Today, Summify announced it has been acquired by Twitter. We couldn’t be more happy for Cristian and Mircea.  They worked very hard for their success and have made us all proud.

Summify applied to the Bootup Labs January 2010 cohort under the name ReadFu. I remember it clearly. Boris was skypeing with the shortlisted applicants in November 2009, and after speaking with Cristian and Mircea, I could tell by the look on his face that he found a winner. Having not talked to them myself, I admit, I was a bit more skeptical. I wasn’t a fan of the idea that they were presenting, but then Boris reminded me of our own rule.  ”We don’t back ideas, we back PEOPLE”

After a few more conversations with Cristian and Mircea, I was sold. By January 2010, Mircea and Cristian moved to Vancouver and got started. In that time, they developed their first product, ReadFu, which was similar to Snap.com, but after not being satisfied with their initial traction, they decided to pivot.  Summify was born.  I’ve been a user of Summify ever since and look forward getting my emails every morning.  I can hardly wait to see what they come up with next.

From everyone at Bootup Labs, we wish you success at Twitter.

I’m excited to announce today that I am joining BCIC as CEO.  This role allows me to pursue my passion of making BC the best place to start a tech company in the world <full stop>.  We have what it takes in this province, and I’m excited to continue to push that agenda forward within such an influential organization.

What this means for Bootup Labs

When Boris Mann and I started Bootup Labs about 2 years ago, we had big dreams of helping Vancouver be a great place to start internet companies. We thought that if we focused on the entrepreneur, everything else would work out, and we were right.  I am extremely proud of what we have created in that time. We did our best to make a positive difference in the fates of the entrepreneurs. We had the honor of working with 8 crazy-awesome groups of founders building 8 crazy-awesome companies. Since we brought in our first group of companies in January 2009, there has been one acquisition, one that didn’t work out so well, one is generating positive cash flow, and five others have attracted additional financing in one form or another and are continuing on their quest to change the world for the better.

Bootup Labs Portfolio

I’ll always be available to the founders of those companies, but for at least the next 2 years, my primary focus will be to build BC’s technology eco-system from my new desk at BCIC. Bootup Labs continues to get inquiries and applications from local and International entrepreneurs who want to be considered for the acceleration program, but for now, Bootup Labs will not be considering any new applications.  There is most definitely a need for a strong acceleration program in the Internet sector in BC and my hope is that someone will pick up where Bootup Labs left off.  If you’re that person, or know someone who is, please get in touch.

Bootup Entreprenuerial Society

I have been very careful to ensure that my decision to leave Bootup Labs does not affect the good work that the Bootup Entrepreneurial Society is doing.  Last week I resigned from the Board of Directors in order to remove any conflicts between BCIC and BES.  I’m truly honored that Boris Wertz of W Media Ventures has agreed to step up and take the Chairman role.  Maura has written about this on the BES Blog. In fact, there has been some confusion about the difference between the for-profit ‘Labs’ and the non-profit ‘BES’.  Hopefully this helps to simplify things: From now on, anytime you see Bootup, it will be only be referring to the non-profit.

Thanks

I would like to thank all of the people who believed in Bootup Labs and supported us over the past two years. We couldn’t have done it without you. And a special thanks to those who founded, funded and mentored 8 new companies into existence.

Finally, we endeavor to be being open and transparent.  If you have any unanswered questions, please leave a comment and let me know.  I’ll do my best to answer you as quickly as I am able.

I’m very proud to announce Summify, FoodTree, and CompassEngine have successfully completed the Bootup Labs acceleration program.  They joined our program in January and since then have proven to be a world-class group of entreprenuers. It’s been a humbling year, and I’m honored to have had the chance to work with such a smart and dedicated people. The founders have put their blood sweat and tears into their companies and have all made huge progress.  Their achievements have not gone unnoticed. In fact, each company has already closed a small additional round of financing from very experienced investors, and are now ready to take in their next round of investment. They’ve been working hard at tuning their investor presentations and are ready knock it out of the park.

Vancouver

This Friday October 22nd, we’re kicking off Bootup Labs Investors Days here in Vancouver.  If you’re an investor and want to attend, please contact us for an invite code.

Silicon Valley

Next week, October 26th-29th, we are all headed to Silicon Valley to pitch some of the worlds top VC firms and Super Angels. If you’re an investor in the valley and would like to meet the teams, please contact us.  On top of that, they are participating in the C100′s 48 Hours in the Valley program, and we will all finish the week off by teaming up with our friends at Metabridge to throw a reception at Kick Labs in San Francisco.  If you’re in San Francisco, feel free register here if you would like to join us for a drink on us next Thursday. We would love to see you.

A special thanks to all our mentors for all the support you have given to us over the past year.

Wave 1 - The rise of the Seed Accelerator and Super Angel

Within the past 5 years, the cost of starting an internet company hit a floor. There is no cyclical effect here. It will not go back up.  Today, all founders need to get a company off the ground is a roof over their head, food, internet access, a laptop and a whole lot of passion. That massive drop in costs has caused a tsunami, which has been ripping its way through the VC industry ever since.  In it’s wake, Seed Accelerators, Super-Angels, and a new crop of Series A VCs, operated by former entrepreneurs, have emerged as the benefactors. Seed Accelerators like YCombinator, TechStars, and us at Bootup Labs are investing between $10k-$100k per startup. Super Angels invest between $10k-$250k, and reinvented Series A VCs invest as low as $250k-$2M per startup. Most are making healthy returns with more frequent exits in the range of $10M-100M in less than 5 years.

From my observations, regions with a higher concentration of super angels and/or seed accelerators, such as Boulder, New York and San Francisco have completed this transformation, While other areas including Boston, Seattle, LA and Austin are next, and Vancouver will get there in about 9 more months.

This wave took about 5 years to subside, and has changed some of the definitions of the words we use to communicate. So, before we talk about the next wave, we have to reconcile our nomenclature. For the sake of this post, let’s assume that $250k-$2m is no longer called a “Seed” round, and is the new “Series A.”

Wave 2 - Take it to the Bank!

The ripple effects are continuing to run it’s way through the VC eco-system, and are now challenging the economics of series Series B VCs.  If Seed money is used to test if the market wants something, and Series A is to identify and mature user acquisition channels, then all we need Series B investment for is to grow an already proven business, right?

Take this for example: If I prove that google adwords produces 1,000,000 clicks of a certain keyword, and those clicks convert at 2% at a cost of $1.25 per click, and the lifetime value of those conversions is $113 each, with a churn rate of 5% per month, then the company should net about $2.2M over 20 months, and you can take that to the bank — quite literally. (here’s the model) It’s conceivable that banks (yes, banks) will get confortable that acquiring users has the same level of risk as collecting receivables.  These banks will loan money (or factor) against individual acquisition channels, which have shown statistical significance.  If you’ve been in the Internet industry as long as I have, you know that acquiring users becomes as predictable in terms of revenue generation as a signed PO from an enterprise customer.

What does this mean for the Series B/C/D investors?  A lot.  There is already a lot of competition for Series B investments, which makes sense; Risks are low, quality deals are scarce, and great upside potential.  On top of that, when the first wave hit, the risk tolerance and economics for the incumbent Sereis A VCs forced them to higher ground, aka Series B.  Over the next few years, I predict that specialty lenders or venture debt, and some progressive banks will provide some interesting options for founders of Internet companies.  I’m just glad I’m not managing a VC fund over $50M.  If I’m right, life is going to get tougher than it already is, and, as far as Internet investing is concerned, it’s never coming back.  In fact, if I was in that position, I’d stick to biotech, cleantech, or any other capital intensive tech industry.

Wave 3 – Lights, Laptops, Launch

I don’t believe anyone can predict the future more than 3 years out but it doesn’t stop me from thinking about it.  I’ll describe my admittedly “out-there” vision for what will happen when the 3rd, and final wave hits in another post.

I would be grateful for any comments and of course, criticism and counter-arguments are welcome.

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• What I *Would Have* Said at TechCrunch Disrupt (bothsidesofthetable.com)
• The segmentation of the venture industry (cdixon.org)
• Entrepreneurs Dislike Signaling; VCs Dislike Free Riders (feld.com)
• Greylock Gives Super Angel-Turned-VC Reid Hoffman A $20 Million Seed Fund (techcrunch.com)

There isn’t a single regional area that I know of who isn’t desperate to building an internet technology industry in their city.  When my wife and I decided to stay in Vancouver to raise our children, we made a commitment to do whatever we can to make Vancouver the best place to start an Internet company in the world.  Lofty goal, yes, but hey, I’m an entrepreneur, and we’re a group who is plagued with unbridled optimism.

I’m not going to get into what mistakes most cities make, but I will say this: If you’re building an incubation/acceleration/mentor program first, and staffing it second, you’re doing it wrong.  Each city has slightly different characteristics and what works for one probably means it wont work for another.  The biggest of these differences is THE PEOPLE. Find the right people, empower them, and get out of their way.

For the first time in the last two years, since I have been working at building the eco-system in Vancouver, I feel like I finally have clarity about how to communicate the stages building and Internet Startup Eco-System, which I’m sure could be applied to any city:

Stage 1: Inspire

• About: This is the top of the funnel. There are many many people who have an interest of starting a company but just don’t think they can, or think they can afford it, or are worried about what might happen if they fail.  At the same time, they probably can’t get thought of it out of their mind either.  These people are entrepreneurs in making. They just need a little inspiration.
• Goal: 1) Reach new founders and encourage them to learn more about what it takes to start an Internet company, 2) create opportunities for them to meet co-founders and 3) convince them to quit their day job to start the company.
• How: Inspiration from networking and socializing with other members of the community. Events, Co-Founder speed-dating, Meet and study other successful founders and their companies, Universities. Dispel the myth that failure is bad. Trying is good, failure is experience, success is rare.
• Where: Inspiration can occur from many sources including: Universities, Trips to Silicon Valley, PR/Blogs, Industry networking events like co-founder speed dating, Stories from successful exits, Educational seminars.

Stage 2. Hack

• About: Okay, let’s say you’re a founder and you’ve just quit your day job.  You love your idea. You may even have a co-founder already.  What now?  If you guessed that you should test your idea with customers, you’re right!  But for god-sake, do it as quickly as possible with the least amount of money.  In other words, hack something together, test it live, measure results, and iterate it daily.  They’ll be plenty of time for optimizing your code once you find something that people want, but for now, hunt for the perfect user experience. This is NOT the time to raise money, write business plans, give powerpoint presentations, or project your financials performance.
• Goal: 1) Design mockups and develop prototypes, 2) Test ideas with target customers. 3) Run cheap customer development tests, 4) Educate, 5) Build community.


Startup Metrics for Pirates, Dave McClure, Eric Ries

• How: Get a few laptops, fire up a Joyent instance, register a domain, start a blog and twitter account, create a google accounts for apps, analytics and adwords. Build some landing pages and start testing.  And most importantly, start the conversation with your potential customers/users, listen to them, iterate.
• Where: I know now that any healthy eco-system requires that founders have access to an open public space to hack.  A place with desks, couches, whiteboards, conference rooms, free WiFi, and, of course, the best coffee known to man.  The space would give founders access to limited professional services, tons of advice from mentors, advisors and potential future Investors.  But most importantly, it would be the focal point for the community. It would have a vibe that can only be created by the collective passion of the few who decide they can change the world with a simple idea in their heads.  It would be a place designed by the community, for the community. The space must be subsidized by government, but most importantly, vertically focused on the Internet and operated by passionate members of the startup community.

Stage 3. Seed/Accelerate

• About: Most founders are first-time founders. While extremely intelligent in building products that people want to use, they have a very limited network of people who have been through the experience of successfully starting and exiting a company.  It’s these people who will provide the credibility they need, and help the founder prepare the company to raise financing required to grow. It’s clear, raising money is hard.  Raising money from people who don’t know you is virtually impossible.  Realistically, founders will need a credible introduction to even have a chance. Being accepted into a true seed accelerator is a great start, and the mentors that you work with while in the accelerator complete the picture.


Startup Metrics for Pirates, Dave McClure, Steve Blank

• Goal: 1) Provide seed financing, 2) Measure customer acquisition channels. 3) Develop permanent relationships with mentors, partners, & investors. 4) Develop the investor pitch. 5) Transition from iteration to execution.
• How: There are a few examples of great Seed Accelerators run by even greater people. In my opinion, the team at TechStars, lead by David Cohen, is the leading the way. Seed Accelerators are NOT incubators. Seed Accelerators are unique from Incubators in the following combined ways, 1) Mentorship focused. 2) Provides a small amount of financing in exchange for equity in the startup. 2) Accepts only a small group of companies at a time, 3) Limited time, about 3 months. 4) Have a physical space.
• Where: Bootup, YCombinator, TechStars, Capital Factory, Montreal Startup, Extreme University, Year1Labs, and tons more. You can also emulate this by working your own professional networks to get introduced and invested in by Super-Angels.

Stage 4. Grow

• About: By this stage, founders are finalizing the transition into a working company with the goal of optimizing current user acquisition channels, and discovering more.  Although, product iteration never actually ends, it is much more focused on individual feature adds/removes/updates.  Another way to put it: you change from searching for a product that works to optimizing one that starting to show traction.  This is the time to put the peddel to the metel.
• Goal: 1) Fund the acquisition of new customers as fast as possible in the cheapest way possible 3) develop new acquisition channels  2) Reinvest revenue and/or raise funding.
• How: Need a $20M Series A venture fund to act as a local lead investor.  Exits of companies within this fund, will attract additional investment funds to open offices in the region.  The fund will invest in the best local companies it can find, but syndicate with highly connected and reputable super-angels and VC firms in Silicon Valley, New York, etc.  This will bring investment from more firms into the local area more quickly than starting up new firms.  This fund must be able to invest in companies outside the local region in order to be focused on making the highest return possible, but it is also very important to build relationships with well connected and experience firms who consistently get invited to invest in the creme of the crop.
• Where: A modern VC firm in the local area, preferably within the same building that the Seed Accelerator is in.

What’s next? (pick one)

• Series B Financing.  Further equity financing for growth. onward to becoming large anchor technology firm.
• Customer Acquisition Factoring. A hypothetical future financing model which I project will be available by the time any company starting today is ready for Series B.  This concept deserves it’s own post, but essentially, in the same way banks factor receivables, they will begin to factor user acquisition channels negating the need for Series B VCs.
• Merger/Acquisition.  There should NEVER be any strings or attempts made to keep the company in the local region.  While the eco-system is ramping up, chances are a higher percentage of companies will sell to US companies, but not ALL of them.  Over time, as the eco-system matures, more companies will stay.
• Organic Growth/Bootstrap/Lifestyle.
• IPO (an option, but only in very rare and specific situations)
• Fail - Entrepreneur gains valuable experience – goto Stage 2.

Net benefit to eco-system.

• Higher volume of startups started and a higher success rate.
• More high paying high tech jobs created
• Angels are created and reinvest.
• Increased foreign investment from VCs
• Investor confidence increases.
• Anchor technology companies.
• New entrepreneurs inspired, goto Stage 2.

My hope is that companies will start to feel comfortable regularly communicating which stage their in to each other and investors.  Investors should also communicate which stage their interested in investing in.  Aligning these two groups will help to eliminate a point of animosity between these two groups.  Associations, Governments and Universities should communicate which stage their targeting with their programs.  But an eco-system is only actually healthy and functional when all 4 of these stages are fully active, properly funded, and managed by passionate people who care.

One last thought before I anxiously await your comments.  I’m sure you can cite specific examples of companies that “made it” by skipping one ore more of these Stages.  Please keep in mind that I’m not saying that this is the ONLY way to build ALL companies.  However, I am adamant that this is the only way to build a healthy, productive, Internet technology eco-system that produces a high quantity of world-class companies.

We’re pleased to announce that Joyent has acquired Layerboom Systems for an undisclosed sum. Layerboom was founded in May 2009 by Trevor and Howie, and is the first Bootup Labs company to be acquired.

Layerboom will join Joyent’s CTO Mark Mayo and his engineering team here in Vancouver. Joyent appears to be assembling the world’s top engineers in the cloud computing space and the Layerboom team are among the leading cloud computing thinkers, doers and developers. The technology that they developed is a critical part of Joyent’s future plans. What’s cool is that they’re moving to Bootup’s original address at 375 Water St. So in a way, Howie, Trevor, Josh and Kevin are moving back to where it all started.

Most people will congratulate Layerboom for building a company that was so highly coveted that they received more than one offer to be acquired in such a short period of time. But there are some who will criticize the decision to exit early. Did Vancouver miss another opportunity to build the next RIM or EA? Those who knew Layerboom closely felt they had a real shot at giving VMWare a run for their money. At Bootup, we spend a great deal of time pairing the founders with mentors and advisors who have been through acquisitions like this before. We want founders to hear opinions from varying backgrounds so they can understand that there is more than one way to do it. Believe me, a lot of thought went into their decision, but in the end, we always encourage founders to do what’s right for them personally, and that’s exactly what they did.

From everyone here at Bootup Labs, we would like to congratulate the Layerboom team for a job well done, and wish them the best of luck at Joyent. Hopefully you’ll be seeing Howie and Trevor on our mentor page soon.

UPDATE: GigaOM post here, Layerboom post here, Techvibes post here

UPDATE2: Official Press Release

Can you feel it!?  There is definitely a buzz in the air around GrowConf that’s coming to Vancouver Aug 19, 20th, and 21st.  I mean why wouldn’t there be; If you work on the Internet, then this event is NOT to be missed.  Even the Mayor tweeted it out.

(Side note: I noticed that the mayor of San Francisco has 1,345,888 followers, and Gregor, Mayor of Vancouver, only has 6,440).  Let’s all follow him and show him that we want to hear more from him via social media.

Inspired by Le Web, Debbie at DealMaker Media and I threw around the idea around of creating a new style tech event hosted in Vancouver, we instantly knew it would be huge – if we could pull it off that is.  As Debbie says:

“Canada is coming out of Stealth mode”

Some of you may remember Debbie from LPV8, dubbed Under the Launch Party, named after DealMaker’s Under the Radar events that Debbie has been organizing in San Francisco for ever. Through those, and the other events that Dealmaker organizes, Debbie has become so well respected in Silicon Valley, that we knew should could pack the house with a some of the greatest minds on the Internet. Did she come through or what!  Check out these speakers:

• Chris Albinson, Managing Director - Panorama Capital
• Jason Bailey, GM of Virtual Currencies - Adknowledge
• Lane Becker, Co-Founder & VP, Strategy - Get Satisfaction
• Paul Bernard, Head of Business Development, Business Services - Nokia
• Leonard Brody, President - Clarity Digital
• Michael Buhr, CEO of Travelport and former CEO of StumbleUpon - Travelport
• Wesley Chan, Investment Partner - Google Ventures
• Don Harrison, Deputy General Counsel - Google
• Rob Chaplinsky, Managing Director - Bridgescale Partners
• Jeff Clavier, Managing Director - SoftTech VC
• Tom Conrad, CTO - Pandora
• Robert Goldberg, SVP of Corporate Development - Zynga
• Rob Hayes, Managing Partner - First Round Capital
• Tony Hsieh, Author of Delivering Happiness and CEO - Zappos
• Debbie Landa, CEO and Founder - Dealmaker Media
• Stew Langille, VP Marketing - Mint
• Ellen Levy, Vice President Strategic Alliances - Linkedin
• Dan Martell, Co-Founder - Flowtown
• Andrew Mason, Founder and CEO - Groupon
• Dave McClure - 500 Hats LLC
• Mike Parker, President, Tribal DDB US - Tribal DDB
• Ariel Poler, CEO of TextMarks Inc. and Angel Investor - TextMarks
• Danny Robinson, Managing Director - Bootup Labs
• Rick Segal, Co-Founder - Fixmo
• Aydin Senkut, Founder and President - Felicis Ventures
• Dana Settle, Partner - Greycroft Partners
• Bill Tai, General Partner - Charles River Ventures
• Jeremy Toeman, Founder - Stage Two
• Steven Woods, Site Director, Waterloo - Google

And there are even more that we haven’t announced yet!

When I was starting my first internet company, I remember attending every conference I could. And I still do that today. Many people ask me, “how do you know so many people?”  It’s because I get out there, and talk to people, who in-turn introduce me to other people. Entrepreneurs should never under estimate the importance of building your personal networks. If you attended the panel at VEF on investment trends, one of the questions asked of the panel was “Where do they source their deals from?” The unanimous answer was “Through introductions from people they know and trust”  The same goes for doing bizDev.  Don’t expect to walk in the front door and get a deal done.  You have to get out there and build your network one person at a time.  Build trust enough to be introduced and endorsed by a common connection.

Come to GrowConf.  If you know me, ask me to introduce you to someone.  If you don’t know me, introduce yourself to me, and let’s set up a time to grab a coffee.

–> REGISTER HERE  <–

]]> http://blog.bootuplabs.com/2010/07/01/grow-2010-conference-aug-19-21/feed/ 1 http://blog.bootuplabs.com/2010/07/01/grow-2010-conference-aug-19-21/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BootupLabsAnnouncements/~3/YQZkGSi5qAQ/ http://blog.bootuplabs.com/2010/06/16/contractual-ly-and-dimerocker-to-demo-at-lpv9-june-17th/#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:52:42 +0000 Danny Robinson http://blog.bootuplabs.com/?p=571

Launch Party Vancouver 9 will kick off tomorrow night, June 17th at 6pm. 9 companies will be demoing their latest and greatest digital media and internet creations to 500 of our closest friends.  We’re proud to say that two of these companies, 8.5×14 Media Inc’s Contractually and OverInteractive’s DimeRocker, have completed the Bootup Labs program and we wish them luck in the competition portion of the event.

There are a lot of great technologies being developed in Vancouver that we’re proud of, and personally I think we could do a better job telling our story. For example, not many people know of these three world class organizations being developed right in our city, and Bootup Labs is lucky enough to be call them “Roomies”… at least for a little while.

Stewart Butterfield‘s TinySpeck has temporarily set up shop in the old DimeRocker office while they wait for their new office to be renovated.  Stewart is best known for creating Flickr here in Vancouver, and now splits his time between here and San Francisco.  TinySpeck’s first project is called Glitch.  It’s pretty amazing to watch Stewart and his rock-star team of artists and developers create something from thin air at break neck speed.

Mozilla Messaging’s Thunderbird 3 email client, developed by David Ascher and his team. David was formerly with ActiveState, which is another Vancouver success story. Everyone is familiar with the FireFox web browser developed and maintained by Mozilla. The same organization develops Thunderbird.  I’ve been using the beta version for the past few weeks and I have to tell you, these guys know what they’re doing.  David and his team will be here for the indefinite future, and look forward to lots of go-cart battles between team Thunderbird and team Bootup.

Joyent’s cutting edge cloud computing technology lead by VP of Engineering, Mark Mayo right here in Vancouver.  Joyent is also waiting for their new office to be built and we were more than honoured to put them up at Bootup until then. Joyent makes the bold statement: “Putting the same old OS “in the cloud” isn’t cloud computing. It’s dumb computing.”  I believe there will be a day when all web applications can scale linearly regardless of hardware or special coding.  Joyent is the leader among the best of the best in the world trying to make that a reality.

We look forward working with these with each of these local tech anchors to help tell the story of the quality of company we build here in Vancouver.  And hope to see you at LPV9 on June 17th and GrowConf Aug 19th-21st.

Boris Mann and I registering the Bootup Domain January 10, 2008

In late 2007, Boris Mann and I both had the same idea on how to build a world class seed acceleration model built by founders for founders.  In January 2008, we officially founded Bootup Labs together.

We then spent the following 6 months working to transition ourselves out of our current projects, so that we could dedicate all of our time to constructing the ultimate program to build and grow web startups.  I know I can speak for Boris when I say that we are very proud of what we have accomplished together over the past 2 years.

After 2 years of this crazy roller coaster ride, Boris Mann has decided to move on to pursue other opportunities.  But he isn’t going very far.  We will still see him around the office on Wednesdays, and he is dedicated to continue to work with our portfolio.

Yesterday we tried to throw him a surprise party, but who were we kidding? There’s no way to surprise him with anything.  So we just got everyone together to share some stories and celebrate his time here.

Oh, and to share two of his favourite things: beer and meat.   Everyone who wants to stay up to date with Boris’ future plans can subscribe to his blog, or follow him @bmann.

Boris, from me to you: Thank you, and good luck!

Leonard Brody. Image by: Robert Kenney

Unrelated, Leonard Brody has been a long time friend and believer in Bootup Labs. He is already an investor, and today he will be stepping up his involvement by working with the Bootup Labs Board of Directors and portfoilo companies on a regular basis. Leonard brings extensive operating experience coupled with the ability to make taking startups from concept to acquisition look easy. You can read more about Leonard in this month’s issue of BC Business Magazine.

NOTE: For those who don’t know us very well, yes it’s true, we do work with two Boris’es.  Together, we call them “The Bori”  As a reminder: Mann is a co-founder, and Wertz was recently appointed to the Board.