Ryan Frew is an avid race car enthusiast. He drives competitively, and he spends most of his time on the weekends at a track. So when he landed an opportunity to chat 1-on-1 with one of the best drivers in the industry, he jumped head first.
The experience turned out to be more than just a brag-worthy moment. It served as the launching point for TinnCann — a new Cincinnati tech startup that enables 1-on-1 video chats with athletes and experts in fashion, photography, music and more.
The company has led a mostly quiet existence. That is until July, when the then 9-month-old startup landed a coveted spot in Techstars Chicago, one of the country’s most notable accelerators.
The program, which wraps next week, has had a profound impact on the business and on Frew’s personal readiness as a founder — and could help put TinnCann on the map.
‘Miles ahead’
For Frew, his conversation with the aforementioned driver felt rare. It was educational, in a way, learning from somebody who has achieved at such a high level. But more so, Frew said it was energizing to talk to someone about a passion they both shared — so much so, it was an experience he knew he wanted to enable for others on a much bigger scale.
An engineer at Microsoft at the time, he did what Microsoft engineers do — he built the platform as he envisioned it, without any real customer validation — then quit his job to take on TinnCann full time.
TinnCann hopes to stand out from competitors like Chicago-based unicorn Cameo, a celebrity shoutout app. Its calendar integration lets its experts control their availability. The booking process is simple and fast. The video calls happen right in the browser, so no software downloads are needed.
The company is also building a niche in terms of who it offers up for chats —not necessarily who has the largest social media following. TinnCann’s roster of professionals is completely curated, meaning not just anyone can join the platform.
The athletes on TinnCann include professional barefoot water skier Keith St. Onge, the best barefoot water skier who’s ever lived, Frew said; former Olympic champion figure skater Scott Hamilton; and Kikkan Randall, the first American woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal in cross country skiing, and one of the greatest cross country skiers the U.S. has ever seen.
Other categories include journalism, education, fashion, social media and more.
“We piloted (TinnCann) with some people who had 1 million followers, and those people don’t get necessarily get bookings,” Frew said. “We’ve found people on the user side are really serious enthusiasts, who are energized about the opportunity to talk to a person they admire in a big way. For the experts, TinnCann can be a place where people who have really remarkable offline accomplishments can connect with their fans.”
So far, Frew has raised $300,000 pre-seed. The Techstars cohort comes with $120,000 in equity financing, which the company will use for expert and user acquisition and to add members to its team. TinnCann will raise a seed round this winter, Frew said, but so far the operation is fairly lean.
In his inaugural year as a startup founder, Frew has received support from the local startup ecosystem at large, he said, borrowing time and advice from founders with success stories to share, namely Bob Gilbreath, co-founder and CEO of Hearty, a LinkedIn alternative, who helped exit Ahalogy to Quotient (NYSE: QUOT) for $50 million in 2020; and Blake Smith, co-founder of Jumpdocs, which helps startups navigate all the necessary early legalese, who sold his first startup Cladwell, a platform that helps people select the best clothing to wear each day, for an undisclosed sum in 2019.
That insight has proved invaluable, but it’s also given Frew a leg up, Smith said. Smith has spent countless hours consulting other entrepreneurs, sharing the lessons he’s learned as a startup CEO.
"The thing about Ryan I wish all founders would imitate is he is aggressively surrounding himself with people who have founded companies before,” Smith said. “Startups are an industry, and he is trying to get inside that industry. He isn't trying to reinvent the wheel, and this puts him miles ahead founders who dismiss meeting with others as simply ‘networking.’”
Smith, in some regards, is how TinnCann landed in Techstars in the first place. Smith introduced Frew to M25, a Chicago-based venture firm. The ensuring conversation spurred Frew to submit his Techstars application.
“M25 basically said, ‘This (idea) is super interesting, but there are questions you don’t have answers for yet,’” said Frew. “The idea was, if you go through Techstars — or even if you do the Techstars application — you’ll have a better idea.”
Frew said he’s been surprised by the program’s DE&I focus and emphasis on mental health. “Founders and investors have gone really deep in terms of their struggles, and it has been super helpful to hear those stories,” he said. “None of my problems are unique and that's reassuring.”
Overall, Techstars has helped him narrow in on a go-to market strategy. Frew has set a goal to have 100 experts on the platform by next year.
There’s plenty of potential, Smith said. For Cameo, growth skyrocketed in 2020 as people had fewer entertainment options, and celebrities wanted new ways to connect with fans.
“There is no question in my mind that paying the world's best experts for their time is a huge business,” Smith said. “I think Ryan has a good shot at taking that market."
