For The eFactory’s first accelerator program cohort, it’s all been building up to this moment.
With Demo Day scheduled for Oct. 24, all four companies are in the final stages of preparing to give their ultimate pitch, showcasing the fruits of their labor over the last 12 weeks and hopefully hooking the interest of investors.
As the co-founder of one of the oldest companies taking part in The eFactory’s business accelerator program, The Daily Scholar’s Andrew Goodall is no stranger to refining the company’s message. After all, the business already made a pivot going from website in August 2014 to a software program a year later. The Demo Day pitch will mark the first time Goodall and co-founder Tim Dygon present that latest vision with some validation from a test run with the Greater Ozarks Centers for Advanced Professional Studies.
“That’s been the plan for a little over a year, and it’s taken that long to build and test it,” Goodall said. “Comparing that to the last 12 weeks when you’re in a context where everything is condensed and concentrated, things are set to grow exponentially.”
Over the last five weeks, about 500 students have put the software through its paces, creating 5,000 types of unique engagement and providing The Daily Scholar with feedback Goodall said helped reinforce the company’s decision to stick with the educational market.
“They said if they’re required to use online, cloud-based software, to do assignments, research or be creative, they’d rather do it in the format that feels like the social media that they use every day,” Goodall said.
Shopzeely Inc. CEO Michael Onaolapo said the company also is on the verge of a soft launch, scheduled for two weeks after the Demo Day date. In the meantime, the company hired 30 independent contractors, internally dubbed “zeelys,” to handle shopping, with a goal toward hiring 70.
Collaborative touch
Mofin Labs got an assist on Shopzeely’s technology.
CEO Eric Ham and Chief Technology Officer Josh Willis advised on a larger server capacity, and Onaolapo said the company rebuilt its personal shopping app to handle 200-400 simultaneous users.
Onaolapo said the company doesn’t want to release buggy software.
Like The Daily Scholar, Mofin Labs found help in the GO CAPS program. CEO Eric Ham asked students to present ideas on how to better educate 15-20 year olds in personal finance management Now, an 11-student team is helping the company develop a web-based program for applying those classroom lessons to real-world, mobile banking scenarios.
Dubbed Project Midas, Ham said a long-term goal of the GO CAPS collaboration, which includes an undisclosed financial institution as a partner, is to produce an app. He said the full-scale project will take about $350,000 to implement, but the company can build a proof of concept model for about $50,000 and build out in phases after Demo Day.
“We have two projects in the pipeline that will keep us pretty busy,” Ham said, referencing the company’s Secure Statements product, which it launched to 54,000 credit union members across four Missouri institutions. “Our next phase is getting out there and selling it.”
Next step
Eagle Speak LLC CEO Jason Arend is keeping the company’s next move under wraps, but he plans to introduce data and statistics from a private beta program during the Demo Day pitch.
Although software and website developers are the primary testers, Arend said the company reworked its software in such a way the desktop communications platform could be used for shopping, banking and medical consultations.
“That’s certainly down the road a little bit, but our flexibility to deliver high-end communications has opened some interesting doors,” Arend added.
Shopzeely’s post-accelerator plans are definite: Onaolapo said the goal is to raise $500,000 within three months, with an eye toward expanding to St. Louis and Kansas City. In the interim, the company still has to create a training tutorial for the zeelys and solidify its launch package.
“Any time you go into a new city, you have to replicate the process you started with,” Onaolapo said. “We have to make that as effective as possible.”
Ham and Goodall declined to disclose what their companies aim to raise in capital after Demo Day, but they share high hopes their pitches will impress investors.
“Some of the presenters have been ‘repping’ wealth advisers from around Springfield and they say there’s huge excitement just for being the first cohort of the accelerator,” Goodall said. “I think a lot of people are looking to be part of something they haven’t had here before.”
