointments to help realtors achieve their revenue goals. Hassan Riggs (CEO) and Wayne Anderson (CRO) founded Smart Alto and completed the Y-combinator program in San Francisco in 2017, but are both Birmingham natives dedicated to scaling the business in their hometown. Their unique combination of inside sales assistants, live website chat, custom scripts, and text message follow-up increases appointment conversion from 4% to 25% on average, driving $40,000 in increased revenue for the average realtor client.
While Endeavor’s ScaleUp Program is offered in other Endeavor affiliate offices around the world, each affiliate designs the content based on the needs of their local entrepreneurial ecosystems. The ScaleUp Birmingham program is unique in that it incorporates leadership development from Executive Coach Karen Walker. ScaleUp Birmingham will also match founding teams with a more experienced entrepreneur for ongoing, founder-to-founder mentorship, and plug them into Endeavor's regional network for tactical advice around specific business challenges.
To customize their ScaleUp roadmap, entrepreneurs will undergo a strategic, growth-focused assessment through EY’s proprietary 7 Drivers of Growth workshop to identify ways to accelerate growth and achieve market leadership. The program will conclude with a mock selection panel in which entrepreneurs sit down with top regional mentors and entrepreneurs and receive tactical, meaningful feedback, and qualifying participants will be invited to begin the selection process for Endeavor’s global network.
The end goal of Scale Up is to accelerate the growth of high-potential entrepreneur-led businesses and further Endeavor’s mission of scaling up, going big, and giving back.
