Startup Founders Laud NVP Labs for Sales Development Assistance, Intros to Investors
Newark Venture Partners has been accelerating great startups at its NVP Labs since 2016, and there can be no doubt, as founder Don Katz often says, that the program also is helping to accelerate the comeback of a great American city: Newark.
During the last year or so, the accelerator has pivoted to focus on B2B startups. Part of NVP Labs’ special sauce is the quality of companies that are limited partners in its fund and provide mentorship to startup teams. The accelerator has also focused on helping startups get sales, develop sales pipelines and start to scale effectively.
This group of startups has benefited from all of this support. If you want to see them for yourself, there is still time to register for the upcoming NVP Labs Demo Day, on July 16.
The participating companies are:
Augmented Review (Brooklyn, N.Y.) allows industrial designers to share any 3D model to a colleague in a WhatsApp-like platform where it can be viewed in Augmented Reality and commented on in real-time.
EVŌ (Atlanta, Ga.) provides an off-the-shelf health engagement platform and proprietary data insights, allowing for life insurers to track member behaviors and improve upon existing risk assessment models .
PeduL (Newark) contracts with enterprises to market custom financial scholarships where corporates can engage with thousands of applicants and convert best-fits to internship and full-time positions.
Riskcast (New York) collects and analyzes real-time job site data to predict and forecast risk on construction projects.
SensorTransport (Sacramento, Calif.) allows shippers to extend their existing operational systems into the hands of the people actually doing the delivery.
SIRL (New York) can track a retail customer’s indoor movements to less than 30 centimeters via their proprietary Bluetooth low energy technology.
TalentWall ( Chicago) has software that sits on top of the applicant tracking system to allow employers visibility into funnel volume, diversity, candidate communications and conversions to make quicker, more informed decisions.
Time Study (New York) leverages machine learning and predictive analytics to automate time submissions, tracking and reporting, for hospitals.
Vectorly ( New York, NY and Bangalore, India) is a video compression company that leverages patented AI and computer vision technology to transform video from pixels to mathematical equations, compressing videos by 50x while also improving quality.
NJTechWeekly.com cornered these startups to ask them what their most valuable experiences were during the 12-week NVP Labs program. Not surprisingly, many said that the accelerator’s concentration on — and expert instruction in — developing a sales organization and pipeline helped to transform them. Several mentioned the accelerator’s introductions to fundraising partners. Here are their experiences, in their own words:
- Charles-Edouard Monroe, Cofounder and CEO of Augmented Review: “NVP’s team of experts has been instrumental in building out our sales machine. While in the program, we’ve grown our leads by leaps and bounds, and have fine-tuned our process for connecting with and onboarding new and prospective customers. NVP Labs has simply provided the tools we needed to strengthen and grow Augmented Review.”
- Robert Cabral, Cofounder and VP of Services and Technology of EVŌ: “NVP’s ability to mobilize the venture capital community is of tremendous value to young companies. As part of the program, we participated in the “sneak peak” event, during which we met and pitched over 40 top-tier investors. These types of introductions and networking events with relevant investors have helped us make some really significant new connections.”
- Kayla Michele, Cofounder, President and COO of PeduL: “PeduL has been able to accomplish more than what most startups have in under two years. We grinded while balancing college credits. We bootstrapped from our work-study and side jobs. We Googled everything. We talked to everybody. We became the first Newark-based company that Newark Venture Partners invested in through grit and hustle: the qualities that make up the backbone of this city. We did what we could to launch, grow, iterate, evolve and survive. But the next chapter of our journey will be far more profitable, systematic, productive and horizonless because of the tools, resources, skills, credibility and network we’ve acquired through this accelerator.”
- Alec Thomson – Cofounder and CEO of Riskcast Solutions: “NVP has been instrumental in helping us meet and understand the investment community, specifically at this early stage, when many investors and funds are private and harder to reach. The NVP Labs program has also been really helpful as we continue to build out our sales machine. Thanks to their mentorship, we are now generating leads at scale with an incredible support structure and a true sales play book. Not only has the program helped us save time and resources, it has given us tremendous momentum. We’re even bringing our NVP intern (from NJIT) to work with us after the program because he’s become a valuable part of the Riskcast team.”
- Sascha B. Peyer, Cofounder and Chief Commercial Officer, SensorTransport: “The NVP team’s depth of knowledge, experience and know-how have been incredible assets to SensorTransport as our growth has accelerated over the course of the NVP Labs program. Their coaching has reshaped the way we pursue larger investments, and we have refined our sales process — leading to significant outbound sales campaigns. Their feedback and insight on our website and potential press opportunities have been very valuable, and have resulted in more inbound sales as well.”
- Michael Wang, Cofounder and CEO of SIRL: “NVP has given us access to an invaluable network of leaders in industry and follow-on investors. Regular one-on-one sessions on sales and strategy have helped us focus and optimize our business strategy. With accelerating new traction, we have already recognized exciting results, and have accomplished our desired goal of using this program to build an increasing presence in our market.”
- Jacob Paul, Cofounder and Talent Acquisition Leader of TalentWall: “For us, as first-time founders, NVP Labs has been incredibly helpful, not only in guiding us through the complicated terrain of fundraising, but also in helping us really fine-tune our sales approach and practices. This program has been exactly what we needed to get TalentWall to our next phase of growth.”
- Kishau Rogers, Founder and CEO of Time Study: The Newark Venture Partners accelerator has been a wonderful experience for us at Time Study. Working closely with Kevin, Sean, Brandon, Vaibhav, Tom and Allison, we created the foundation for a scalable sales program that has already helped to double the size of our revenue pipeline, and we are confident that its methods will help us accelerate this growth.”
- Sam Bhattacharyya, Cofounder and CEO of Vectorly: “As a highly technical team, we started at NVP Labs with little direct sales experience. Being able to work with Kevin [Petry], NVP’s resident in-house sales adviser, was especially valuable, helping us walk through our product and market, develop our first sales strategy and tactics and bring our product to market.”
