Introduction: Welcome to Five & Thrive: a weekly podcast highlighting the Southeast’s most interesting news, entrepreneurs, and information of the week, all under 5 minutes. 

My name is Jon Birdsong and I’m with Atlanta Ventures. 

Company Coming Up: The company coming up this week is in the education space and is called TARA, which was also one of the companies selected in the most recent Techstars Impact Accelerator. TARA automates the instructional workflows for K-12 teachers and schools in order to save time, improve effectiveness, and prevent teacher burnout. Ian Cohen, a former teacher and Teach for America Alum, is the CEO. They are making tremendous progress on several fronts, mainly product and customers. If you’re a leader in education check out TARA to streamline the key instructional workflows that typically hinder teacher support and drive burnout.

Question of the Week: Is it better to raise as much money now or segment the raise into two different raises due to the macro-economic environment? We’ve talked to several companies who are seeking to raise capital, and at some point in the conversation, the idea to raise a smaller amount resulting in less dilution for this round is suggested. It is an interesting thought exercise and very company dependent, however let’s say a company wants to raise $2M today at an $8M pre money valuation, diluting the current ownership 20%. What if they only raised $1M, which would produce just over 11% dilution, took 9-12 months to either 1) validate more traction - whether that be on the product side or go to market side while giving time for the macro-market environment to settle into a more steady state where there is less investment hesitation (hopefully). Continuing on the example, if the entrepreneur raises half the amount, goes for a year and executes to their satisfaction and then raises the next round at $19M pre-money valuation, then they’ve timed their raise well and maximized for less dilution.  

The main takeaway for entrepreneurs raising today: raise at the highest valuation possible while still feeling confident the business can double in valuation the next round. 

Product of the Week:  The product of the week focuses on financial literacy and is called Money Masters. It is actually headquartered in Geneva but their sales and marketing is out of Atlanta. There are two different markets they approach: one is consumer and another is business to business. Their tagline is to be the Duolingo of Finance. How they are getting the product in front of eyeballs is the good ol’ fashioned direct to consumer mobile app as well as white labeling the software for companies and universities to have a customized and specifically branded financial education software for their employees or students. Download MoneyMasters today.   

Events of the Week: Our friends at investment firm PS27 in Jacksonville are putting together a female-founder event on March 3rd on all things entrepreneurship and company building. The founder of S’well, Sarah Kauss, is the headline speaker. If you’re a female looking to start a company or have started a company, this will be a value add event to put on your calendar.  

Investment of the Week: Resurgens, which we covered a few months ago, who raised over $500M for their most recent fund is quickly putting it to work with an investment into MCIM a Fulcrum Collaborations company. MCIM makes all the data across a large company’s enterprise clean, secure, and seamless. If there is a company that has several data centers across numerous locations, MCIM’s software collects, organizes, and keeps it all very simple for the large enterprise.    

Hiring of the Week: Lastly, two companies hiring this week: first is Intown Golf Club. Expansion is occurring swiftly at Intown Golf Club with Charlotte opening later this Spring and several more on the horizon. They are hiring for a Finance Controller. If you know anyone who loves finance and golf, send them to Intown Golf Club. 

Also, Dr. Noze Best, is looking for a growth Marketer lead growth inside the marketing organization. Ideally, someone who has led a startup to $20M and understands growth marketing/channels, and can lead a small marketing team to success in digital, brand, and growth marketing.

Annnnd that is five minutes!

Company Coming Up: TARA
Product of the Week: Money Masters
Events of the Week: Female Founders Forum
Investment of the Week: Resurgens Invests into MCIM
Hiring of the Week: Intown Golf Club, Dr. Noze Best

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