StartupAZ names 10 companies to 2021 Collective Growth Cohort

StartupAZ Foundation, a nonprofit organization fostering Arizona’s startup ecosystem, recently named 10 startups to its 2021 Collective Growth Cohort. This year’s participants are building companies in health care, automotive, senior care, lead generation and more.

The Collective is a one year commitment for participants, typically company founders, to come together, share their tips, hardships and ideas while ultimately supporting each other as they work to scale their companies.

The program starts with a short retreat to Flagstaff, to be held in August this year, followed by monthly “accountability check-ins” among the cohort.

Brandon Clarke, the CEO and co-founder of StartupAZ, described the Collective as an “ongoing experiment” with tweaks and refinements made ever since the program started six years ago.

Clarke said that running a startup is a deeply personal project, especially in the early stages where long hours take away from other aspects of founders’ lives. So while these participants are there to help their businesses, they end up opening up their personal lives as well.

“Entrepreneurship comes with loads of regret, you know, time missed on certain things and them even being able to share that, I think has become incredibly therapeutic for them,” he said of program participants. “It's not uncommon for something just to hit someone, and to kind of break down a bit. And it's really powerful when the group can rally around them for that.”

He said that every cohort is special, and some unpredictable magic happens once they get together, but he did note one unique aspect about this year’s group.

“I am incredibly proud of the diversity of this cohort,” he said. “It's 40% female founders, 40% founders of color. That was not intentional. That's where we are trending as a community, as an ecosystem.”

Here is the list of this year’s participants:

Despite the perceived glamour of running a startup, scaling these high growth businesses is extremely challenging; But facing challenges is easier with a support system.

Jacob Carter, aforementioned founder of NurtureBoss, said he’s looking forward to connecting with peers who understand the struggle.

“Having other founders who are in similar spots in their journey to lean on and talk with is incredibly appealing,” he said in a statement. “Being able to build a home base where other folks are who understand what you're going through as a founder and can help you figure it all out is something that I am definitely looking forward to.”

Previous participants

68 people have come through the Collective program in years past and many of them recently hit major company milestones.

The 2019 cohort had Drew Mercer of PayGround, which raised $4 million earlier this year, Colin Turner of PostScript, which raised $35 million in March, and Jamie Baxter of Qwick, which is looking to rebuild by hiring scores of people after a rough pandemic year.

Chris Ronzio, founder and CEO of Trainual, was part of the 2018 cohort and the company announced a $27 million Series B raise earlier this week.

In the past, Clarke said he had to convince people that joining the Collective was worthwhile, but now he’s having to turn people away. He said he talked to around 40 founders this year to get to the group of 10 that was selected. Participation in the Collective is free.

The Collective has gained in prominence, in part, as its founders in residence continue to find success. These fellow founders act as mentors to the Collective cohorts and their ranks include CampusLogic founder Gregg Scoresby, Keap co-founder Clate Mask, serial entrepreneur Brenda Schmidt and WebPT co-founder Heidi Jannenga.

Raising the bar

Those in and around the startup ecosystem say that the past five years have been a turning point for Arizona as more founders build companies here and more outside capital flows in.

Clarke said that active Collective companies have raised a combined $125 million in venture capital, but where that funding is coming from is key.

“Two thirds of that capital is coming from outside the state. That's actually a win for this market, because 5-10 years ago, that would have been maybe 90 percent came from outside the state," Clarke said. "So that's trending in the right direction.”

Venture capital firms are generally concentrated on the country’s coasts and historically that’s where most VC funding ends up. Clarke said Phoenix is on the right track, but the city needs to shift its mindset and start thinking of itself as one of the largest in the United States.

“I still, sometimes frustratingly, sometimes very proudly as a native, continue to remind people we're the fifth largest city in the country,” he said. “Every bar needs to be raised.”