Participated · Seed · Nov 2018

Kinvolved provides software and services designed to reduce chronic absenteeism and increase daily student attendance by combining technology tools with human interventions. The company targets the behavioral and external factors affecting attendance, including poverty, racism, and socio-economic exclusion. Kinvolved is led by co-founder and CEO Miriam Altman and co-founder and CPO Alexandra Meis. The organization operates as a social enterprise focused on increasing student achievement through its holistic approach. It recently closed a $1.54M seed funding round to support its work. Kinvolved plans to use the funds to support sales growth, deepen product research and development, and expand client services offerings. Kinvolved builds an attendance-focused communication app that lets parents, teachers and administrators share student attendance information. The platform is personalized and data-driven and delivers attendance alerts directly to parents' phones rather than through mailers or in-person conferences. Cofounder Miriam Altman, a former NYC high school teacher, said she launched the company after noticing parents were often uninformed of absences for six weeks or longer. Altman wrote that when parents were informed promptly she saw immediate improvements in attendance and academic performance. The company announced it is part of the Notation Capital portfolio and posted about the partnership on March 14, 2016. Technical.ly and other outlets have previously covered Kinvolved, including a profile in September 2014 and a New York Times profile referenced by Notation.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2018

Cell-Ed is a Palo Alto–based mobile learning company launched in 2014 by CEO Jessica Rothenberg-Aalami. Its platform delivers personalized, scalable courses in job skills, digital literacy and language over voice and SMS, supporting devices from basic flip phones to smartphones. The company serves organizations including Discovery, AT&T, the States of New York and Texas, SEIU and the Los Angeles Public Library. Cell-Ed focuses on low-skilled, low-literate, low-wage workers worldwide and emphasizes credentialing pathways tied to workforce outcomes. The company raised seed funding to expand its workforce-related content and credentialing pathways and to enhance its advanced mobile technology. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2017

Hustle provides a MadLibs-style peer-to-peer texting app that lets staffers or volunteers send personalized text messages one at a time and manage responses, tracking conversions and optimizing scripts. The company cites strong operating metrics: it 20x’d its annual revenue run rate in 15 months, claims 85 million conversations started, and reports a run rate of well over $10 million. Clients pay about $0.30 per contact uploaded, and Hustle cites customers including LiveNation, NYU, and the Sierra Club; over 25 state Democratic parties use the service. The startup plans to expand beyond political and nonprofit work into alumni fundraising for universities, enterprise sales, and event promotion. Hustle has raised $41 million in total funding, employs over 100 people across San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, D.C., and was founded in late 2014. The company’s political client restrictions (declining Republican candidates) have been part of its growth strategy and brand positioning with Democratic and progressive organizations. Hustle provides a CRM-like platform for personalized, one-on-one SMS outreach, letting organizers assign contact lists and reps who text from their own numbers using templated scripts with variables. Its desktop app, mobile apps (iOS/Android) and web UI include an analytics dashboard and partnerships with payment processors and CRM systems to track conversions. The company charges clients a monthly fee per contact starting at $0.30 and reports a 40-person team with a $3M annual recurring revenue run rate. Hustle was formed by Roddy Lindsay and Perry Rosenstein in 2014 and was built from work on the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign; it has expanded beyond politics into higher education and other relationship-driven enterprises, serving about 30 schools. Customers include Amherst, which used Hustle to raise young alumni participation from 10% to 21%. The company plans to use new capital to build out its platform and API for better conversion tracking and to grow sales, marketing, and engineering teams across San Francisco, New York, and Washington, DC. Hustle is a text-distribution platform that enables organizers to start personalized one-on-one SMS conversations with large numbers of supporters. Organizers write customized scripts, upload contacts or connect CRMs, and assign agents who use Hustle’s iOS, Android or web apps to send texts via local Twilio-powered numbers while tracking responses and RSVPs. The tool has been used by political campaigns including Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and reached 3.95 million voters on election day. Hustle charges $0.30 monthly per contact and reported $3 million in revenue in its first year on the market. With new funding it plans to hire engineers, designers and a sales team to push into retail, hospitality and traditional nonprofits. The company also intends to build semantic analytics to identify high-converting responses and algorithmically improve scripts. Hustle operates with a roughly 12-person team and recognizes risks from carriers, closed messaging platforms, and potential spam perception.