Seal of Approval: Parker Polidor, CaredFor Testimonial

Mar 25, 2019

Parker Polidor shares how Jumpstart provided a ‘seal of approval’ that allowed his company to gain credibility & validation among other investors and go on to raise $1.6M.

Our investments are more than just a check; we provide strategic capital. At our previous investor happy hour, portfolio company, CaredFor CEO, Parker Polidor shared his experience of working with Jumpstart Foundry. Listen in or view transcription below.


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“I’m Parker. I’m the Co- Founder of CaredFor, based in Nashville. We were a bit earlier than Austin was. We came to Jumpstart with no product, no customers, no revenue, zero, zilch, but an idea and a lot of passion. We’ve started and sold two previous companies, so we kind of understood what would happen. We took the amount of money that Jumpstart had, and the big value there is that we’re based here in Nashville as well, and then we could take that seal of the Jumpstart approval, right? We could bring it to all these other angel investors and say, “Hey, Jumpstart invested money, so should you right? And we did that time and time and time again. We went from your investment of $150,000 and we raised up to $1.6 million.
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I know there’s a lot of risk, but we were vetted by Vic and Eller! So, what could really go wrong? We told that story, we found a group of really passionate investors, Joe Ivey being one of them. We call it the Lipscomb Mafia. The Lipscomb Mafia has really done an amazing job investing in us and follow-on round of capital. So we just raised an additional half million dollars of a three quarter of a million dollar round. We have about $250,000 left. It’s been an amazing two and a half years. We went from zero product and no customers, no revenue, to this year in 2018 we closed out right around $600,000 in revenue, about eight people, working with about 65 addiction treatment providers across the country. We provide software to drug and alcohol treatment programs to allow them to stay connected and engaged with patients with family and alumni.

We’re helping to increase reimbursements, reduced patient attrition and improve outcomes. What’s been amazing about Jumpstart is this money that we received early on, it allowed us to kind of test a vision and a mission and that has had real impact on the lives of people. We are seeing today, that our platform is stopping people overdosing or from using drugs or alcohol again. We know for sure that our platform has saved the lives of people across the country. And so it’s more than just money, right? This is real impact that is happening here. It’s been really amazing to have, through our team and in your investment team that have come together to create a company and a product now this reaching the lives of tens of thousands of people across the country. So for us, we’ll end up doubling again in 2019 and doubling again in 2020.

Our staff continues to grow and I spent a really amazing sort of collaborative effort to get where we are today. But it wouldn’t have happened without the bit of confidence and the $150,000 and the validation that Jumpstart gave us. And I think that a lot of companies, they don’t understand the validation, right? They just think, well the money is great, but the money paled in comparison to what that network allowed us to do. So it’s been very, very helpful obviously, and we’re glad to still be alive and still be growing the business for sure.”

– Parker Polidor, CEO of CaredFor

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