Meet ClutchSOS | Episode 6
Clutch, I think, defined in urban dictionary is something like ‘exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.’
This is the Lunar Starts Podcast and I'm your host, Twila Dang.
Lunar Startups launched its first cohort in the fall of 2018—a startup accelerator determined to create better opportunities for women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color. But at the heart of this work were six companies—a group of entrepreneurs representing a variety of fields, coming together with the support of Lunar Startups to take their businesses to the next level. We'd like you to meet them.
We asked the cohort founders to share the origin stories of their companies.
Abdurrahman: My name is Muhammad Abdurrahman.
Free: My name is Aaron Free.
Abdurrahman: And our company is called Clutch. Clutch is a VIP safety assurance product. We provide—through our app—instantly virtual witnesses who can intervene and create a record of proof for everything that took place during an interaction.
So if somebody had, for example, a moment where they felt uncomfortable or unsafe, they could press a button on our app which would instantly connect them with their friends family coworkers—whoever they chose—who could hear everything, see everything, see where they are on a map, here and speak with them, and then they can either shout through the app or call 9-1-1 or relay health information. All of that is recorded so that there's no question about who said what, where, [or] when. So we also offer, for business customers, an opportunity to understand what's going on with their workers when their off-site and to analyze their interactions with that recording to understand better the customer experience.
We want to create a service and a platform for people to be able to feel safe wherever they go and for anyone who might do them harm to know that they might get caught—or at least that that person will have backup when something goes wrong. They have a group of folks who are “clutch” for them—who will be there for them when they need it, which is why our product is called ClutchSOS. And similarly for businesses to have a really good understanding again that that interaction was safe and high quality.
So I guess what I could say is that what drives us is to make sure that every interaction, whether it's...at the bar late at night or a situation where there's a power differential, that every interaction comes out great.
Free: I think that the exposure that Lunar Startups will probably give us throughout the whole program—that's something that we're really looking forward to.
Abdurrahman: I had the opportunity in a previous venture to interact with Melissa, who used to run the Minnesota Cup here in town. She presided over a significant expansion over what that organization did. For those who don’t know, it's the largest statewide competition entrepreneurship competition in the country and I had the privilege to lead a company to be a finalist during that period. And so with her heading it with the power of American Public Media, we have a great opportunity for visibility and for tidying up our messaging. For a product like ours that has not just a business-to-business component, but also a business-to-consumer component, messaging and visibility is very, very important in making sure that we don't mix those messages as we seek to serve our market.
Free: I mean, we're really early with what we're doing. I mean, we just launched the product in the Spring and we've been working on, sort of, the next iteration of that and also, you know. what that means for our business. So I think it's really [about] ‘Are the strategies that we're sort of coming up with...are those going to be valid strategies or not? Are we going to have to go back to the drawing board? You know, there's a lot of anxiety as a founder that I have around that. But I'm really excited to see. Are the offerings that we're creating—are those things that people want? Or are we going to have to try another angle?
Abdurrahman: I don't know if I can call it fear. I think “excitement” is the word Aaron used and I think I would mirror that. I'm super hyped to get in front of people, more understand what their concerns are, [and] see how we can tweak things because I know that what we're providing ultimately has significant value for folks. But what I want to understand is how best we can serve them.
So I guess my biggest fear is that for some reason—I can't foresee this—but that for some reason we hit some roadblocks and then just stopped and refused to innovate or something. My fear is that we just shut down for some reason, but I don't have that experience and I don't think that we will so that's not a great answer.
Music plays.
We'll be right back after the break.
Welcome back to the Lunar Startups Podcast.
Free: I hope that we come back with these iterations and we're really successful. We can build and grow our team and our company and...expand our product offering as we grow. I mean, those are sort of my hopes, I think even at least in just the next year. I'm really excited to bring in more people to our team that can give us a better outlook on different things that we're doing and more customers to sort of, you know, validate what we're doing. Those are the things that I'm looking forward to.
Abdurrahman: I have to take a really long view for where we go. And at the same time I have to look at everything day-to-day, minute-to-minute. My hope in the long view is that we reach a significant saturation to the point there's a relaxation that people can experience because they know that they have ClutchSOS; that there's a relaxation that business owners can have because they know that they understand the voice of the customer—the literal voice of the customer—there with their employees and [knowing] that interaction is going to be awesome. So my long-term hope is that we win.
Six months from now I want us 10x in everything. I want us to have more people—more customers six months from now. Six months from now, I hope that we've hit our one year goals.
I got together with our partner Jonathan and we were going through it and we were desperately trying to come up with a name. No, let me put it differently. So our other partner Jonathan and I were desperately trying to figure out a name and we...had a placeholder name for the longest and I reached out to a friend of mine who owns a shop in town called Be Swing. I think it's named for a Thelonious Monk song. She had a brilliant idea for the name. She just said “clutch” and we were like ‘No, that's good’.
She had a brilliant idea for the name and she said why don't you call it “clutch”? And we had gone through all kinds of different—I mean, some of the names were stupid. But then she said why don’t you call it “clutch” and we were like ‘Why?’ and then [she said] ‘It's about reliability’.
Okay… what do you call LeBron when you have a moment? Or maybe not LeBron— Jordan, or whoever your favorite player is, you know. You need Tom Brady to do something. He does it, they win the game. We're dealing with interactions that are highly sensitive; they’re critical pressure. So effectively, you know Clutch is something that you want to have with you. Like that handbag that doesn't have a strap. Clutch is a tough moment, you know, in the “clutch”. Clutch, I think, defined in urban dictionary is something like ‘exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.’
And those are the kinds of situations that we designed ClutchSOS for. Man! I mean, it's exciting! It's exciting. It's exciting that we have this program, Lunar Startups. I'm excited to be in this cohort with these other phenomenal companiesClutch, I think, defined in urban dictionary is something like ‘exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.’
to see everybody, kind of, at the beginning of where they're going. I've been a part of accelerators before in previous activities. I was part of the Microsoft accelerator several years ago, and I just got to say ‘This is cool’.
It's a great space, it’s great people, and I'm excited for the future.
Free: Yeah, I think it's really validating to actually be here—to be accepted. You know, we were selected from these forty-five startups and it's like, now we're here. So, yeah, it's definitely a really exciting experience.
Abdurrahman: Yeah. Also just the fact that there's some of the companies that are here—a number of them are headed by women or people of color or groups that you don't frequently see in the community. Groups that may definitely have valid ideas, scalable ideas, [and] valuable ideas, [groups] that might not always get the focus. And looking at it from the vantage point of someone who's kind of played the game a little bit before, it's really exciting to see a cohort that has that kind of makeup. These entrepreneurs—these teams—they're legit. I can't say anything more than that. If they weren't legit APM wouldn't—American Public Media—wouldn't be here. All the people are right and that's very exciting, especially for the Twin Cities. So the Twin Cities has an awesome growing startup community.
Free: Yeah, I mean I think you know also speaking to that...when designing Clutch, like, the communities that we wanted to serve that's also reflected in the people that were selected for Lunar Startups. So it's just really exciting. We're going to get really terrific feedback from all this. It's gonna be awesome.
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 the 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.