Team Excel, a Richmond startup that uses teamwork and competition to improve student outcomes, was a grand prize winner at the 2021 Center Street Pitch Competition.
The competition, now in its fourth year, is co-hosted by the Dominion Energy Innovation Center and the EDGE Center for Career Development at Randolph Macon College. From a large applicant pool, eight teams advanced to the finals, with three selected as grand prize winners.
Team Excel, winner of the General Business track, received a $7,500 cash prize and a comprehensive branding package.
“The pitch competition is a way for us to reward startups in the ecosystem that are on their way to doing great things,” said DEIC Director Adam Sledd.
Headed by founder and CEO Johnathan Mayo, Team Excel provides a platform that organizations like schools and non-profits can use to track student success metrics, such as homework completion, attendance and volunteering. The company’s mission is to foster learning and personal development through friendly competition.
With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to challenge educators and students alike, Team Excel “feels like the team that we need more than ever,” Sledd said.
“This is a great time for that kind of tool to get out there,” he said.
The pitch competition was Feb. 25, nearly a year after the Covid-19 pandemic forced schools around the country to move to virtual learning practically overnight. While many schools have returned to in-person classes, many still have not. In both situations, students continue to experience significant learning challenges amid the ongoing hurdles of the pandemic.
“For some people, it’s been great, but a lot of people have had trouble with virtual learning,” Mayo said.
That, he said, is why the need for Team Excel’s platform has remained steady.
“We really focus on getting kids motivated and excited to learn by leveraging the power of teamwork and competition,” he said.
Mayo started Team Excel in 2014, under the non-profit Excel to Excellence. In early 2019, the organization registered as a Virginia Benefit Corporation.
The Center Street Pitch Competition wasn’t the only recent big win for Team Excel. Mayo’s company was accepted into Lighthouse Labs’ 10th accelerator cohort, an achievement that comes with $20,000 in equity-free funding.
The pitch competition and Lighthouse Labs program helps “validate” the direction Team Excel is headed, Mayo said.
Right now, his focus is on expanding the platform to more schools and organizations. Clients include six Virginia schools, and its first international client, in Toronto, Canada.
Fundraising is another big priority, as are ongoing IT and marketing and branding projects supported by Capital One, a pro bono relationship that Mayo said has been “game changing.”
“I think it’s really the perfect time for Team Excel, when I think about the stage that we’re in right now,” he said.