2022 Annual Report
|
10-Year Retrospective
One does not start a journey, job, company, trip or pretty much anything thinking about writing a retrospective. I am fairly certain that fewer consider doing it for the tenth anniversary of the effort. But here we are. It is the tenth anniversary of JumpStart’s Burton D. Morgan Mentoring Program. Quite a milestone for the program but an even greater one for the entrepreneurs and mentors. It is not possible nor practical to recount all that has been done and achieved (TL; DR). We have been able to capture some of the events, milestones, outcomes and highlight a few of the representative companies that have been helped along the way. The annual report that you are beginning to read contains a good picture of the momentum that has been built, tangible results delivered, and impact generated. The entrepreneurial ecosystem is better and stronger for the efforts of our mentors and entrepreneurs with whom they engage. Please take a moment to look through this report to get an idea of what has been achieved. This milestone anniversary is a good time to pay a bit of attention to the mentoring program’s mission. Most of the readers will have heard me say this because I relay it almost universally when I first meet a potential mentor or mentee – we are here to help a person do better. The mentoring program is first and foremost about the entrepreneur. Jobs, revenue, capital and exits arise as a direct outgrowth of helping a person do better. The Burton D. Morgan Mentoring Program has done an amazing job and created tremendous impact by focusing on the entrepreneur first. By focusing on them as a person. We have demonstrated that results multiply one entrepreneur at a time. As a program we have to offer ten years (and counting) of “Thank You!” to the Burton D. Morgan Foundation. Due to their vision, support, funding and involvement we have been able to support so many and help build an entrepreneurial ecosystem that continues to grow. The contribution that the Foundation has made to Northeast Ohio has impacted thousands and will continue to impact generations to come. We thank our mentors for the countless (OK, we do count them) hours of their time given voluntarily to help our entrepreneurs do better. We thank our entrepreneurs for their efforts, grit, inventiveness and work. They are what makes this program tick. We thank our collaborating organizations across the ecosystem for allowing us to be a resource to support all in their support to entrepreneurs. We thank our universities for allowing us to help support their students as they learn and pursue entrepreneurism. Finally, we thank our team at JumpStart and of course Jennifer and Peggy for helping us to help others.
Here is to the next ten years and continuing to look forward.
2022 Annual Report
Introduction to Stakeholders | Bill Nemeth, Director
Overview
13,400+
$567.6M
hours donated by mentors
10-Year Retrospective
21
revenue collectively generated by clients
graduates of the program
197.7 *total full-time employees
PROGRAM GOALS: We believe that by channeling the experience and expertise of mentors in support of the region’s newest technology entrepreneurs, we can accelerate their progress toward capital and revenue. And, by doing so, we will be creating the future employers for our community.
active or graduated companies
$678.7M capital raised by clients * point in time data as of January 2022 survey
SATISFACTION
88% of mentors
94% of clients
are satisfied with their participation in the program
are satisfied with their participation in the program
2022 Annual Report
RESULTS
CLIENTS SERVED: 276
Yearly New Client & Mentor Participation 300
250
200
150
MENTORS ONBOARDED: 219 100
50
0
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2022 Annual Report
Program Growth | 10-Year Retrospective
13,400+ Donated Hours 2022
1,400+ hours
2021
1,000+ hours
2020
1,000+ hours
2019
1,000+ hours
2018
1,100+ hours
2017
1,200+ hours
2016
2,000+ hours
2015
2,100+ hours
2014
1,760+ hours
2013
840+ hours
12000
Mentoring Hours Donated
10000
8000
6000
10-Year Retrospective
4000
2000
0
ANNUAL DONATED HOURS
2022 Annual Report
14000
CAPITAL
REVENUE
1,400
TOTAL
$1.24B
1,200
1,000
$678.7M
$841M
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
800
600
400
$324M
$567.6M
$1.6M 200
$0.3M $1.3M
0 2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2022 Annual Report
Client Capital & Revenue | 10-Year Retrospective
46% REVENUE $567.6M
0.02%
ANGEL INVESTMENTS $559.6M
0.1%
STRATEGIC PARTNERS $85.3M
0.1% 0.2%
GRANTS $11.9M LOANS $7.7M JUMPSTART $4.9M COVID RELIEF $3.5M
TOTAL CAPITAL & REVENUE
0.3%
$1.24B
0.6%
GLIDE INNOVATION FUND $3M GLIDE A: $0.8M — GLIDE B: $2.2M
1% 7%
ACCELERATORS $1.4M INCLUDES FOLLOW-ON FUNDS
NORTH COAST OPPORTUNITY TECH FUND (NCOTF) $1.1M CROWD FUNDING $0.3M
0.4%
45%
2022 Annual Report
Client Capital & Revenue by Source (cumulative) 10-Year Retrospective
Martin had an idea to help foreign students attend universities in North America and help those universities land coveted foreign students that pay full tuition. A classic double-sided market that is extremely complex to navigate. Martin was invited to join the mentoring program and immediately absorbed and executed the advice provided by his mentoring team. Of course – he tested every bit of advice he received and executed flawlessly. Martin did the hard work first. He found and secured students from abroad. His Facebook page he created quickly gained almost 160,000 followers who regularly engaged with Martin and their peers about coming to North America for their higher education. Adoption led to local angel funding of approximately $1.5 million and within a year another couple of million. Since his graduation from the mentoring program, he has gone on to create a company with over 1,500 employees, servicing over 300,000 students and a latest round market valuation of $4.5 Billion. The mentoring program’s first unicorn!
applyboard.com
2022 Annual Report
An electrical engineer, laptop, cell phone and a cup of coffee is how it began with Martin Basiri, the founder of Applyboard and the Burton D. Morgan Mentoring Program. Martin is an immigrant from Iran that had attended university in Canada and was working at Bendix.
Serendipity hit hard the second time when one of our founding mentors saw Karen pitch to enter the mentoring program and insisted that he HAD to work with her. Turns out the mentor had connections to the world’s most foremost wound healing experts, reconstructive surgeons and investors that joined forces to validate the technology, evaluate the intellectual property, create an advisory board and raise $7 million in approximately six months. Right place, right team, right technology, right time. The technology and company have advanced rapidly since that time and are well on their way to FDA approval and market entry.
biomendics.com
2022 Annual Report
Timing can be everything – or at least very important to the success of a startup. Biomendics has created a patented wound healing (and many other things) compound that might not be where it is without a few serendipitous moments. The first came at the GLIDE Innovation Fund where Karen McGuire, the founder and CEO pitched, for a $25,000 grant to support her new startup. She did not get the money but if the science held – there seemed to be something there despite many of the health technology evaluators insisting there was no way it could make it to market.
Steven Muszynski, founder and CEO of Splash Financial gets all the credit for his eventual acceptance of the challenge posed by his mentors and doing the work to create a business model that has taken off. Intelligent, stubborn and driven are some personality traits of a good entrepreneur and Steven possesses them all. Splash Financial has created a rapidly growing business founded in refinancing student loans that has expanded into other forms of personal loans and generated both buzz and over $64.4 million in capital raised. Steven has led the firm from its inception and relentlessly pursued the necessary funding, customers, partnership and product/market fit. He is a tribute to taking the hard advice that needs to be heard, absorbing it and acting upon it to create a viable company. splashfinancial.com
2022 Annual Report
There are many reasons a startup can choose to pivot. Lack of product/market fit, business model that is not viable, faulty assumptions or chasing a seemingly better opportunity. Sometimes it is precipitated by mentors asking a simple question like: “is it worth it?”. As in; “is it really worth pursuing this based on the very little benefit that your model will generate. Aren’t you wasting your time?” Not all mentoring meetings are pleasant. The exchange was the definitive turn for the unpleasant in that meeting. It was also the impetus for introspection, examination, rethinking and ultimately a pivot that has created a thriving, capital raising, customer benefit generating powerhouse. The mentors may not have to do the hard work but sometimes they must have the hard conversations.
Being an entrepreneur does not make it easy to make the big jump to leave a career where you have been successful and been educated through a master’s degree. It can be doubly hard when you are by nature a conservative computer engineer. It took quite a while and an agreement with his mentoring team that when he reached a certain level of funding – he would make the leap. Now that Gordon and company has raised over $28.3 million, I think he can look back on the leap as a wise choice. The pandemic rapidly accelerated the need and adoption of Boxcast’s technology and has enabled them to compress their company development timeframe.
boxcast.com
2022 Annual Report
There is something that drives an entrepreneur. Curiosity, creativity, blind faith, drive, the need to solve a problem – one or more can drive someone on an advancing career path to striking out on their own. For some it is just an internal nagging that tells them they should do something. Gordon Daily, the founder and CEO of Boxcast, is one of those people. He had the itch to invent. He saw a problem and started to tinker. His computer engineering background and professional skills allowed him to create a basic device that would allow a novice to broadcast an event. In his case the event was high school sports. Then it was religious ceremonies (churches).
THANK YOU TO OUR DONOR
To learn more or get connected with a mentor visit:
jumpstartinc.org/mentoring 2022 Annual Report | 10-Year Retrospective