Tonight at Union Hall, social enterprise hub Flywheel Cincinnati will host a Demo Day for its accelerator's ninth cohort, starting at 4:30 p.m.
After an introduction by Cintrifuse CEO Pete Blackshaw, the five participating startups (inGirls, Strong Women Enterprises, Last Mile Food Rescue, Screen Education, Community Happens Here) will have time to share their startup's mission with the audience. There's no judges or prize; instead, the goal is to truly showcase each startup and hopefully "make a case" for potential talent, capital or customers, Flywheel Executive Director Bill Tucker told Cincy Inno.
Each startup will be introduced by various leaders in the community who are well-versed with the its purpose and goals. Marvin Abrinica, CEO and founder of Wunderfund, will welcome Last Mile Food Rescue; Jason Chamlee, president of the Pleasant Ridge Development Corporation, will introduce Community Happens Here; Paul McCreary, executive director of BullyBully.org, will present Screen Education; Jordan McDonald, graduate of Cincinnati Union Bethel's "Off the Streets" program will introduce Strong Woman Swag; and Doug Sackin, vice president of strategy and architecture at Fifth Third Bank will welcome innoVationGirls.
After the conclusion of the pitches, Luni Libes will take to the stage for a fireside chat. Libes founded Fledge, "the concious company accelerator" with locations in Seattle; New York; Barcelona, Spain; Vancouver, British Columbia; Nairobi, Kenya; and Lima, Peru, among others.
"Our tradition has been a demo day to give the audience more than pitches, but to give them something [else] they can take away," Tucker said. "We selected Luni because Luni runs an accelerator for social enterprises very similarly to what Flywheel does, and Luni has had success in investing in those startups that have gone through his accelerator using a revenue-based method of financing — and we like that, because in the social enterprise space, the traditional VC model of betting on 10 companies, and hoping one is the unicorn and generating that ten-x return is very rare."
Instead, Libes is "investing in a methodology in two-x return, not just in the social enterprise space, but also the startups in this community that don’t have an exit a something that would be reasonably expected of them," Tucker continued. "This method of investing eliminates two of the major challenges in traditional venture challenging," such as worrying about the "very subjective thing" that is valuation and getting "any number of individuals who have money that are sitting on the sidelines" involved in conscious investing.
"We think they could think of it in terms of 'philanthropic investing' — [making] a return on their investment, not just making a donation to charity," Tucker added.
In addition to the chat and pitches, there will be an opportunity for networking with free Le Soupe-provided food and beverages.
Tucker emphasized the importance of the community in both the accelerator and the Demo Day.
"We could not do this without the support of our community partners, sponsors and founders," he said. Among them were Queen City Angels, Ernst & Young, Connetic and Ducks in a Row, to name a few.
"And finally, the secret sauce we have — what really makes this work — we have 10 awesome mentors," Tucker added. They included Paul Szydlowski, founder, One Click Insights; John Ficks, global Sales Manager, Robbins Sports Surfaces; Jenny Powell, former CMO of US Bank; Lisa DiGate, vice president of printing and packaging, Michelman; Joe Vallo, director of consulting, Flywheel; Eric Ross, principal, TruePoint Wealth Counsel; Tom Bishop, partner, Cause Impact; LeAnthony Edwards, IP attorney, Dinsmore & Shohl LLP; Joan Kaup, project management consultant, Joan Kaup Consulting; and Kara Hackett, assurance senior manager, Ernst & Young.
