RevRoad Raises Over $15 Million From Private Investors as Demand for Venture Services Surges

Derrin Hill and Tony Allen of RevRoad

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Provo, Utah – June 29, 2023 – RevRoad, a venture services firm based in Utah, today announced over $15 million in funding from private investors. RevRoad has already serviced 73 portfolio companies and helped raise their valuations to a combined enterprise value of more than $1.5 billion. In light of this growth, RevRoad appointed Tony Allen as president of its new Orlando office to work with entrepreneurs and startups in the Florida area. Tony has worked for Zoom, Disney, and many other enterprises to produce large scale events worldwide and has extensive experience scaling business operations and professional services.

The entrepreneurial landscape is currently facing unprecedented challenges in raising venture capital, with global funds down 53% from Q1 of 2022, according to CrunchBase. Startups are struggling to find venture capital firms eager to assist them in their growth. RevRoad gives entrepreneurs a different option, a new model they call “venture services,” working alongside growth-stage companies in twelve areas—including marketing, software development, strategy, and legal. By partnering with RevRoad, portfolio companies are able to raise their valuation and accelerate their path to profitability.

“At the time we applied to RevRoad, raising additional capital would have been extremely difficult and time-consuming,” said AJ Brau, founder of portfolio company Wander. “RevRoad’s services model was a great alternative to capital at that stage of our business—the idea of having services on demand for two years was a game changer. We worked directly alongside RevRoad’s service teams, to focus our attention on growing the business, time we would have otherwise had to spend fundraising. Instead, our common shareholders were teams of dedicated specialists who were committed to understanding every aspect of our company. As a result, we’ve gotten more value from our partnership with RevRoad than we would have if we had simply raised cash.”

A key factor contributing to RevRoad’s success lies in the strategic pairing of portfolio companies with experienced professionals from various business disciplines. This ensures that entrepreneurs receive valuable mentorship from individuals who have experienced the challenges of growing startups. As a result, more than 80% of the companies that have worked with RevRoad remain in business, many of which are thriving today.

“I see companies in Florida who have potential to make a massive impact but are struggling to find the available capital they need to grow,” said Tony Allen, President of RevRoad’s Florida Office. “The problem is that traditional venture capital firms look for specific signals that reduce their investment risk, often leaving promising startups unsupported. At RevRoad, we bridge that gap by working closely with startups and leveraging our extensive resources to help mitigate risks. Our focus is on driving revenue growth, increasing valuations, and providing a solid foundation for startups to approach venture capitalists with confidence.”

The current funding round will further RevRoad’s core mission of supporting entrepreneurs and assisting them in reaching critical milestones, while focusing on expanding services to the East Coast.

For more information, please visit revroad.com.

For media inquiries, please contact Brittany Ouimette, brittany.ouimette@revroad.com, 801-717-7027.

About RevRoad

RevRoad is a venture services firm that focuses on helping entrepreneurs succeed. The company empowers portfolio companies to get to market faster, maximize profitability, and create a solid foundation for their venture. RevRoad’s experts work shoulder-to-shoulder with these founders in 12 service areas for up to 24 months. RevRoad further supports startups through its sister company, RevRoad Capital, a traditional venture capital firm that provides funding to companies inside and outside the RevRoad portfolio. Visit revroad.com to learn more and apply for the venture services program.

RevRoad Announces 36 Semi-Finalists for 6th Semi-Annual Entrepreneur Competition Sponsored by Central Bank

Utah’s biggest Entrepreneur Competition features rising startups that will lead the future. 

PROVO, Utah — RevRoad, a Utah business accelerator, today announced the 36 semi-finalists for the 6th semi-annual Entrepreneur Competition sponsored by Central Bank. The competition will be held at 10:00 AM on Saturday, March 25, 2023, at the Utah Valley University Keller Building. With $10,000 on the line, these companies are eager to showcase their businesses to Utah’s finest investors, mentors, and executives. 

The competition semi-finalists are: 

The semi-finalists will compete for the following prizes:

  • $10,000 Central Bank Grand Prize
    (Cash prizes are not tied to an investment or equity.)
  • $2,500 cash for the Runner-Up
    (Cash prizes are not tied to an investment or equity.)
  • $1,000 cash for the 3rd place prize
    (Cash prizes are not tied to an investment or equity.)
  • $1,000 cash prize for the Fan Favorite
    (Cash prizes are not tied to an investment or equity.)

RevRoad encourages the public to vote for their favorite company as part of the fan favorite award. They are also invited to attend this free event.

Further detail at ecomp.revroad.com. For media inquiries, interviews or additional information, please contact RevRoad PR Specialist Brittany Ouimette at brittany.ouimette@revroad.com or by calling  888-920-7623.

About RevRoad

RevRoad is a venture services firm that focuses on helping entrepreneurs succeed. They empower portfolio companies to maximize profitability, get to market faster and create a solid foundation for their venture by packing their team with experts for up to 24 months. RevRoad team members work shoulder-to-shoulder with founders of developing companies to provide everything they need to scale their businesses faster. Visit revroad.com to learn more and apply for the accelerator program.

5 Tips to Maximize Your Time at the Entrepreneur Competition

The Entrepreneur Competition is just 12 days away! We are so excited for Utah’s community of entrepreneurs, successful public figures, and supportive community members to come together for this event. 

This annual competition is overflowing with promising opportunities. Here’s 5 tips from RevRoad’s Chief Business Development Officer, Amy Caldwell, about how to maximize your time at the entrepreneur competition. 

  1. Do your homework — Find out who the judges are. Get to know them. What industries are they in? What are their hobbies? What other companies have they been involved in?
  2. Be approachable — Smile and be friendly! Don’t be shy—you want to put your best foot forward. 
  3. Don’t monopolize their time — The judges have 36 companies to get to on the day of the competition. Use the time you are allotted wisely and respectfully. 
  4. What? Why? How? — Have your what, why, and how ready in a 60 second elevator pitch. 
  5. Thank them — The judges are spending their day with you. Essentially, they are investing their time into you on the day of the competition. Express your gratitude for their time and feedback. 

Apply these 5 tips to get the most out of the entrepreneur competition! See you soon!

Learn more about the entrepreneur competition here.

Learn more about RevRoad here.

Competing in the Entrepreneur Competition? Read RevRoad CMO, A.J. Round’s, 5 tips to WOW the judges here.

Mastering Investor Pitches (pt 3)

Written by: Seth Robinson

Every story has a beginning, middle and end.  Put another way, a premise, a conflict, and a resolution. Point is, even with a compelling story you won’t go very far unless the story is easy to follow. Structure lubricates understanding. The best structure I have found for investor pitches is Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 deck.

10-20-30 deck stands for 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font. The ten slides are (1) Title, (2) Problem, (3) Unique Value Proposition, (4) Underlying Magic, (5) Business Model, (6) Go-to-market Plan, (7) Competitors, (8) Team, (9) Projections & Metrics, (10) Status, Accomplishments & Timeline.  

These ten subjects give potential investors a comprehensive view of your company. They cover all the basics investors will need to know before they can consider further engagement. These slides function as the jump off point for additional engagement. The order of these slides isn’t important, and I would highly recommend changing the order to compliment your story.

Twenty minutes means you must be quick and deep. A quick and deep overview is always possible, but not usually easy. Refining your story will take practice, work and feedback from others. For practice, look into your local 1MillionCups groups. Investor pitch feedback is what those groups exist for!

Keep the presentation compelling, not exhaustive. If you do it right, investors will have follow up questions. An absence of questions means an absence of interest. In other words, the story isn’t compelling, or they had trouble following. Investor questions engage potential investors. It draws them into your story. Leave the bulk of your allotted time for their questions. The pitch will hook them; their questions will bring them on board. Do not vary from the 20 minutes! You can keep it to this time.

Thirty point font means don’t use any font less than 30. This is more important than it seems!  Thirty point font forces judicious use of slide space. It helps drive home important points, but keeps you focused on the story. With 30 point font, you can’t just read your slides, because there simply isn’t much text (don’t read slides anyway.  Bad form). Thirty point font complements a quick and deep approach because it doesn’t allow you to be exhaustive. 

Also, investors tend to be older, and they can’t see small font. An unreadable slide is a fast way to lose interest.

The 10-20-30 deck provides the structure that makes your story easy to follow. This has become an industry standard of sorts, and most investors expect this type of presentation. Use this to your advantage. Do not focus on the presentation! Use the presentation to focus on your story. Every slide should be telling the story of your traction, quick and deep, compelling and easy to follow.

Don’t focus on your idea. And don’t lose your story in your story’s structure (or slide deck). A compelling and easy to follow story maximizes investor engagement. Making a case that you are the smartest person in the room is not only problematic and difficult, but even if successful, it won’t have the effect you think it will. Stories do have that effect.

Mastering Investor Pitches (pt 2)

When assessing startups, look at the problem, look at the customer, and look at the market. The combination of those three categories will show you traction. There are many different definitions of traction. Whichever one you use, you’ll be in good shape. For today, we’ll go with: traction–your startup’s evidence of success within the market. 

So let’s talk about what traction looks like in a story: movement. 

Can you move people? Do people care about what you are doing? Do they sign up for more information? Do they gasp and smile once they “get” what you are doing? Do people want to give you money but can’t because you don’t have a product?

The more people you can move, and the more profoundly you can move those people, the more traction you have. This is the evidence investors look for in the context of problem, customer, and market. This is how investors identify opportunities.

Traction is the compelling force behind the story of your venture. In a presentation, the story is how you make traction matter. Here are some real investor stories of companies. Which do you find most compelling? 

“I am not a marketer or sales person, but with the few sales I have achieved, people come back and buy more. One in four customers returns and on average and buys 3x more the second time. Over half of our site’s new visitors come from entering the URL, not from search results or ads. How do they know our URL? People are talking, not searching. The product is sticky. I just need more places to stick it.

“I thought people would use this product because it was convenient.  They tell me they actually buy it to avoid interacting with our competitor!  It turns out our go-to-market strategy allows us to not only avoid 90% of our competitor’s overhead cost, but charge 3x the markup and get 8x more repeat customers.  Help us rescue customers from our competitors!”

“This market doesn’t resist change, it’s simply been skipped over for 30 years.  When we apply basic technology used elsewhere, and apply it to this niche, we see a 100% sales conversion rate even though our price point is 50% higher than their current costs. Without marketing we have more inquiries than we can service.  We don’t need help with sales, we need help with onboarding!”

Each example shows traction. Proof of traction builds investor confidence in the opportunity; the story builds investor confidence in the entrepreneur. Good business models are built on good information, not on good ideas. Investors invest in people, not ideas.