How We Raised $50k in Funding (before even graduating high school)
We joined an accelerator and won a convertible note.
The longer version: well, let’s dive in…
About a year ago, a girl, Lara, from the high school that 4/5 of us attend, had the idea for an app. She was the computer science girl in high school, and now attends Stanford for CS, so she’s pretty legit. She joined a program called Founders Bootcamp, and although she was only part of their “beta” in their first year of existing, she liked it enough to tell us, the younger computer science girls, that it would be worth our while if we were interested.
Fast forward to late December, and four of us start working on Trill for the Technovation Challenge. As we’re putting together our business plan (it’s very comprehensive!), we realize that the odds of Trill existing in the real world without any money are very slim (read: nonexistent), because of the cost of servers and data storage.
“Alright, for now we just keep going, so maybe later this becomes a real thing, and we try to raise money for it.”
That probably sounds presumptuous, but we love a challenge, and our school is actively (and aggressively) trying to foster entrepreneurial-ness in all of us, all the time. Seriously, Nick Abouzeid can confirm.
In January, we know two things.
- We seriously need money to keep Trill going post Technovation, and make it usable for real people.
- We want more structure/advisement, because we are really making up everything as we go along.
“What was that program Lara participated in, didn’t they give her an advisor and some money??”
We reach out to her and she confirms that yes, they did. Perfect. We sign up to be apart of the 2018 class of Founders Bootcamp, just in time for the January 31 deadline.
Founders Bootcamp (FBC) is a high school accelerator, and I believe it’s the first in the world. They gave us a great advisor, Kartik, and he helped us stay on track and held accountable for everything we were doing. That accountability definitely made a difference in how much we were able to accomplish in a small amount of time, on top of our schoolwork, sports, extracurriculars, etc. Every so often FBC requires updated numbers, pitches, and check-ins, and each time time we made sure to hit our marks.
During FBC, Ari had to fly to North Carolina and accept a national computer science award. It’s pretty cool. While there, she met Georgia, who happened to live in our neighborhood, and go to a nearby high school. Georgia wants to be part of Trill, and Trill wants to work with Georgia. It’s a match!
Georgia joined Trill as resident wordsmith and presenter, and immediately alleviated a ton of stress. When it’s time to grow your team— embrace it! If Georgia hadn’t joined Trill, there’s no way we would’ve been able to accomplish as much as we have. Like, it would’ve been literally impossible.
When it’s time to grow your team— embrace it!
As Georgia integrated into our team, we continued working with FBC, and somehow kept making it through each round. Before we knew it, the pre-Summer program was ending, and we still hadn’t been eliminated. After submitting our last deliverables, we made it to the finals!
We spent weeks perfecting our pitch deck, memorized the pitch, we all dressed up in our most Vogue business casual, and headed to the VC run event in our own backyard: UCLA.
During the process, we were able to meet the 12 other amazing finalist teams: one led by a twelve year CEO, another by a founder who traveled 56 hours from Africa to be there (on a plane for the first time!), and a third with teens from Israel and Palestine, working together. With every team we met, the more honored we felt to be there.
Not only did we connect with new friends and collect our fair share of business cards, we were also able to hear real, honest feedback on our pitch, from people who were unfamiliar with Trill. It was scary, but the response was an outpour of support, not just for Trill, but also for the five of us behind it.
When Sunday rolled around, we nervously gathered in Korn Hall to hear the results. You already know the ending to this story, so there’s no reason to drag it out… Trill was called as a winner, and we stormed the stage! Hugs were exchanged, and photos were taken with a massive check. Trill had been chosen to receive a $50,000 convertible note. But more importantly, we, and our vision for Trill, were believed in.
So that’s our story on how we got funding. We’ll keep writing with more experiences as we continue on this amazing journey.
We’re so excited for Trill’s future, and hope you’ll follow us on this adventure!
