FirstAngels launches RevUp incubator for start-ups
FIRSTANGELS JAMAICA and the country’s top commercial bank have joined forces on a virtual business incubator called RevUp Caribbean that’s targeting 80 entrepreneurs and founders of start-ups and high-growth potential businesses.
It’s expected that the RevUp training and networking programme being managed by Sandra Glasgow and delivered online, will result in members of FirstAngels, a group of angel investors that finance new and emerging ventures, investing capital in businesses run by the incubator participants, as well as additional support for banking clients of National Commercial Bank Jamaica.
In the seven years since the formation of the FirstAngelsJa group, its members have invested US$2.6 million, or just about $343 million, in various ventures, according to Glasgow, who is a founding member of the network as well as the person in charge of its operations.
Over that period, FirstAngels has found that many of the investment targets, while innovative, lacked fundamental knowledge about running a business and commercialising the product or service they’ve developed, she said. RevUp, which was created to help close some of that knowledge gap, will run initially for five months.
“It’s been a little frustrating for some of the members, and we’ve been tossing around this idea since 2018,”Glasgow said of the incubator project.
FirstAngels initially contemplated a brick-and-mortar approach to the business incubator, until COVID-19 hit, forcing more commercial activity and service delivery online.
“In 2020 and 2021, we ran two very successful investment readiness programmes. This showed us that we could deliver an incubator programme virtually and with more people,” Glasgow said.
The RevUp website was launched on September 24. FirstAngels will next assist the incubator participants with capacity building, starting by late October and aided by a US$100,000 ($15 million) grant from the Development Bank of Jamaica.
The RevUp cohort comprises 30 FirstAngels targets, who are being charged a US$350 fee each to participate in the incubator, and 50 of NCB’s SME customers, who are paying US$250 each.
FirstAngels and NCB are essentially running parallel programmes, according to Glasgow. Some of the training components will intersect, but there will be a divergence towards the end, as the FirstAngels targets will receive guidance on how to pitch for venture capital funding and operate in an equity-investment environment, while the NCB SME’s will be trained to operate in a bank or debt-financed environment.
Speaking on the motivation for the business incubator, Glasgow said the angel network has faced challenges over the years in getting entrepreneurs and founders to think like business operators and focus on good corporate governance, regulator reporting to the board and shareholders, record-keeping and tidy books, and company policies that are attractive to investors.
“What we say to them is that even while they are small, they should want to behave today as if they are a hundred times bigger, because those habits become useful when a company wants to go on to list on the stock exchange or in a merger and acquisition deal,” she said.
“Some of the founders have been pushing back against those kinds of, what they call, strictures. But we see them as good business practice that is going to help them and make their businesses more valuable in the medium and long term.”
Apart from the partnerships with the DBJ and NCB, RevUp is getting accounting and other back-office support from SupremeVentures Biz Hub, as well as a collaborator that will provide corporate governance services, and another that is offering discounted fees for accounting services and accounting software.
“We really want to provide more than just training and mentorship,” said Glasgow. “It has to do with what we call ‘partners and perks’ that will be exclusive to those who are part of the programme,” she said.