A Coplex Year In Review

2019 has been an amazing year for Coplex. In addition to hiring five new team members and offering six internships, we went through a complete rebrand and became more intentional about culture development.

To close out the year we brought together our network of referral partners, mentors, and ventures, to show our appreciation, highlight the work we’re doing together, and share what Coplex is planning for 2020. While most of the event attendees were partners and mentors, two venture founders were also in attendance: One of whom graduated from the program this year and one who’s just getting started.

Coplex Director of Partnerships Caitlin Goetze said she was excited to introduce the founders to each other, and to as many mentors and investors as she could.

“I love being able to connect people and highlight the success of our Coplex ventures,” Goetze said. “It’s all about cultivating community.”
‍

‍

‍Venture Spotlight: Insurmi

Sonny Patel launched Insurmi with the intention of simplifying the overly complex and opaque process of purchasing insurance. This year the company graduated from the Coplex Venture Building program, closed a $1M funding round, and was an Arizona Innovation Challenge winner.

‍
Venture Building 2019 by the Numbers

50 ventures went through Coplex workshops
25 new ventures entered the Coplex program
7 Coplex program graduates
6 complete internships
5 new Coplex team members
‍

Team and Culture Accomplishments

This year Coplex was named one of Inc.’s best places to work, which CEO Zach Ferres credits entirely to the Coplex team: “The team we have here at Coplex is to credit for this and we’re optimistic that this will continue to help us bring great tech talent to Coplex and to Arizona.”

To ensure the Coplex culture continues to thrive as we grow, Tori Armendariz transitioned into a new role as Events and Experience Manager, a role she created for herself. She says she loves coming to work every day dreaming up ways to enable everyone working at Coplex building genuine connections in a community with a unified vision. 

“I still can't believe that I get to work with a team that believes in me so much they let me create an entirely new role and transition into it so that I could pursue my passions full-time.”

In addition to their successes as a team, Coplexers have achieved individual accomplishments as well. Some of those accomplishments include growing their families, Coplex Designer, Holly Chisholm publishing a book about mental health, and Content Strategist, Katherine Sorensen getting accepted into the University of Washington program for storytelling and content strategy.
‍

‍What to expect from Coplex in 2020

Following our brand refresh of this year, we have big plans for the next year. We’re planning to hold more than 90 workshops next year and build at least 60 ventures. Our recent focus has been on helping individual founders turn their ideas into fundable ventures. In 2020, we’re setting our sights on corporate innovation, and shifting our focus to serve SMB and corporate spinouts.

We’re looking forward to a new year of innovation and venture building. Thank you for being part of the Coplex community.

Happy holidays from the venture builders at Coplex!