Our Cohort 2 companies all traveled to Chicago the week of May 14 for our second intensive. We spent this time focused on pricing, sales, and marketing – and had some of the most talented minds around coach our companies through these complicated topics.

Pricing and sales are unique in this market. Buyers are particularly price conscious (as they should be) and vendors need a strong understanding of the space to be good stewards of the valuable time they are given. These tenants shaped our programming for our 4 days together. From pitch coaching to a pricing workshop to several case studies from successful start ups, we left each day exhausted but energized. A company’s ability to navigate the space quickly and deftly is critical to a rapid path to market – and that is exactly where we focused.

There were fun times too! The week included a cohort trip to Chicago’s Second City, a community happy hour with some of the best of the Chicago tech and political scenes, and some solid speaker appreciation that kept us all on our toes (h/t Shomik). Our speakers included:

David Axelrod, Chief Strategist, Barack Obama

Harper Reed, Former CTO, OFA

Anna Galland, Executive Director, MoveOn.org

Aviva Rosman, Co-Founder, BallotReady

Dave Leichtman, Strategist, Cybersecurity & Democracy, Microsoft

Roz Lemieux, Director, Blackbaud Labs

Perry Rosenstein, Co-Founder, Hustle

Dan Kanninen, Partner, Smoot Tewes Group

Sara Hudson, Partner, Investing in US

Jenn Lejano, Principal/Co-Founder, Fresh Eyes Digital

Hari Sevugan, Partner, 270 Strategies

Michael Slaby, Founder, Timshel

Some of the best moments were driven by our founders. Tovah from Avalanche and Dustin from CallTime led workshops on public speaking. Nicole from SameSide and Yemi from Civic Eagle got great photos with David Axelrod. And Joel from Invest Blue led a conversation around security for the founding CTOs of the group.

We left the intensive prepared and excited for Intensive 3, coming up in just two weeks in DC. Our companies will be talking to as many political organizations as they can over the course of 4 days, working to add value quickly. Our second cohort is ready to head into the market and do whatever they can between now and November to win.

Thanks to each and every founder for giving everything you had this month! On to DC.