Atlanta-based serial entrepreneur and nonprofit founder James Oliver Jr. is launching an app similar to Tinder — instead of matching for dates, people match together to create their founding startup teams.
Founded in May, Kabila allows entrepreneurs from around the world with shared interests to match with each other to make their ideas into startups.
The app aims to foster a community of startup founders that can be trained to be better entrepreneurs and people. It will provide micro grants upto $1,000 based on how much a founder is in need, funds to pay for mental therapy and entrepreneurial workshops for members.
Kabila is in the process of raising capital to provide those funds and grow the business, but Oliver declined to provide further details.
The startup is developing its matching platform and has 150 members that attend its workshops and events. Starting Monday, Aug. 29,it will enter into the three-month long Techstars Austin accelerator program.
Oliver says his startup has a $4 billion market potential. That number is based on the over 1 million tech startups launched every year multiplied by how much the app intends to charge.
Increasing startup founder diversity
Part of the goal for Kabila is to increase racial diversity among tech startup founders. Underrepresented founders don’t have the same level of access and knowledge on how to grow, scale and pitch their business plan, said Oliver.
“For me, it's all about skating to where the puck is going to be,” said Oliver. “In the next five or 10 years, co-founder teams will be made up of people from all backgrounds rather than the typical all-male, Silicon Valley, Ivy League, all-white co-founder pattern matching we see going on.”
Lack of racial diversity in the startup space has lingered, even in Atlanta, which has some of the biggest racial diversity in the U.S.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that in 2021, Black founders received around 12% of the $3.7 billion invested into Atlanta startups. Of the 25 largest venture capital deals into Atlanta companies this year so far, ranging from $20 million to $150 million, three have gone to Black founders.
There's a business case for having a diverse co-founding team. Companies with more gender and ethnic diversity had a 35% higher chance of having high profitability compared with less diverse companies, according to a 2019 McKinsey & Co. analysis.
“Startup teams composed of diverse founders have better economic outcomes,” said Oliver. “If we include everyone to work together, I think there's an opportunity to unlock a lot of innovation that otherwise wouldn't get unlocked without varied prospectives sitting at the same table.”
Oliver's experiences
Oliver’s passion to help underrepresented founders stems from his own personal experience. Despite success with one of his previous companies, it eventually ended operations after running out of money Many people told Oliver that if he was white or had a white co-founder, it would have grown more and made him far richer, he said.
That company was WeMontage, founded in 2011. The website turned photos into a custom collage onto removable wallpaper. The company went on to be featured on the TODAY Show, Good Morning America and was called a decor item all homeowners should know by MarthaStewart.com.
Kabila is the latest effort from Oliver to provide resources to underrepresented entrepreneurs. During the pandemic, he launched the ParentPreneur Foundation to provide grants to Black small business owners who are also parents.
