How We Raised a $1M Seed Round at 22 Years Old

When new people meet me & my founding team, they are often quick to caution us.

"This is a tough time to raise money."

In response, we acknowledge the reality with a note of optimism. "Yes, the timing could be better, but opportunities still exist if you are scrappy."

What comes next is often a question about how we are surviving as a young startup in the midst of the current capital market.

"We actually closed our Seed/Pre-Seed round in August."

Then crickets... with the following..."How?!"

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Here is a very *real* story about how we raised our Seed round.

January 2023:

Leah Guesman and I had just secured our 2nd student-pitch competition win at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business . It's a pitch competition (the eCup) that has 3 rounds, each independent of the others. To our excitement, we had won the "Concept" competition 2 months prior, and now had a second win under our belts.

Feeling confident post-win, we left the stage, happy that our win was a testament to the hard work we had put into our little "side-business" as college students.

Before we left the building, the judges independently approached us. Pulling us aside, they said "Look - you really have something here. If you end up raising a round, call me."

I remember getting in the car with Leah that day, giggling and screaming that there was a bigger interest in the product we were building. We sent up a little prayer for continued support as we drove back to our desks to keep working.

This was when the idea of taking this full-time and raising a larger round really started coming together.

March 2023:

I was leaving my Entrepreneurship capstone class when I got a call from Mark Galant . We had applied to the extremely competitive but highly rewarding Galant Challenge a month prior.

"I am excited to tell you that we chose College Contact to be our only student-led venture to pitch at the challenge next month."

When people ask me what the turning point was for our fundraising efforts, I always explain that there were 2. Winning the invite to pitch at the Galant Challenge, was turning point #1.

Important side note: The Galant Challenge is now the largest university pitch competition in the country, now even larger than the famous Rice business plan competition. In the year that we pitched, $15M was invested into the 5 companies in one day. (You can read about the Galant Challenge here.)

Now gearing up for 2 big challenges within the next few months, Leah and I set our sights on creating our first "investor ready" deck + refining our pitch.

April 2023:

In the days leading up to the Galant Challenge, Leah and I strategically pulled together all the contacts we had at the University of Virginia who deeply understood pitching to investors. The Galant Challenge was NOT a pitch competition, it was a shark-tank style competition... real investors asking for equity in College Contact.

We spent weeks creating our first pitch deck that was "investor focused", sat in afternoon-long boardroom sessions at McIntire surrounded by advisors who grilled us on our language, and rehearsed thousands of times in front of any friend (or roommate) who would listen. The important part here is that we knew what we didn't know - and sourced advice from those who did.

On the day of the event, Leah and I took a breath, and went on stage.

We walked away that day with $150k of interest.

May 2023:

May was filled with a lot of anticipation post-Galant for the final eCup competition. The eCup Launch phase was different from the others. We were competing for placements among the finalists, with 1st place receiving the grand prize of $20k in non-dilutive capital.

And I had to pitch alone.

Leah was out that weekend at a prior commitment. So I geared up to hit the stage solo.

On the day of the event, hundreds of attendees gathered into the amphitheater. Former professors, sorority and fraternity friends, and Charlottesville innovators packed in to watch us pitch.

When they called me up, I felt a sense of calm. I remembered why we were building College Contact and how much of an impact it has had on the students we serve.

So I switched the pitch at the last second. Standing with a mic in my hand, I told the story of a girl who had used our services to get out of a tough situation.

I noticed how the crowd quieted as I told her narrative.

Then I returned to my seat.

Thirty minutes later, they were announcing the winners. As I watched, 3rd and 2nd place get called - I started to feel defeated. Maybe I shouldn't have switched my pitch?

Then College Contact was called.

We won 1st place and a $20k non-dilutive check to accelerate our business.

After the excitement, photos, and congratulatory remarks from friends and peers, one of the judges, Brett Brohl , came up to me at the event. Standing in line for some appetizers, he said, "You should really apply to TechStars. You would get a lot out of the program."

So the next day, that's what Leah and I did.

Two days after that, I got a call from Charlottesville Business Innovation Council - we were up for "Student Entrepreneur of the Year".

June 2023:

On the first day of June, we attended the CBIC Gala, up for the Student Entrepreneur Award. I had brought one of my closest friends & college roommate to stand in to help us set up our booth.

What happened next, was a story I will never get tired of telling.

A little background: Celia Kelty (my roommate) had to watch Leah and I practice our pitch an unbearable amount of times in our college apartment... so much so that we would joke that she could give our pitch on stage, and no one would ever know that she wasn't officially part of the team.

When we were manning our booth and people started arriving, Leah and I quickly became occupied by people who had come to ask us questions, leaving Celia off to the side until someone approached her.

"Tell me about College Contact." He said.

Celia gave him the full-pitch - with all the complexities of our round, what we had raised to date, what we were hoping to accomplish with funding and more.

He gave her his card, and asked her to pass it along to us.

Without even knowing it, Celia had just given the first pitch to our lead investor.

July 2023:

In July, two big things happened.

First, Leah and I got a call from Amos Schwartzfarb , Dani Rose and Caroline T. . "We are super excited to welcome you both to the Techstars Austin Accelerator."

One of my favorite moments that I share with Leah was in the space of that tiny booth in the CODE building in Charlottesville. Hugging each other and tearing up with the news.

A few weeks later, Leah and I were grabbing lunch at University of Virginia Darden School of Business when I got a call. It was from our prospective lead investor.

"We want you to come in and pitch to us for $1M. Would you be able to pull something together by Monday morning?"

I looked at my calendar and realized it was Thursday. This was exciting. ~72 hours to master a $1M winning pitch. I told him an excited "yes", and ran back to tell Leah. This was turning point #2.

Within 5 hours, we flew out Joseph McGonnigal , our Chief of Staff to help us prepare. And that weekend, the three of us worked.

Lots of Celsius, lots of coffee, and a whole lot of white boarding. The end result?

A refined pitch deck, and a 30+ page briefing on how we were going to execute over the next 12 months with $1M - broken section by section by business category.

When we went in to pitch Monday morning, we put a full binder on their desk and pulled up the deck.

Then we waited.

August 2023:

At the beginning of August, Leah and I were settling into our new home in Austin, gearing up to start the Techstars Program. The round was coming together. I was on the phone almost 24/7, sending documents back and forth with our legal team, calling investors, and providing updates.

It was an exciting time.

We gathered commitments from other Angels who believed in us, and signed the final documents on the last day of the month.

That night, Leah and I were so happy. We went out to celebrate fully decked out in our formal work attire. One of our favorite memories was at that bar in Austin, both of us, dancing in full suits, not a worry who was watching or judging.

Because we had accomplished something. Something that we had been told was next to impossible for two recent graduates.

Final Thoughts:

Yes - it is tough to fundraise. But a lot of it is built one step at a time. It takes months, lots of hours, and lots of conversations. Sometimes it even takes a loving roommate who knows your pitch so well, she could do it for you.

Don't give up even in the tough moments. Because someone will believe in your idea if you do. Source advice from people who have gone through it. Learn to "speak the language" when necessary, and be a human with empathy throughout. Have patience but set expectations. Find the right people to support you, the right investors for your business, and keep at it... every. single. day.

Acknowledgements:

Thank you to the Felton Group, LLC family office of Charlottesville of Jaffray Woodriff for being our lead investor! Huge thank you to our other investors & everyone who helped us fundraise!

Mark Galant Joseph Toe Krissy Gathright Michael Geismar Jaffray Woodriff Amos Schwartzfarb Dani Rose Tom Buiocchi Eric Martin Brendan Richardson MJ Dougherty Toms Caroline T. Brett Brohl Katherine "Kate" Byrne Rob Archer George Kastendike Peter Lee Hamilton Murry Pitts Jason Brewster Marty Weiner Kevin King Colin Gardiner Chip Ransler Aneesh Dhawan Meg Pryde Nikki Hastings Joseph McGonnigal Leah Guesman UVA McIntire School of Commerce Omar Garriott Michael Feinstein Austin Dressen Mystery Murphy Noah Pittard Alex Yun Celia Kelty