Meet the 2020 Class of MetLife Digital Accelerator powered by Techstars!

As Ilya Prigogine once said, “The future is uncertain… but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity.”

In the middle of a very uncertain year, Ted Serbinksi and I, backed by Techstars, are investing in ten promising startups. The ten startups we chose are a reflection of the priorities of our time: financial literacy, wellness, student debt, childcare, and racial equity. In addition to capital, community, and content, we’re helping them gain a competitive advantage by partnering with MetLife for scale and reach. 

The realities of 2020 have forced our program to go virtual, but we’ve taken this challenge and turned it into an opportunity to get the most qualified individuals from around the country. Now, looking at the group we’ve assembled, I believe we’ve put together the best program in accelerator history.

“Every Situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity.” -- Helen Schucman

So, without further ado, I present the Class of 2020 at the MetLife Digital Accelerator powered by Techstars.

Class of 2020

ChangEd — Chicago, IL — A mobile-first platform that accelerates debt repayment at every stage of life (e.g., student loans, mortgages) to get borrowers out of debt sooner. ChangEd automates savings, payments, and develops an intelligent debt repayment journey.

Request Intro to ChangEd

Dot — New York, NY  —  Mobile-first robot financial advisor delivering personalized recommendations helping people increase savings, optimize spending, and plan for retirement.

Request Intro to Dot

FinGoal — Boulder, CO —  White-labeled API & SDKs that use AI to analyze consumer behavior providing personalized, less expensive alternatives (from a cup of coffee to insurance and everything in between).

Request Intro to FinGoal

Holisticly  — New York, NY — Benefits platform that allows employers to provide employees with a monthly wellness stipend and access to a curated range of personal wellness solutions for fitness and mental health, plus team experiences (e.g., team workouts, workshops, and seminars).

Request Intro to Holisticly

InterGen Data  — Plano, TX — AI platform that predicts the likelihood of life-changing events so people can prepare for the moments that matter.

Request Intro to InterGen Data

Kinside — Los Angeles, CA — Connects employees to a network of 1M daycare and preschool spots,with pre-negotiated spaces and exclusive savings. Payments are made pre-tax via an API integration with FSAs and TPAs.

Request Intro to Kinside

LivNao — Sunnyvale, CA — Deep learning wellness platform that passively measures mental health for the delivery of behavioral nudges to improve wellbeing.

Request Intro to LivNao

Mellow -— Hong Kong — A mobile platform for parents to teach kids, ages 6-18, how to build money habits and use digital payments across savings, spending, and earnings.

Request Intro to Mellow

OfColor — Maplewood, NJ — An enterprise financial wellness platform that provides content, banking tools, and AI advice built around how people of color save, spend, and build wealth. 

Request Intro to OfColor

Village Plan — Boston, MA — Telehealth platform with on-demand experts and technology tools to help families care for aging loved ones.

Request Intro to VillagePlan

Program Team

Operations Team:

Jonathan Smith - Lead Operations Associate

Keenan Heyward - Operations Associate

Business Team:

Lee Busino - Lead Business Associate

Nick Robinson - Business Associate

Mentor In Residence:

Chris Bergman - Founder/CEO of Gylee Games

Marc Hudson - Co-Founder/CEO of Rocket Fiber

Zarin Singh - Chief of Staff of OYO

Mehrshad Mansouri - Director of Corporate Development at Techstars 

Heidi Hysell - CEO of Alpha Drive

6 Reasons I Bet on a Startup Reimagining Auto Services

Being in Detroit for 11 years and being part of the Techstars Mobility accelerator for 3 years, one thing I know for sure is that autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is not the only innovation in the mobility space. I predict that in less than 10 years the auto service market is going to become a multi-billion dollar industry. Let me break it down for you.

When was the last time you were excited to get an oil change, repair tires, get a car wash, or even fill up your gas tank? Unless you love wasting your time, the answer is never. The auto service industry is widely unprofitable due to the high retail infrastructure cost, low NPS score, lack of innovation, and a lack in its ability to penetrate deeper into the existing market.

There are numerous startups innovating in the auto industry bringing these services to you — Zohr (tires), Yoshi (car wash), and Booster (gas). In July of 2018, I came across Zohr and worked closely with them through a startup accelerator. Below are 6 reasons I bet on Zohr and you should, too.

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1. Team, Team, Team 

The key to every successful startup is the founders. During the early stages, the vision, the market size, and even the product will change constantly. One thing that won’t change is the founding team.

During their time in Techstars Mobility accelerator, I worked closely with Zohr co-founders Komal Choong and Anoop Choong, and what I saw was that not only were they some of the most coachable people I had worked with, they were also hungry, persistent, and passionate about what they were building. Each day, they were the first to come into the co-working space and the last to leave. When they weren’t working on growing Zohr, they were hustling for operating capital flipping cars.

2. Lower Overhead Costs 

For example compare….

• Brick and Mortar: tire shops that store inventory and manage showrooms ahead of customer purchases have overhead to simply exist. Rent is charged on a per-square-foot basis, and prices can vary based on location. Not only must tire shops sign expensive leases, but if the shop does not sell enough tires, the owner is still obligated to pay the rent.

VS.

• Tire shop on Wheels: Zohr leverages technology to predict and schedule tire services for their customers, eliminating bulky inventory. A brand new Mercedes Sprinter van costs just $54K and eliminates pricey showrooms while making the customer experience 10x better. (Mercedes-Benz, hit me up for sponsorship.)

3. Scaling Big and Growing Deeper

After establishing a strong foothold in Kansas City and Dallas, Zohr found product-market fit and their services proved to be more efficient in serving the community as compared to a traditional tire shop.

Zohr scored an industry-leading net promoter score of 96 in a very unloved market.

With their hard work and early success, they put together a plan that would allow them to roll out into surrounding markets. Not only have they had steady growth, but they have also been able to build strong relationships and loyalty with their customers. Zohr scored an industry-leading net promoter score of 96 in a very unloved market. Contrast that to Goodyear’s net promoter score of 11.

4. Partnership Data

If a car manufacturer wanted to learn what percentage of ride-sharing drivers use their brand, they would go straight to Uber or Lyft for that data vs. the impossible task of going to multiple taxi cab companies across the country. Through innovation and ease of use, Uber and Lyft have helped triple the number of taxi drivers in the US.

Similarly, Zohr is on the path to change the way consumers buy and change tires. Therefore, if Michelin wanted to get a report on their tires, Zohr will have better data for them than traditional tire shops.

5. Vision: Vertical growth

Amazon started by selling just the products they had in their inventory. Once they figured out the supply chain and logistics to scale, they opened the marketplace for any vendor to sell their own products via Amazon. 

Similarly, Zohr is perfecting its tire logistics and is growing quickly while building a strong, potentially household name, brand. An interesting opportunity for them is opening up to other verticals by white-labeling their on-demand service platform to other vendors in the mobility industry.

6. Convenience is King 

Here are a few use cases illustrating a delightful customer experience.

Example 1: it’s a snow day, you are sitting on your couch with a warm blanket, drinking hot chocolate and watching TV with the family. Do you really want to leave your house and spend hours getting your tires changed? — Zohr, the tire shop that comes to you.

Example 2: you get to work and realize your tire is flat. You have a big meeting with the Board of Directors and a dinner date with your significant other right after work. Can you really want to skip the board meeting and your dinner date to go fix your tires and spend hours at the tire shop? — Zohr, the tire shop that comes to you.

Investing in the Future of Mobility

Those are the top reasons I’m bullish on this new startup. If you live in Kansas City or Dallas make sure to check out Zohr. If you are a potential strategic partner or investor interested in chatting with the founders, hit me up for intros at iamtops.com.

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About Tops

 I am a 2x Founder, DJ, and an Investor in over 30 startups. I’m obsessed with mobility, under-utilized assets, and breakthrough technology. Currently, I am the Director at @BackstageCapital, a Mentor at Techstars, a Venture Partner at Venture Catalyst. I am easily bribed by #Brunch & #Cortados. Learn more about me and get in touch at iamtops.com. 🙂

The Secret to a Perfect Pitch Deck

Five years ago I founded my first company, and as of this year, I’ve invested in 30 startups. From being a founder pitching to investors, to reviewing companies to invest in, I’ve seen over 1000 pitch decks. It’s true that investors don’t invest in decks, they invest in teams; so how do you create a deck that excites VCs and tells your story? I’m going to break it down here.

Tips

Dwight from The Office reminds you to: Keep It Simple Stupid. 😂

Do’s

1. Do follow the Rule of K.I.S.S. You should never overlook the power of simplicity.

2. Do get the VCs excited by telling a story. VCs get the same boring 10–12 slide deck from every startup — make yours stand out. Check out the 12 Storytelling Techniques to Supercharge Your Pitch by Dave Bailey.

3. Do talk about your personal story and why you are the best founder of your product/service.

Don’ts

1. Don’t make shit up. VCs are professional bullshit detectors, and it’s not worth losing trust when you’re caught bending or fabricating the truth.
   You say: “We felt we were too far along to join an accelerator.”
   VCs hear: “YC rejected us — twice.”

2. Don’t try to trigger FOMO (fear of missing out) with VCs, unless your round truly is oversubscribed. This approach can backfire on you if you don’t close your round quickly. Pretty much all founders try to do this, and it’s usually not true, so VCs won’t fall for it.

3. Don’t give VCs unrealistic projections to show hockey stick growth. They’ll dig in on the specifics and quickly learn the truth.

Know What Matters

When you are raising seed-stage money, there are only 4 criteria that matter: founding team, vision, market size, and product. Often, you can show meaningful metrics; you can’t measure revenue, CAC (customer acquisition cost), or LTV (life-time value) when none of that stuff exists. Ted Serbinski from Techstars does a great job explaining how he selects startups for his cohort.

You can think of a startup like of a music band — there’s a singer, a guitarist, a drummer, and together they create the harmonist effect, but individually there wouldn’t be the music. We look for that harmony in teams of designers, developers, salespersons, executors.

The Outline

Here is the list of slides you need to have in your deck. The order of slides will be different based on your story and the narrative of the deck.

1. Founders/Team
   Key to every successful startup are the founders. During the early stages, the vision, market size, and product will change constantly. One thing that won’t change is the founding team. That’s why investors love to invest in founders that are hungry, passionate, and, most importantly, coachable.

2. Vision
   What’s your vision? It should be something really big and crazy that feels almost impossible to achieve but worth pursuing.

3. Problem
   What is the problem you are going after? Is it big enough for a VC to get excited about?

4. Market Size
   How big is the potential market size? Is it big enough to be venture-backed? Use bottom-up, unit-economics analysis to back up your numbers. Watch this short video by Kevin Hale, a Y Combinator Partner, on how big of a market VCs look for before investing in a startup.

5. Solution/Demo
   What’s your billion-dollar solution? Why is it so unique? Be very specific. If possible, have a quick demo of your product.

6. Traction
   Talk about key performing metrics that drive the success of your business. How many customers do you already have in your pipeline for a paid pilot? Be creative about the data you use to show traction, but remember that the point is to clearly communicate with the investor.

7. Business Model
   How do you generate revenue? Or how do you plan to? Make sure you have a metric that will help generate revenue.

8. Fundraising and Milestone
   What are you raising and how are you going to use the money? To grow a team? To support overhead? How much have you raised so far and from whom? What major milestones have you set for the next 3 years? How is the money going to get you there? Remember, VCs evaluate your progress based on accomplishing milestones.

Accelerator programs help prepare founders for pitching to investors, so demo day pitch decks tend to be fine-tuned and effective. Here are some amazing examples.

Techstars Detroit Demo Day 2018
500 Startups Demo Day 2019

Design for Your Audience

Once you create your deck, always get input and opinions from your mentors, advisors, and, most importantly, someone new who doesn’t know about your business — it’s always good to get an outside opinion. They might point out obvious holes in information, or help you see where you could communicate more clearly.

The truth is that there really is no such thing as a perfect pitch deck. It’s a living document you iterate on as you progress and learn from your fundraising efforts. The more you work on it, the better the story becomes, and the more you learn about your business and communication along the way. And always remember, your deck isn’t designed for you, it’s designed for the person you’re sharing it with.

About Tops

I immigrated to the US in 2008 to live life with no regrets. I am a 2x founder, DJ, and investor in 30 startups. I’m obsessed with rapid growth marketplace, mobility, under-utilized asset, and breakthrough technology. Currently, I’m a Director, at Backstage Detroit, and mentor at Techstars Accelerator. Learn more about me and get in touch at iamtops.com. 🙂

6 Strategies to Get the Most out of an Accelerator

After spending two years as an associate at Techstars Mobility in Detroit and now running Backstage Detroit (an accelerator from Backstage Capital) as the Director, I have helped and watched more than 50 startups graduate from an accelerator. From my experience, I’ve created a list of 6 strategies to help you get the most out of your accelerator experience.

Getting into an accelerator is a great accomplishment. Most of the time, getting into a top-tier accelerator such as Y Combinator, Techstars, and 500 Startups is more challenging than getting accepted into an Ivy League school. At Backstage Accelerator we had about 2000 applications competing for 25 spots. That’s roughly a 0.025% acceptance rate vs. Stanford’s MBA rate of 6.1%.

So, here is how you can make the most out of your accelerator program. Let’s get to it!

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1. Move fast toward a monthly goal

You have 3 months and your goal should be to maximize by minimizing. Always ask yourself, can something be done faster? With fewer resources? For example: Do you really need to build the product before you get your first customers? Why not sign them up in advance and sell them on the concept?

Alex Iskold, Co-founder and Managing Partner of 2048 ventures, does a great job explaining the tactic for going quickly during the program without jeopardizing your long-term vision for the company or affecting the quality of your product.

Create monthly goals and make that one of your KPIs (key performance indicators) during the program. While it is super easy to get distracted during the program by the amount of information thrown at you, this KPI will help you and your team stay on track working towards your goal.

2. Storytelling helps smash funding goals

People often don’t buy the best products, they buy the products they understand the best. Similarly, in the early stages of startups, investors don’t invest in the best products, rather they invest in the founders they understand the best. Your goal as a founder should be to tell stories that motivate investors to take the action of financially backing you. Talk about your vision for the company. What’s the big picture? How is it going to change society? What’s the big opportunity here? Why are you the right team? Investors want to hear that.

Here is a short video by Kevin Hale, Partner at Y Combinator, on how investors look at startups and their decision-making process to invest. 

3. Filter out bullshit advice

During the accelerator, you will be bombarded with hundreds of opinions on your business from mentors, founders, investors, etc. So, how do you differentiate between what is bullshit and what’s not?

Think about it like this: if your mentor is an engineer, they often want to add more features to your product, making it flashy and complex. However, that may not be the best thing for your startup. Your goal should be to deliver a simple, yet effective MVP (minimum viable product) for your users. Remember, your dog doesn’t need an email. At least not yet. :)

Of course, there will be times when you will be absolutely frustrated by some advice you get from mentors. Try not to take it personally and learn from their experience. It could be the most beneficial part of your accelerator experience.

4. Find and update super-connector mentors

During the accelerator when corporate/strategic partners come in, all the founders will have one goal: how do I get a pilot with you? Here all the founders will fight to get the attention of decision-makers. How do you, as a founder, stand out? The best way is through a referral. Your goal during the program should be to find a mentor that can act as a “connector”, convince them of the value of your product/service, and get them to connect you to a decision-maker.

Make sure you send monthly updates about your business to these connected mentors and show them that you’re making progress and gaining traction. Your goal with these updates should be to keep these mentors excited about what you have to offer because they could potentially be your next hire, the key to unlocking a pilot deal, or an investor in your company. 

Give special shout-outs to your mentors in your updates. This seemingly small act of kindness will go a long way. Your mentors have given up their valuable time to give you free advice-giving them recognition and gratitude are meaningful and cost you nothing.

Here’s a great article by Jillian Canning, Senior Portfolio Strategist at Wework Labs, about the importance of mentor updates.

5. Build relationships with other founders in your cohort

One thing every accelerator does well is finding the best entrepreneurs and putting them all in the same room for 3 months. You will be surprised to see how many of your roadblocks can be solved with the help of your peers. They have been, or are, in the same position as you. Nurturing your peer relationships throughout the program can build long-lasting support. As my friend, John Henry says, “learning from your peers is more valuable than your mentors.”

Never undervalue the power of relationships.

6. Invest in building relationships outside the program

Find mentors, associates, investors, or leaders that you respect during the program and become friends with them. Take them out for coffee, drinks, or dinner — any activity outside 9 to 5 — and learn more about them on a personal level. Building relationships with people you respect will pay dividends long-term. Never undervalue the power of relationships, because something as simple as an intro email can solve a problem that you have been working on for months or even years.

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I hope you try out these strategies for yourself. While following these tips won’t guarantee that you’ll secure funding or land any pilots, it will help you get the most out of an accelerator. It’s up to you how hard you grind during the program.

Feel free to leave a response below about how these concepts have helped you, or if you have any hacks of your own to share with the community.