Everyday Life was born out of frustration.

When co-founder and CEO Jake Tamarkin went to buy life insurance for himself, he was disappointed in how hard it was to get the right coverage for his family. “I thought I could use my deep background in financial services to improve the life insurance value proposition for everyday people,” he said.

Everyday Life is decidedly “not your dad’s life insurance”: using proprietary technology to make sophisticated needs assessment accessible to everyday people and offering Predictive ProtectionTM — coverage that saves people money by automatically adjusting based on predictable life events. Jake shared how Abaca helped him understand his level of investment-readiness.

GETTING ALIGNED

We got exposed to Abaca through Village Capital’s Finance Forward financial health program.

We knew we needed to raise some money and we’d started talking to some potential investors but were kind of hitting a wall, we really weren’t getting the traction that we needed. Then at the program, they said, “Sit down. We have a tool.”

The first value Abaca delivered was aligning us. I sat down with my co-founder, and looked at the VIRAL milestone grid criteria.

I said, “We’re a five here,” and she’d said “No, we’re a two.” It forced us to have impactful, really meaningful conversations that we wouldn’t have had otherwise and in a structured way — across all these really important topics.

It got us aligned on where we were as a company and it gave us a framework to have a conversation across all of the critical topics and prioritize our resource allocation to our most pressing needs.

FINDING THE RIGHT INVESTORS, AT THE RIGHT TIME

Another thing Abaca does that was very tangible and practical, and arguably saved our company, was that it tells you what stage you’re at in the investment world, and what the ideal appropriate investor clientele would be for that stage.

So there was this massive “ah-ha moment” for us, because we had been pitching to early-stage VCs, but the tool told us, “Okay, no, you need to be focusing on angel investors.”

We hadn’t really pursued angels before, and that was revelatory, because, you know, I’d been pitching to a whole lot of different people, but getting feedback along the lines of, “You guys are great, but you don’t have enough traction for us yet.”

Abaca’s framework told us, “Hey, you’re targeting the wrong investors.” Raising money is a sales process, and we needed to sell to a different investor clientele that had their own unique wants and needs.

EXPANDING THE DREAM

With that insight, everything fell into place. Once we knew to focus on angels, we listened to their feedback more closely. They said they like our product, they like our progress, but they didn’t like the deal we were offering. Easy peasy — we changed the terms of the deal to be more aligned to what the angels were telling us would make more sense for them. And then all of a sudden, everything changed.

The first investor I talked to after our revelation bought into it. With that commitment in hand, the next day I sent an email to investors who had rejected us before, and within 48 hours we oversubscribed the round.

It saved our company — twice. First because we were weeks away from running out of money. It saved us a second time, because oversubscribing meant that we didn’t have to raise again during the initial COVID-19 lockdown, which would have been very difficult. But beyond mere survival, this success allowed us to expand our dream bigger, free our ambition and accelerate our drive.

Learn more about Everyday Life and Abaca’s investment readiness tool.

In the world of entrepreneurship, talk of a “perfect match” investor is usually met with a healthy dose of skepticism (fair!)

But Abaca (an app powered by Village Capital) isn’t just about making connections. It’s about unmixing the mixed signals that lead to missed opportunities. It’s about helping early-stage entrepreneurs understand their investment readiness level, speak the same language as investors, and make connections with them.

It’s like a dating app…kind of. But it also gets both parties aligned from the jump, saving everyone time, energy, and heartache. How many dating apps can do that? (Kidding…kind of!)

Abaca, at its heart, is aligned with Village Capital’s mission to democratize entrepreneurship. Our goal was to create a space for mutual connections while shedding light on what investors look for to remove hurdles for entrepreneurs solving some really important problems.

Perfect Match Math

For the last decade, Village Capital has worked with over 1,100 entrepreneurs and hundreds of investors in 30 countries to develop the “VIRAL” (Venture Investment Readiness and Awareness Levels) assessment. VIRAL helps entrepreneurs understand their business through the eyes of an investor, with levels from 1 (a founding team) to 9 (a market-leading company).

Abaca takes our tried-and-true investment readiness assessment to the next level.

Named after an Abacus, the ancient calculation tool, Abaca harnesses technology that our trusty VIRAL PDFs from programs could never: Abaca both calculates a detailed investment readiness report and matches entrepreneurs and investors who are likely to hit it off.

Just like an abacus, our readiness assessment tracks milestones for entrepreneurs and provides them with a common language to ensure that founders and investors are always on the same page. Being able to communicate well with your team and sponsors saves you — and them — time.

No entrepreneur enjoys hearing “no” or “not yet” — or maybe worse, the dead air of ghosting — from investors. With Abaca, we’ve worked to create a space for transparency: on expectations, language, parameters, and the path forward.

Abaca allows investors to be helpful and give feedback without taking too much valuable time. Supporters typically only have time to listen to a pitch and accept or decline, they don’t have time to give feedback or refer them to someone who might be more helpful — it’s just too much. With Abaca, they can provide useful feedback, give better-fit referrals and capitalize on their time.

The best part? Entrepreneurs, investors, and entrepreneur support organizations can join and get connected — no matter where they are. Check out Abaca and join today.

Frankie Astorga, Abaca Team

As an investor, you know tech is rapidly changing nearly every sector, but there still isn’t a solution available to add more hours to the day. Even if such a magical solution cropped up (and you were able to invest in it), would you really want to spend any more time wading through your inbox?

The average venture capital firm reviews around 1,200 companies a year to ultimately make around 10 investments. Managing the top of the funnel and finding a good-fit investment — efficiently — in a sea of so many good companies is a real challenge. Going beyond quick gut instincts and checking implicit bias at the door is an even bigger challenge. (Just 15% of VC goes to women, and only 2% of VC goes to Black and Latinx entrepreneurs.)

Meet Abaca, the web app designed to help you find the right fit.

Abaca helps you screen companies based on their investment readiness and your specific investment criteria. First, Abaca utilizes Village Capital’s Venture Investment Readiness Assessment Levels (VIRAL) pathway to benchmark startups across eight categories from a Level 1 (founding team) to Level 9 (a market-leading company). Second, Abaca compares companies’ detailed metrics such as revenue earned, capital raised, growth rates, and whatever else is important to you against your preferences.

As an investor, it takes only a few minutes to set up your profile. You get a link to share with entrepreneurs and see if they meet your criteria, and as a bonus, we match you with entrepreneurs already on Abaca. Entrepreneurs will love your link too, within minutes, startup founders can complete their profile and find out if you’re a good fit. Both parties get time back, understand where you stand, and save a few emails back and forth or unnecessary meetings.

If the fit isn’t quite right, investors can feel comfortable saying “no”, knowing that they’ll find a better match through the Abaca network. Founders also get free advice on leveling up their investment readiness and if it makes sense to circle back in the future. Abaca makes it easy to screen startups and make the best use of your time.

Investors can get started for free. Join Abaca today!

By Rachel Kitchen, Abaca Team