Perspectives Blog

Helpfully supports startup clients, since startups by definition are exploring what’s next. We look for a range of ways to help these teams including customer discovery, jobs-to-be-done and MVP definition, qual and quant UX research, and even mentoring leadership teams.

In certain circumstances, we also get to invest in our client companies.

And now we’re going further, investing in a broader set of startups. 

We’re investing small amounts through the crowdfunding platform, Republic.co.

The Republic.co platform crowdsources individual financial investments, allowing individual investors to make small equity investments in startups.  It’s an innovative approach to grow the startup’s equity rather than just raising traditional VC money (or using more individual or project platforms like GoFundMe, Kickstarter, or Indigogo.

Republic vets startups through an investment committee to determine quality investible companies, a process that screens out over 97% of the startups who apply.  Through the Republic.co platform, individuals and companies like Helpfully LLC to invest alongside VCs and angels. It’s a unique investment platform where startups can accept investments from regular people. For as little as $100, anyone can get started by selecting start-ups of interest.

Taking equity from startups helps us in two ways.

First, we want to align the incentives, so that when our client’s win, we can win (a tiny bit) too.

Second, we want to understand how founding teams think and work, and what kinds of challenges they face. These insights — about industries, customers, operations, revenue management, product development, marketing, and growth strategies — provide guidance for both our clients and our business.  Since innovation and new technologies often come from startups, nascent companies provide valuable insights that can be incorporated into business strategies for Helpfully and for our other clients.

A word of caution: investments like this are risky. Even the most thorough business plan, high market demand, and talented startup teams may not be able to achieve the company's objectives. There are so many unknown factors that can impact results. So don't take this as investment advice! We believe the risks are worth the potential future rewards, and find the republic.co platform offers another avenue for support and partnerships with startups. 

Here are our investments:

ReviveHealth - [CLIENT] - ReviveHealth provides an affordable monthly membership for wellbeing needs which includes primary care, mental health, wellness and prescriptions and other services for its clients. So many people can’t afford expensive insurance plans — But they can afford ReviveHealth! Its services benefit small to medium businesses, freelancers, and unemployed/furloughed workers.

Go Small Biz - [CLIENT] - Go Small Biz is a one-stop small business tools and consultin for a low monthly fee. Services include education, training, marketing, CRM, operations and more helping over 400,000 small businesses in North America.

Elemeno Health - Elemeno is training solution for healthcare teams. Their platform serves frontline health professionals & staff, so they can access the most current practices, checklists, and videos learning ‘at the moment it matters.’ They have done gangbusters during all of the COIVD-19 protocol changes!

Choose Health - Choose Health is an at-home blood testing and health service that starts to solve the biggest question - how lifestyle choices affect your health. They help you learn how your nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, drinking and family history are all impacting your long-term health. 

QuantmRE - QuantamRE is a platform for homeowners to leverage their home equity, without a HELOC or other traditional refinance. The insight is that refinancing is NOT the only way to free up home equity. A homeowner can get cash now, without loans, interest, monthly payments, or debt. The service is a blockchain / distributed ledger system to get the company paid back upon the eventual sale of the home.

Procertas - Procertas’ mission is to upskill the modern workforce by offering a better alignment between people and productivity in business, law, and education. By training users for technical expertise in desktop productivity, Procertas is helping businesses around the country hire smarter, work better, and control their document output.

Jumpstart - Jumpstart is an insurance product for earthquakes. They quickly cover your immediate needs after the quake with no deductible. And the company can pay claims directly into a homeowner's bank account without any adjuster or manual process. The company just monitors the seismographs, and if a subscriber’s home is in the zone, they get paid. Kinda weird, but a cool way to get piece of mind!

InnaMed - InnaMed is the premier home-based lab testing using a micro-needle (a patch there’s not a ‘blood draw’ in the traditional — and painful — sense! Taking the hassle out of blood testing allowing you access to precision medical care from the comfort and privacy of your own home. 

Adder.io [CLIENT] - Adder.io is a 'big data' company for billboard owners, media buyers, vehicle advertisers, and city planners. They provide dashboards, insights and location analytics through their cutting-edge platform. 

Hemster - Hemster was born so customers could have every garment be uniquely tailored to their individualized body and desired fit. Hemster is transforming the fashion world, so that size numbers and letters become truly meaningless. Fit has become a science so that customers can buy with confidence (no matter what the tag says) and feel confident in any garment!

Tallyfy - Tallyfy is an operations guide and software to automate basic tasks and repeatable processes to save time and money. It’s the new and simple way to track business processes across your company.

Grabir [CLIENT] - Grabir is a farm-to-doorstep grocery marketplace and delivery service that makes obtaining healthy farm-fresh goods available to everyone. The company just launched in Atlanta 2021. Contact me if you are in metro Atlanta want to get into the Beta service!