Grounded

I am thrilled to share that Grounded just announced our $3.5M pre-seed fundraising round to build smart, modular electric vans for work and outdoor recreation, co-led by Vijen Patel & Alex Kirshenbaum at The 81 Collection, and Mike Annunziata at Also Capital. Participation also from Andrew Batey at Side Door Ventures. What a freaking awesome team of investors who already in just 1 week since closing have proven tremendously helpful. Those of you who know me know that fundraising isn't my favorite activity of all time - I prefer to spend time actually building the business, working on product, engineering and sales. But this is going to help Grounded get to the next phase of the business and scale up meaningfully over the next 12 months and create more jobs here in Detroit :) Huge thank you to everyone who has helped me/Grounded with professional advice and with emotional therapy on this roller coaster ride (of which I've needed a lot) since we started the company 2 years ago, especially our rock-star team, advisors and amazing startup community in Detroit. (Apparently LinkedIn has a "mentions" limit but there is actually an endless number of people to thank on Grounded's journey so far). Eli Harris Nadia Meyer Grant Morgan Nick Fitzpatrick Aiden Leonard Patrick Dunstone Matt Nyrkkanen Joseph Jiran Anthony Miceli Alisyn Malek Tony Lyscio Xenya Burdo Katie Soven Garrett Winther Michael Lehman Erik Hardy Aaron Weast Mike Dudgeon Benedict Walker Marc Bernstein Blaine Riley Roy Carter Kevin Delie Mark Krassner John Mueller Leeshy Cutler Ben Cutler, CPA Newlab Michigan Central Jason Vazzano Tommy Skinner Jim Tenzillo https://lnkd.in/ggg-8dfM https://lnkd.in/gMGt4kAv

Something special is coming your way ?? Grounded is excited to be trying something new and cool in the outdoor space. Grounded has always been about the quiet rebellion - to be yourself, to explore and work within nature, to design your life on your own terms, sustainably. No one embodies this philosophy more authentically than one of our hometown Detroit artists, Ivan Montoya: an artist and painter who has been featured in New American Paintings, Seen Magazine, Detroit Art Review, Spectrum, 3x3 Mag, and The Society of Illustrators, and is part of the Guillermo Del Toro Bleak House Collection. In just a few weeks, we’ll be premiering a G2 electric camper van at Overland Expo turned into a work of art, designed and hand-painted directly on the G2 by Ivan. Take a minute, sound up, to enjoy the sneak peek. Stay tuned. Videography & editing by John Sippel. Big thanks to ArtClvb for connecting Grounded and Ivan! #detroit #campervan #art #painting #erv #rvs #artist #overlanding

Climate Action Committee's Clean Energy REVolution Tour is hitting the road this summer! Their Grounded G2 electric campervan will visit six U.S. states from now through September to celebrate $361 billion in new clean energy investments #DrivingClimateProgress. Thanks to key provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and #SolutionsForPollution Standards, our future looks cleaner and greener. Let's #ActOnClimate together! https://lnkd.in/gTkvcGpU

You know what gets us out of bed in the morning at Grounded? We love putting incredible businesses on all-electric wheels! This week was special. We delivered our 1st mobile medical clinic to Sunny and her kick ass team at Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai’i. They are a non-profit working to improve equitable access to maternal and child health for thousands of women, children, and families. Getting here has been quite a journey for Sunny (trust us, this champagne is much deserved). Finding an electric commercial vehicle with a customized interior is not a trivial task. In fact, it was so hard that Sunny went on to custom build her first 2 vans herself! From DIY videos! That surely was a nightmare. Luckily she found Grounded and we found her. 250+ mile range is plenty to cover the daily distance to her patients (with not a gram of CO2, might we add), and she had everything she needed to create her dream workspace in our modular configurator. She and her team played with different layouts, using renders of the interior to picture themselves working inside the van, till they found the final design they loved. From there, Sunny could focus on what's most important – her patients – and we on what we do best: building smart, sustainable rides to work and explore on the move. These are really the moments we grind for! If you wonder whether your business could go mobile too, come talk to us!

Grounded is hiring more technicians! Please share the JD below and reach out if interested!

I had to a part 2 of my "day in the life" video at our warehouse. Grounded is a small, scrappy team of engineers building and shipping the future of electric outdoor recreation. It's fun and rewarding to witness the growth :) We believe in a culture of ownership where each team member has their respective domain -- software, manufacturing, engineering, design, sales. Do a lot with a little; move fast. Hey, thanks for the nice view out the front door, Michigan Central ! Detroit is a great place to build a hardware company. Newlab Matt Nyrkkanen Patrick Dunstone Nick Fitzpatrick Anthony Miceli Blaine Riley Arthur Sanchez

We are hiring! Please forward this along to anyone in your network who might be interested in a sales role at Grounded!