December 9, 2021

Full transcript of the December 6th Q&A session:

Nick Ellingson: Welcome everyone happy Monday, hope you all had a good weekend, so my name is Nick Ellingson and I’m with the Washington technology industry association. Agenda for today is basically to go over the equitable innovation accelerator some background on find ventures and then little bit about the program and really just open it up for for questions that you all have so. We have a few folks on the line from find ventures wtia commerce cookie and our team will be taking some notes on questions that are asked and will upload their populate those big FAQ doc but you know, really, this is for all of you founders and startups in the room, your opportunity to ask any questions about the Program. So that’s pretty much the preamble, I have. Miranda I can kick it over to your team, if you want to start off with some of the slides, and I can click through.

Miranda Berger (Find Ventures): Wonderful you can go to the next slide and i’ll let Courtney go from there.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Sure absolutely well welcome everyone, I think you need to the next slide. yeah so we just want to kick it off with some introductions as Nick mentioned, we have folks from Find Ventures, the Department of Commerce, and WTIA on the call, so I will just give a brief overview of US fivd ventures and our team and then kick it over to lily, so I am a Courtney law, I am the innovations director at find ventures, also on the call we have Julie Pham who is our curiosity director Miranda Berger, who is our fund director, Brittany Danielle who is our marketing and communications director and then our fearless leaders who were unable to join today but Elizabeth Scallon and Justin Brotman also work with our team. So that’s our side, maybe i’ll turn it over to lily.

Lily Eriksen: hi everyone, my name is lily I work for the Washington State Department of Commerce and we are so excited to have you here today and this project is partially funded by the. EPA and so that’s the economic development and administration, and this is a federal grant part of $15 million grant to the state of Washington and and we are so excited. That you are interested in applying for this opportunity. and very excited that find ventures and wtia are helping work with us to help assist you guys in your goals so i’ll turn it over to WTIA

Nick Ellingson: Well, hey everyone, my name is Nick and with the Washington tech industry association so good to see some familiar faces here and Koki if you want to wave and so will be helping out with some of the behind the scenes stuff. With curriculum development mentor recruitment and assignment and some of those sort of accelerators are kind of common accelerator elements of the program and also helping with DEMO day planning and other elements of the program but. yeah excited to work with you all and congrats on making at least the first step, which is the q&a session. Courtney back to you.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: awesome so next slide. So yeah welcome to our first Q&A session so excited to see you all here and i’ll just share i’ll just take some time to share a little bit about the accelerator. Find ventures and then we’ll dig in a little bit more about what actually will happen if you are accepted. So the equitable innovations accelerator so it’s, the first of its kind program to provide 10 technology startups with up to $100,000 and non-dilutive philanthropic grant, philanthropic grant money. We will also pair that with programming, that will be provided by WTIA and access to mentors and coaches, through our different networks.

And next slide.

So we wanted to give an overview of what our ideal participant will be so we’ll we’re hoping that the founder or CEO of the potential ventures to participate will have at least one founder that’s part of an underrepresented group so we’ve listed them here.

Has a team at least one other Co founder.

Has a product or service that’s, at least at the minimal viable product stage.

Has currently below a million dollars in annual revenue and is headquartered in Washington and we have a preference for startups located in rural areas.

Oops, backwards yeah.

So, again you’re our first informational session.

We will have another one what we do have another one scheduled for January 14 so if all your questions are answered today or, if you have questions, while you’re applying.

please feel free to either reach out to us or join us for the next Q and A  session our applications for this accelerator are due on January 31 and then the cohort selection will be by March 18.

Nick Ellingson: Some reason my clicks make me go backwards.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: No problem.

All right, um and so i’ll start well i’ll give a little overview here and then turn it over to Nick so our program or actually maybe i’ll turn it over to Julie before Nick, but our programming will be a curated curriculum for this and founders it’s great because we have made it we anticipate that will have a small group, so we can develop a program to meet the needs of the folks in that group. And so, actually i’ll turn it over to Julie now to talk a little bit more of how how that will actually be done.

Julie Pham: Thank you Courtney so and so they’re going to be two major elements to the to the curriculum, there is the technical aspects of of running your business in growing the startup and that’s what WTIA is going to be taking care of and I will actually be working on the leadership development part because you’re the  founders development as leaders is going to also be really instrumental to to having a successful startup.

Julie Pham: And we also want to make sure that you feel connected as a cohort they’re going to be 10 founders, who are chosen, and we hope that you are going to be learning from one another and supporting each other, not just during this time, but also in the future as well. So i’m gonna turn it back to Courtney.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: awesome Thank you and Nick, I think, maybe that’s a good segue to talk a little bit more about the programming.

Nick Ellingson: yeah and so as Julie mentioned will be a couple elements to programming and i’ll give it just sort of a general overview because we’re going to customize a lot of this based on who the companies are and where your needs are but basically we’ll have some standard curriculum going.

Probably you know, a couple hours a week so nothing too exhaustive, but sort of ongoing throughout the program, and this will be basically the sort of actionable things to go do. Related to like stage appropriate curriculum that’s really actionable for your business so some of you who have been in the wtf founder cohort will recognize some of the curriculum, but things like managing a board of directors pricing sales fundraising 101 financing terms and a bunch of different things like that. So all kind of in the general buckets of like sales marketing fundraising building the team product development and then also just sort of making sure, things are formed correctly and that you know legal accounting things like that are all in order so we’ll have.

folks that are available as mentors to help with that throughout the program also you know folks just to come in and help with office hours as you need things but there’ll be a mix of sort of standard ongoing curriculum and then a lot of ad hoc mentoring, as you need it will also some more sort of formalized mentoring and check ins throughout the program to make sure that you’re progressing and you know, make sure that you’re getting value out of the program so happy to take more questions as we go, but you don’t want to spend too much time on this, I think all you understand what curriculum is so.

yeah Courtney back to you.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: awesome thank you both for that overview. And we do want to make sure that you guys have plenty of time to ask any questions, so we can share any answers but each one of our organizations is very excited to partner together to not only support you, through this process, the application process, but through the accelerator itself and so with that, I think we can open up for questions.

Nick Ellingson: feel free to uh ask in the chat feel free to ask them in the chat or just go off mute and ask any questions that you have.

GoldenSHERPA.com-Margie Bensching: So, can you speak a little bit about the funding the grants how that’s going to work and get you get into the accelerator, what does that look like and that’s my question that pretty general.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: In general, and very appropriate.

yeah yeah so the funding itself when you apply one thing that we’re looking for what are those next key milestones that you’re your company would like to meet, and as you go through the process will work with you to not only look at those evaluate those milestones but you’re on a budget that will help you meet those milestones so it will be tailored to the company specifically but that’s that’s what the funding or how the funding will play into this accelerator.

GoldenSHERPA.com-Margie Bensching: So what you’re saying is you’ll help us you’re looking at what we’re our program is and then you will help us with funding to implement Is that what you just said.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: So we will have funding, so we will provide up to $100,000 in funding, but the amounts will be based on the milestones and the goals that you would like to meet and that we can agree upon if you’re accepted into the accelerator.

Lily Eriksen: You guys maybe want to talk a little bit about how that funding might work, how it will be given out to the entrepreneurs here like kind of the deadline contract.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Absolutely, and so maybe we can go back to the the timeline slide so once the cohort is selected. We anticipate that we will tranche the funding, so it will be milestone based, we will not provide a lump sum. One that helps us with accountability and tracking there will be a tracking mechanism between the founders and ourselves, but also, it also helps us if things need to change or be modified through the process we can work with the founders. As as those needs arise.

Nick Ellingson: Another question from the chat relates to the funding. Are they unrestricted funds?

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: um I well, I think it will be on a case by case basis, depending on what the fund what people are asking for the person who put that in the chat, is there any specific. Reason that you would want to use a funder specific questioning that you’re you’re asking about.

Danielle Garbe Reser (she/her): More just wanting to know, are they restricted in certain ways like you could only use it for this part of your business and not that part or is that unrestricted in the sense that we can use it for the highest need for organization.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: I think that’s something that we can review through the application process um currently I don’t have any, this is an absolute no for for those funds but yeah I think that that’s something that we can explore.

Nick Ellingson: Before going back to the chat looks like Lokesh had your hand up do you want to go off mute and ask your question.

Nick Ellingson: So you’re off mute, but we can’t hear you.

Lokesh MD (He/Him) – iHealthLogs: Can you hear me now yeah okay sorry thanks Nick my question was around the eligibility criteria, seven years, say, one of the phone or the CEO or the founder needs to be from under represented community. Do that does that need to be the CEO or can it be one of the founders.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: I think it should be at least one of the founders, and someone who has a more prominent role within the organization.

Lokesh MD (He/Him) – iHealthLogs: sounds good thanks thanks Courtney

Gabriel Cavazos: Hi, everyone can I jump in real quick?

Nick Ellingson: yeah

Gabriel Cavazos: yeah so i’m located in Texas Do I need to move my headquarters to Washington before applying or can I be selected and then move my headquarters.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: So we are our preferences for folks that are currently located in Washington, so I would, if that is something that you’re looking to do I would relocate before applying.

Lokesh MD (He/Him) – iHealthLogs: Excuse me, just to follow up on Gabriel’s question so you know our venture there are three people three founders. I am from Washington state I live in Renton but the other two founders are from Los Angeles so other than we will be incorporating and know, having our headquarters in Seattle, because as a cloud based platform so How does that really you know, does that qualify or How does that work?

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: yeah so i’m looking for folks that are headquartered Washington state, so I think we understand, especially during COVID people are kind of all over the place, so it’s Okay, for you to have members of your group in other locations, but I think that the company should be headquartered in Washington.

Lokesh MD (He/Him) – iHealthLogs: Thank you.

Lily Eriksen: If you are incorporated in Washington state, and then we consider that being in Washington so.

Lokesh MD (He/Him) – iHealthLogs: Thanks Lily.

Nick Ellingson: Aaron you’re in it.

Erin Green: yeah Thank you thanks Courtney thanks everyone for all the Info. So, on the application evaluation process, who is it find ventures that’s evaluating the applications is that a team effort between WTIA find ventures and the state and then yeah if you could just maybe talk us through the application review process.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Absolutely so members of the find ventures team will be a part of the application process, but we also have a review panel that we put together with other folks some that are on our  committee will also be involving other folks who are working with us to help us evaluate all of the applications.

Erin Green: Okay, and then, may I ask a follow up question, so on the on the actual application itself, I know, one of the questions was how many it’s something to the effect of how many paying customers slash trial customers slash users so are any of those answers acceptable do you want the aggregate of all of those what would be the, the best way to answer that question?

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Now a great question so are for those and thank you for referring to the application application this initial application form is for us to learn more about each of the each of the technology, so I think if you have folks that are in those different areas it’d be great to say hey we have folks in these different areas and help because it just gives us a better picture of who you are as a company.

Lily Eriksen: Okay, and if you don’t have one segment of that information that’s okay too it’s really just give us the most complete set of information and spreadsheet you know snapshot of your business as possible, so if you only have one segment, that is fine that gives us a snapshot of where you’re at and maybe for business another section of that doesn’t make sense, anyway, so it doesn’t need to be, I would just answer that with you know 125 units and you guess or you know try to be as specific as possible, and when you’re answering that so we just have the most complete complete picture.

Erin Green: Well, thank you.

Nick Ellingson: Karen use your hand up.

Maybe stepped away for a second so i’m going to the chat, I think, to the top of the questions.

First, one are 501(c)(3) organizations eligible to apply and maybe expand that a little bit, are there any restrictions on entity type.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: 501(c)(3) organizations can apply.

Nick Ellingson: cool next question was go to the eligibility slides that has popped up unrestricted funds we asked.

Please describe what a team means in regards to eligibility, can the TEAM members be employees or must have TEAM members be employees or are being compensated or, as you know, just working on equity work. A little more background on what team how we’re defining team.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Absolutely that’s a great question, so we do recognize that teams will vary but what we’re looking for is again teams, so we would like more than one founder. I think that people will have different roles within a team, but we’re looking for at least, at least in my mind someone more than one person who’s dedicated to this. Now, whether or not they’re full time or part time or if their equity based or salary based. I think you can describe that again we’re really trying to get a complete picture of what your organization looks like but we we’ve seen in the past that they’re successful and there’s more than one person who’s driving the mission of the company forward.

Nick Ellingson: next question is this program for for profit businesses as well?

Lily Eriksen: Absolutely.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: As long as your revenue is below a million dollars.

Nick Ellingson: let’s see next one, how do you define a technology based product or service or tech enabled product. Does this cover medical devices and, if so, is it only medical devices that are software connected.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: And I think that this can apply, yeah I don’t see that those are excluded.

Lily Eriksen: yeah I think we’re trying to define technology as a very broad subject so if you can just make a good argument that’s why you fit as a tech startup and then you should apply.

Now, if your business only just uses a Microsoft product and you’re trying to say that that makes you a tech startup maybe maybe do a little more thinking, but I can give you a business has a tech application, then you should consider apply.

Lokesh MD (He/Him) – iHealthLogs: I had a follow up question on that Lily and Courtney.

So what is the end goal of of this entire thing so should the product be you know the product that we are developing should be in the market, ready to launch our should be starting to grow, the revenue. Or is it something like you know the PLC is on it is ready to be launched, and it cannot be launched, because it needs further because the reason I ask is especially around the healthcare and medical devices, is it can take forever to get some compliance and certifications so what’s the end goal.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: yeah absolutely great question. And I realized that I didn’t mention it during our intro so, as you know, and especially in the mobile device i’ve worked a lot with medical technologies.

yeah, it is a long runway and up to $100,000 can get you, but so far, so this fund is intended for more of that pre seed type money, so I think, depending on what your technology is some will be a longer runway but I think we’re trying to evaluate what is that next you know value inflection point or milestone that you’re trying to reach it can our funds and being a part of this accelerator get you to that place. So did that answer your question?

Lokesh MD (He/Him) – iHealthLogs: Yes, thank you.

Nick Ellingson: What are the most important criteria for consideration?

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: See so will you see on our side what’s what are you know ideal participant, so one, I think, maybe number one is they do need to be headquartered or incorporated within Washington state to be eligible the others it’s hard to weigh which ones are the most important, but these are the criteria that we’re that we’re using to evaluate which which 10 will be a part of this first accelerator.

Lily Eriksen: And I would just like to add to that fact and you know we’re really looking for individuals who have, if you’ve struggled to find that startup funding and you don’t necessarily have friends or family with that type of capital, then you should apply and you know the Department of Commerce is interested in, you know, helping lift up individuals who don’t necessarily have access to these capital markets and that can be rural as well and that’s it that’s a big sticking point for us.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Thanks for adding that.

Nick Ellingson: Next, one is well, will find ventures act as a lead investor and is EIA funded for ongoing years or can talk about sort of how that works.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: um so that is the beauty of this fund, it is non-dilutive, it is a grant funds, so we will not be on your CAP table, we are not official investors it is a, it is a granting mechanism.

Nick Ellingson: um.

GoldenSHERPA.com-Margie Bensching: Can I ask a question? Real quick um that’s sounds sounds wonderful yet. With that, we will get the support of the people in the fund, you know that’s one of the things about fundraising that when you do get funding from a group, you also get some of their talent and support and their network. So that that exists with this as well correct?

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Absolutely so yeah we would love to help connect you and support you in all kinds of different ways If you receive funding from us not only find ventures but that’s part of you’ll be part of the wtia network And i’m sure that the folks that commerce will also be more than willing to help make those connections and I think, maybe I missed the other part of your question, Nick about the what this follow one was there a question about follow one funder what is the fund look like.

Nick Ellingson: me yeah basically, I think I think you answered it in the context of a specific question about it’s a grant not a lead investor, but if you want to chat about that bar go for it.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: And I didn’t know if Miranda wanted to speak on that.

Miranda Berger (Find Ventures): hi everyone, my name is Miranda burger Courtney shared i’m the fund director at find ventures yeah we have raised the money to provide this initial grant round for the 10 investors, which is very, very, very exciting. And we believe that the friends and family round and the lack of it being available to all entrepreneurs is a problem.That this fund is addressing this year in this way and we’re hoping that this continues, not just in Washington state but nationally, so that somebody in Texas, and who meets these requirements can just as easily do it as somebody else in Alabama or Washington it’s not just needed here, we hope that we have lots of copycats as well, and everyone just does this from now on, because this is how we change the face of business.

Nick Ellingson: Another question from the chat and then we’ll get back to hands raised so is your mentorship a pairing with people that have business domain knowledge?

I can start with this and then Courtney can add on, so I will be, we have, who has a mentor network of like 100 plus people and so they’ll be a mix of recruiting mentors of the program that can speak to some of the topics in the curriculum. But then also you know, this is why a lot of it is custom is if there’s certain things you need help with. We’ll go recruit mentors for that, and so, whether it’s a one off thing or I want to meet with a multiple times or You know whether it’s say I want someone in my in my domain, or whether it’s just I need someone who has expertise in X business function and we’ll work with you to get the right mentors kind of throughout the program and you’ll probably be not even probably been almost assuredly be meeting with more than one mentor throughout the program Courtney Julie anything you want to add to that?

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: yeah I think I guess the only thing to add to that is find ventures will also if there isn’t someone somewhere in their network can’t help, we have our own networks that we can work to pair folks with.

Julie Pham: And i’ll just say that, and this is going to be the first time that we’ve done this, so we, we want to be getting a lot of information about the founders needs in the beginning, so that we can tailor that experience and be valuable.

Nick Ellingson: To hands so Winfield you have your hand up

Winfield Ezell: Yes, I was wondering um you know it says a potential venture scale so when we talk venture scale is that something that we is that evaluated by the team is that something that the application process, well, I mean when we’re looking at how we feel with you know that we have that potential venture venture scale company, you know. I was just wondering, is that something that’s decided by the panel, who will be picking everyone or is that something that’s a part of application process that we’ll need to You know, fortify as a part of our information.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: I can address that a little bit, so it is a part of the application process, so we have the written application, we also have the opportunity for you to provide a is a one minute video to talk about your company and your product and if you’re selected to move forward, there will be meetings with our committee, so I think that there’ll be several portions in which you can talk about how your company is going to go to scale because, again, we are trying to figure out not only where you are, but where you’re trying to go because that helps us evaluate it which I guess which companies are in that and sweet spot of hey, we need this proceed to go to X two X equal and without this, we cannot do Y. Does that answer your question?

Winfield Ezell: That was good, thank you very much, yes, it does appreciate it yeah.

Nick Ellingson: Erin, did you have your hand up?

Erin Green: Actually, a perfect segue because my question was actually about the video so so first of all thank you for not grading us on our video production quality. And I see that you have the questions there, which obviously the questions could be answered in written form, so I guess, my question is to make the most of that one ish minute video what what is, what can we do to make that format, the most useful to you.

Julie Pham: Actually it’s it’s not just one minute, I think we give you more time than that so.

Erin Green: Okay, but yeah so what what can we do to make the best use of that format again, obviously, the questions that you listed there could be answered in writing so, what are you hoping to see in the video.

Lily Eriksen: I think we were providing that video as an opportunity to get to tell your story in a way that maybe the written form won’t be able to do and we don’t really have any guidelines we’re really kind of looking to see what you’re able to come up with, so you create a you know it’s a it’s a it’s an opportunity to show a little bit more again then you’d be able to put in writing, and maybe convey something or different and, but I would view it as kind of your elevator elevator pitch and what you’re able to do and in the time allotted.

Lily Eriksen: I don’t know Julie or Courtney has something else they’d like to add on their thoughts of but.

Julie Pham: We also want to give people an opportunity to say, we know that some people communicate better in the written form and some people communicate better in the verbal form until we want to give people different opportunities to shine.

Erin Green: Okay, no that’s great and for the what is the ideal length and because I did, and maybe I maybe the version of the application, I have is an outdated version it does say one minute, so what What would the ideal time limit or timeframe be for the video.

Lily Eriksen: Sorry, I think we had confusion if it says one minute to minute on the application and that’s how long it should be okay.

Erin Green: Okay, great Thank you.

Nick Ellingson: Okay, Lokesh you had your hand up?

Lokesh MD (He/Him) – iHealthLogs: yeah thanks again, my question was one of the objectives for our venture is to foster youth development because we working on the technology space and we wanted to provide that opportunity for under represented the youth, and I know who has a lot of programs around that we have an opportunity to tap into that when we can bring some you know college students to help us in developing the product that you know, thereby creating a win, win situation.

Nick Ellingson: i’d say from from the WTIA side like once you’re in the program we want to open up our network as best we can, and so, if there’s kind of whatever introductions or connections, we can make global work to do that.

Nick Ellingson: Winfield is your hand back up another question or is that just from before?

Winfield Ezell: That was fun before sorry about that.

Nick Ellingson: I don’t know we just want to make sure we’re covering everything back to the chat our pre revenue startups eligible.

Courtney: Yes.

Nick Ellingson: That was an easy one.

Nick Ellingson: I think we already answered this one, but we’ll ask it again a little bit different way, it says, has a team or a Co founder Does that mean having more than one person involved and does the business have to have some form of all, I guess, we just answered the pre revenue thing so Courtney maybe, do you want to re clarify on sort of what we mean by team yeah.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Yes, and I will go back to the pre revenue thing too as well, so it is fine if you guys have pre revenue, if you are pre revenue again, it depends on what type of technology you’re working on and cetera. But we, I would like to see, and I think we do have some questions around traction so sometimes you’re pre revenue, but you have partnerships or you are working with someone or something so something that shows that you know you are moving forward, and you are a guest at the minimal viable product stage and then you just asked about the team yeah so again. I think, to are we seeing you know as you’re developing a technology, it is good that it’s more than just a sole person working on that so being able to have a team depending on size, where you are, I think you know, having simple someone else, not just yourself dedicated to a project would be seeing favorably for this process.

Nick Ellingson: next question is there a word limit or any guidance in best practices for answering application questions is brief better?

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: I don’t have any guidelines, I think. What I would say is and we’re we’re using this as a kind of getting to know you kind of thing and getting to know your company, so I think being able to convey who you are and get across like this is who we are, this is the stage right, and this is where we’re trying to go and help them any words that takes, and I think would be great I will say that i’m not looking for novels and I think, maybe there’s a word limit with the the application, but I wouldn’t want you to just be briefing not cover what you feel is necessary for us to know who you guys are.

Nick Ellingson: Again i’ll add to that a little bit having read probably thousands of applications, at this point So using like describe your team, for example as a prompt a bad answer is here for linkedin URLs. A bad answer is also like you know, we we have great experience in this space and so we’re a good team, a good answer is you know here are like 10 URLs here’s some background on the people actually describing the experience you have or the domain expertise. Similar like you know described traction saying we have customers is not a very good answer but saying we have 10 customers and three pilots and like going and do a bunch of description. At the same time there’s a fine line where a lot of this is you know, even though these are questions are still a bit of a bit of can we see that you’re focused and you’re able to communicate effectively the vision of your business and so. If we say describe your product and it takes three pages to do that that’s probably showing the lack of focus but similar if it’s two words that’s probably not enough detail so I don’t know I don’t have a specific word count but there’s a little bit of a you know you want to include some detail, but while still showing that you’re able to communicate clearly and efficiently about your business. Hopefully that helps.

Question was, if accepted into the program how long is the relationship with WTIA? As long as you want it to be.

We do free memberships for startups so you’re welcome to join now as a Member, for this specific program like will be doing the curriculum and things like, and you know, helping connect with mentors and that kind of stuff throughout the program but after that you know you’ll still be a member and are still able to access resources and our network and things like that WTIA works with about a little over 1000 companies now and they range from one person startup to Microsoft and Amazon so you know, obviously what we do for the different sizes of companies changes but yeah once once you’re in the family are in so.

I think those are all the questions in the chat Karen and I saw your hands up again, do you want to ask your ask your question?

Karen Stringer: Yes, thank you, can you hear me now last time you couldn’t? thank you i’m sorry not to be on camera but it’s early for me, I am located in Washington my family is part of my team my sister and my grown children and they do not live in Washington, so I was not able to register my business as an llc with With five Members because i’m the only one in Washington, my question to you is, are we still a team, even though we’re working they’re working remotely on this project. But they they are not located physically in Washington, so the question is, do I still have a team, even though i’m the only one in the state.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: yeah. you’re still a team. All of your team Members do not have to be located in Washington state.

Karen Stringer: Okay, thank you for that.

Lily Eriksen: So, as long as you’re incorporated here.

Karen Stringer: Yes, we are. This is, this is where we are where we operate, but the family do other things like website and instagram and that sort of thing, and they do that remotely from outside of Washington.

Lily Eriksen: Great.

Karen Stringer: Thank you.

Nick Ellingson: wanna I think actually Winfield to your question, yes, so we’re recording and now Koki and I will send out a note to everyone. We should get the recording at some point today, so it might it might be this afternoon, it might be tomorrow that we can send out the recording and Courtney Julie  Miranda if there’s any we can always see ccu on that or what you want to do, but if there’s messaging you want us to include in that just let us know, and we can do that

Winfield Ezell: I think I got a quick follow up to the last person’s question.

Nick Ellingson: yeah go for it

Winfield Ezell: Because i’m not incorporated in Washington state, but I mean i’ve had an office that i’ve held here and a lot of my customers are here and we’re headquartered here in Tacoma right now we have office space here partners, here it do I need to do something in order to make sure that’s something that I could show, I mean, I have a long history in Washington state i’m a you know filmmaker turned entrepreneur, as far as my startup but everything i’ve done has been on the ground here, although the last five years prior to I expanded throughout the southeast and was building that so I was just wondering. Now that i’ve heard that a couple of times, you must be incorporated in Washington state that would be an issue for me, although the bulk of my business, well, I would say, you know 60 to 70% of my clients, right now, are Washington based clients, as well as around the country.

Lily Eriksen: You said you had a Office here.

Winfield Ezell: yeah i’m located in Tacoma one of our partners, their Alma mater, this is a new there, we have a partnership that is where my office is now and i’m looking for space in Seattle as well we kind of run a hybrid model distributed model, as far as you know, space.

Lily Eriksen: yeah I think in my mind, you should go ahead and apply, I think, because you also have an office in Washington state, but that will meet our our needs there um But again, if you were incorporated out of state didn’t have an office here, maybe had a few clients here or customers than that wouldn’t be very attractive to the state, but if you have actual physical offices here that, in my mind qualifies you.

Winfield Ezell: Thank you very much.

Nick Ellingson: Miranda was there, something you weren’t the same thing I saw your hand went up and you pop to the top to the screen to.

Miranda Berger (Find Ventures): You Nick I wanted to clarify on entity types for application status. While we do not have specific requirements as Courtney shared on which entities can apply. We are we are an untraditional grants source most grants for businesses are much smaller than $100,000 whereas nonprofits they’re used to getting perhaps grants of this size.

We are not seeking to fund nonprofits doing nonprofit organization work so traditional 501 C three is in that line is is not the intent of this fund of this organization and of this partnership.

The intent is to support small businesses or sorry the intent is to support businesses and tech startups who do not have the traditional friends and family round of funding to to reach their business goals.

Lily Eriksen: Think to Miranda’s point if you are a nonprofit and you are part of one of the missions is you’re creating a startup that will be with the intent of generating revenue and acting as a business, then in your hosting it first out of your 501c3 then we will consider the application, but if if you’re just trying to continue your continue your 501 C three activities through this grant then as Miranda said, we will not consider that location.

Nick Ellingson: Aljolynn, the conversation here answer your question?

Aljolynn Sperber: Yes, thanks.

Nick Ellingson: think that is end of chat and see any hands up any other questions or doing what else. Any DMs that I might have missed or anything? Any other questions from the group?

Going once, twice, there’s one

Nick Ellingson: what’s the time period for the grant Program? so i’m guessing you mean the entire EIA program.

Aman Garg: um yeah right.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Yes, so we are, he said, will be we’re accepting applications now will notify people at the beginning of March, and that’s when they will start or at least the process will start, we would like to follow the timeline and i’m not actually sure if we talked about this with the actual or the actual accelerator process with WTIA did you already mentioned that the engagement with you guy?.

Nick Ellingson: I didn’t mention the length I talked about sort of the weekly, but if you want to go to the link to the actual whole shebang.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: Would you mentioned that and then I can continue around the the actual funding portion.

Nick Ellingson: yeah so I believe it’s 16 weeks. yeah OK cool. So the whole sort of the the main accelerator or an accelerator element to the program will be 16 weeks so once that you know, four months, give or take. will have some stuff at the beginning it’s a little bit more kind of content heavy before settling into an hour to a week, so you know you have businesses to run so we’re not going to take a you know all your time putting you in the classroom and then it’ll drive towards a DEMO day type thing at the end. Exactly what that looks like depends on sort of where we’re at in the pandemic and everything, but hopefully we can have a big fun party and, at the very least we’ll have a small hybrid party. They so 16 weeks, I guess, starting you know, probably My guess would be that the curriculum probably starts early April. Based off of selections happening and merchant so April May, June, July.

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: And our funding will follow that I mean our funding will probably extend outside of that depending on again milestones of what we’re trying to reach. But again, we can work with the different companies to not only look at what the funding needs are but a reasonable timeline in which to to accomplish those goals.

Nick Ellingson: Okay, and one one final note, on that that for folks who are in the founder cohort and especially previous courts will understand, like And this kind of goes I free to ask the question, but like how long has a relationship with WHA last like you’re still welcome to reach out to us and ask for help and you know one sort of at least when wtf when we do our startup programs we kind of think of it, you know algae we use is it’s kind of like co working space where like.

You know you’re going to be with us for different amounts of time, depending on how long it takes you to do different things, and like, as many of you are in seed stage know like that could take six months it could take two years, like it just takes different time for everyone so. You know, by all means you’re welcome to continue to use us as a resource keep asking us for help. we’re in year going into your four of our founder cohort and I saw the folks from your one that REACH out asking for things so. It doesn’t mean that the like relationship ends and it’s the same same with this group so.

See a couple other questions.

Is there ability to get feedback for early applications for early applications are on early applications?

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: um well that’s a great question we are reviewing them on a rolling basis, I think if we need any additional information or have questions someone will reach out to you probably probably me. But I think we will just notify everyone at the same time, so no other early feedback.

Lily Eriksen: Given give you have questions about application and how you might answer a question, this is the space to do it, and after that you should consider that if you send us an email saying does this sound like a good answer we’re not going to respond or we will respond with a nice email that says, thank you for your email but we’re not unable to do so at this time. So we do have another listening session, and we can ask that ask questions but.

Again we wouldn’t encourage you to say ask a question to all all of these other people on the call about how you answered a specific question so.

And that part of that is our requirements, this is partially funded by federal dollars.

Nick Ellingson: Any other questions from the group before we move into close, Margie.

GoldenSHERPA.com-Margie Bensching: Still, if you have any kind of funding from pharma commerce does that disqualify you or you can get additional funding, so it doesn’t really matter you know, like buckets.

Lily Eriksen: Will not disqualify you, no

Nick Ellingson: Any other last questions.

Going once.

twice.

Sold.

Nick Ellingson: Brittany i’ll turn it over to you for some marketing stuff before we close up here.

Brittany Danyelle (she/her), Find Ventures: yeah, so I am dropping in the chat right now, a bunch of links, so you can stay connected have the latest information, each one of these will give you to like our Twitter Instagram Facebook Linkedin. And also, you can sign up for our newsletter an easier link that i’m dropping in right now that is on our site and the get involved page links to every single one of those that I linked above.

Otherwise, thank you for joining us.

Nick Ellingson: awesome well Courtney Julie Miranda anyone with any final words before we sign off here?

Courtney Law, Find Ventures: No, I guess, I just thank you for joining thanks for all these great questions if you have questions again we have another Q and A session or you can reach out to us. You can reach out to us at info@findventures.org you can reach out to me directly at c@findventures.org but looking forward to seeing your applications.

Lily Eriksen: And we will be posting this video and capturing the questions and also posting those So if you didn’t take extensive notes hoc you had multiple things going on at the same time, which we all do, and no worries, you can go back and read the read the answer that they will post pictures websites so we all know you’re busy so i’m gonna try to make this as easy as possible.

Nick Ellingson: And to follow up on that so find ventures people and slowly probably commerce folks who will send over the recording once we have it.

Nick Ellingson: Assuming zoom will send it this afternoon for all the attendees St y’all will send out an email either this afternoon or in the morning with the recording and the links that Brittany just stuck into chat so yeah with that happy Monday everyone have their weeks and we’ll look forward to reading those applications

GoldenSHERPA.com-Margie Bensching: Thank you.

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