Director Town Hall Newsletter - Sept 2020
We announced some big news at our Town Hall Call yesterday. If you haven’t digested yesterday’s announcements yet - don't worry, neither have we!
If you want to watch the recording of the event, click here. Following you can find a recap of yesterday's news!
HQ RESTRUCTURING
The man, the myth, the legend - G will be stepping down as VP of Community, and transitioning over to the Bevy team where he will be working on the Bevy Products. Here's G's linkedin if you wish to stay in touch.
While we are very sad to see G leaving, we are excited for his new journey at Bevy (fortunately, he is not going far). Don’t worry, you can still pester him on Slack! Phin has been appointed interim Director of Community.
The HQ team is undergoing an exciting restructuring, which will position us for the next phase of growth for Startup Grind. We will share more updates on this as well as new strategies in October when we start our “second half” of the year.
GLOBAL CONFERENCE 2021
While we would love to get together in-person and meet in Redwood City at Global 2021 in February, the reality is that this likely will not be possible.
The global pandemic has not only challenged us to change how we operate as an organization, but has also forced us to re-think our annual Global Conference.
In a very short time we went from hosting only in-person events, to exclusively hosting virtual events. Next, we will be breaking ground by hosting the very first virtual Global Conference.
We are thrilled to announce a multi-day virtual conference during the week of 22 February, 2021. We are expecting over 15,000 attendees to join from all our Chapters around the world. Stay tuned, more information will follow soon.
Bevy VIrtual Conference is the product that we’ll be using, if you wish to use Bevy Virtual or Bevy Virtual Conference for your summits/regional conferences or for external (non Startup Grind) events, please fill in this form
CHAPTER REVENUE
Traditionally, HQ has claimed 20% of all Chapter ticket sales and sponsorship revenue to help cover the operational costs of the Bevy platform, other key services such as G Suite, as well as cover the salaries of the Community Managers that support you.
We have been inspired by how many Directors have stepped up to continue to keep their startup ecosystems engaged and connected, during what is a challenging time for us all.
We want to acknowledge this hard work and sacrifice by giving ALL of the ticket sales and sponsorship revenue to the Chapters until the end of 2020, meaning for next 4 months you get 100% of the money you generate.
Please note: The above does not apply to country or HQ-led sponsorships. It is only for your individual Chapter.
COHORT 2020
The community team has been hard at work conducting interviews with new applicants over the past few weeks, and we are super excited to kick off our next Director Cohort on 21 September.
As part of the Cohort, all new Directors participate in a 6 week online training course where they learn what Startup Grind is all about, what it means to be a Chapter Director, as well as all the best practices to become amazing Directors.
If you are a Director, haven’t joined the previous Cohort, and would like to take part, please sign up here.
Applications close on 4 September.
#SGBlackLeaders MONTH
We are excited to announce our newest themed month in October, Black Leaders Month.
Our very own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Steering Committee has worked on this themed month in partnership with Google for Startups to encourage Directors to celebrate Black Leaders, and get as many Black Leaders on our stages as possible.
Although we celebrate diverse leaders all year round, during #BlackLeadersMonth we are giving a special shout out to the amazing, incredible, intelligent (we could go on and on) underrepresented leaders who make the tech, investor and startup landscapes what they are today.
Join us in recognizing underrepresented leaders from all over the world by hosting events featuring Black, Latinx or Afro-latinx founders, and give a shout out to #SGBlackLeaders.
We have put together a Playbook for Hosting a Successful #SGBlackLeaders’ Month Event.
Art Assets are available here. You can find the templates in Google Drive.
GLOBAL PITCH BATTLE COMPETITION
Over 35 Chapters hosted local pitch battles in August!
The Global Pitch Battle Competition is now live, and the final round is taking place on 24 September.
It will be a live-streamed event where the top 10 startups will pitch in front of an audience of investors, mentors, judges, other entrepreneurs and the whole startup grind community.
The event will be judged by a panel comprising of:
- Amy Jin, Leadership & Pitch Coach for Founders
- Sonny Mayugba, Entrepreneur In Residence at Spero Ventures
- SC Moatti, Managing Partner, Mighty Capital
The judges have agreed to have 1:1 sessions with the top 3 winners as additional prizes, and winners will get free access to the PitchCreator's investor pitch course. Additionally, the winners will get lifetime access to our Startup Membership free of cost.
Made with ❤️ by the Community Team
Derek, G, Madeline, Bruce, Daniel, Jess, Jelte, Yasemin