One year ago...
One year ago, I sent this text to my future co-founder, Timo:
It wasn’t long before we signed the docs, started talking to customers, and shipped our first bit of code.
When you’re building a startup, you’re moving so fast it’s often difficult to find time to look back and reflect on how far you’ve come. I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a couple of things we’re proud of, look back at our accomplishments, and tell you a little bit about what’s coming next.
Since we went full time on Avenify in January, we:
Launched a full platform for students and investors to finance their education and invest in ISAs
Grew to 2,000 students with a waitlist of nearly 600 applications for funding
Issued our first ISAs to students at schools including NYU and Lambda School
Were recognized as an emerging player in the ISA space by Career Karma
Worked with our legal team to draft and finalize our own ISA, disclosures, investor agreements, and ISA servicing pipeline
Registered with the SEC to offer the public the opportunity to invest in ISAs, becoming one of the only ISA companies on the market to do so
Became one of the first ISA companies approved to partner with Silicon Valley Bank
Were admitted as part of the 100 top startups to Money 20/20’s Startup Academy
Launched our crowdfunding campaign and reached our minimum goal in just one week
I’m incredibly proud of the scrappiness and hustle required to get as far as we have with under $100,000 in funding and just a team of two.
So, what’s next?
Within the next week, we plan on launching Profiles, a way for students to share more about themselves. Students will be able to add bios, answer short-answer questions, and more. ISAs are about investing in people, and just like you’d look at the numbers for a stock, Profiles will give investors a better picture of who they’re investing in.
So far, investors on Avenify are limited to investing in a pooled fund. Along with the launch of Profiles, we’re working on a brand new investor portal, adding features like the ability to invest in individual students and build a custom portfolio.
Both of these changes are a huge step towards building a marketplace for human potential, and we’re excited to hear what you think.
If you’ve already invested in our campaign, thank you! We appreciate your support. If you haven’t invested yet, consider investing and help us build the future of financing. If you have any questions, leave us a comment in the discussion section.
To all our supporters, thanks for being a part of our journey for the last year. Here’s to many more!
Justin & Timo