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Hi SM Family,

It is the end of November. 🤯
This update is short, as we’re all in a mad rush in the final 4 weeks before Xmas.

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Here’s what’s happening:
Almost the entire Startmate team is together in Sydney for our offsite.
S22 Accelerator selection is in full swing.
S22 Student Fellowship about to kick-off.
We’re hiring 4x new Startmates.
The Women Fellowship, Founders Fellowship and First Believers just ended.
We’re building our first SM product helping startups in ANZ hire. Beta launch by EOY.
We’re laying the foundations for a $30m Continuation Fund.
We’re about to start deploying the $1m Small Bets Fund.
We’re making a 3x and 9x fund-returner distribution to investors by EOY.

Ask

• We’re hiring 4x new Startmates. We’re looking for a Head of Programs, Entrepreneur in Residence, Fund Ops Associate and Community Events Coordinator. We’ve extended the deadline to December 5th, so if you know anyone, send them this link!

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Startmate Goals

1. Lay the Foundations: Set up Startmate for long-term success‍

• Our proposed $30m Continuation Fund, which will keep backing our alumni for years post-cohort, has received lots of early interest. To get the ball rolling, we’ve brought on Naman as an intern. He’ll lay the foundations of the analysis required to prove the concept and get the fund off the ground in mid-2022.

2. Ambition Magnet: Attract the most ambitious founders, operators and investors

• The Student Fellowship received 685 applications and our summer cohort is kicking off next week.
• Our latest experiment was the launch of the SM Underground podcast, which dives into topics on the fringe, bringing founders and investors together to nerd out on up-and-coming technologies.
• The Summer22 Accelerator selection is in full swing with another great cohort on the horizon. While we are in the process of hiring an EIR to lead our founder programs into the future, Lauren will be point-person for the Summer22 cohort in the interim.

3. Smooth Operator: Set us up as the smoothest plug-and-play system to serve the team

• We’re behind on this goal. As Sascha has left, Ben will be leading the Operations team, with plans to hit the ground running in 2022.
  

Good

• The Winter21 Accelerator cohort finished with an NPS of 74.
• We’ve identified the first two $25k Small Bet Fund investments we’ll be making in the coming weeks.
  Our inaugural Engineering Fellowship is in full swing, with 66 engineers and 52 coaches.
• We’ve helped 197 Fellows land jobs in startups since 2019!

Bad

• Our first ever Founders Fellowship MVP finished with an NPS of 25. This is way below where we need to be. That being said, many exciting companies have been built during the program which are about to get funded, so the desired outcome has been achieved. But we need to revisit the next iteration of the program with all the feedback that has been submitted.
  

Ugly

• After 2.5 years, Sascha Kerbert has  left Startmate. Excitingly, he’s spreading his wings at Dovetail, one of the fastest growing and most ambitious startups in the world, in a Revenue, Strategy and Operations capacity. He’ll also stay close as an Accelerator mentor and Fellowship coach. He’s leaving big shoes to fill. As we’re going into the new year with an ambitious strategy, Ben will be heading up Operations and we’re hiring for a couple new roles.

Thanks Team!

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Michael Batko

CEO, Startmate