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Fundr’s beta is underway as we are moving startups through the process! We will be announcing the startups in our beta portfolio soon.
After significant interest, we have also been hard at work on building access to our algorithm through our new licensing tool, Fundr Insights. Organizations that need to evaluate, review and close with a number of companies can now do that through Fundr’s platform. Angel networks, accelerators, pitch competitions and more can not only cut down their time processing applications by up ot 80%, but now have a tool that provides checks and balances to their intake and due diligence process.
We put this to the test at Black Women Talk Tech’s 2020 pitch competition. Black Women Talk Tech's Roadmap to Billions Conference is the world’s largest conference for black women founders and has given out hundreds of thousands of dollars in competition money. It’s winners have gone on to see explosive growth, join prestigious accelerators and build million dollar businesses. This year the conference awarded $15K in cash and a number of in-kind prizes like semi-final access to 43North, acceptance into SheaMoisture’s Tuck School of Business Executive Program, a CEO shadow with Walmart’s Store8 and an interview with a Techstars director.
In the past, Black Women Talk Tech sourced and reviewed applicants like most competitions do. Applicants were asked to submit their pitch decks and answer a number of questions. This process was time consuming for startups and reviewers. The long process could be a deterrent for startups and reviewing each of the applications took days. Even more so, the information reviewers received wasn’t directly comparable. Qualitative answers can be arbitrary and interpreted differently by both the writer and reviewer. Pitch decks are usually varied and choose metrics that put the startups in the best light. Whereas one might focus on revenue, the other highlights its users. It’s a conundrum that many pitch competitions are familiar with, leading to hours of debate trying to find an apples-to-apples comparison.
This year, Black Women Talk Tech decided to use Fundr to process its applications. As the applications flowed through, there were significantly less questions about what the pitch was looking for or what to include in their decks- the questions are straightforward and easy to answer. The review team spent time going through each of the 40 applications for quality assurance. It was easy to compare each startup using the same metrics, significantly lowering the review from days to an hour. The decision of who would make the top 6 finalists took 15 minutes versus the usual hours of debate. All 6 of the finalists were in the top ten of the Fundr applicant score.
The final test came during the actual pitch competition where six investor judges heard each finalist pitch live for 3 minutes. They were then tasked with choosing the winner. The judges were not given the Fundr score beforehand or at any time. After a lot of deliberation, the judges chose the first place winner. Their choice, Infiuss, was also the startup that received the top score in Fundr’s algorithm.
This was an exciting case study that shows Fundr’s algorithm can produce the same results as human review in significantly less time. This is not only assurance that organizations can use Fundr to help review applications, but that investors can trust Fundr’s algorithm to surface the best startups to invest in.
Interested in learning more about Fundr Insights for your organization? Reach out at hello@fundr.ai.