NeverSnooze CoFounders Launch Kickstarter to Help You Stop Snoozing

Chase Armstrong saw a chronic problem with how people were starting their day. The luxury of having an alarm clock on your iPhone meant that a blind reach and a gentle tap earned you five or ten more minutes of precious sleep. The consequence, as many of these “snoozers” fail to acknowledge, is that it decreases the effectiveness of a good night’s sleep, and makes it even more difficult to start your day. Chase had a vision to create an alarm clock that made it easier to those habitual snoozers to rise at their first alarm, starting their day on the right note. As you may have imagined, Chase needed help in bringing this product to market. So, he came to CoFoundersLab and found part of his tech team.

NeverSnooze launched a Kickstarter campaign on June 23rd, which you can visit here. We asked Chase a few questions about his experience with CoFoundersLab, and advice he may have for other entrepreneurs.

How did you find your co-founders through CoFoundersLab?

Reaching out was easy. All I needed to do was send a message to Chadd and he got back to me. Meeting was out of the question considering he lives in Oregon and I’m in Utah. We jumped on Google Hangout and talked about past experience, the vision for Ardivio Tech and NeverSnooze, and it just felt like a good fit.

What is NeverSnooze?

NeverSnooze is the simplest way to help snooze abusers get out of bed on time. We’ve taken the alarm clock and divided it into two separate pieces. Place the base piece wherever you want to start your day and the alarm beside your bed. At the time you set, your alarm will go off and will continue to do so until connected with the base piece. You’ll be in the right place to start your day every single morning. No more fancy apps or $200 alarm clocks. Pure simplicity to get you up and start your day off right.

The NeverSnooze Alarm Clock.

Any advice for entrepreneurs on CoFoundersLab about finding the right cofounder?

If you can afford to, upgrade to pro. Why? Because finding a cofounder for your product or business is like dating. Before reaching out, you have no idea what someone else is looking for. Are they wanting to partner with someone who lives near them? Are they only looking for veteran entrepreneurs? What if personalities don’t match up? With my limited experience with entrepreneurship, I didn’t upgrade. Under those circumstances, I was extremely lucky to hear back from a couple of the potential co-founders on the site and even luckier that Chadd joined the team. Most entrepreneurs, especially first-time entrepreneurs, won’t be so lucky. They’ll need to reach out to 20 or 30 candidates before finding the right fit. Upgrading to a pro account ensures you can do that as efficiently as possible so that you can get your startup off the ground.

Onevest Success Story: Recycled Guitars Shakes Up Industry

“A Bohemian is a person, musician, or artist who lives by his or her own rules and believes in love, freedom, and truth.”
 

When you pair up an oil can with guitar strings, only good things can happen.  Just ask Adam Lee, co-founder of Bohemian Guitars.  The South African native along with his brother Shaun, launched Bohemian Guitars on Kickstarter in June of 2013.  Feeling the need to change up the musical instrument scene while also making an environmental impact, the brothers are definitely disrupting the industry with Bohemian Guitars.  Knowing they wanted to get to the next level, they chose Onevest to help them get there.

Bohemian Guitars offers a unique experience by providing a customized, great sounding, best of all, affordable guitar.  Inspired by the innovativeness of the local musicians in South Africa, Bohemian Guitars are constructed using old oil cans and recyclable materials.   Not settling for just offering guitars, they have expanded their product line to include custom guitar straps, carry bags, and cases.  This type of forward thinking has led to major partnerships including clothing store Urban Outfitters, the SXSW festival, and musicians Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin and Luther Dickson from the Black Crowes both have their own Bohemian Guitar.

They leveraged the Onevest platform to help raise a $600,000 Seed round, which closed in February of this year.  Adam sat down with us recently and gave us his personal insight and takeaways as a founder to his experience with Onevest and raising money in general.

Adam Lee

Shaun Lee

Investors do not think about your business they way you do.  Every investor is different so do a little extra homework on them.  Also, just because someone has experience investing, does not mean they have experience investing in startups, so be prepared to explain  the terms of your deal.

Be patient because rounding up investments does not happen overnight.  The process of finding investors is not fast.  Using a platform like Onevest can help get you get in front of a large investor community.

Time management is extremely critical.  Raising money is a “full time” job so you need to be prepared. There is always work to do.  

Understand your business completely, especially the money component.  This is very important to investors.  Knowing the product is not enough.  

The future looks bright for the guys at Bohemian Guitars. They want to  keep the promises they made to themselves which include growing as a business and adapting to the times.  With the key partnerships they’ve built and guitars flying out the door, they are in great shape.  

You can follow Bohemian Guitars on their website, Facebook, and Twitter.  

Co-Founders of CloserIQ Match Up to Help Startups Find Sales Talent

The job market for startups is viciously competitive, and early-stage companies are doing everything they can to recruit (and retain) top talent. Ping-pong tables, mandatory vacation, beer on tap and other perks have been on the rise to help compensate for the lack of funds available to match potential salaries from giant tech companies. Most startup founders and hiring directors would agree that the company mission and culture are the two biggest driving factors that recruit talented employees, more so than yoga classes or catered lunch. There are so many great companies pursuing a valuable mission, yet the job market is so massive that many companies struggle finding the ideal combination of talent and fit. Several startups have focused on addressing this problem, and NYC-based CloserIQ is one of them. We asked Jordan to talk about his experience in building his team.

Jordan Wan, Co-founder and CEO, spoke to several potential candidates on CoFoundersLab before meeting Dan Zhou, Co-founder and CTO. Jordan explained that “the profiles made it easy to find the person I was looking for.” After matching up, Jordan and Dan agreed to focus in on the hiring dilemma faced by startups, with a unique emphasis on sales jobs (because no matter how great your product is, you need people to sell it). Here is Jordan’s pitch for CloserIQ:

CloserIQ is a recruiting platform for startups to meet sales talent. We provide informative candidate profiles with audio introductions and previous sales experience to help startups skip bad phone screens.

Jordan Wan, Co-founder and CEO

Dan Zhou, Co-founder and CTO

Since their official launch in April of 2014, Jordan and Dan have led the CloserIQ team (now at 6 people) in gaining traction from some big clients including Justworks, Trello and Trustpilot. Even more impressive, Jordan reported that Oscar Insurance “made 17 sales hires in 3 months on CloserIQ leveraging a combination of intuitive software and attentive service.” They have also been creating original content about sales jobs on their blog.

We asked Jordan for his advice on finding a co-founder, and he emphasized the importance of patience and alignment of mission and passion:

"Take your time when looking for a co-founder. Get to know one another's core values and strengths & weaknesses. Let the relationship develop organically and see if you can share a common mission and passion for building a company together. When you realize that the other person is just as committed as you are to the idea and business, have an open discussion about the type of company and various scenarios together."

You can follow CloserIQ’s progress by visiting their site here, or following them on Facebook and Twitter.

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Securities offered through WealthForge, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC Onevest Corporation ("Onevest") is not a registered broker-dealer and does not give investment advice with respect to any securities. All the startup offerings listed are offered by the applicable Issuer. Onevest has not taken any steps to verify the accuracy of the information provided on the offerings that are listed. Onevest takes no part in the negotiation of the transaction and no securities are executed through Onevest's platform. Onevest receives no compensation in connection with the purchase or sale of securities.

Testimonials may not be representative of the experience of all clients. Testimonials are not a guarantee of future performance or success.

Hyperlinks to sites outside of our domain do not constitute an approval or endorsement of content on the visited site.

Co-Founders of Pomello Practice What They Preach in Building Their Team

No platform in the world, including CoFoundersLab, offers a perfect solution to building a company; we only try to make it easier. Serious effort is still required to ensure you have the right team, strategy, and vision. For two co-founders of YCombinator-backed Pomello, that meant using CoFoundersLab to not only find a potential technical co-founder, but also rigorously test their fit as a team. It is no coincidence that their company focuses on helping companies hire based on cultural fit.

We got to speak with Catherine Spence and Xian Ke, two of the three co-founders, about how they matched up to execute on Pomello’s mission.

Oliver Staehelin, Catherine Spence and Xian Ke, co-founders of Pomello

How did you find your co-founders through CoFoundersLab?

Catherine: Oliver and I had been looking for a technical co-founder for a long time. We had been reaching out to people through our networks, and finding other folks through various meet-up events. We are, as you can imagine, pretty picky about fit, and we really wanted to find someone who felt passionately about the problem we are working on. We had almost given up on finding someone, when I got a note from Xian on CoFoundersLab. I was immediately interested in meeting her, because it was clear she had read up on what we were working on and was interested in the idea. I also noticed that she had been slowly working her way from very large corporations to start-ups over the course the past few years, so I felt like she was more ready to join a scrappy, lean (very limited funding), founding team. As for fit, with a co-founder there really is no way to 'interview' someone in the traditional sense. So we decided to ask her to work with us a couple days a week. This gives everyone a chance to see how the team dynamics develop. I look for someone that wants to get stuff done, cares about her/his work, and who can laugh in tough situations. Xian has all of these qualities, so after a month or so I knew we should make her an offer to come on full-time.

Xian: I was browsing on CoFoundersLab for projects that could be interesting and could make a positive impact on the world. It helped that Catherine and Oliver are fun, honest, and thoughtful people who can get stuff done. Ultimately, I wanted to see what would happen if we worked together, and didn’t want to regret passing on the opportunity.

What is Pomello?

Pomello helps companies hire employees based on culture fit. This online service is based on 30 years of research. It quantifies company culture and uses data to help teams hire more successful people. Employees matched for culture perform better, are more engaged in their work, and quit less often.

Why

Companies admired for their culture like Google know that evaluating potential new hires needs to include a rigorous assessment of fit. But Google found out a long time ago that evaluating fit is difficult, and people don’t often get it right. In fact, even at Google it was a “random mess” according to Laszlo Bock, head of People Ops [1]. Not surprisingly, an entire field of science is dedicated to studying person-organization fit. Fit has a profound impact on job satisfaction, engagement, performance, and turnover. Pomello is based on more than 30 years of careful study. It enables companies of any size to access the best research in organizational behavior.

A demo of the Pomello landing page displaying candidates' suitability compared to your company's culture. 

Insights

People often confuse culture with perks like free lunches and ping pong tables in the office. Unlike perks, which come and go with market swings, a strong culture will make your people more productive even when you are facing challenges.

Many managers assume that their employees are more motivated by pay than purpose, when in fact the opposite is true. Values and culture are what give employees a sense of purpose, will drive productivity whether you are able to offer employees a rich paycheck or not.

Who is it for

Any company or team that is hiring. Pomello is particularly well-suited for companies that have customer-facing employees (e.g. sales teams, retail associates, etc.). Pomello saves companies money, especially when performance is highly variable and turnover is a significant cost.

Any advice for founders on CoFoundersLab about finding the right cofounder?

Catherine: Being without a co-founder is better than having the wrong co-founder, so taking your time is important. Once you've established mutual interest you have to try working on something together. Pay attention to how you disagree with someone, is it functional or dysfunctional? Functional disagreement means you are able to act in spite of disagreement, and you trust and respect your co-founder even if you are vehemently disagreeing.

Xian: Go with what you’re interested in spending time on. Life is uncertain, so don’t expect 100% clarity. Be grateful to encounter first-world problems!

You can follow Pomello’s progress by visiting their web site here, checking out their recent coverage on TechCrunch, or following them on Facebook or Twitter.

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Securities offered through WealthForge, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC Onevest Corporation ("Onevest") is not a registered broker-dealer and does not give investment advice with respect to any securities. All the startup offerings listed are offered by the applicable Issuer. Onevest has not taken any steps to verify the accuracy of the information provided on the offerings that are listed. Onevest takes no part in the negotiation of the transaction and no securities are executed through Onevest's platform. Onevest receives no compensation in connection with the purchase or sale of securities.

Hyperlinks to sites outside of our domain do not constitute an approval or endorsement of content on the visited site

Success Story - ZumXR: Where Are They Now?

Investors understand that there is much more to investing in a startup than simply writing a check. The pursuit of “Smart Money” - investing not only money, but also mentorship and connections - has been on the rise. Regardless of the type, all investors look for regular investor updates, notifying them of important developments in the company. Similarly, Onevest keeps in touch with our successful companies to keep an eye on their progress after raising money with us.

Back in May of 2014, Denver-based Züm XR raised a $1.5M Series A round. Züm XR created a patented, time-release delivery system for beverages. Their caffeinated drinks release healthy ingredients meant to build and sustain energy throughout the day. We caught up with Michael McCarthy, VP of Marketing for Züm XR, to see what they’ve been up to since closing their round in May, and they have certainly been busy.

Since May, Züm XR has achieved a number of big milestones, focusing much of their efforts on manufacturing and distribution. They recently signed a licensing agreement with LXR Biotech to use their time-release technology in a variety of LXR’s products, some of which are already featured in Walmart. Whole Foods, who has been carrying their products since before their seed round, awarded Züm XR as a recipient of the Local Producer Loan Program in August of 2014, an award meant to help small, independent companies grow their business. The team also continued to bolster the scientific proof behind the benefit of their technology by conducting clinical studies at a third party lab. These studies were done to show the release rates of the various active ingredients in their delivery system. Some of the top beverage/consumer-packaged goods companies have begun to notice - Züm XR is in talks with or has already signed NDAs with 12 of the top 20 companies in the field.

Companies that are at the seed stage, like Züm XR was in May, have the odds stacked against them in terms of making it to the next round. That means that any funding coming in is not “padding”; it’s absolutely necessary to keep the business alive. Züm XR is no different, as Michael explained, “most of our clinical testing and extensive consumer studies would not have been possible without the funding.” Particularly for a company offering a novel technology through a traditional medium, Züm XR has taken on the challenge of proving to the market that their system works. These efforts will certainly continue: they are currently conducting a pharmacokinetic blood serum study to “quantify the benefits of our time-release delivery system vs. immediate release active ingredients (the status quo).” These findings will hopefully lead to stronger scientific support, but the Züm XR team knows that they need more. The previously mentioned study will also focus on mental and physical “end-points: mental focus, fatigue, libido, overall energy, motivation to exercise, and concentration”. With the strict regulations on product labels, Züm XR wants to be ready to back up their progressive claims.

You can follow Züm XR on their website here, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

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Securities offered through WealthForge, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC Onevest Corporation ("Onevest") is not a registered broker-dealer and does not give investment advice with respect to any securities. All the startup offerings listed are offered by the applicable Issuer. Onevest has not taken any steps to verify the accuracy of the information provided on the offerings that are listed. Onevest takes no part in the negotiation of the transaction and no securities are executed through Onevest's platform. Onevest receives no compensation in connection with the purchase or sale of securities.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Hyperlinks to sites outside of our domain do not constitute an approval or endorsement of content on the visited site.

Co-Founders of UK-based EngLancer on Strategies for Finding the Right Match

Gary Robinson and Phillip Wattis did not match up on CoFoundersLab through mere coincidence. The 40,000+ member platform is far too populated for the two entrepreneurs to have stumbled upon each other; both founders took a proactive approach to find the right partner. In the three months since they joined forces, Robinson and Wattis have launched EngLancer, an engineer freelancing portal, and have already launched a crowdfunding campaign. We caught up with them to hear about their experience on CoFoundersLab, and their advice for those still on the hunt for their business partner.

How did you find your co-founders through CoFoundersLab?

Gary Robinson: Initially I  just filled in my profile, stated what I was looking for and waited for the 100s of developers to contact me…not surprisingly a number of days of inactivity followed. It occurred to me that developers/coders are very much the sought after co-founder. So I started to actively search for coders, emailing potential co-founders within a 1-2 hour traveling time.

Phil’s profiled ticked a lot of boxes. He had a proven track record of developing successful prototypes for start-up businesses. He was actively involved in the tech scene, mentoring at a number of accelerator programmes. He also looked like an entrepreneur that could code. That is, he understood how to launch, grow and market a business, as well as how to build the website. A great co-founder.

What I didn’t want to be was someone that approaches a tech guy with an idea and the statement “I just need someone to build it for me”. I was in a position of having a working (of-sorts) beta site that I had funded myself through sub-contracted labour. I also had a concise  business plan, a brand and a few people trialling the site. Essentially, I could demonstrate that I was serious about the business and had given it some thought/ carried out some market research and could offer Phil more than just the idea. After a number of emails, LinkedIn/ DueDil and Facebook searches, I travelled from Manchester to Birmingham (around 1:30 train ride) to meet him. It’s definitely the only way to find out what someone is like. We didn’t just discuss our business ideas but also other people we had spoken to, current ideas, trends etc. Phil then did the return trip the following week. Each time we could log on to the internet in the cafes and look each others work, our ideas and thoughts.

We then used the next few weeks to trial each other out, and we still are. I get to see Phil’s coding magic on a day to day basis and he finds out whether I can make good on promises in regards to industry knowledge, contacts and practice.

Phillip Wattis: I listed on CoFoundersLab with quite an open view, I was interested in finding someone who might want to join an existing project I was working on, but I was equally interested in becoming part of another team and helping them turn their ideas into a viable business. I’m primarily a business person, with one successful exit to date, but do have a technical foundation, and I think it was my technical skills that set my profile on fire. I was being approached several times a week with people with ideas, the caliber of people approaching me varied considerably from students through to a former FTSE100 company chairperson! Unfortunately I quickly encountered two problems:

1. No-one contacted me with a view of wishing to get involved in my existing project - every approach was from individuals wanting help with their ideas.
2. Maybe 90% or more of the approaches I received were from enthusiastic individuals who had little more than an idea. 

While there is nothing wrong in those approaches per se, the volume of approaches gave me the luxury to pick and choose where I wanted to invest my time, and those who could show me they had already invested time, effort and money in their vision were infinitely more interesting and convincing than those who hadn’t.

Gary and EngLancer ticked most of the boxes. It was an interesting project, with an MVP that had been used to test the concept, and despite being an engineer himself, Gary had sufficiently different skillsets from mine to convince me we had the potential to be a good team. His relaxed approach, combined with a laser focus and tenacity in what he wanted to achieve would compliment my skillset and help focus my efforts.

After a few face-to-face meetings in Birmingham and Manchester I adopted the ‘Richard Branson approach’ of “screw it let’s do it” and work began in November 2014, hammering out the details as we progress.

Without CoFoundersLab I suspect I would never have met Gary. We are currently seeking seed funding and are both sure EngLancer will grow into something significant in engineering outsourcing.

Phillip Wattis, co-founder of EngLancer

Gary Robinson, co-founder of Englancer

What is EngLancer?

The ODesk for engineering design and project delivery. Procuring the right engineers, skills and tools to deliver high value engineering design currently presents a real barrier to entry within this large and growing market.

EngLancer is an online platform that allows firms to outsource engineering design, drawing or modelling projects. The platform is therefore aiming to niche the proven success of this way of working and delivering projects (in the web and software industries) to a strong and growing design engineering market.

Check us out at

http://www.englancer.com/

Any advice for founders on CoFoundersLab about finding the right cofounder?

GR: Don’t show up with just an idea. Do the leg work. Draw up a business plan or even an elevator pitch. Be able to demonstrate you’ve done some market research, or pull together a wireframe to show you have given some thought to the screens and processes involved. Bottom line I would say- be able to show you are serious about being a co-founder.

PW: There is a global shortage of competent software developers, and a glut of ideas needing development. To attract a technical cofounder you have to convince them that the equity on offer is likely to be worth something in the future. Show that cofounder all the skills you possess and the work you’re undertaking to make that business a success, because ultimately that success will be down to the business skills delivered by the team as opposed to the level of competency of the person building the product. If you believe you’re not able to do anything until you have a product built then you are unlikely to attract the sort of high calibre individuals your business requires. Do the leg work, research the market and get potential customers interested and that technical cofounder will be sure to follow.

Securities offered through WealthForge, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC Onevest Corporation ("Onevest") is not a registered broker-dealer and does not give investment advice with respect to any securities. All the startup offerings listed are offered by the applicable Issuer. Onevest has not taken any steps to verify the accuracy of the information provided on the offerings that are listed. Onevest takes no part in the negotiation of the transaction and no securities are executed through Onevest's platform. Onevest receives no compensation in connection with the purchase or sale of securities.

Testimonials may not be representative of the experience of all clients. Testimonials are not a guarantee of future performance or success.

Hyperlinks to sites outside of our domain do not constitute an approval or endorsement of content on the visited site.

 

Success Story - Pristine: Where Are They Now?

In May of 2014, Austin-based telehealth company Pristine raised a $750,000 seed round with the help of Onevest. Founded in 2013, Pristine is helping medical professionals around the world deliver better care through Google Glass technology. The innovative company is working to make physical and geographic barriers to medical expertise irrelevant. 

Co-founder and CEO Kyle Samani has rapidly become a thought leader and a force to be reckoned with in the healthcare world, maintaining a popular blog and appearing at conferences and events around the country including TEDx and SXSW. Kyle and his team have worked relentlessly to grow Pristine to where it is today, and he was generous enough to answer a few questions about their progress. 

I asked Kyle about the importance of raising a seed round, and how it benefited the company. Paralleling the standard startup life cycle, it seemed the funding came at just the right time: Kyle explained that the round simply "gave us enough money to not die before raising the Series A." 

Since raising their seed round, Kyle says "the business has approximately doubled in size in terms of employees, customers, and revenue." In even bigger news, Pristine raised a $5.4 million Series A, led by S3 Ventures. Kyle noted that "[S3 Ventures] have been a pleasure to work with thus far and we're excited to have them aboard." 

The Series A was a big achievement, but Kyle and his team are not satisfied. Pristine has continued expanding into more hospitals, ERs, patient homes, ICUs, and ambulances to give more people access to faster and more effective care. I asked him about his plans for the next 6 months, and his answer was simple, yet powerful: "double again." 

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Securities offered through WealthForge, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC Onevest Corporation ("Onevest") is not a registered broker-dealer and does not give investment advice with respect to any securities. All the startup offerings listed are offered by the applicable Issuer. Onevest has not taken any steps to verify the accuracy of the information provided on the offerings that are listed. Onevest takes no part in the negotiation of the transaction and no securities are executed through Onevest's platform. Onevest receives no compensation in connection with the purchase or sale of securities.

Testimonials may not be representative of the experience of all clients. Testimonials are not a guarantee of future performance or success. Hyperlinks to sites outside of our domain do not constitute an approval or endorsement of content on the visited site.

CoFoundersLab Helps Content BLVD Find the Ever-Elusive Tech Co-Founder

Content BLVD arose out of the realization that the public has grown more and more annoyed by irrelevant, intrusive advertising. As far back as 2010, co-founders Daniel Ripoll (CEO) and Mike Sobol (CMO) noticed the rise of ad-skipping services at the same time that ad click-through rates were declining. They watched revenue flow from traditional advertisers to content marketing. The market needed a better way for brands to reach consumers who wanted to hear their messages.

Since April 2012, Content BLVD has booked over $450,000 in revenue and signed more than 100 clients for its original content marketing services. Customers range from mom-and-pop shops to nonprofits and global enterprises, such as the Breast Cancer Society and Home Depot. Content BLVD connects businesses with publishers and media partners who can boost their SEO metrics, drive referral traffic, and expand brand reach across various channels.

Its biggest challenge was taking advantage of all the technological changes that are disrupting the $62 billion Web marketing industry. After Content BLVD graduated from the Boomtown Accelerator program in Boulder, Colorado this June, flush with advice from 100 mentors and additional funding, it turned its full attention on its Web infrastructure. Dan and Mike created a profile on CoFoundersLab in search of a technology guru with startup experience.

Dan Ripoll, CEO and Co-Founder

Mike Sobol, CMO and Co-Founder

George McKenzie, Co-Founder and CTO

Enter George McKenzie. With over a decade of startup experience, McKenzie has earned a reputation in fields like process methodology, quality, and automation. He founded YesDocs and shepherded the development of the engineering department at Volusion.com. With McKenzie on board as CTO of the six member management team, the last piece of Content BLVD’s creative business model fell into place.

The search for a technical co-founder can be one of, if not the most difficult step in building your core team. Gaining access to the 40,000+ member network of CoFoundersLab helped Content BLVD solve this problem, and we want to help solve it for entrepreneurs everywhere. Our team-building platform, now combined with our equity crowdfunding platform, is giving entrepreneurs the chance to take the first series of critical steps in launching a successful company.

You can follow Content BLVD by visiting their website here or following them on Facebook or Twitter.

Content BLVD is working to do away with interruptive advertising in favor of brand integration. By matching businesses with bloggers, Youtubers, television producers and more on an open platform, brands gain easier access to the content that their customers are already enjoying.

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Securities offered through WealthForge, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC Onevest Corporation ("Onevest") is not a registered broker-dealer and does not give investment advice with respect to any securities. All the startup offerings listed are offered by the applicable Issuer. Onevest has not taken any steps to verify the accuracy of the information provided on the offerings that are listed. Onevest takes no part in the negotiation of the transaction and no securities are executed through Onevest's platform. Onevest receives no compensation in connection with the purchase or sale of securities.

Testimonials may not be representative of the experience of all clients. Testimonials are not a guarantee of future performance or success.

Two Moms Recruit Advisers on CoFoundersLab to Help Activity Rocket Take Off

Finding camps and classes for children is a painful process that all too many parents have experienced. Both sides are lacking the time and resources needed to make it a smooth process. Parents have trouble finding exactly what they are looking for, which may only come after an exhaustive online search. Camp/activity providers lack the digital marketing tools to reach those parents. Lisa Friedlander encountered this problem while searching for activities for her then three-year-old. Her friend, Ilene Miller, had recently made travel plans using one of the many straightforward travel sites. The two linked up, and Activity Rocket was created as an OpenTable-type model to make booking a camp/class for children as simple as making a restaurant reservation.

Lisa Friedlander (CEO) and Ilene Miller (COO), co-founders of Activity Rocket. 

Lisa and Ilene launched Activity Rocket in October 2011 in Bethesda, MD, but they lacked necessary aspects in starting a business. They needed technology experts to advise them on developing the platform. After attending a CoFoundersLab Matchup event, the pair created a profile, and after hearing about the benefits of a PRO membership, upgraded to PRO members. That upgrade, as well as their diligent responsiveness, led to connections with several people interested in helping Activity Rocket grow. The team has since worked with THREE individuals who have served as technology advisers with, according to Lisa, the potential of becoming part of the management team. CoFoundersLab helped Activity Rocket find the tech talent they so desperately needed, and now they are truly taking off. Lisa explained:

“CoFoundersLab allowed us to work with fantastic people at really no cost to our company, and these individuals have truly made a substantial impact on our business.”

Activity Rocket has over 600 businesses listed on their site, and have had over 150,000 unique visitors. They are currently a finalist in the Startup Maryland Pitch Across Maryland Bus Tour, competing for a chance to pitch at the InvestMaryland Challenge and win $100,000. Watch the video and “like” it to vote for them!

Follow Activity Rocket by visiting their website here, or following them on Facebook and Twitter.

Activity Rocket is helping parents search for activity providers for kids ages 0-18 in the DC metro area, by type of activity, day, location, and price. Compare and select the best activity for your child, instantly share your choices with friends, and pay for your classes all in one-stop! Happy Kids = Happy Parents!

"Date Before You Marry": Getting Familiar with Your Startup Co-Founder

Our mission at CoFoundersLab is to help entrepreneurs build the perfect core team to launch a business. Most of our members often communicate with several potential co-founders during their search, so how do they know who is the right one? Even more importantly, how can you be sure that you have found the perfect co-founder without having worked together? 

The commitment to start a business is a big one, and it is important to be absolutely sure that you have the right team. One of the best methods for gaining this confidence is through spending time with your potential co-founder, both working and casually outside of work, before actually joining up as co-founders. That way, you can ensure that you have a good relationship and will make good business partners. A strong relationship with your co-founder is essential in growing your startup! 

SF Bay Area based TrustLeaf built their co-founding team through CoFoundersLab. Daniel (right) found Anson (left) to launch TrustLeaf in March of 2014. 

We had the chance to talk with Anson Liang and Daniel Lieser of TrustLeaf, an online platform that helps small business owners raise money from friends and family using personal loans. Anson and Daniel offered some words of wisdom for co-founders thinking of joining forces: "date before you marry" your co-founder. Be wary of jumping in with a co-founder in starting a business; first make sure you get to know him/her on a professional and (more importantly) a personal level. 

Anson and Daniel practice what they preach: they worked together daily for a few weeks before making the ultimate decision to join forces. It has paid off so far, as TrustLeaf has been featured on several blogs, including an article in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and they raised $20,000 on their own site from friends and family! They were also one of six finalists in the Founder Institute's Founder Showcase. 

This video is part of our success story spotlight series highlighting companies whose co-founders met online at CoFoundersLab.com and/or in-person at CoFoundersLab sponsored events.

About TrustLeaf

TrustLeaf helps small business owners raise money from friends and family through personal loans. Our online platform allows the borrower to create an intuitive campaign page and decide the terms of their desired loans. Friends and family of the borrower then receive invitations to the campaign to give whatever they feel comfortable with. Electronic contracts ensure safe payment, and the loans are legally protected. TrustLeaf is based in Sunnyvale, CA, and has been continually growing since March of 2014. Learn more about our story at trustleaf.com, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. 

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Looking for a co-founder?  Find your co-founder at CoFoundersLab.com.

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If you found your co-founder online at CoFoundersLab.com or at a CoFoundersLab Matchup event (or know someone who did), please let us know!

Rocketboard Co-Founders Prove that Your Co-Founder May Be Right Under Your Nose

The search for a co-founder can lead to conversations with entrepreneurs from all across your city or country, or from another country entirely. But what about meeting entrepreneurs in your immediate area? Apart from attending physical events, it is difficult to know who is around you, and more importantly, who could be working on, or interested in teaming up on, a similar idea. Onevest sat down with Joe Lemay and Alex Tsepkov, co-founders of Rocketboard, to hear about how they joined forces. Their story confirms that using a platform like Onevest is an essential tool to search from a wide pool of entrepreneurs, including those working right under your nose.

Joe Lemay, CEO of Rocketboard

Alex Tsepkov, CTO of Rocketboard

Rocketboard, based in Boston, MA, was founded earlier this year by Joe (CEO) and Alex (CTO). Using a patent-pending computer vision algorithm and a mobile camera, Rocketboard is an app that allows you to share, save, and stream your whiteboard with anyone, anywhere in the world. The mobile camera detects the whiteboard boundaries, corrects perspective, optimizes the whiteboard images and removes people who are blocking the board. Not only can these images be saved and archived to be accessed later, but they can also be shared on most major social networks. The team at Rocketboard is excited about bringing one of the most popular collaboration tools - the whiteboard - to the “Internet of Things.”

Joe explained that before Rocketboard he was working as a sales executive, and on the side, developing an idea of addressing the lack of collaboration software for whiteboards. Meanwhile, Alex was working on software for a very similar problem. However, the two founders were unaware of the other’s work - even though Joe was selling products and services to Alex’s company, and Joe frequently visited Alex’s company’s office! Once Joe found Alex and reached out online through Onevest, they realized the potential of joining forces. Joe admitted that, without Onevest, “I never would have found [Alex] even though he was underneath my nose, essentially working on a similar problem with a different approach.” This coincidental story goes to show that it is essential to use a variety of methods to explore your immediate network when searching for a co-founder. 

The team at Rocketboard just revamped their website, and we are excited to see them continue to grow! 

You can follow Rocketboard on their website here, or on Facebook and Twitter.

Google Glass Platform Guides Pristine to Successful Equity Crowdfunding Campaign

Startup CEOs know that raising capital is a long and grueling process, often requiring months of outreach, cold calls, pitches, and negotiations. Doing all of that on your own makes it even harder, but having a stand-out product that catches the the eyes of investors certainly helps. Kyle Samani, CEO and founder of Pristine has just that with a telemedicine platform streamed through Google Glass. It seems that Kyle literally "caught the eye" of several investors, successfully raising $750,000 through equity crowdfunding with the help of Onevest after showing them the magic of "seeing.”

Founded in 2013, Austin, Texas based Pristine helps medical professionals deliver better care through revolutionary technologies. In their words, they are solving the problem of "hey, can you come over here and look at this?" With products like EyeSight - a lightweight, flexible, secure video-streaming platform optimized for Google Glass - Pristine is shaking up the healthcare industry by making physical and geographic barriers to medical expertise irrelevant. Pristine recently partnered with UC Irvine Medical Center, who will be distributing Google Glass to its medical students in the operating and emergency departments.

Kyle Samani, Co-founder and CEO

Patrick Kolencherry, Co-founder and CTO

Kyle and Pristine have been all over the news, as telemedicine and health tech have been hot topics in the startup world of late. Check out some of their recent press in The Atlantic and VentureBeat. Kyle also delivered a TEDx talk about Pristine's novel approach to a decades-old problem in healthcare, that you can view here.

Kyle sat down with us recently to discuss his success, and explained that without Onevest, he would have been just another one of the many CEOs that embark on raising capital all on their own. Instead, he noted that Onevest was responsive and involved in Pristine's crowdfunding campaign every step of the way. He offered some advice to fellow CEOs to stop chasing capital alone:

“There are a lot of tools for startup CEOs out there, and Onevest should definitely be on every startup CEO’s to-do list.”

We are excited to follow Pristine’s development, and hope to see doctors everywhere wearing Google Glass soon!

You can follow Pristine on their web site here, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Big-Check Crowdfunding Campaign Propels Züm XR Forward

Based in Denver, Colorado, Züm XR (www.zumxr.com) has developed a patented, time-release delivery system for food and beverages. This system safely releases natural and healthy ingredients like Vitamin C, electrolytes, and green tea caffeine over several hours. Their first product is a widely successful beverage line that supplies sustained energy without the crash or jitters associated with typical caffeinated drinks. These drinks became the 2nd best selling energy drink at Whole Foods Market-Rocky Mountain after only four months. Robert Nichel, the founder of Züm XR and a seasoned biochemist, was inspired to create this innovative system after realizing the shortcomings of caffeine and electrolytes absorption during his frequent long bike rides in the Colorado mountains.

Robert and the founding team began aggressively pursuing investors and angel groups after recognizing the needs to raise funds. Taken aback by the drawn-out process involved with angel groups, Züm XR turned to crowdfunding. Within 90 days, they closed a $1.5 million round in funding, which will go towards third-party testing and validation to substantiate their impressive label claims of nutrient absorption by up to 60%. This testing will provide scientific support for the brand, bolstering the credibility and ultimate success of the company.

Successfully raising $1.5 million is not the only notable achievement of this disruptive company; they also debunked the myth that crowdfunding consists of exclusively small contributions from a large pool of people.  Züm XR managed to raise their funding from a short list of investors with an average investment/check size of $100,000. Their aggressive outreach was fortified by their traction and revenue in over 120 stores and substantial press coverage from sites like The Motley Fool and The Examiner.

The team at Züm XR really enjoyed our hands-on approach and active marketing efforts here at Onevest. Here is what Nichel had to say about his experience on Onevest:

“Onevest played a vital role in helping Züm XR reach our funding target. Their platform provided all the tools and support necessary for us to connect with accredited investors throughout the U.S. Onevest has a great team, an easy to use platform, and quickly generates exposure to a vast amount of active investors that can expedite the funding process for small businesses.”

Moreover, Robert also noted that he liked how Onevest saved him valuable time, energy, and money traditionally associated with fundraising. Züm XR immediately began drawing interest from investors after launching their campaign on Onevest, allowing them to raise money quickly, ultimately providing more time and opportunity to grow their business.

We look forward to continuing to follow Robert and his team’s progress at Züm XR, and of course to enjoying their awesome beverages!

You can follow Züm XR on their website here, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.