Tumml:
Urban Ventures
Accelerator
We’re rapidly urbanizing: 81% of Americans currently live in and around urban areas
Urban problems are getting worse: Traffic congestion, overstressed schools, etc.
Government can’t tackle these problems on its own: 2012 was the 5th year of declining city revenues
Urbanization is disrupting the way we live and work.
The next generation of Zipcar and Revolution Foods
Building consumer-facing products or services
Tackling urban problems such as health, education, mobility, safety, and resource management
Can scale from city to city
Entrepreneurs can help. But who are they?
Case study: Revolution Foods
Revolutionizing school lunches across the country through healthy school meals and nutrition education
Has grown to 1,000 employees in 7 years of operations, tapping traditional and social investors
Urban impact: over 50 million meals served across 25 cities in mostly low income, urban communities
Industry Education & health
Summary
Healthy school lunch provider and nutritional educator
Founded 2005 in Oakland
Investors
Catamount Ventures, NewSchools Venture Fund, Bay Area Equity
Case study: Zipcar
Reshaping urban transportation by providing a platform for community sharing and sustainable vehicle usage
Successful IPO and impressive market cap before sale to Avis
Urban impact: revitalizing city travel and improving urban navigation in the US, Canada, and the UK
Industry Transportation
Summary Urban car sharing service
Founded 2000 in Cambridge
IPO April 2011 on NASDAQ (ZIP)
Market cap
Acquired by Avis in 2013 for 500M
Case study: Skillshare
Uses social networking to enable people to share talents face-to-face in over 100 cities in the US and abroad
The average class costs around $20 and Skillshare takes a 15 percent cut
Urban impact: the community marketplace for offline classes turns any city into a distributed campus
Industry Education
Summary Education crowdsourcing platform
Founded 2011 in New York
Investors
Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Founder Collective, SV Angel
Urban impact entrepreneurship trends
Mobility: Collaborative consumption, alternative vehicle transport. Examples include Uber, Lyft, Alta Bicycle Share.
Waste and resource management: Incentivizing good behavior, supply chain and logistics management. Examples include Recyclebank and Big Belly Solar.
Professional services: Consumer choice and peer-to-peer support. Examples include TaskRabbit and Yelp.
Real estate: Democratization of access. Examples include Storefront, Popularise, Fundrise, Squarefoot, Airbnb.
Education: Peer-to-peer learning, skills training. Examples include SkillShare and Revolution Foods.
Why aren’t we seeing more urban impact entrepreneurs?
33%
15%
11%
35%
Crowdfunding/ grants
Angel investment/ VC
Traditional entrepreneur Urban impact entrepreneur
Have you secured any of the following forms of funding? [% Yes]
Urban entrepreneurs don’t have sufficient access to $.
Tumml conducted a survey of 106 early stage entrepreneurs and found that…
Urban impact entrepreneurs are half as likely as traditional entrepreneurs to receive seed stage funding
Urban impact entrepreneurs are 3 times as likely to seek nontraditional capital, such as grants and crowdfunding
Urban entrepreneurs don’t get the right kind of help.
Tumml conducted a survey of 106 early stage entrepreneurs and found that…
Urban impact entrepreneurs are nearly twice as likely to need access to civic leaders than are traditional entrepreneurs
4 in 5 urban impact entrepreneurs identify networking with other entrepreneurs as being important in their company’s early stages
50%
79%
30%
39%
67%
18%
Physical office space
Networking with other
entrepreneurs
Access to govt/ civic leaders
Traditional entrepreneur Urban impact entrepreneur
How important were the following in your company’s early stage? [% extremely + very important]
That’s where Tumml comes in.
We empower entrepreneurs to solve urban problems.
Space: Physical office space at the HatchToday, a co-working space in downtown San Francisco
Curriculum: Tailored to meet the legal, legislative, and regulatory complexities of the urban space
Mentorship: From government/civic leaders, successful urban impact entrepreneurs, investors
Capital: $20,000 in seed funding, $35,000 of in-kind support (legal services, web/hosting, etc)
Tumml
Mentorship Board
Jay Nath
SF Mayor’s Office
Peter Hirshberg
Re:Imagine Group
Alison Cohen
Alta Bicycle Share
Jose Corona
Inner City Advisors
Molly Turner
Airbnb
Nick Grossman
Union Square Ventures
Nigel Jacob
Boston Mayor’s Office Kirsten Tobey
Revolution Foods
Story Bellows
Philly Mayor’s Office
Tory Patterson
Catamount Ventures
James Geshwiler
CommonAngel
Ron Sims HUD
John Tolva
Chicago Mayor’s Office
Rees
We are the only accelerator dedicated to urban innovation.
Social/non profit accelerators
Government initiatives
Traditional, for-profit accelerators
Urban research and advocacy firms
The curriculum
Developed in conjunction with the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and the MIT Media Lab
Weekly workshops from experts in law, public and urban policy, financing
Regular one-on-one office hours with a rotation of expert mentors
Informal weekly networking events
Here are the metrics we use to measure success.
Scaling: Tracking each company’s progress moving into new markets by providing them with resources and mentorship to establish a playbook for growth
Jobs created: Providing connections for recruitment, community engagement, and human resource management for small and scaling companies
Impact assessment: Each company will complete a B Lab impact assessment and will track them annually against specific IRIS standards
Here are some statistics about our first pool of applicants.
Less than 10% acceptance rate: 52 applicants for five spots
Gender parity: 48 percent of applicants have a female co-founder
Social equity: 40 percent of applicants have a product application for underserved communities
Three dominant industry trends: Small business services, mobility, and local food
Want to meet the members of Tumml’s first cohort?
A blue collar identity service that makes it easier to find work in the skilled trades online
Work Hands
An easy and efficient way to apply to multiple preschools online and manage the preschool admission process
KidAdmit
A mobile donation platform to support neighbors in need
HandUp
A real-time, on-demand, multi-pickup ridesharing solution, matching cars with multiple riders
Corral Rides
Julie Lein President
Former pollster and political consultant, worked as a Fellow with Revolution Foods. MBA from MIT Sloan
and BA from Stanford.
Clara Brenner CEO
Background in urban real estate and sustainability,
worked as an Associate with WestMill Capital. MBA from MIT Sloan and BA from NYU.
Team Tumml
2012
• Conducted qualitative & quantitative research among 125 entrepreneurs • Built out Mentorship Board of civic and government innovators • Recruited Tumml Board of Directors for strategy and fundraising • Developed tailored curriculum alongside the Martin Trust Center for MIT
Entrepreneurship and MIT Media Lab • Obtained official 501(c)(3) nonprofit status Dec 2012
Q1 2013
• Hosted first public-facing event, “Urban Innovation and the Role of Government,” with approx. 135 people in attendance
• Provided consulting & resource support for early stage urban impact entrepreneurs like Park Please, Urban Kit, and Wigglemap
• Developed thought leadership around urban impact space with biweekly newsletter, blogging, and urban innovation event series with SPUR
• Secured funding, including a grant from The Blackstone Charitable Foundation and sponsorship from Accela and Nixon Peabody
Q2-‐Q4 2013
• Opened application process for first cohort from April 1 – 30, 2013 • First cohort ran June 10 – September 2013 • Continued public-facing events with collaborators like SPUR and sf.citi • Opened applications for next cohort
Milestones
Moving forward, Tumml will implement the 486 Strategy.
Recruitment: Growing the base of innovators
Thought Leadership: Building the sector support Infrastructure
Entrepreneur Incentives: Spreading Tumml’s reach
Cohort Support: Expanding Tumml’s programming
Questions?