Hero House Glendale Director, Armine Galstyan on Why They're More Than Your Average Accelerator.

Glendale continues forging a path to becoming one of Southern California’s premier regional tech hubs and the launch of the City’s first accelerator, Hero House Glendale, is evidence of the lengths that the City of Glendale will go to to cultivate an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship.

In 2019, the City received a $1 million grant from the State of California to launch and support a Start-Up Accelerator. Two top notch operators were selected to run accelerators in the City. Hero House, backed by their in-house venture capital fund SmartGateVC recently launched its first cohort. We had an opportunity to talk with Hero House’s Director, Armine Galstyan.

Thank you for joining us today, Armine. Let’s kick things off by telling us a little about yourself.

First of all, thank you for having me for the interview.

I started college in 2014, at a time when the tech and startup industry in Eastern Europe was booming. I went to the American University of Armenia and got a bachelor's degree in Business. During my freshman and sophomore years, I spent a lot of my time out of classes, taking short internships and meeting people at the newly launched university startup incubator. Out of this grew a project, which eventually led me into the startup and tech scene of Eastern Europe.

This is when I met the partners of SmartGateVC, a deep tech seed VC fund backed by serial entrepreneurs and notable venture capitalists. I had been planning to work in the banking industry back then. I even accepted a job offer and only to realized later that I was having way more fun working on this project.

The project did not take off, so I went on to join the sales team of one of the leading mobility and transportation startups in Armenia. However, when SmartGateVC was officially launched, I joined the fund as one of the first hires at 19.

Currently, I am the Managing Director of Hero House Glendale. My experience spans from accelerator management to startup advisory, partnerships, and community management. Throughout my work at the Fund, I led SmartGateVC's deep tech incubation and pre-acceleration programs, where I had a chance to work with 100+ early-stage startups and helped entrepreneurs to raise pre-seed funding. At SmartGateVC, I am also part of the investment team with 20 portfolio companies as of March 2021.

We’re excited to have Hero House launch in Glendale. What is your vision for the accelerator and how is it unique compared to other tech accelerators in SoCal?

Hero House Glendale is a technology hub that aims to arm companies with path-breaking technological advancements and scalable business models by connecting business development talent and opportunities in the SoCal area with the deep tech teams in Eastern Europe.

The first phase of the program at Hero House is the GateWay accelerator, where participants go through a 12-week mentorship program focused on establishing their growth framework, refining and validating their sales strategies. This is followed by 8 weeks of on-site customer development and fundraising assistance in Southern California.

The accelerator is uniquely positioned to efficiently leverage the talent and business opportunities of both the North American and European continents. Hero House Glendale goes beyond running only the startup program. The vision of the hub is to consolidate local scientific/engineering potential and smart money around cutting-edge entrepreneurship through various value add partnerships.

Hero House sounds like an exciting opportunity for startups. Break it down for us, how does a startup benefit from participating?

The program uses an individualized approach for addressing companies’ needs and challenges.

Participants have access to a large pool of mentors and industry experts who will prepare them for raising seed funding. Throughout the program, the mentors will guide the companies in sales and growth hacking.

Partnerships with world-renowned companies such as IBM, Zeplin, Flexy, and others, arms founders with the best resources for building their products. The total value of perks exceeds $600K per company. Moreover, companies will receive assistance for setting up highly qualified yet cost-efficient tech teams in Eastern Europe.

After working towards achieving milestones, founders will pitch in front of a carefully selected, 100+ invite-only audience of US investors during “Demo Day”.

What are the types of startups we should look forward to seeing on Demo Day?

As a result of a detailed selection process, 13 companies have been chosen. Investors should look forward to seeing deep tech startups with early traction from industries ranging from healthtech, business intelligence, fintech to entertainment, proptech, and more.

You have worked with 100+ early-stage startups and helped entrepreneurs to raise pre-seed funding – what is the one piece of advice you would give early-stage startups looking for funding?

Target only value-add investors and go after smart money.

I hear that you are going to be a judge at Pitchfest. What tips do you have for our participants to elevate their pitch?

I would recommend that participants keep their pitch within 2.5-3.5 minutes and focus on what differentiates them from the competition. I personally will prioritize and vote for the companies that have teams with strong expertise and background in their industries and are solving substantial problems for big markets.

Why should startups consider Glendale when looking to locate their business?

Glendale has strong foundations to become the next hub for technology and innovation. Talent, quality of life, access to transit, cost-efficient office spaces, and more factors make the City an attractive home for startups.

Glendale is also home to big corporations and tech giants such as Walt Disney Animation Studios, DreamWorks Studios, ServiceTitan, etc., that create a favorable environment for innovation to thrive. In addition to this Glendale, is surrounded by world-class scientific and educational institutions such as USC, UCLA, Caltech, etc. Thus, startups can employ highly-ranked professionals in the Glendale area and collaborate with the universities to utilize the tech research and scientific potential in the area.

PickTrace: Q & A with Brothers/Co-Founders Harrison & Austin Steed

New to the Glendale Tech Scene is PickTrace, a fast growing software company that provides high tech solutions for farms all over the US, Latin America and Australia, founded by brothers Austin & Harrison Steed.

After moving their operation from Northern California to beautiful downtown Glendale, they talked to us about their startup journey, overcoming obstacles, how they narrowed the search for a new home from 17 cities across the U.S. to Glendale, CA, and why they're thrilled to be here.

Harrison Steed, Co-Founder & COO of PickTrace

Tell us a little about PickTrace; how did the idea for the company develop and what has it evolved into today?

PickTrace was founded after my brother (Austin) was asked by my father to create a system to resolve our workforce management issues. After a year of building the solution for our own family farm, and creating multiple iterations, the product took shape and other growers garnered interest in what became PickTrace. After selling to our first few customers in 2014, Austin and I opened our first office in San Diego. Shortly after, we were accepted into Y Combinator in Mountain View, CA and raised a small round of capital. We continued to grow, hiring a small fantastic team in the East Bay of San Francisco. In Fall of 2018 we raised a Series A financing round and decided to move to Glendale! 

Why is PickTrace an important player in your industry?

PickTrace is helping growers complete a core function of their business, payroll. Without a solution like PickTrace, farmers leave themselves exposed to payroll noncompliance lawsuits, workforce inefficiencies, and lack of production insights. Agriculture is one of the slowest adopters of technology, yet is one of the most important industries in the world - we strive to provide tools that will ultimately lead to healthier businesses that produce higher yields.

What were some of the challenges you had to overcome to get to where you are today?

In a startup, nothing is permanent! The go-to market strategy will change, the product will change, the management style will change, etc. - you're constantly in flux and iterating on ideas and methods. It can be a challenge to let go of an idea that the company has outgrown or methods you've practiced for years. Financial constraints were also a constant battle pre-Series A.

PickTrace is used all over the US, Latin America and Australia. Why did you choose Glendale to be home to your headquarters?

We started with a list of 17 cities across the US. We considered a large list of metrics and requirements, ultimately whittling down the list to just two areas, Denver and Los Angeles. After a lot of thought and multiple visits to each city, we decided Glendale because of 6+ things. Proximity to customers, number of other successful businesses in the city, walk-ability, traffic, transportation infrastructure, affordability of office space and general cost of living

Austin Steed, Co-Founder and CEO of PickTrace

You’ve been in Glendale for over 6 months now. How’s it going so far? What do you love most about our city?

Being in Glendale has been a fantastic decision. The food! I do not think most people realize just how many different restaurants Glendale has, you can eat somewhere different every single day. I also love the cleanliness of the city - you guys have done a great job of maintaining a clean and safe environment. I appreciate some of the changes that we have seen in the last few months, like the new outdoor eating area in the alley on Wilson near our office.

If someone came to you for advice about possibly moving their business to Glendale what would you tell them?

I would tell them there is a great space available in our fantastic building! I would tell them that Glendale is a young, active city with a lot to offer - it has everything that a business needs - parking, food, gyms, great traffic management.

Drawing on personal experience, what advice would you give to new startups hoping to break into the tech industry?

Focus. One of the biggest challenges, and something we are dealing with today, was a lack of focus on the minimum viable product. It was easy for us to become distracted and allow sales to dictate product. When sales dictates product, we've found that long-term vision becomes cloudier. When we were able to focus on selling to a small group of people, with a very focused product, with a clear path to how we will achieve growth and expansion, product was happiest, customers were happiest, and sales were strongest.

Any final thoughts?

Join our team! We are constantly hiring and looking for awesome people to join PickTrace!