Like most companies, Surthrive has traditionally waited until the end of the calendar year to look back at our accomplishments, performance, and areas of improvement. This year, we decided to take a sportsmen like approach to our annual report by doing our very first Mid-Year Review called the Halftime Report that recaps the first two quarters of the year.

Overview

The 2023 Halftime Report will allow us to compare our short-term outcomes with our long-term goals, celebrate small wins, and make the necessary adjustments to achieve our annual objectives. In this report you will get a transparent snapshot of the highlights and our strategic approach to finishing the 2023 year strong. 

All activities highlighted in this report align with our 2023 annual objectives: 

  1. Capital: Raise $1 Million in non-dilutive capital by December 31, 2023
  2. Customers: Secure 10 new partnerships to compete for grants and RFPs by December 31, 2023
  3. Capacity: Support 50 business owners to increase their capacity to scale by December 31, 2023

Capital 

In Q1, Surthrive won a grant from Invest Atlanta’s Creative Industries Grant Fund in which funds will go towards the relaunch of our Back 2 The Basics Podcast in the second half of the year. Also, Invest Atlanta decided to extend our contract with them to further support socially-disadvantaged business owners located in the City of Atlanta via The Digital Transformation Project. These two activities from this one partner alone have brought our total non-dilutive capital raise to $55K.

Customers

Speaking of partners, in the first half of the year Surthrive has inked 2 new partnership contracts with two of the largest Business Serving Organizations (BSO) for Black-owned businesses in the Southeast, Our Village United (OVU) and the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship (RICE). 

Currently, Surthrive is contracted as a business advisor to OVU’s newest program HER PRO BONO, a program offering technical assistance and one-on-one coaching to Black women entrepreneurs primarily in retail-facing businesses. Also, Surthrive is contracted by RICE as a Business Advisor providing business consulting and marketing strategy to 15 business owners in their BIG IDEAS program.

Lastly, Surthrive worked directly with 8 underrepresented startup founders via our 10-week virtual pre-accelerator program, Square One Startup School, in Q2 and celebrated their graduation at our 6th Square One Startup Showcase.

Capacity 

As a direct result of our consulting services, entrepreneurial programming and technical assistance services we have served 30 socially-disadvantaged business owners that have created 170 new jobs and raised over $1.5M in capital. With the growth in the number of businesses Surthrive is servicing there is a need for additional internal capacity to ensure each business served is receiving an excellent end-to-end experience. We are actively looking to hire a Communications Specialist to assist with communicating with existing and new clients, partners, and stakeholders. To learn more about this role and others visit surthrive.co/careers. 

Next Half

Our plan to raise $1M in non-dilutive capital will be going after grants and contracts centered around technology-based economic development. Currently, Surthrive has 3 grants submitted that are valued at $2.58M in which we will be notified if we are awarded any or all of them by Q3. In order to create competitive grant and contract proposals, we plan to foster relationships with new and existing ecosystem partners who identify as BSO non-profits, local government agencies, and universities. 

With the additional capital and partnerships projected for the next two quarters of the year, we believe we will be able to exceed our goal of supporting 50 new business owners by the end of 2023. 

If you are looking to partner with Surthrive please reach out to our CEO and recent Inc. 30-under-30-ish recipient, Justin McLeod, at justin@surthrive.co.