Seth Levine is a partner at Boulder-based Foundry Group. You can find him online at sethlevine.com or on Twitter @sether.
The Give First mentality has been part of the Colorado startup ecosystem ethos for more than twenty years. The notion is a simple one: by helping others, you expand the overall success of our community. Techstars first codified this idea into their mission, and it has since become a roadmap for the startup ecosystem in Colorado (and beyond) to make giving part of its infrastructure. Today, Give First isn’t just a motto for ordinary times—it’s an imperative for the survival of companies everywhere, regardless of size or industry, and to our economy as a whole.
It’s especially evident that smaller businesses do not have access to the same resources that larger ones do. This creates cascading impacts for businesses struggling to understand the various assistance programs, not to mention implementing the steps needed to immediately keep businesses afloat and employees on payroll. For example, the Paycheck Protection Program (which just today announced it has run out of funding) is meant to serve as a lifeline for smaller businesses. For those businesses who submitted their applications early, how will they use these funds as wisely as possible to extend their financial runway? And for those who didn’t, where will they turn for experienced, professional help?
This was the motivation behind a brand new initiative called the COVID-19 Finance Assistance Network — a growing pro bono movement providing professional financial advisory services from experienced CFOs, controllers and senior finance executives. FAN has been set up with the singular goal of helping our businesses survive by helping them first understand their cash flow position and helping them identify ways to extend their runway to keep their doors open and our economy going.
This network is available to any company, and will provide pro bono services including assistance with accessing and navigating portions of the CARES Act, developing unique strategies to improve and extend cash flow, tax planning, avoiding scams and more. Any business, regardless of size or industry, can apply to the FAN for support and assistance. And we invite every subscriber of Colorado Inno to join us for a free webinar on how to access this program on Friday, April 17.
Lew Visscher and I came up with the idea for FAN a few weeks ago. Lew runs a long-time recruiting and information-sharing platform called Lew’s List, a group of nearly 11,000 CFOs, controllers and senior finance professionals (yes, he’s a finance person, not a marketer). Lew had reached out to me to brainstorm ways he could help the community, and the idea of leveraging his extensive network to help smaller businesses seemed like an obvious way to leverage the financial professionals in his network. With the addition of High Plains Advisors, the FAN was launched. The network now has nearly 75 finance professionals who are standing by to help companies, and as of this writing, we've helped nearly 100 companies.
Foundry Group, the venture firm that I co-founded over 12 years ago and with almost $2.5 billion in assets under management (with nearly 20% of that going to Colorado firms), has a long track record of supporting our startup community. This commitment endures, and is more important than ever. We're excited to be a part of the FAN, and we're encouraging every company in our portfolio to take advantage of these resources.
If you are in need of finance advice for your business or nonprofit, please reach out to the network. You can do so here. If you’re a financial professional and are interested in becoming involved, you can email Lew. Most importantly, we need your help in getting the word out about the network so more small businesses will have access to it so please help spread the word.
