Start-up Society #59: The NBA Finals Issue — Milwaukee vs. Phoenix 🏀
Keeping the American Dream Alive
Welcome to the 59th edition of Start-up Society! This is a weekly blog that promotes nationwide entrepreneurship and highlights some of the most exciting start-ups in the country striving to keep the American Dream alive.
Make sure you check out the previous issue, if you have not already, here!
Yesterday marked the end of game 3 of the NBA Finals. In a match-up against the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Bucks managed to soundly defeat the Suns by a score of 120–100, thus avoiding the catastrophic 0–3 hole. However, the Suns still maintain a 2–1 series lead. Game 4 will occur on Wednesday (7/14/21) at 9:00pm ET. Will the Bucks tie up the series, or will Phoenix regain control?
Regardless of the outcome, it is important to acknowledge both cities have been represented well to this point. At Start-up Society, we are honored to take a moment to highlight one innovative start-up from each of Milwaukee and Phoenix. Who are you taking in a 7-game series?
Arizona
Protecht
HQ: Phoenix
Founded: 2016
Total Raised: $25.5M via PitchBook
About the Company
- Protecht is leveraging embedded technologies to distribute insurance solutions across today’s online economy. The company provides end-to-end insurance solutions through over 9 distinct product offerings.
- Let’s take a closer look at 3 of these offerings:
- TicketGaurdian (2016): Powers all non-insurance products. This product offers insight and security into ticket purchases and protects consumers and clients from any type of ticketing fraud.
- Fanshield (2018): The primary engine behind the insurance offerings. This product is a suite that offers specialized attendee products, event cancellation, and is at the forefront of protection products to serve the live events space.
- Modern Transact (2019): Offers a single API for both card-present and card-not-present merchant accounts. With one integration and reporting dashboard, you can manage and reconcile all of your payments at the same time
- The company raised $23 million through a combination of Series A and Series A1 venture funding from American Family Ventures, Connected VC and IA Capital Group on June 11, 2020. Harper Partners also participated in the round.
Meet the Team
Bryan Derbyshire, Founder & CEO
- Previously, Bryan earned his B.A. from Arizona State University in Political Science in 2006. He started his career as an Assistant VP at Wells Fargo and left after seven years as a regional team lead.
- He founded his first company in 2015, ShopGaruntee, which was acquired in 2019. He founded his second company, FanShield in 2016. Both of these companies were acquired by Protecht.
Patrick Zhang, CTO
- Previously, Patrick began his career as the Co-Founder and CTO of Hillotask in 2015 while also working as a Software Developer consultant.
- In 2018 he was brought on to be SVP of Engineering for Fanshield and eventually graduated to CTO. He transitioned to CTO of Protecht after the acquisition.
Casey Callinsky, COO
- Previously, Casey earned his Associate of Arts from Tacoma Community college in 1997 and began his career as a banker for U.S. Bank in 1998.
- After serving 16 years at Wells Fargo, he joined Protecht in March of 2018 as Chief Business Officer and transitioned to COO in late 2019.
Scott Matulich, CFO
- Previously, Scott earned his Bachelor of Science from Portland State University and his MBA from Seattle University.
- He began his career as a Collection representative in 1998 with Wells Fargo and left in 2018 as a Senior Financial Analyst to join Protecht as CFO.
The Start-up Society Assessment
- Insurance on ticketing and live events is a business that has been around for decades. Bringing sophisticated technological solutions to traditional industries is one of the best ways to build a strong technology venture.
- By structuring the company as a builder of solutions and an acquirer of individual technologies that a strung together into something disruptive matches the fractured nature of ticketing across the varying kinds of in-person events.
- With a team of highly experienced risk and insurance industry veterans and several strong innovators and entrepreneurs, Protecht will be able to modernize and streamline the insurance live events.
Go Deeper
Protecht To Provide Peace Of Mind For Boston Marathon Participants
Wisconsin
Fiveable
HQ: Milwaukee
Founded: 2018
Total Raised: $4.2M
About the Company
- Fiveable is an online social learning company that seeks to democratize learning and empower high school students through educational content, community, and collaboration.
- By providing free and engaging resources, Fiveable helps students master complex concepts and skills through interactive live-streamed lessons and discussions, fun reviews, and study guides.
- Fiveable focuses on Advanced Placement (AP) courses. The platform has open-sourced study guides for every unit in all 38 AP subjects, written and edited by students and teachers to be shared with everyone. Fiveable also hosts an active Discord server where students from around the world build study groups and connect with each other.
- Fiveable makes money in two ways: $25 for a cram-pass or $5 for live events, such as a 5-hour review the night before an exam.
- The company raised an undisclosed amount of venture funding from tennis star Serena Williams’ venture capital firm Serena Ventures and Swell Partners on April 20, 2021. The funds will be used to grow the company’s student support community, add to its team, and manage its growing user base.
“What impresses us most about Fiveable is how well they understand and are immersed in today’s students; that’s what initially piqued our interest. The way they’ve brought students in to help guide their roadmap is unlike anything I’ve seen. Based on their growth in users and engagement, it’s evident that their social learning community has cracked the code on peer-to-peer learning.” — Serena Williams, founder of Serena Ventures
- Previously, the company raised $2.33 million of venture funding on October 13, 2020. The round was led by BBG Ventures, with participation from Metrodora Ventures (Chelsea Clinton’s fund focused on health and learning businesses), Deborah Quazzo, Spero Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Cream City Venture Capital, 27V, Golden Angel Investors, and SoGal Ventures.
Meet the Team
Amanda DoAmaral, Co-Founder & CEO
- Amanda is an educator, entrepreneur, and activist.
- Her background is in teaching. Before founding Fiveable, she was an AP Human Geography and AP World Geography teacher at Skyline High School in Oakland, CA.
- Amanda earned her M.A. in Urban Education from Loyola Marymount University and received her B.S. in Social Studies Education from Boston University.
Tán Ho, Co-Founder & Chief Experience Officer (CXO)
- Tán is a digital marketing and digital media guru, with several years of experience under his belt working in marketing roles at company’s, working at marketing agencies, and also doing freelance work.
- Tán brought his marketing savvy and fresh perspective to the Fiveable team, enabling the start-up to scale tremendously under his stewardship.
- He earned his B.A. in Digital Media Arts and Communications Studies with a concentration in Integrated Marketing from Canisius College.
The Start-up Society Assessment
- Fiveable’s mission is extremely noble, and as the COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges for students globally, the valuable impact of such a platform is incalculable. It may be summer break right now, but when students return to the classroom in the Fall there is no question Fiveable will continue to be a useful educational social platform.
- In May 2021, Fiveable acquired Hours — a virtual studying platform for students — from 16-year-old entrepreneur Calix Huang, a high school student from the Bay Area, California. As part of the acquisition, Calix will join its team as a lead product manager to work on Hours part-time. That about sums up the company’s commitment to empowering students.
Go Deeper
Fiveable makes first acquisition: A virtual study tool built by a 16-year-old
Fiveable Raises Fresh Funding for its Online Social Learning Platform
Thank you for reading this article! Feel free to leave a comment, clap, and follow. Stay tuned for next week’s write-up, posted every Monday at 5 AM ET.
Authored by Arteen Zahiri, Rumeer Keshwani, and Elham Chowdhury
