The RISE: A ROTR Portco Newsletter (November Edition)
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The RISE: A ROTR Portco Newsletter (November Edition)

By
Published
November 15, 2021

A quick note.

2022 is near, so is Thanksgiving šŸ¦ƒ, and we are in the giving spirit!

Since the last newsletter, we've added new resources to portfolio engagement. We know first-hand that running a startup means navigating a lot of uncertainty. That's why we refreshed, and launched a new, cool portfolio support portal that's been specifically built to fit the needs of our portfolio.

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The new portal provides a ton of new features and benefits. You donā€™t need to sign up to join; youā€™re already in! Itā€™s a simply password-protected site built just for you and your executive teams.Ā If there is anyone on your team that should be on this distribution list, please email me (amira.ouji@revolution.com) directly with their email info/names.

āœ…Ā  CLICK HEREĀ to check it out. (PW: ROTRnew21)

  • The PortalĀ will now be available to all co-founders and all senior executives on your team as well.
  • The Portal is password protected. We request that youĀ onlyĀ share your portal password withĀ members ofĀ your executive team. Please seeĀ PoliciesĀ for more details.
  • Thank you for respecting our honor code; please donā€™t share these resources beyond the portfolio or your team. Several people contributed materials with the understanding that this is a closed-community resource.
  • See a space on the portal where you want to contribute? Hit me up with details. (Classifieds, P2P Advice, and Fundraising Deck Samples are hot topics)
  • Updates and additional resources will be added on a monthly basis. In conjunction, we are also re-launching our portfolio engagement experience on Slack.Ā Join ourĀ Slack channel hereĀ to stay connected and remain in the loop.
  • The portal now features new additions like Fundraising & IR, Recruiting and People Opps + more!
  • You will now also be able to access the portal directly from the footer of our main website: https://revolution.com/entity/rotr/

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This is just the beginning, and we can't wait to hear what you think. Submit your feedback here!

Peace,

Amira

Spotlight Resource: PR Office Hours

Weā€™re delighted to announce that the Revolution Communications and Marketing TeamĀ is hosting virtual office hours for portfolio companies that are in need ofĀ communications, messaging, and brandingĀ guidance.

If youā€™d like to connect with the Revolution Communications Team,Ā we recommend that you please utilize office hours. While you may hear from the team outside of Office Hours regarding other ideas and opportunities, we are hoping that this will allow them to be in touch with companies that have immediate questions and needs.

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To request a session, please completeĀ šŸ‘‰šŸ½this form.

To maximize your time with our Communications team,Ā please read this PR Office Hours pageĀ prior to booking.

Community Support

Listen Up šŸŽ§Ā - P2P Practical Advice

On the portal, we launched a new, cool feature: Portco-to-Portco Practical Advice. In this section, you will hear a variety of Q&A's featuring expertise across the ROTR portfolio. For this edition, let's hear from Justin Beals, CEO and Co-founder of ROTR portfolio company Strike Graph, a compliance SAAS solution simplifying security certifications like SOC 2 Type I/II, ISO 27001 and FedRamp.

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Justin Beales, Strike Graph (CEO)

What is SOC2 and what types of companies should care about it?

Hear more P2P Practical Advice here.

Peer-to-Peer Engagement šŸ¤Ā - The ROTR Collective

Are in the ROTR Orbiit? In October we launched our very first portfolio engagement product: The ROTR Collective, peer-to-peer matching in partnership withĀ Orbiit. We were *thrilled* to see the stats, and testimonials from our first engagement, and November's matches have already been made!Ā 

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As a refresher, the goal is toĀ connect you and your senior executives with peers within the ROTR portfolio communityĀ to discuss topical issues and form a professional relationship through 1:1 matching.

So far we've covered data-driven business development, selling to enterprise clients, tackling tough conversations, building an engaged remote team, and more! You don't want to miss out on December's round!

ā€œI enjoyed the opportunity to speak with a C level executive from a different industry, with a totally different background. I now have a CEO from out of my existing network I can go to when I need to see things through a new lens, and hopefully he feels like he has a new resource in the People Experience business who can help him and his team out from time to time with either strategic or tactical input on all things HR as needed in the future!ā€ -Ā Tracy Cote, Chief People Officer, StockX

Learn more about The ROTR Collective here.

Fundraising & Investor Relations

Strategies for Successful Fundraising šŸ¤‘

Looking for guidance when fundraising? At each stage of your company companyā€™s growth, youā€™ll need an effective fundraising strategy. The resources below are largely designed to support the process of going from Seed to Series A, but many tips and tools can be applied for later stages as well.

We suggest reviewing this deck as a primer before you develop your pitch deck and start building your target investor list. We often see founders simply ā€œupdateā€ a Series Seed deck to make it ā€œSeries A ready." We strongly recommend building a new deck from scratch for each new stage of the company. If youā€™d like to talk through the strategy points in this deck, please contact Anna Mason (anna.mason@revolution.com) to set up a call.

Investor Tracking Template šŸ“ˆ

While fundraising, you need to find investor contact information, manage your pipeline, and prepare to respond to investor emails in minutes.

This means having an organized process for following up and tracking deal flow. A great process can lead to more investor meetings, more capital raised, and an organized database of investors that can be used for your current and future fundraises.

Manage your fundraising with maximum efficiency with our investor tracking template (Click here).

For instructions on how to use the template, read more here.

Say Hi! to our New Portfolio Companies

  • šŸ’³ SwayPay (Chicago, IL) - a fintech platform that partners with brands to provide 5-100%+ cashback to users who post their purchases on TikTok.
  • šŸ“‰Ā Level (Seattle, WA) - provider of financial services to micro-business workers including loans, insurance, benefits and other services. These services are offered through partnership channels, such as Taskrabbit and Dolly.
  • šŸ¢Ā Loloft (Rogers, AR) - an industrial co-working company. Loloft provides companies access to industrial space on a month-to-month basis.
  • šŸ“‘Ā Gravwell (Coeur d'Alene, ID) - a data analytics platform intended to help analyst teams get insights from data. The company's platform offers a flexible full-stack analytics platform that fuses disparate data sources such as firewall logs, endpoint event logs, network traffic, OT IDS logs, etc.
  • šŸŽ®Ā Boddle (Tulsa, OK) - a gaming company that uses AI and 3D technology to gamify the traditional educational model using game-based e-learning to target K ā€“ 6 students.
  • šŸ‘”Ā QuickHire (Wichita, KS) - a hiring and career discovery platform built to find work, talent and help in advancement in careers of the skilled-trade and service industry workers.
  • šŸƒšŸ½ā€ā™€ļøBook Outdoors (Parker, CO)- a B2C marketplace for searching and booking professionally-managed outdoor accommodations ā€“ similar to Expedia or Booking.com for RV parks and campgrounds.
  • šŸŒ½Ā Plastomics (St. Louis)- a biotechnology company introducing traits into crops like corn and soybeans via the chloroplast instead of the nucleus. This approach overcomes many of the shortcomings of nuclear transformation providing for higher expression levels, simplified trait incorporation, no traits ending up in pollen and the potential for enhanced yield.

Want to connect any of these companies? Shoot me (amira.ouji@revolution.com) an email!

Portco Classifieds

Have you ever been featured in the PortcoĀ  Classifieds section? This section allows you to promote your business to your fellow ROTR companies - you never know who could be a potential customer.

As an entrepreneur, you should exploit this section, unashamedly. To be featured, shoot Amira a note here!

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(Austin, TX) Send personalized corporate gifts at scale.

Loop & Tieā€™s platform allows companies to send personalized gifts at scale, enabling customers to stop sending a one-size-fits-all gift and instead send a collection of gift options.

Want to get connected? Shoot me (amira.ouji@revolution.com) an email.

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(Salt Lake City, UT) Outfit your teams with custom products or swag.

Cotopaxi is a digitally native outdoor gear brand that inspires adventure and moves people to do good For CEOs looking to outfit their teams with bags, jackets, water bottles and other products or swag, Cotopaxi would love to help find the right product fit.

Want to get connected? Shoot me (amira.ouji@revolution.com) an email.

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(Dallas, TX) Maximize rep engagement for your remote sales teams and productivity for free for 6 months for teams that sign up before the end of the year.

Arcade is a gamified incentive engine that helps sales leaders increase the retention and performance of remote AE's and SDRā€™s. Itā€™s easy to roll out because itā€™s fully integrated with Salesforce and accessible through Slack directly, designed to instantly reward and recognize revenue-driving activities (such as calls, demos set, deals close) in real-time.

Want to get connected? Shoot me (amira.ouji@revolution.com) an email.

Got Deals?

Have a deal you think we'd be a good fit for? Send us a note!

As a reminder, our typical first checks range from $250Kā€“$500K in seed rounds, with follow-on check writing from $500K - $5M. The range in round size is $1.5M - $5M at a $5M - $15M pre-money valuation. We do not lead, we are industry generalists (but no: biotech, life science, CPG, cannabis or hardware).

(Just remember: the startup has to be headquartered outside of Silicon Valley, NYC, and Boston!)