What a year...

Rebel One launched publicly one year ago today! Can you believe it?

This year has been challenging for many — including me — and at times feels like multiple years have passed, yet I feel proud by all we accomplished and thankful for the impact centered community that made it all possible.

The pandemic burdened our global founder community resulting in jobs lost, businesses closed, and the cancellation of historically critical events where founders obtain capital — such as SXSW. Rebel One reacted by co-hosting “S Virtual” with local advocacy organizations Harlem Labs, AUTM, and ReThink Austin (www.rbl1.com/svirtual). Following, we launched ‘Hack C19’ to elevate founders addressing the challenges presented by COVID-19 (www.rbl1.com/hackc19) with the Academy Investor Network.

As the death of George Floyd called us to elevate institutional inequities, we moved into action. To address the discrepancies in representation among investors — offered over $100K in scholarships to women and investors of color for our paid programs, trained 105 investors, and doubled down on our free material — launching a weekly LiveStream (www.rbl1.com/live) featuring CEOs and VCs. To better support founders we ran a free founders training program for 25 aspiring entrepreneurs who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, released a blog with 40+ posts with insider investor and founder knowledge (www.medium.com/rbl1), and most importantly invested in 3 startups led by founders of color — Qoins, Fleeting, and LiftEd.

And to the community that made this possible and why I feel so grateful — Thank you. Thank you to the 70+ CEOs and VCs that shared your stories and insight with our community. Thank you to our amazing advisors (especially Sherman Williams — I am without words). Thank you to the Rebel One Team and interns (especially Taylor Bozarth, Jesha Casenas, Brian Ou, Vrat Joshi, Marion Araque, Rebecca Milian, Bukie Adebo, and Alejandra Martinez) for your hustle. Thank you to our community of fellows, alumni, scouts, and angels whose participation and contribution make this all possible. And — to our founders (Pierre Laguerre, Andrew Hill, Joanne Hill Powell, Christian Zimmerman and Nathan Washington), who are doing the toughest work and inspiring us to build a better future — we are honored you chose us.

Happy New Year!

Sergio Marrero

Founder, Rebel One