Raising the bar, not leveling the playing field | Episode 1

Raising the bar, not leveling the playing field | Episode 1

I've never had access to something like that before. 

What would it look like if all entrepreneurs had an equal playing field? If access to capital, networks, and opportunities weren't reserved for those who have historically benefited from privilege? 

This is the Lunar Startups Podcast and I'm your host, Twila Dang. 

In 2018, a collective of dedicated individuals and organizations teamed up to find an answer. The Glen Nelson Center at American Public Media, Knight Foundation and Osbourn370 in St. Paul, Minnesota worked together to create and launch Lunar Startups—a St. Paul, Minnesota based incubator specializing in growth, connection, and innovation for women, people of color, and other high potential entrepreneurs. 

Melissa Kjolsing served as founding managing director.

Kjolsing: I think with all good things, most of the time there's a lot of serendipity that goes into it and it's a confluence of activity. With Lunar Startups it came down to, you know, the right people in the right positions at the right time. So with Jeffrey Le Nelson operating for the Glen Nelson Center and Jai Winston with the Knight foundation and then some really awesome leadership here at Osborne370, people saw a need and a gap that we were able to fill and one of the things that I think we set out to create was something that was different and missing in the market.

So we had people who trusted our vision, trusted that we knew what we were talking about because we had been really on the front lines of the ecosystem for a number of years and said, let's do something different and let's try to create something that benefits people outside of the traditional path of access and opportunity.

Danielle Steer served as Senior Program Manager. Prior to Lunar, Danielle established Impact Hub MSP, a co-working space for local entrepreneurs in the Twin Cities. 

Steer: I was attracted to this program because there was an emphasis in human-centered design. How do we take best practices from accelerators and incubators that are working for a broader audience and redesign those things that aren't working? So we really needed to be intentional and iterative and thoughtful and inclusive in terms of our question and our questions that we’re asking the cohort and that we’re asking ourselves around creating the program. In terms of who our vendors are, who our workshop leaders are—all of those components.

This powerful local network, in combination with the national reach of their partner institutions, created a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs in the Lunar Startups inaugural cohort. In the weeks leading up to the launch of cohort one, Melissa transitioned over to running her own startup recovery full-time with Danielle stepping in and taking over as Managing Director and getting down to the daily work of teaching, supporting, and elevating cohort one. 

Kjolsing: From the jump with cohort one, we tried to be really transparent that we were a start-up supporting startups. That nuance and kind of “co-creation” that's required for us to be able to effectively serve them, provided quite a few challenges that we both did and didn't anticipate. So for example, in creating a customized program that met the needs of six unique companies that, in terms of their growth, were similar-ish in regards to their broader needs around legal support and Acumen development and some of these other components. But they're also really unique. None of them fall within the same vertical. None of them fall within the same context of, you know, capital and how they have so far funded their company and how they want to fund their company going forward. 

So from the very beginning, Lunar Startups was an incubator for entrepreneurship, but also a startup itself. By necessity, that sometimes made the work between Lunar and it’s cohort much more collaborative. 

Kjolsing: So we had to do a lot of customer interviews, if you will, with this cohort and ad hoc customize the program on the spot. Which meant that we called upon our networks in a really rapid and kind of “high-need” way. Which also meant that we called upon our networks to help serve our entrepreneurs and help engineer their success in a way that I don't think we'll have to do going forward because it was all iterative. So we really co-created a lot of what Lunar Startups is with cohort one. Because of that hard work and collaboration with them, we have a more structured program that we get to deliver with future cohorts.

Danielle set out to build her team and recruited individuals with strong backgrounds of entrepreneurship. They also had unique skill sets that made the team an even greater asset to cohort one. 

Program director, Jeffrey Aguy is a serial entrepreneur and has founded or co-founded several businesses in diverse sectors over the past seven years. Prior to joining Lunar Startups, he was the Vice President and Economic Development Chair for the Minneapolis NAACP.

Aguy: All of us are so committed to entrepreneurship. All of us are truly committed to women and people of color. And all of us truly believe in the work that we do. Not because we believe it within ourselves that we are so special—while we do have skills—but because we truly believe in the companies that we accept. That belief is translated into real results.

Director of Lunar Services (now called Lunar Everywhere), Amanda Heyman, is an attorney and entrepreneur. She's the co-founder and general counsel of Starting Eleven, a global daily fantasy Soccer startup. 

Heyman: I'd say my status as having run my own business and run a venture scale business absolutely helps me identify. I can give you an example today. 

I had in my calendar that I needed to pay estimated taxes for 2018 today. And so I was able to put that out on Slack, which is not a sexy thing, but it's something that--I’m living it. Alongside the cohort today.

We'll be right back after the break. 

Music plays.

Welcome back to the Lunar Startups Podcast. 

Startup accelerators tend to move fast. It's built into the term. Accelerator. Accelerate. By definition, that means “begin to move more quickly.” That's usually the goal—to move potential businesses towards success faster. But that can create its own set of challenges. Particularly for entrepreneurs that do not fit the long-standing mold of what we perceive entrepreneurs to look like. We often think of young, single individuals—many with the freedom to drop everything and move to a far-flung city for 12 to 16 weeks. They have no distractions and can focus all of their time building a business. 

But today's entrepreneurial landscape is shifting. Increasingly, women and people of color are making confident strides into entrepreneurship. Many are taking this on with a clear understanding that traditional funding will elude them. Women overall receive only two percent of investor funding and often start their businesses with half the capital of their male counterparts. People of color receive less than one percent of venture funding and face systemic barriers to securing alternate forms of capital. Overcoming these types of obstacles not only requires Innovative change to systems, it requires time. Lunar Startups positioned itself as a year-long incubator in an effort to provide better opportunities for long-term success.

Meet Margie Scott, one of the founders in cohort one. 

Scott: My name is Margie Scott and I am the founder and CEO of Take 12. 

Margie has had previous accelerator experience. The Lunar Startups’ 12-month commitment was an exciting prospect. 

Scott: I’ve never had access to something like that before. Lunar startups will be helpful. 

First of all, I'm excited for the 12-month program. I love that their program is set up for a full year. I've done some other work in accelerators just in the startup world, which have all been very helpful, but the time that it takes to get ingrained in a program and then to really feel momentum is a longer process than I think I ever had, you know, that I had ever really thought about. I'm excited for the 12-month program because I feel like it will really give all of the startups involved time to dig in, get comfortable, and really do work with the time that it takes to do the work. 

I also know Melissa and Danielle understand stewardship and how important it is to truly connect. I think, you know, a lot of the startup world depends on networking and mentorship but a lot of times, you know, networking and mentorship only go so far. Whereas stewardship and really taking the hands of these startups and helping them get to the next level is what I think Lunar Startups is really focused on.

More time overall to advance a business in the cohort also translates to more time for collaboration and camaraderie among the cohort. Here’s Margie.

Scott: I think, I don't know if this is part of just the Imposter syndrome or you know, being a “chick” in the startup world, but I always feel like I'm further behind than everyone else. So it's great when we all get to sit in the room together and talk about the successes and the, you know, hopes and dreams that we all have because we're all at different spots and we've all had different experiences thus far. So I'm excited to just get close to them and help where I can and learn from them.

Over the course of these episodes, you'll hear more about the program's successes.

Scott: Lunar Services is so incredible. I was dealing with an issue with a previous law firm where I felt like I was being taken advantage of but I didn't know because I'm not a lawyer, quite frankly. And so I felt like I kept saying oh, this is fine. Right. This should be this way, and then ended up getting smacked with a huge bill that would put any startup in my spot basically out of business. And so Lunar Services was such an important piece of me...getting to the other side of that. 

 Just saying, you know, I was able to go to Amanda and basically say “Does any of this make sense to you?” And she was like “No, but I've seen it happen before and here are some documents that you can use to help you get to the other side and here's what you need.” And so if I didn't have Lunar Services, I would have the opportunity to go to a number of other lawyers and pay money to meet them and then decide if they were trustworthy. 

So it's like, having that warm contact or safe place again to go and say “I don't understand the side of my business. Is this something that is okay?” And for someone to be able to say “Maybe. Here are some steps you should take to understand that better” or straight up—”Here's what you actually need.” 

And so I feel like I had a really cool opportunity as maybe one of the biggest test subjects on Lunar Services. I took up a lot of their time but I think for me it was, you know, Lunar Services is incredibly valuable and also a very unique offering to what Lunar provides for startups based on other...accelerator and incubator experiences that I’ve had. 

And you'll hear more about the growing pains of entrepreneurship. Those of the cohort and Lunar Startups. 

This is Mohammed and Aaron from ClutchSOS. You'll hear more about them soon.

 Free: I think the growing pains are tricky because I know...I see the program and I know...I really like being first. I really like the attention we get. I really liked all that. But I also know, I see where this is going and like that this is going to be so great for cohort two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve. Yea. 

Abdurrahman: Yeah, that actually does hurt a little bit. Knowing that we're breaking ground on things that folks in the future are just going to take for granted. That that’s just a thing. Like that's kind of hard. So we were talking about...there's a travel reimbursement fund thing and the day Danielle told us about we we're like, “Okay, great” and she's like “And you guys need to use it,” and we're like, “Okay great.” And I think the next day or like later on that day, we had a team member was like, “Okay, I'm going to need to use this.”

And it's like, but the rules haven't been made up yet. The policy isn't determined yet. The paperwork isn't done. The lawyers haven't signed every element of what it all is going to be. And it's like, okay so then this thing that we're just getting...even in the room we’re recording this podcast didn't have glass until I think six weeks in or so. Like, these are all things that are just a part of the setup. And we had to believe in these things to come here. And so yeah, that is a little tough. 

But I'd say also one of the best things...like one of the toughest things is also one of the best things. When you're in a program like this, it's a little bit higher touch in some regards. So you're held a little bit more to account than you would be in some other programs and incubators I think, specifically.

Free: Yeah I mean we, like I'm sure everybody in the cohort now, we really want to be able to come back as alumni and as success stories and really, you know, helped this grow.

Ultimately, one of the most important things we’ll discover is why the creation of Lunar Startups was so important. Managing Director Danielle sums it up best.

Steer: Lunar Startups is important because there are community members here locally in St. Paul, in the Twin Cities, and more broadly across the nation that have amazing solutions to real problems that our communities are facing. And they don't necessarily have the same networks or access to service providers or visibility to help them grow in scale and solve more people's problems. And so our main role here in the ecosystem is helping those people get access to those networks and visibility so that they can grow in scale at a rate that is more comparable to their counterparts who went to Ivy League schools or who have an uncle who's a lawyer or who have family capital to help launch their companies. 

Thank you for listening to this podcast. If you'd like to learn more about Lunar Startups or apply for an upcoming cohort, check out their website at lunarstartups.org. 

We'd like to extend a special thank you to the Glen Nelson Center at American Public Media, Knight Foundation, and Osborn370 for their continued support of Lunar Startups. 

This podcast is a Matriarch Digital Media production. Executive Producers: Twila Dang, Brittany Arneson, and Josette Elieff.