Startup studio gets underway in Rochester
Another accelerator is now available to those in Monroe County. The MARL Startup Studio accelerator program is working to get startup companies off the ground. All individuals need to bring to the pitch session is an idea.
“If you’re saying to yourself—I have this idea and I don’t know what to do with it—we can help you with that,” says Marie Timpani, startup community manager, MARL Startup Studio. “If you don’t know how to make an app or a website, we can help with that, and we can address the problem you’re trying to solve or the convenience you’re creating.”
MARL Startup Studio is in the process of holding pitch sessions, which are virtual right now. MARL represents the organization’s original focus on Mobility, Autonomy, Robotics and Logistics.
“You come and you have five minutes for pitching your idea and five for Q&A,” Timpani says. “You tell us about your idea and then we give feedback.”
For each pitch session, there is a first-place winner who is eligible to earn a spot in the accelerator program and a $25,000 pre-seed investment (if they pass the accelerator’s due diligence acceptance criteria). MARL Startup Studios takes 12.5 percent of the equity in companies that go through the program.
The program provides legal, marketing, financial planning, mentorship and technology help. There are also second and third prize winners of the pitch sessions who gain hours of mentorship with the managing partner of MARL Startup Studio and $10,000 of credit toward Amazon Web Services.
The next pitch sessions are scheduled for Dec. 9, 2021, Jan. 6, 2022 and Jan. 20, 2022.
On Nov. 18, the first session was held and there were two winners. Saint & Taurus, an all-in-one visual merchandising platform with design tools to help create product displays, was the first-place winner. The second winner is Reviewtamer, which enables a business to send customer satisfaction surveys to its customers and collect feedback.
Companies and ideas that do not win in the pitch competitions still will get feedback and will have calls scheduled with MARL Startup Studio team members to discuss their ideas and gain connections to people who can help them proceed.
The MARL Studio provides another support option for startups in Monroe County, joining a list of incubators and accelerators including NextCorps Incubation, Embark, Luminate, ForClimateTech, RIT Venture Creations, The Commissary, Center for Urban Entrepreneurship, and more.
“Our goal is to help everyone, and make sure they are connected with anyone we feel can help them proceed,” Timpani says. “We believe in the talent that exists here in Rochester and we want to help develop, support and inspire that talent.”
For information on the program, go to Marl Accelerator.