William Leonard
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Atlanta Startup Podcast. My name is William Leonard. Today I’m eager to sit down with one of the showcase winners from Startup Runway, the 22nd edition, Miya Moore, who is the founder and CEO of Benechek. Miya, thanks for joining me today.
Miya Moore
Thank you William for having me.
William Leonard
Awesome, Miya! Well, first, congrats on being the Audience Choice Award winner from the 22nd showcase of Startup Runway. Really excited about what you’re doing in the space of building software for nonprofits, but would love for you to the purpose of today’s conversation is for you to talk about Benechek, your Startup runway experience. How has Startup Runway really helped the business and has helped the company grow over the last few months or so? And then the broader vision for Benechek and how you plan to scale? So maybe we can kick it off and have you just do a brief introduction into what Benechek is. And then I’d love to dive into your background and journey as a founder.
Miya Moore
I appreciate that intro. Just a little bit more details about me and the organization that I founded. My name is Miya Moore. I’m the founder and CEO of Benechek, and we are an assistance management software for nonprofits and churches. We use AI and smart technology to streamline their assistance management process from beginning to end to ultimately help them better, use their resources, make decisions quicker, and get people the help that they need as quickly as possible.
William Leonard
I love it! Tell us more about your background and journey and what was that moment for you before Benechek was even an idea or a thought where you said, I have to build some type of software to solve the problems for these nonprofits and churches?
Miya Moore
I am a business attorney by trade with zero tech background, and so I have practiced for a little over six years defending large corporations and really just had the nudge to pivot. And so I am a child of two ministers, and so I feel like I’ve always had that calling of just kind of that feel permissions or just being generous or helping people. And I think I was able to align that with practicing law, helping corporations, figuring out problems, and just using different resources to get people the help that they need. And so toward the end of my journey of being an attorney, I had the great idea to start a nonprofit. It’s called more works. And so in that, we learned a lot of great things. And so one of the things we saw was the amount of red tape that it takes for an individual to get the help that they need once they ask for something. Right? So what I’ve learned in practicing law is a lot of the time and you probably agree with me, William, they need it urgent. So, urgently, they need it fast. It’s not something that they usually can’t wait on. And so that’s one of the things that we saw in having our own nonprofit. And so we saw that, all right, when someone comes and reaches out for help, the time that it takes us to get their information, any documents that they need for us to verify whatever the request is about or if we have the budget, if we have the funds and just going through those things and maybe even bringing them on site to do the interviews, just to do those verification metrics or measures before we even get to the point of, all right, we can approve this request and actually provide the person the assistance. And so in my mind, something that should have taken a couple of minutes would take actually days or even a week or two. And so what I and my team did was go to other nonprofit churches, those organizations that provide assistance just to see like, all right, what are you guys using? How are you doing this? What is the process like? And what we noticed is a lot of organizations have just gotten comfortable with things taking time, and so they’re not really using anything. The processes are manual, they’re outdated, and they’ve just gotten used to it taking multiple days, even weeks, or just cutting through their red tape of doing the intake process. Usually, the person that’s gathering the information is not the decision maker. And so what happens is that request has to be submitted to a board or either the person over finance or the person that approves whether the assistance can be distributed. And so you have organizations waiting for a weekly team meeting before they can even present a request. If the weekly team is on a Thursday and a request comes on a Friday, the earliest a person may hear a response back is the following Thursday. And so it’s just like, there has to be a better way. And so that’s kind of what my team after we talked to so many organizations and we was, all right, something has to change. We’re not comfortable with people having to wait this long. Also for us, it’s just the amount of time and work that it takes to sit on the phone, learn about the individual, learn about their need, and gather the information. It slows us down. And so the problem was really twofold. And so that’s where the benefit comes from ultimately. That gap in our own nonprofit birth of software that we use internally and have also created hopefully for other organizations to use and experience the same benefit that we’re experiencing.
William Leonard
That is an awesome founding story because you build and try and solve a problem that you have, and you realize that there are many other customer profiles out there that look just like you that have similar problems. The nonprofit market is a multibillion-dollar market that is growing, and I think a lot of people sometimes underestimate how large of a market that is. But building software for a large and growing market that you mentioned has a lot of manual and antiquated processes can really be a recipe for success as you think about technology automation and AI and how it’s able to come in and really replace a lot of the manual tasks to augment the staff at these nonprofits. And like you said, to be able to get their processes better in place, to distribute whatever it is that they need to. So, you were a finalist and ultimately a winner at Startup Runway. How did you come across Startup Runway, and what did the program look like for you as you went through the application process once you were selected pitching on stage, what did that look like for you as a founder for the first time?
Miya Moore
It was incredible. So I was actually in an accelerated program called Digital Undivided, and one of the resources that they have is just updated grants, pitch competitions, just resources that founders may want to take advantage of while they’re going through the accelerated program. And that’s how I became aware of Startup Runway. I had never heard of it. The competition, or the showcase, rather, was going to be based in Atlanta. I’m in Birmingham, Alabama. It wasn’t on my radar. And so I found out about it through participating in a different accelerator program. And so one of the things in that program that we’re working on is creating a pitch deck. And so I saw that the showcase would allow for a three-minute pitch well, a five-minute pitch, and then Q&A afterward. And so I felt like that would be a great segue and trial for me to create my pitch deck, and then present it in front of investors and get real feedback. And so we applied for it. It was a pretty straightforward application process, and we got the notification that we had made the semifinal round to participate in the showcase. And so my team and I, one of my co-founders, drove over to Atlanta. So it’s about a two-hour drive, not too far. We did the initial mentoring sessions, met with some great folks, and really got the advantage of getting immediate feedback on some things that we wanted coaching on or some issues that were seeing or just discussing strategy in that process before you even get to the Showcase. The mentoring sessions were absolutely amazing. After the Showcase, were able to implement some of the strategies and the feedback and advice that we got from the VCs that we talked to during the coaching sessions that have really elevated our business in such a short time. So I just kind of wanted to stop at that point and just kind of, like, put a pin in that was an incredible game changer for us before we even got to the actual showcase. And so afterward, when we did the pitch in the showcase, that was actually our first pitch that we’ve ever done in front of an audience. And so it was a little nerve-wracking, but were excited to do it. Everybody was so welcoming. The other founders did an amazing job and it was a learning experience for us in total. And so I would say being able to do the showcase, winning the Audience Award and even the Q&A sessions from the judges and the panel, asking the questions and getting us to think about some things that we may not have been thinking about, all of that put us in a position to be successful thereafter. And so what I mean by that is I was able to connect with some of the VCs and the judges afterwards and I’ve still been able to continue that relationship since then and I only met them through the showcase. Another thing is I’ve been able to connect with other founders who participated in the showcase. Also. Winning the Audience Choice Award is such a reassurance for us and our team. Not only did we get good feedback from the judges, but people who had never heard of our business, and never heard of me before, said, “Hey, we really believe in your vision and what you’re doing and we enjoyed it”. That was just reassurance for us and it created a lot of momentum that we’re on the right track, we’re doing the right things, and that we can really create this impact if we just stick to it and scale. And so those are some things that came for us. And not to even mention the $10,000 that we won before we launched our MVP. It was a month to the date. So we launched our MVP on August 14, the showcase was on September 14 and that was technically our first five-figure month.
William Leonard
That is awesome. And you really hit one of the things that makes Startup Runway special, and that is the hyper-targeted mentoring sessions that are done prior to the showcase about an hour before the showcase actually happens, where all the finalists sit down with anywhere from two to five curated mentors who are building in or who have built successful companies or invested in companies that are directly related to that sector that the finalist is building in. And they hear the business case, they hear what the company is going through right now. What are some of the growth pains? How are you thinking about maybe pivoting the technology, formulating a go-to-market strategy, or thinking about a business model? Whatever it may be, those mentors are there to provide detailed and thoughtful feedback and insights into how you can take actionable steps to grow and improve your business. So that’s one of the things and aspects of Startup Runway that really separates it from other pitch competitions out there. And you’re right, a lot of competitions have money that they give away, but there are strings attached. There are stipulations equity that is taken in your company is dilution-free. That is a dilution-free grant that you’re able to take for your company. And so now, as you launched your product on the 14 August, you won Startup Runway on the 14 September. What’s next for you and the Benechek team? How are you all thinking about growing? And how has Startup Runway in that dilution-free capital helped jumpstart the business’s growth?
Miya Moore
So since the showcase, we’ve really honed in on our go-to-market strategy. And so we’ve been able to get some meetings with some big potential partners to really discuss what it would take to pilot our MVP. And so right now we have a large partner on the horizon, fingers crossed. So the goal is if we can lock them in, but if doing so, that would get us our target market over the next seven years. Five years is 7%. That one piloting partner relationship, if you say, would get us to 3%. So that would be almost half of our target market goal. And so were only able to do that with the funding, the resources, and the support that we got through the Startup Runway and crafting that go-to-market strategy in the mentoring session. So again, we use that advice in real time to say, all right, this is what we have in place, this is what we’re going after. How should we go about it? What do you recommend? And we took that and did it. And now we’re one step closer, to landing a super big fish, the pipeline in our MVP. And so that’s kind of what we’re focusing on right now. And we’re really just taking the funds, really using it as support to scale our team, scale our marketing efforts to increase views on our website, increase the customer acquisition journey to actually get more users on the platform, and do targeted marketing to those decision makers that we know at these organizations, whether it’s outreach coordinators, program managers, missions pastors, directors, those individuals who we know need to see Benechek and it can really transform their organization. So we’re really just focusing on our go-to-market strategy and knowing our marketing efforts and growth right now.
William Leonard
I love it. Awesome Miya, we’re excited. And thankful that you applied, went through the program, and won. And so now we’re going to look back on this months, years from now, and see how valuable this first experience and exposure was. And we’re excited because we’ve got our 23rd Startup Showcase happening in Atlanta on December 7 at the Woodruff Arts Center and it’s going to be held in conjunction with the Valor Ventures VC Day. And so we’re really excited and hopefully somebody out there listening right now. Those who are in a similar place, where you were with your business will apply, get on stage and hopefully win some capital there as well. But, this is exciting. I’m really excited for you and the Benchek team because this capital is going to help jumpstart, launch, and propel you to, one, acquire more big fish like you’ve already got Pipeline right now. So we really appreciate you and look forward to seeing your future success.
Miya Moore
I appreciate you guys. William, again, thankful, we’re so grateful for the opportunity and it has been a game-changer for our team here at Benechek.
William Leonard
I love it. Take care, Miya.
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