The awesome John Knox sponsored some Business of Scholarships last year to enable some deserving early stage companies to come to BoS. Korey Lee from SumAll was one of the lucky recipients. We’re really pleased for them to hear that his company has just raised a $1.5 million seed funding round from investors including Matrix Partners. SumAll offers real-time data analytics to small and medium businesses.
Here’s what Korey wrote about BoS: Business of Software was engaging, inspiring, and aspirational. Frankly it’s a conference that’s helpful for anyone who does business, even though much of the topical examples are in the technology or startup context. The sheer amount of intelligence, talent, and creativity present was simply stunning. From VCs to internationally renowned high-tech entrepreneurs to old school brick and mortar entrepreneurs, each keynote speaker was clearly hand picked and sequenced day by day with great discernment and care.
Topics included disruption, people management, hiring, social media, social change, UI/UX design, culture, psychological influence in marketing and many more. Like drinking water from a fire hose, I eagerly wrote as much down as I could in hopes that I could digest everything afterwards. Read more at John Knox’s blog Engineering Adventure.
While Business of Software isn’t really about raising venture capital, we thought SumAll was interesting for a few other reasons. According to the GigaOm coverage of the fundraising, they have taken their own approach to building a different kind of company. They have decided to go beyond adopting the status of a certified B Corporation to draft the SumAll constitution.
“They created the charitable foundation SumAll.org and allocated 10 percent ownership to it; they also make their corporate documents, including venture agreements, ownership, salaries and bank accounts, open to the entire team.
“The existing corporate structure is ripe for abuse mostly due to obfuscation,” Atkinson said. “We have built a system where every member of the company has a voice and in many ways can reshape the company.”
Congratulations on daring to be different and getting some great investors on board. Good luck with everything and look forward to catching up with you at Business of Software this year.