In April of remaining 12 months, Peter Hazlehurst made news when he left his place as COO of Postmates just seven months after joining the on-demand supply company.
He said at the time he was once in search of extra accountability and possibly to do his personal startup. Now Hazlehurst — who in the past spent seven years as the chief product officer of Yodlee and any other two-and-a-1/2 years as a Google govt interested by its client funds initiatives — has formed that startup, a crowdfunding platform for scholarships referred to as AngelScholars.
It’s a fascinating outfit, one that encompasses both a nonprofit and a for-revenue firm that’s been structured as a B Corp, which mainly approach it’s committed to balancing its social mission and revenue.
the way it works: AngelScholars allows so-called angels (which can also be any person) to support students’ education by way of making a “scholarship” — say, to buy uniforms for a definite college, or to assist defray costs for students attending summer time college at new york university. As with AngelList, each and every person spearheading a particular campaign is liable for drumming up the hobby of others to make it successful.
unlike GoFundMe campaigns, which might be normally designed round individuals, every campaign on AngelScholars has a broader group in thoughts. One current marketing campaign invitations young ladies who reside in the Chicago area and whose households earn less than $ 50,000 to use for scholarship money to examine a language that may further their private and skilled development.
Donors won’t recognize precisely who they’ll be funding in advance, however that doesn’t mean the scholars are nameless. as an alternative, college students who need funding register with the website online and supply some details about themselves. Doing so permits donors to trace their growth, says Hazlehurst. but the college students are additionally encouraged to include as so much about themselves as imaginable because, once on the platform, they would possibly find themselves eligible for multiple giving marketing campaign.
In a related twist that some donors may just like (and others might deem arduous), all cash are transferred to custom debit playing cards, so donors can track the place and when the cash they’ve donated is being spent.
AngelScholars retains about 10 % of each donation to keep the lights on and pay salaries. (That’s low in comparison with some nonprofits.)
where it starts looking like a extra conventional startup is in its for-profit division, with a view to in a roundabout way become a recruiting business if things go as deliberate. the big thought is that once AngelScholars will get sufficient kids on the platform and so they start graduating, it will probably join that pool of job seekers with companies, specifically these occupied with doing a better job at diversifying their employee base. indeed, as with LinkedIn and different jobs platforms, recruiters pays AngelScholars for get entry to, though Hazlehurst says how much hasn’t been labored out slightly yet.
the company’s first problem, in fact, is getting each donors and students on the platform. Hazlehurst expects that the donor network will build thru phrase of mouth. He suggests that elevating pupil consciousness shall be trickier to start with, announcing his present workforce of 10 full-time workers and four contractors will help in finding students who are the right fit for more than a few campaigns.
the corporate launched the platform final Tuesday, however already some early traders like the idea enough that they’ve given AngelScholars north of $ 1 million in seed funding in a round that’s anticipated to close quickly.
arena Ventures is prime the financing. AngelScholars also previous raised a smaller, pre-seed round supplied with the aid of Dennis Phelps, a longtime VC with Institutional venture companions. (Phelps met Hazlehurst a few years ago as a board member of Yodlee, a hub for financial apps. It used to be acquired remaining yr, quickly after going public.)
requested what inspired Hazlehurst to start out the corporate, which would appear to have little in fashionable along with his earlier roles, he says that he arrange a scholarship a few years in the past to lend a hand tech-minded college students at his Australian high school pay for college.
When a senior at the faculty was once more recently popular into Stanford and couldn’t afford to move without major assistance, Hazlehurst realized there may well be a broader opportunity to help him and students like him. “It wasn’t going to work if I used to be going to write him a take a look at for $ 250,000 to head to Stanford, but i assumed there was maybe a crowdfunding variation that might.”
He couldn’t in finding somewhat the correct solution, so he built it.
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