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June 6, 2019

Greenzie Raises $500k to Free Humans from Repetitive Outdoor Labor

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CBQ

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Greenzie Raises $500k to Free Humans from Repetitive Outdoor Labor

It’s a great day for everyone in the green industry, our future customers, our fans, for members of the open source robotics community (ROS), for everyone in the Atlanta startup community, for our families (thanks Greenzie team moms!), and for our team.

I am proud to announce Greenzie’s $500k investment round to advance our mission: to free humans from repetitive outdoor labor.

Some History

Greenzie is proud to be the first company to launch from the Atlanta Ventures Studio. Starting companies is hard, and the Studio is built to give an incredible leg up to entrepreneurs to build great companies around great cultures with must-have products and services.

With the Studio’s support, we dove in and started building our prototype to prove we could control a commercial lawn mower with software. We knew it was possible, and with the Studio’s help, our Demo Day was a smashing success.

The Raise

Shortly after our big demo reveal, at our weekly Atlanta Ventures partner meeting, I was updating the team on the basics: the demo went great, we had immense traction, our product and prototype was clipping along, and we were hitting our milestones. We just needed a season of mowing. Our customer discovery was telling us exactly what to build, and we had many potential customers, ready to buy.  But rather than try and eek out some revenue, I proposed we raise $250k to simply go mow as many lawns as possible with our prototype. With capital, we could test even more hypotheses around safety, reliability, pricing, go-to-market, and continuously improve (kaizen)!

David Cummings said: “How about this: Atlanta Ventures will put up $500k, and we’ll do the whole round, so we can keep building. If you want to go get some strategic investors, they can take as much as they want, up to the full $500k.”

I think (I hope) I remembered to say thank you, but I was floored. First, the offer was double what we proposed, and we could immediately get back to work, even faster, with the same cap table. For those that don’t know David Cumming’s history going all in on companies he believes in, see Exhibit A.

I would end this story here, but we decided to seek out the best of the best in strategic investors to help us accelerate our growth. And invest, they did.

Our Investors

We are proud to say our cap table includes investors with deep experience in:

  • Launching robotics companies and hardware enabled SaaS
  • Outdoor Power Equipment sales, distribution, and markets
  • Labor arbitrage, statutory costs, and pricing
  • The Green Industry, building software and technology to level up everyone
  • Building companies with great cultures
  • Thinking big: and building the best of breed software and sales to boot
  • And much, much more.

The confidence our investors have for the problem we’re solving and the way we’re solving it makes us work even harder.

Putting It to Use

With these funds, we are proud to launch Greenzie Go, a service for our future customers to get the benefits of our prototype now, and help us refine it to be exactly what they need, while getting the hours our software needs to prove it is ready for primetime.

We are expanding the team, recruiting some of the best and brightest robotics experts, from battlebot competition pros, to outdoor ground vehicle competition champions. When David and I co-founded the company, we were a team of two. Today, we stand at eight, supported by the Studio.

And most importantly, with this raise, we are able to remain hyper focused on our mission: to free humans from repetitive outdoor labor.

Onward and upward.

-Charles Brian Quinn

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PRESS RELEASE

Greenzie Raises $500,000 Round to Fuel Growth

ATLANTA — June 6, 2019 — Greenzie, builder of software for autonomous robotic lawn mowers, announced it secured a $500,000 investment on May 24, 2019. Atlanta Ventures (David Cummings) led the round with additional investors including, TechSquare Labs (Paul Judge and Allen Nance), Matt Lowe, Dan Campbell, David Lightburn, Carswell Distributing Company (Will Parsley), and Kyle Porter.

Charles Brian Quinn, CEO and Co-Founder said, “We are thankful for all our investors who believe in our mission to free humans from repetitive outdoor labor. We sought out the best of the best strategic investors to join our cause with deep experience in building enduring, game-changing companies with great cultures backed by disruptive technologies. It’s a great day for our future customers and the market -- this investment reflects immense confidence in our team, the overall landscape, our product, and our execution.”

This round is devoted to product development. At the beginning of 2019, Greenzie was a team of two people. Today, they stand at eight, each driven by a set of six core values: Safety First, Do Hansei to Do Kaizen (learning through relentless reflection to continuously improve), Bias Towards Action, Important Things First,  Eliminate Muri (Unnecessary Work), and Customer Success.  

Greenzie is the first company to launch from the Atlanta Ventures Studio. David Cummings said, “Greenzie represents one of the boldest visions and most talented teams that I've had the opportunity to work with and I can't wait to see them fulfill their mission.”

ABOUT GREENZIE: Greenzie is the first company to launch from the Atlanta Ventures Studio. Greenzie builds software for autonomous robotic lawn mowers to reduce labor costs for lawn maintenance companies. For more information on Greenzie and how to deliver a better turf mowing experience, visit greenzie.co.

ABOUT ATLANTA VENTURES: Atlanta Ventures was Founded by David Cummings, serial entrepreneur and Co-founder of multiple SaaS companies. Atlanta Ventures empowers SaaS entrepreneurs in the Southeast to achieve their potential through community, content, and capital. For more information on the team and all its investments, visit atlantaventrues.com or follow them on Twitter @atlantaventures.

ABOUT TECHSQUARE LABS: TechSquare Labs was founded by Dr. Paul Judge and Allen Nance, two technology entrepreneurs with a track record of building, advising, and investing in successful technology companies. They are driven to Build Something From Nothing with companies ranging from two guys and a laptop to established enterprises looking to stay ahead of the pack. They do this by combining experience in patents, research, and team building with a network that spans from freshman coders to Fortune 500 CEOs. For more information about the team visit https://techsquare.co/.