BostInno’s recent Startups to Watch event — the first to be held in person since January 2020 — highlighted the 23 Boston-area companies on the verge of something big this coming year.
All of the companies BostInno highlighted this year have different goals, products and team cultures, but the common thread is that they are on the verge of breaking out.
The honorees included companies like Folx Health, a LGBTQ health care service provider; Dexai Robotics, a startup deploying automated food-preparation robots; and Smile Technologies, a new dating app that matches people based on their sense of humor. Get to know all of the 23 startups recognized this year.
At an event on Thursday, the leaders of our three honoree companies — Hilma, Rogue Space Systems Corp. and HourWork — shared some lessons learned on their entrepreneurial journeys, from changing banking practices following the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, to finding the right funding partners to building a community through social media.
Both Hilma and HourWork banked exclusively with SVB, a West Coast–based institution that served many Boston-area startups and companies in tech and the life sciences. SVB was shut down by regulators on March 10 following a run on the bank, leaving many startups without access to their capital until the federal government stepped in to take over the bank.
Brooke Torres, founder and CEO of Hilma, and Rahkeem Morris, co-founder and CEO of HourWork, said they opened accounts with Chase Bank as the crisis was unfolding. Morris said SVB gave financial products to startups that other banks would not, and he hopes to keep banking with SVB as long as they’re operational.
Both agreed that this experience brought their teams closer together as they went into crisis planning mode. But they say they’d prefer not to spend their time worrying about banking solutions in the future.
“We were all, let’s say, freaking out over the weekend,” Morris said. “This experience with my team, having to quickly come together with a plan, a strategy, on how to make end’s meet for the business, was something that was a growth experience for the team.”
Looking for a 'similar vision'
When it came to raising money rather than saving it, Torres offered advice for startups on finding the right funding partners. Hilma announced a $3 million seed round last September. She started out by meeting with founders to discuss their processes for meeting and pitching investors.
Her biggest tip? Find investors with whom you can see a long-term partnership.
“It’s so much like a recruiting process where you’re figuring out who you jive with and who is going to be a fit for you, because you’re stuck together,” Torres said. “So you want someone who is a person who has a similar vision for the business.”
Jeromy Grimmett, founder and CEO of Rogue, took a different approach to funding. Rogue has contracts with the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Air Force and National Science Foundation. He said other startups interested in pursuing government funding should learn how to write proposals.
“Find someone that understands the proposal process within the government or the institution that you’re looking for, because every organization in government offers them. That’s it. And go to work,” Grimmett said.
Though their companies operate in different industries, Torres and Grimmett agreed that startups should look to social media as an important tool for building community.
Grimmett said Rogue uses social media to talk about the stories behind their business and how their technology works.
“That’s how we’ve used social media to talk about these different stories, talk about these different things. And that’s how we’ve built community,” Grimmett said.
Torres said she hears people make blanket statements about social media, such as “Facebook is dead.” She recommended that startups ignore those assumptions and find what works best for them. As an example. she says she used Facebook and its community groups to find testers for Hilma’s running shoes.
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