A pair of Phoenix startups were among the six companies chosen to participate in the 2022 cohort of the Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program, a yearlong venture building program for early-stage software companies.
Crumb and Anthym, both based in Phoenix, were selected from a group of hundreds of applicants and they have more in common than just sharing the city; These companies were co-founded by Jeremy and Kristen Gocke, a married couple of Valley entrepreneurs.
The pair first started Crumb in 2019 before the pandemic, and Jeremy went on to co-found Anthym with Brian Mohr in 2020.
When reached by phone on Thursday, Jeremy said there was about a week between when Anthym heard it had been accepted and when Crumb got in, which he said created a little tension in the household.
“We're super humbled that it validates everything that we've been working on, in both companies,” he said. “The great thing about this program is we get a mini-team assigned to us and they tailor the program to our needs and our goals, so it's not a cookie cutter program.”
Crumb is a platform that helps people donate their spare change to creators, clubs and causes they care about by rounding up purchases to the next dollar and donating those rounded up cents. Jeremy said that Kristen got the idea as they were trying to figure out an easier way to fundraise for their child’s soccer team. She’s working with Steven Chuck to connect with celebrities, their online followings and the causes they champion.
Anthym is a platform that helps teams bond by sharing more about their personal lives, a need that became more apparent during the pandemic as many people shifted to remote work. The company runs facilitated sharing exercises for colleagues to get to know each other and (hopefully) foster a better team environment. Anthym has worked with teams at Zillow, Google and Silicon Valley Bank.
Crumb, Anthym and the other startups in this year’s cohort will get access to nondilutive grant funding, Blackbaud resources and marketing opportunities in addition to working with the company to create unique business plans.
Blackbaud (Nasdaq: BLKB) is a South Carolina-based cloud software company that primarily serves nonprofits, schools, faith institutions, cultural organizations and others working for social good. The Social Good Startup Program was started in 2019 and has since worked with 27 startups that have gone on to raise more than $45 million in outside funding.
