The Nontraditional Founder | Geekwise Academy Cohort Documentary
PROJECT NOTES:
This project was created in-house for Bitwise Industries. I worked alongside the media production team to review already-captured footage, identify which quotes were most relevant to the storyline, and problem solve how to show community in the first year of COVID (2020.) I wrote the script you see in the below video, as well as trimmed content for time where needed, while keeping the narrative cohesive.
SCRIPT
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At the start of 2020, 10 budding entrepreneurs begin a journey at Bitwise Industries
Located in Fresno, California
In the heart of the San Joaquin Valley
These 10 formed the first-ever Geekwise Academy Founders Cohort.
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“Joining this cohort, I was particularly nervous just about being around people that I wasn't too confident in front of. I'm not necessarily anybody in the tech industry and I knew absolutely nothing about it.” - Nick Sierra
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“I'm used to leaning on somebody else who's going to make the big decisions and so being that person in charge is a very new experience.” - Amanda Ardemagni
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The cohort was a crash-course in entrepreneurship
With workshops and pitch sessions from Google For Startups
They were taught basic finance and marketing, cold-calling and sales funnels.
It also provided a venue for 10 people, surrounded by support and mentorship, to struggle together.
For six months, the nontraditional founders received nonstop coaching and instruction from entrepreneurships who looked like them, personalizing the journey to the next phase of their startups.
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“In about not even two months, I've learned a lot with just how to structure my company – just the ways I can approach investors or VCs – that there's more to Kolyde than just the app.” - Vincent Mays
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“Taking out that Fresno mentality and replacing it with something that's more infinite. Letting me know that I have everything inside of me to go out and build something of substance from Fresno, California.” - Chase Carter
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“I was really excited about having the opportunity to create change in these different communities. Like I said, it's always been, for me at least, about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Having a platform and having this opportunity … it ... I was just amazed and glad.” - Alisha Wilson
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The goal was to empower these founders with more equity, more business knowledge, and unyielding encouragement.
So they can raise capital and crush their goals.
The result?
Victory laps. Lots of them.
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“Without this experience, my life would have been totally different. I was working at the laundromat at the VA and then now I'm potentially going to be the co-founder and CEO of a business.”
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“I think I've been obsessed with the vision of what it can be – getting really close to accomplishing a goal, and creating something that has never been created.”
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“Nothing compares to the feeling of you making something and then someone buying it and saying ‘you don't know how much you've helped me.’ Mind blowing!”
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Ali Andrews
CEO - Shake Energy Collaborative
Ali built a functioning prototype in Fresno, earned tens of thousands in revenue and is now expanding her energy platform to Hawaii.
Alisha Wilson
Unapologetically Us Skin Care
As of this taping, Alisha hit 150 customers. She started this program with 0.
Alyssa Ndombeson
Gd.Stward
Alyssa launched Gd.Stwrd and earned her first several thousand dollars during the program. She is expanding to a physical location next year.
Amanda Ardemagni
Coffee House
Amanda is in the early stages of launching a membership-based coffeehouse in four cities, turning an ordinary coffee shop into a modern digital SaaS company with caffeine.
Chase Carter
Listing Alert
Chase’s company, Listing Alert, has been acquired after exploding its membership and landing one of the largest customers in the United States. Chase remains with the company and is also working on the next installment in this burgeoning family of products.
Jennifer Kim
Seunwater
Jennifer is finalizing a major contract with a hospital in Fresno, and an organization in Kenya. Her device can help identify water impurities in hospitals, schools and other businesses.
Nick Sierra
Stop App
Nick found a niche helping founders in the program grow their sales. He became a key player in the Listing Alert acquisition.
TatStat
TatStat closed a pre-seed investment, is staffing up, and is gaining traction with hundreds of users all over the country. TatStat increased its revenue 600% during the course of this program.
Vincent Mays
Kolyde
Vincent closed an enterprise contract with the largest comprehensive higher education system in the nation and raised a pre-seed round of financing.
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Nontraditional founders in nontraditional places are capable of crushing it.
As best said by Mitch Kapor, “Intelligence is evenly spread, opportunity is not.”
Let’s fix that. Together.
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“They see things in me that I don't even see in me. They see potential in me that I don't see.”
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Special thanks to Google for Startups