The desire was there, but the timing was not.
In late 2020, Mac Wilkinson, founder and CEO of Moolathon, had applied for Techstars Indianapolis, but he did not get the invite to the prestigious accelerator.
So, when he got the good news that he had been accepted to the Techstars Washington D.C. earlier this year, he was in a state of disbelief.
“It’s one of those things where it's like everyone in the startup ecosystem understands that it’s a different level of access,” Wilkinson said. “It’s a different level of notability. It’s a different stamp of approval. It’s a different validation. It’s huge for us. We’re just at the beginning, and we’re already seeing how incredible it is.”
The program officially started on Sept. 11, as a hybrid of in-person and virtual events. Wilkinson will be back on the East Coast in a few weeks to be able to talk to investors and founders during New York Tech Week in the Big Apple during the week of Oct. 16. The event will conclude on Dec. 7 with a demo day.
Wilkinson — who is a former University of Louisville basketball player (2000-02) and an alumnus of Ballard High School — gives a significant amount of credit to the consulting and feedback provided by Kela Ivoyne, who serves an entrepreneur in residence at Amplify Louisville.
Steven Plappert, CEO and co-founder of Forecastr, also played a similar role, given that Plappert’s company has been a two-time participant in Techstars.
Other startups based out of — or with roots in — Kentucky who have recently taken part in Techstars include Xena Intelligence (New York), Feedcoyote (Atlanta) and Trustware.io (Web3, based out of Dublin, Ireland).
As we reported in 2020, Wilkinson launched Moolathon right around the same time as Covid pandemic hit, after doing about six months of testing after the company completed its minimal viable product (MVP) in late 2019.
The social fundraising and fitness tracker startup had a very soft opening after potential customers started to reach out to them after finding out about it through online searches.
“We probably turned down 35 to 40 people, before I had lunch with a mentor, and he was like, ‘You probably should not do that’ … so we just kind of threw some duct tape on the thing and kind of threw it out there for a few people — and it worked out,” Wilkinson said. “So the pandemic really forced us into business … It made the whole idea of virtual fitness fundraisers, a common knowledge thing.”
As Wilkinson said, before the pandemic most of the people who became users of Moolathon relied on self-reporting to chronicle what they accomplished to collect donations from those interested.
A new direction
When it was first launched, the company focused on its efforts on a business to customer (B2C) commissions-based revenue model.
Over the last six months, Wilkinson and his team have launched the beta test of an employee wellness program, which as of recent date had five participating companies. This shift in focus, in turn, should create more predictability in the startup’s revenue, while significantly increasing its annual recurring revenue (ARR).
Wilkinson hopes the new revenue model will also create a way for people to use the platform on a more daily basis, as opposed to just raising money for races.
Wilkinson did not disclose his company’s revenue, but did note the recent hires of two full-time salespeople has led the company to grow its revenue by six times compared to last year.
Moolathon has a headcount of seven. The company still has former University of Kentucky and NBA standout Rajon Rondo as its director of influence, as well as a key investor.
The company will look to start a $1 million capital raise following the conclusion of Techstars in December, Wilkinson said. To date, the startup has raised approximately $450,000. It has also been a winner of Vogt Awards (2019) and the Render Competition (2021).
