Startup Standup Episode 2: Jess Riegel, Founder of Motivote

A few weeks ago I began a series called Startup Standup to raise awareness of the unconscious biases women face when it comes to financing. As a part of that, I've committed to mentoring female founders who are looking to raise institutional financing to fund their startups.

In this episode, I meet with Jess Riegel, founder of motivote, an app that uses gamification to engage and turn out young voters.

For those of you who prefer to read, the transcript is below.

Jess [00:00:00] Motivote is a web app that gives organizations a more active way to activate the young people in their networks. We do that with social accountability and gamification.

Marc [00:00:13] What are the biggest challenges you're facing? What questions do you have for me about how to approach fundraising and things like that?

Jess [00:00:20] We're fairly confident that there's an opportunity to build a huge business in this space. We're solving a clear pain point for customers and they're spending a lot of money on things that don't work. We're giving them something that does, but some people don't think of voting or civic engagement as a typical market that they'd be in. How do we address head-on some of the misconceptions there?

I think one of the biggest problems here is that many investors won't really understand or appreciate how much money is being spent on tools like this to get people to vote.

Marc [00:00:44] I think one of the biggest problems here is that many investors won't really understand or appreciate how much money is being spent on tools like this to get people to vote. Do you have a list of all the organizations and how much they spend?

Jess [00:00:59] We know what they spend relatively in each category. But, it is very dependent on how much they fundraise that cycle and the total fundraising amount in a year.

Marc [00:01:21] I think it'd be interesting if you had a list, from top to bottom, of all the organizations. Then show, from the biggest to the smallest, how much money they're raising and an estimate for how much you think they're spending on tooling. And then, how much you expect to get of that to show a percentage share, almost like a bottoms up kind of thing.

And then break it down into trenches like this group here is five thousand. These are two thousand, one thousand, five hundred, two hundred, one hundred-- and you add it all up. You kind of did a bottoms up to get to your revenue model in five years. I think the more transparency you have and the more detail, I think the stronger the argument will be.

Jess [00:02:14] I think that's great and will help us break down this idea about how we know this chunk of money is being spent and what that looks like.

Marc [00:02:21] And that kind of gives you some nice guardrails as to like, this is real, and there's real money to be made here. So I would focus on on the transparency piece of it and then focus on getting customers in each of those buckets as proof. What else have you heard? What other things?

I would focus on on the transparency piece of it and then focus on getting customers in each of those buckets as proof.

Jess [00:02:37] We're starting with election focused organizations and then we're moving to this year-round civic engagement model and we think there is an opportunity to get revenue from companies that use motivote as a base. They can sponsor actions, they can sponsor prizes as a way to connect with this generation. And on one hand, that opens up our customer base to really every company in America. And we all know how important it is for companies to show that they're making a positive social impact supporting democracy. This story gets complicated.

Marc [00:03:18] Yeah I wouldn't go there. I wouldn't even go there. An important part of just pitching, generally, is you have to stay really focused. If you get a question like, "Can you really do it on elections only or are you going to need to do some other stuff?" That's the bait. If you say, "Yeah we could actually do this civil thing"-- then they're like "No, what you basically just told me is the election thing doesn't stand on its own." And so even if that's true and it doesn't stand on its own, which is a whole separate problem, I think still your best chance is to prove that it can.

The less things you need to believe the higher the probability they're going to invest. That's all. If you have like 10 things you need to believe people's head just spin.

The less things you need to believe the higher the probability they're going to invest.

Jess [00:04:09] You asked what else we hear and I think what we hear all the time is, "Okay well this is very cyclical or it's a very seasonal business." And then we say, well, we can make money year round with this civic engagement.

Marc [00:04:21] It's true but that's a trick question. It's a trick question. It's like turbo tax. When do they make their money? You know what I mean. Like, there are businesses that are just you know-- a Halloween shop, Halloween costumes, there are so many businesses. So it's a trick question.

Sometimes, actually, it's a purposeful question to kind of throw you off and see if you get defensive about it. And I would be really offensive and be like "Yes it is. It is just like taxes just like, just like Halloween and Christmas and season. But we have actually a four-month season, so a third of the year we're making revenue, and we're talking big dollars." And then walk them through the details of it.

So again, it's just keeping the argument and what you have to believe in as tight a box as possible is going to improve your probability. So it's like tight and then deep in terms of the details of it so that you can believe all the stuff we said. I think if you were able to do that and tighten the box and hit any question they ask you, "That's correct. It's seasonal. And it's a great business."

Jess [00:05:38] So you gave really good feedback about putting on the first slide the way I clearly explained what motivote is and I'm wondering what else resonates the most that I should lead with?

Marc [00:05:50] When you go to pitch an investor. They're going to get the deck, you're going to send it to them. They're gonna quickly look through it. You want to just be able to weave this really quick narrative that is like: This is what we are. This is our mission, this is our big vision. This is the problem we're trying to solve. This is the solution. This is the business model, how we make money. Here are the financials. Here's the team and here's how much money we're looking at. Something like that. Like it's like, tight. And you can just quickly get into it.

You want them to come away with the vision. If there's a lot of slides you kind of missed what's the most important slide. And it's just like you peanut butter through it. You can have some of this stuff on the side as you go and you do the quick sort of pitch.

If there's a lot of slides you kind of missed what's the most important slide...You're going to get a lot of questions and the tendency will be to put it in the deck. I would say keep it on the side and have it.

Jess [00:06:31] Someone will ask me a question I'm like oh that wasn't an hour deck, I should put in the answer.

Marc [00:06:36] It doesn't need to be in the deck. That's a really good point. It's just a good lesson for everyone. You're going to get a lot of questions and the tendency will be to put it in the deck. I would say keep it on the side and have it. And it also looks like you're anticipating the questions.

Jess [00:06:56] I think I have a tendency to put everything in the deck like, look I did all my homework.

Marc [00:07:03] No I wouldn't put it the deck. I'd keep it really tight. And keep in mind, people will spend just minutes probably scanning through to see if it sparks their interest. And so the tighter the story is I think the higher the probability that you'll get interest.

There's also a lot of words on the pages. I like more this sort of paint by numbers where it's like, you're showing pictures instead of having somebody read. These things that I'm reading here a great voice over for you as you're giving it. But looking at the charts and the graphs and saying to yourself "How can I tell this story visually without having someone need to read?" And if the visual doesn't sit on its own without the words, then it's not a great visual.

The key is, can you within a few minutes of somebody scanning this deck get excited about investing?

If the visual doesn't sit on its own without the words, then it's not a great visual.

Jess [00:08:07] I'm trying to answer all the questions. I'm like, "Well this is how we get users on and this is...".

Marc [00:08:11] Two different things. Answer the questions you can do in person. Or you could do with some extra sheets. You're just trying to get in the door and excite an investor and say "Wow, I want to talk to Jess this seems interesting."