We invest in founders to solve problems that show up differently in small cities.
We're interested in areas like housing, transportation, climate change, supply chains, manufacturing, logistics, and environmental issues from the legacy of industrial or agricultural eras.
These are big markets with important problems and little competition currently solving them.
For pre-idea founders interested in building for the small city segment. Remote. Part-time. Fee & Equity Free.
We spend the first month digging into small city problem research, understanding what problem you are best positioned to solve, and where there is an opportunity for a startup.
We spend the next month working with you to define the opportunity. What need are you filling? What isn't working about the current solutions? What value could be unlocked?
We spend the last month working with you to brainstorm and test solutions and business models. We will help you build prototypes, talk to potential customers, and model how the business could work.
For founders already building for the small city segment.
We help you focus on the best assumptions to test and find early customers in small cities, starting with our South Bend network.
We write $25k - $50k checks. Our sweet spot is companies who are MVP or earlier, looking to run pilots in small cities.
Collectively, small cities are a big market with lots of interesting and important problems that are particular to being their size. And using that as an asset, instead of seeing it as a liability, can potentially entice entrepreneurship to show up in places like these too. Learn more about the opportunity we see in small cities here.
A strength of small cities is that they run on networks of trust. Knowing someone often means an ability to get to anyone. We want to use our networks in South Bend, and other cities like it, to introduce founders and prospective founders to people who want to share problems and pilot solutions, building relationships that will inform designing products, services, and business models that can work and scale.
We love betting on people that have a history of starting things, but haven't yet found the company they want to start. By working together before you have an idea, we can be true co-founders and help you build a business that lies at the intersection of the problems you feel connected to and the skills and experience you bring to the table.
We believe small and mid-size cities can act as co-founders. They have deep knowledge about problems that affect people's daily lives, and over 40% of the US population lives in places like this. Their networks of trust, knowledge, and desire to spur entrepreneurship and innovation make them ideal partners for motivated potential founders to tackle tough problems and build impactful businesses.
These are the kinds of problems that show up in people's lives on a daily basis and really matter to solve. We focus on areas that that connect to things like financial health, employment, childcare, transportation and small business. Not only are these problems critical to solve for a majority of Americans, but they also represent big opportunities for impactful businesses.