Connecting grant writers with grant seekers is a shift in focus for Richmond startup Grantable Inc., whose founder and CEO Philip Deng recently refined the operation and brought on co-founder Robert Lee, launching after participation in the Lighthouse Labs accelerator.
Deng previously thought his venture would simply provide tools and resources for grant seekers.
“The tool is just one way that people want help with grants,” said Deng. “The main request from different organizations was ‘Do you know any grant writers? We have all these grants. We don't have enough time.’”
Deng was inspired to start Grantable by his personal experience working as nonprofit founder who came up short on grants. He later found success as a staff grant writer with a large nonprofit as well as a freelance grant writer. The new emphasis for the company addresses feedback on how he said the grant-writing process is disconnected and opaque.
“We realized we should really focus on helping these two groups of people — organizations and freelancers — to get in touch and to do business, and then what we can do is add tools onto our platform that make grant writing even easier. So, it's very much an evolution that we learned by putting our first tool out there and talking to lots of people.”
Deng said he got to know Lee, his new co-founder, while working at the 1717 Innovation Center in downtown Richmond. The two would catch-up with each other on their projects when their paths crossed, Deng said, and it got to the point where Lee, a software engineer, said he could build part of the platform for him. The work progressed, and Lee is now chief technology officer.
Currently, the marketplace to connect grant applicant organizations with freelance grant experts is in the pre-revenue stage. In its three-month-long trial run, Grantable is currently operating with a transaction fee that is split evenly between the two parties. Its user base is scattered around the country.
“We're prioritizing making the right connections first,” said Deng. “Our business model for now is taking a transaction fee on the jobs that are hired through the platform.”
Grantable has almost 50 grant experts signed up and profiled on the platform. Deng said 10 applicants in Grantable’s first two weeks have created profiles to search. He said he is helping three groups right now connect with grant experts.
