2023/05/31
Summary
Academy has fully had its TA Selection and student acceptance emails sent out. Due to a high number of signups from low income countries and un-funded people such as undergraduates, academy is operating at a predicted loss of $130k this year. This is a substantial hit to our financial predictions, but not disastrous. We have hired three part time (~24 hours per week) curriculum specialists to test this model of course development and to push Climate academy to get its material done on time . We are using an external video editor for all course videos.
We are getting proactive outreach now for matching events. Other conferences are hearing about our matching and asking to use our services.
Jobarxiv (a job board with hundreds of thousands of users) is interested in partnering with us to do matching.
The Curvenote partnership and contract kicked off last week with Open Publishing. They are performing UX design and mockups for us.
We have $318,000 in the bank (not counting Stripe holding), $377,000 in ‘confirmed’ or due accounts receivable, and an additional $1.2M in long term accounts receivable.
Progress Updates
Data Analytics
We met with Jobarxiv and are discussing a deeper partnership to test out our matching algorithm in their job applications. This is in discussion. Plan is to do an experiment in summer for just neuro related jobs.
Open Publishing
We have begun a contract with Curvenote on a handshake agreement to begin doing the UX research and building a proof of concept of the software we have designed.
As noted in our board meeting, we had dissolved both Academy and Conference LLCs from Neuromatch. We kept one of these entities and renamed it to Scholar Nexus LLC to represent the entity that will keep independent finances from Neuromatch so that it can be spun out later.
This disregarded entity has its own EIN and bank account so that finances can be managed separately.
Community
General agreement from the Community team that Neuromatch Conference should not be run in its current form. We are considering an alternative form/method to run the conference in. Next step is to poll our previous attendees.
Otherwise, we are simply pushing on the outreach process for matching events.
Academy
Due to a high number of signups from Iran and lower income countries, undergraduate applicants, and other self-funded groups, the financial modeling for Academy was mis-predictive. Instead of operating at a 10% positive margin, we are predicting something closer to a -30% margin or close to -$100k operating budget. If we paid TAs according to our normal pay policy (COLA adjusted with a 50% bump up to United States PPP), then we would be exactly back to predicted/goal 10% margin and be much more immune to this type of variation in regional signup.
We have hired three part time (~24 hours per week) curriculum specialists to test this model of course development and to push Climate academy to get its material done on time . We are using an external video editor for all course videos.
Now public info, Neuromatch is a major outreach contributor for ARNI. We will be developing a course on Neuro/AI with them and participating in simplified science for kids activities.
Financial Report
Treasury Review
Bank of America Account: $218,743 USD
Lending Club Account: $100,004 USD
TOTAL: $318,747 USD
Fundraising Status
Received Donor Funds and Commitments
We have secured a NASA grant for $250,000 that will pay out over two years. Templeton has also confirmed their additional payment after our progress report, netting another $100,000. Deepmind has confirmed their donation. The WCRP (a major Climate group) is donating approximately $10k with further funds in discussion.
Accounts Receivable is ~$377,000 confirmed.
In Discussion Donor Funds
Facebook is looking at another $50,000 donation to support development of our matching as a service. We are in discussions on many funders for open publishing including CZI, Templeton, Sloan, Simons, and more vague funders where conversations are even earlier.
Fundraising Plans
I have gotten very poor reception on corporate donations from climate companies. Most are VC funded and on shoestring budgets. Looking at highly profitable companies mostly shows energy companies. Almost all energy companies specifically prefer to give to their local communities and may not fit our actual funding policy anyway as they are are big creators of fossil fuel emissions, etc.
We were rejected by the Gordon and Bettty Moore foundation for Climatematch.
Neuromatch is pursuing, with support from our contracted grant writer (Optimize Science), two federal grants from the National Science Foundation:
- Innovations in Graduate Education: ~$350,000
- INCLUDES: $10,000,000 (!)
Financial Projections
Earned Income
Currently projecting $315k for all student earned income for academy. Based on assumption of 65% enrollment rate, COLA adjustments, 50% self funded ratio, and a 50% waive rate. Current earned income is $122k with five days left in the enrollment period.
Donations
Besides the confirmed donations above, we have an additional $100,000 from Gatsby, $30,000 from Chen, $50,000 from Simons, and $1,000,000 from ARNI over the next five years. This brings our total long term AR up to $1.55 Million USD.
Major Costs
Grant writing will present about $30,000 in charges over the next several months. We are doing an $8k retainer up front. We will pay about $30,000 in curriculum developer fees for Climatematch and about $4k in video editor fees.
Runway
This predicted runway includes spent on Curriculum developers for Neuro/AI course, but does not include marketing person. It does not assume any other income.
Hiring, Team Changes, and People Updates
Curriculum Specialists
We have hired three curriculum specialists for Climatematch. Jenna, Ohad, and Chi. While Jenna and Ohad were previously volunteers and founders at Climatematch, Chi is a professor in Germany.
Next Hires
I anticipate that our next hires will be in marketing/comms/graphic design. We could strengthen the look and feel of our websites, and volunteer teams are struggling with coordinating comms strategy. A single dedicated person will be able to coordinate many more volunteers for outreach while also providing more strategic, planned, and regular social postings.
Market Trends and World Event Impact on Neuromatch
Continued Stock Market Lows
This will significantly reduce a lot of funds from foundations and endowments. General recession is still keeping hiring numbers low at corporates and VC money tightening is reducing startup advertising money. Total corporate, foundation, and academic donations will continue to be lower/difficult.
Other Notifications
None.