Welcome to Rev1
Today we’re formally announcing our rebrand: from TechColumbus to Rev1 Ventures.
Our name and logo, our business cards and signage, and of course this website—all are new. We love the cool look. But what we’re most excited about is how our new name reflects our dedication to helping entrepreneurs build great companies.
Rev1 Ventures stands for the many firsts that we help our clients accomplish: first product, first customer, and first revenue. And it signals the space we play in: the fast-paced venture development industry.
What isn’t new today is the way we’re serving entrepreneurs and startups. It’s been developing over the last 18 or so months. We’ve been revamping and then fine tuning: moving from a membership organization to a venture development organization that is laser focused on startup success.
We began by asking ourselves a bunch of what ifs.
What if we could take the best of our collective experience and build a rigorous methodology to help entrepreneurs validate their concepts before they invested a lot of money or time?
What if we could connect entrepreneurs with senior business leaders in Central Ohio who want to become advisors, mentors, and even potential first customers?
What if we could be the catalyst for matching startups with great talent, potential employees and regional service providers who want to contribute to building new companies and jobs here by providing affordable professional services to entrepreneurs?
And What if we could create a continuum of capital that provided funding from Seed Stage to Growth.
Well, it’s been a climb, but we’ve been able to turn What if into What Is.
We connect entrepreneurs with their first advisors. Our Advisors are more than 100 strong, leaders from the business community with deep industry and functional expertise. They believe in entrepreneurs. They roll up their sleeves and help.
We connect startups to their first customers. Last year our Customer connections served 50 startups. Through these connections, entrepreneurs closed eight sales or beta accounts. Our goal is make “cold calling” a thing of the past for our entrepreneurs.
We connect entrepreneurs to their first round of capital. We launched $22MM of new funds in 2014. We invested $4.8MM in 18 unique firms.
We help entrepreneurs build their first management team, board, and key outside advisors. Building the right team is every bit as important as finding the right capital. We’ve started a Job Board where our clients can begin posting opportunities. We’ve forged a great partnership with Venture for America. We work closely with startups and universities to fill internships. Plus, our Expert team served 81 startups with more $1MM+ in value added services.
So with this rebranding, we’re not promising what we’re going to do. We’re celebrating the foundation we’ve already built—together. A foundation for the Columbus region as a developing innovation –hub—where amazing entrepreneurs and a connected business community can together build products people want, and companies people need.
