Insights from Startup Founders

As the ten startups in Exponential Impact Amplify are nearly halfway through the program, we wanted to take a moment to check in with the companies. This fall, I was able to interview a handful of the startup founders to learn more about their major accomplishments and insights. These founders have worked diligently on building their companies over the past year and have newfound learnings to share. It takes a certain amount of grit and leadership to build a startup. The founders interviewed showcase those traits. You can also hear from these founders in person, at the Amplify Demo Day this coming October 14. Full event details are available here.

Cambium Carbon

Theo Hooker is one of the co-founders of Cambium Carbon, a circular economy startup saving fallen city trees from landfills, turning them into their best use, and channeling revenues. He considers Exponential Impact an excellent opportunity to advance Cambium while connecting with the community he fell in love with during college. His team has received many awards including from the Nature Conservancy’s Natural Climate Solutions Grant with the Arbor Day Foundation and were recently recognized as part of Forbes 30 under 30 in their Social Impact Category and named finalists for the Keeling Curve Climate Mitigation Award. Through the work of his co-founder, Ben Christensen, at The World Resources Institute’s Carbon Removal Team, the Cambium team discovered trees as the greatest opportunity for carbon sequestration in the US. Of the various mechanisms of reforestation, urban tree planting was significantly underfunded. Noticing that this problem would only start to get progressively worse, Cambium Carbon was started.

Kleercard

Owen Hill is the co-founder of Kleercard, a solution that eliminates personal guarantees, lengthy signup processes, and complicated expense reporting while giving you complete control over issuing virtual and physical cards. He jumped at the chance to partner with XI because he loves the community that has shaped him and his children’s lives. Owen chose to take the plunge and become a founder based on his father’s motto. His father told him he would rather work 80 hours for himself than 40 hours for someone else, which has stuck with him ever since. Owen believes his startup’s best accolades come from its ability to serve its customers. A highlight of this past summer came from unsolicited feedback from a customer saying that they had a fantastic interaction with an intern at Kleercard and it was the best they had in banking and finance. This is representative of Kleercard’s top core value, “ensure customer success.”

Lyrics2Learn

Jeremy Spatz is the Founder of Lyrics2Learn, a music-based K-5th grade online reading program. Lyrics2Learn creates original hip-hop, rock, blues, and jazz songs fused with educational concepts to help students become better readers. Jeremy found XI through an acquaintance who went through the program and thought it would be an excellent fit for his company. His biggest challenge as an Edtech founder is working through the complexity of public education. Still, he feels the most rewarding part of the job is knowing the company started from nothing and now does over 2 million lessons a year. Jeremy believes that music can improve and enhance most experiences because music can connect words (any story) to feeling and emotion in a way that heightens the recipient’s experience exponentially. He states, “Once a student feels a novel, reading becomes a fun, positive, and educationally effective experience,” and we couldn’t agree more.

​Along with the whole XI team, I am appreciative of these amazing founders for taking the time to be interviewed. XI loves working with these founders who are looking to break the mold and think differently about how the world solves problems. Do you want to learn more about these founders’ journey and the rest of the startups in the Amplify program? RSVP to Demo Day on October 14. Along with hearing their pitches, you will have the opportunity to network with the founders and like-minded startup enthusiasts.