At Sterling Road, we’ve been running a modest grant program for almost a year. Inspired by the no-equity programs offered by 1517 and Pear, we’ve been giving £1k grants to UK-based teams. Given the results we’ve seen, I’m convinced every seed fund should offer a similar program.
Low Cost Marketing
We’ve issued around a dozen grants to date, the cost of which is significantly less than one month’s service from a typical PR agency in Silicon Valley. The return on investment has been substantial. We’ve had multiple speaking opportunities at universities such as Oxford, Manchester, Imperial College, Durham, Southampton and more. In the past, educational institutions have been somewhat hesitant to give an investor early access to their promising entrepreneurs; our grant program has mitigated any concerns.
Early Access to Talent
A common complaint among early-stage investors is meeting a founder or company when it’s too late and the window of opportunity has closed. Our grant program has facilitated meetings with many talented founders at the very earliest stages, through online applications, referrals from other grant recipients, and motivated program managers from universities who are invested in their alumni’s success.
Minimal Time Cost
We’ve kept the time investment minimal with a simple online application, allowing us to process each team quickly. Our grant interviews typically only last 15 minutes and cover a predetermined set of questions. For teams that win the grant, we offer an optional bi-monthly group session for 45 minutes on Zoom. Given that we’ve already discovered two fully-fledged investments through the program, the time cost is quite low.
Let me know your thoughts on starting a grant program!
Sterling Road invests in idea stage and pre-seed B2B startups based in the US, Canada and UK.
