🌱 Seedocracy: Seed Funding Meets Democracy In University Pitch Competitions
Kevin Cox - Asst. Director of FAU's Adams Center for Entrepreneurship - found himself lacking a way to host engaging pitch competitions for his students. So ... he built his own! Enter, Seedocracy.
I recently had the chance to interview Kevin Cox - the Assistant Director for Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Adams Center for Entrepreneurship and Co-Founder of Seedocracy - along with Kevin Figueroa - current FAU undergraduate student and fellow Co-Founder of Seedocracy. In this write-up and interview, we cover the seedling of Seedocracy, how students went all out to win a $50 prize, the team’s favorite use case so far, and future plans for the platform. Enjoy!
Pitch, please.
Pitch competitions are a staple of life within a university entrepreneurship ecosystem. According to the data from my Fall 2020 University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) Report (link), 88% of interviewed UECs have or will run some form of pitch competition for their students this academic year, down from an even higher percentage of 94% in the 2019-20 academic year.
And it’s easy to see why they’re so ubiquitous. Pitch competitions have the potential to be marquee events for a university, bringing entrepreneurial students out of the woodwork to shoot their shot for a slice of the prize pool. This is a massive opportunity for UECs to collect info on their entrepreneurial ecosystem, generate some buzz for their students/department, and equip the most promising student ventures with non-dilutive funding to help move them forward. For all these reasons, over 38% of surveyed UECs said that pitch competitions are their preeminent program - over double the next highest program (Accelerators at 17%).
So what happens when a pitch competition is forced to go virtual? The barrier of physical attendance goes out the window. Instead of being a physical showcase, it becomes a digital opportunity to pitch your venture far and wide, redefining the concept and role of an audience.
It also opens the door for new solutions that are better suited for the times.
Kevin Cox, the Assistant Director of Florida Atlantic University’s Adams Center for Entrepreneurship, decided it was time to test an idea that had been swirling around in his head for a while. What if access to setting up and funding a university pitch competition could just be a few clicks away? What if students could enter any relevant competition with a chance to win money for their venture?
Enter Seedocracy.
Seedocracy provides a platform for anyone to host a pitch competition - called a Frenzy - which will then be eligible for a crowd choice vote. The “crowd” can either be the general public or a select group of people, say judges, for a closed Frenzy. The Frenzy creator sets the pitch parameters and sends a dollar amount to Seedocracy, which is then distributed to the winning teams within a day of the Frenzy’s finish.
I think the Seedocracy team summarizes it best:
Generate an idea.
Upload your pitch to a Frenzy.
Get the most votes.
Receive funding.
It's that easy!
In this Kevin-filled interview, I talk to Kevin Cox and Kevin Figueroa - a current undergraduate student and Seedocracy co-founder - about a wide range of topics, including Seedocracy’s humble launch, their favorite use cases so far, and what the future holds.
Let’s dive right into it. After you subscribe, of course.
Some of the responses below are either paraphrased or modified for the sake of the article.
So tell me a bit about the foundation for Seedocracy … how did you come to realize a solution like this was needed? What were other virtual pitch competitions platforms just not doing well enough?
Kevin Cox: This is an idea that has been floating around in my head for a while pre-COVID, but COVID was definitely a catalyst to try this out.
A lot of businesses are not interesting for investors because they’re not scalable. All of these pitch competitions seem to be designed for scalable business models.
There are so many essential businesses - ones we’ve especially come to realize as essential over this past year - in food, fitness, fashion, and other lifestyle businesses, that never get recognized or resourced. They might already have a groundswell of support, supporters, and sometimes revenue.
Seedocracy was designed to give these businesses a chance to showcase what they’re working on and win some seed funding from the crowd.
It’s also designed for university center directors and entrepreneurial professors who want to liven up their programs or classes with some friendly competition.
Let’s get into the first pilot. What went well? What needed fixing?
Kevin Cox: We decided to keep the pilot small and test it within my entrepreneurship class last summer. It was just a $50 prize up for grabs, so we didn’t worry about things like server bandwidth space or security. It’s not like this was for all the marbles, right?
Well it turns out we had issues with loading and cheaters - people making fake emails and fake accounts to pad the vote. Who would’ve thought they’d go to all these lengths just for a $50 prize? Anyway, we were able to identify the cheaters and fix the voting in order to make the contest fair. And all in all it was a huge success - we just needed to make the platform more robust.
Kevin Figueroa: Aside from some slight design issues, it worked really well. In my experience, I immediately saw the value in it, along with the simplicity [of the platform]. And I got $50. *laughs*
What was your favorite use case for Seedocracy so far?
Kevin Cox: My favorite has to be the Global Entrepreneurship Week competition that we ran through the FAU Adams Center for Entrepreneurship last Fall. This was our largest Frenzy (35 competitors) and largest prize pool ($1,500) to date.
Any FAU student could enter or become part of the crowd to pick the winners. And I thought they did a phenomenal job. Those top three winners are pretty intriguing.
And an underrated part of this Frenzy was lead generation. In non-COVID times there are a lot of things you can in person to raise awareness for our big events - post flyers, speak in classes, and so on. This year it’s been brutal getting in front of students.
So having 35 students come out of the woodwork, many of whom we’ve never met before, is huge for us. We’re always looking for a better way to identify competitors for our main Business Plan Competition in the Spring and now we have.
Plus for anyone to vote, they had to sign up on the platform. Now we have their email information and can let them know about future events or opportunities like this. Seedocracy has been incredible for lead generation.
How do you process payments and make revenue yourself?
Kevin Cox: We know that paying out students for winning pitch competitions can be a huge bottleneck within university entrepreneurship centers. So we’ve found a way to streamline that whole process.
When the Host makes a Frenzy, they’ll be prompted to check-out with a credit card to cover the amount of the prize pool. This way, universities don’t have to deal with the whole vendor procurement process that can often take months to pay out a student team.
We take 10% the allocated prize pool - and the Host can decide whether that money is taken out of the prize pool or added on top of it using a sliding scale.
After the Frenzy finishes, we pay out each team that placed with PayPal, Zelle, Venmo, or whatever works for them within a couple days. It’s as simple as that.
And what call-to-action do you want to leave anyone reading this?
Kevin Cox: Sponsor and host a Frenzy! Seriously, it’s so easy. Just give it a try. Even if you school can’t do it, you can do it. This is designed for center directors and individuals to make your life easier and programs more engaging.
And there you have it. I believe Seedocracy is well worth checking out for any university entrepreneurship center - or adjacent organizations - who are looking for a fun way to prompt some engagement from their students.
Best of luck to Kevin² as they continue to build out the platform.
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🔀 Odds & Ends
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