This article is part of the Baltimore Business Journal's Black History Month series on up-and-coming Black-owned businesses. For more profiles, click here.
Coordle founder Jen Fry hopes a presentation at SXSW can help her find a market for her app, which makes coordinating a group trip or conference feel a little less like herding cats.
Fry launched Coordle in 2022 after seeing the flaws with apps like GroupMe that people tend to use to coordinate plans. A change in a meeting place or other important details are often lost in a flood of random group messages. Coordle hopes to solve that with several functions, like an itinerary integrated within the app and a broadcast channel for important information to make sure crucial information doesn't get lost.
The Baltimore company will get a nationwide platform in March by participating in the annual SXSW pitch competition in the Innovative World Technologies category. The Austin, Texas, event is one of the largest technology festivals in the world, and drew 278,681 people in 2022.
“I'm hoping that we can get some really good customers,” Fry said. “I like being on the radar of investors and just building those relationships.”
Coordle is inspired by Fry’s struggle coordinating her doctoral graduation. Her family members and friends did not look at the plan she sent out with everyone’s flight and hotel information, so she had to juggle countless messages asking about travel details. She felt there had to be a way to blend the accessibility and notifications of a messaging app with the detailed plans of a Word document.
The main customers Fry hopes to win over are youth sports teams and other organizations that coordinate travel and events. That market is perfect for Fry, who spent 15 years as a college coach and has a Ph.D. in sports geography from the University of Michigan.
Fry plans to eventually move into the consumer market after getting a strong foothold in the business community.
Fry is funding the business entirely out of her own pocket. She is concerned about the future of venture capital for Black founders after a national backlash against diversity initiatives. An Atlanta court blocked venture capital firm Fearless Fund from launching a grant program to help Black female founders. Fry worries that this precedent could make it even harder for Black founders, who already get a fraction of the funding that their white counterparts get, to raise money.
“I see these people with amazing products, and the goalposts are constantly moved for them,” Fry said.
