Last month the Spare to Share team wrapped up an intense three months with the Points of Light Civic Accelerator, a social venture accelerator program focused on early stage “civic ventures,” or enterprises that engage people to create social and environmental change. With sessions in Atlanta, San Francisco and New York City, it was a whirlwind of highs and lows, breaking down, building up, and becoming a ‘band of brothers’ with our incredible cohort of 14 other impact startups and their founders.
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So how did we get here? Spare to Share started over a year ago as a solution to the problem of “stuff”. Have you ever thought about all the stuff you have sitting around your home, office or storage areas that gets used a couple times a year – maybe less? You bought something because you needed it for a particular purpose. Or maybe it was given as a gift. But if you are like most people you have many things that are rarely used even though they have utility and could be valuable to friends and neighbors if they only knew you had it.
The huge success of the collaborative consumption space (aka sharing economy) with companies like AirBNB, Zipcar, RelayRides, Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit has proven that the shared resources and P2P model works. But unlike the market for lodging, cars, rides and tasks, there are no big leaders in the micro-ticket space; household and office items with less than ~$1,000 value. Spare to Share gives people an easy way to list and find items for sharing, rental, sale or swapping within closed trusted groups.
The Civic Accelerator
Our first week was at the Points of Light offices in Atlanta. Most teams were feeling pretty confident after being selected into the program out of over 200 ventures. We were proud that Points of Light chose to invest in us and anxious to impress our fellow entrepreneurs. But we were thrown right into the mix and pulled out of our comfort zones immediately. No team was as solid as they thought. But we were all in it together and had each other to lean on.
A month later in Silicon Valley, we were in much better shape. We did deep-dives into our revenue models and honed our pitches. The presentations at Stanford were much sharper than our initial pitches in Atlanta. This was also when we really connected, thanks to the bonding at an amazing dinner party in San Francisco. One of our cohort peers hosted a ‘4 foot paella’ party (seriously) which included a guitar playing sing-along into the early morning hours. Thanks again for an unforgettable evening Nolan Love and the PollVault team!
Another month later we were wrapping things up in New York City and everything seemed to come together. Business model leaks were plugged (mostly), and the pitches where sharp! Every team did an amazing job with their 4-minute presentations in front of VC’s, advisors, potential customers and competitors at the Centre for Social Innovation in Manhattan. Here’s a link to the Spare to Share pitch.
Learnings and Takeaways
This is not my first startup, but there was still so much I got from the experience. The reminders of personal behavior best practices like being in the moment, being open to new ideas, and taking constructive criticism without being defensive was important. But most important for me: listen before responding! OK, some things I still need to work on…
Another was to get the message tight, and stay focused. In any startup there are many ways the business can grow, but you rarely have the resources to pursue multiple paths at once. Beware of the costs and distractions of chasing too many opportunities at the risk of accomplishing none.
Looking for strategic partnerships as a way to accelerate growth is something that resonated with us. During the program we jumped with both feet into a co-branded white label partnership with a Bay area company that may end up being a real game-changer for us.
Ongoing Relationships
The most important reminder for me was that you need to invest time and effort into relationship building. We were so fortunate to be in this world-class program with 14 other innovative companies, all founded by smart, motivated and energetic entrepreneurs. Thinking of them as competitors – which is accurate since we were all vying for two prizes – would have limited the benefit that can be received from long-term relationship. Cooperating and contributing on the other hand will nurture and promote these relationships.
Living through the stress, work, lack of sleep, euphoria, laughter - and even some tears - we have built bonds that I believe will be lasting and beneficial professionally and personally. I know anyway that at a minimum I have friends and colleagues that I will call on when I am in San Francisco (Common Change, Kindoma, PollVault), New York (Bella Communities, The NYC Urban Debate league), Los Angeles (Causora, Everbody Dance Now), Boston (OpportunitySpace), San Diego (Social Ventures for Sustainability), Seattle (ServeSmart), Orlando (iDignity), Atlanta (Authentity), Boulder (LaunchUR) and Cedar Rapids (Riders Club).
And they have friends in Chicago (Spare to Share).
The Points of Light Civic Accelerator is currently taking applications for the spring 2014 cohort, due 3/7/14. If you are an entrepreneur with a social venture that solves pressing social and environmental issues by engaging people, you don’t want to miss this! Apply now!
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