Pitches made to a number of leading venture capitalists in New York City on Wednesday by MasteryPrep Co-founder and Chief Strategist Charlie Davis went so well that the Baton Rouge-based startup has been invited to another exclusive opportunity to meet with venture capitalists in San Francisco today.
“It’s just as an impressive list of people in San Francisco that Charlie is meeting with today as there were in New York, which really went great,” says MasteryPrep Chief Operating Officer Jared Loftus. “With the numbers that we are presenting to these guys, it’s almost too good to be true. With the growth we’ve had, they can’t help but be interested.”
MasteryPrep, which claims to be among the fastest-growing education technology companies in the nation, isn’t publicly releasing data on its revenues. But when David laid them out to the New York investors, Loftus says, they were more than impressed.
“The numbers we’re giving them show 1,000% growth from 2013 to 2014, and from the first quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year we’ve grown another couple hundred percent,” he says. “When you’re talking to these hardcore venture capitalists, it’s about the numbers. That’s what they want to see. And when we pair our numbers with the impact that we’re having for high school students, it’s a compelling story.
MasteryPrep currently provides readiness and test preparation programs to more than 500 schools across eight states. Loftus says by the end of the year the company should be in a dozen to 15 states.
MasteryPrep is among just four firms that have been invited to make pitches to the San Francisco investors, Loftus says, and was among just five in New York City earlier this week. The company recently announced it has been chosen as the first to receive assistance from The Catalyst Fund, which also is based in Baton Rouge and will help the firm as it tries to raise $500,000 from investors to expand.
Loftus says the trips to New York City and San Francisco were not planned when the $500,000 fundraising goal was set, adding he’s confident they’ll meet and surpass the goal. As far as timelines, the company has set a mid-June goal to reach the $500,000 target, but Loftus says more investments could come in from the pitches made this week well after that.
“When you’re talking about bigger dollars, you’re talking about longer timelines,” Loftus says. “A lot of these guys in New York are people we’re meeting for the very first time, so in cases like that it’s going to take a little longer. That could be anywhere from 30 to 90 days. So whether or not these investors will be a part of this first round of fundraising or the next round is unclear right now.”
—Steve Sanoski
