Lee Geiger

A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

John A. Shedd

I was minding my own business, resting my weariness on an old wooden bench at the local car wash. It was a brilliant Saturday morning, and my soul had melded into a Bob Seger playlist, divorced from the fury of cars being brushed and buffed. My phone suddenly buzzed. It was my son, Ross.

“Yo Ross, what’s up?”

“Hey Dad, I wanted to let you know Ciro just received its initial round of funding.”

I desperately searched the recesses of my mind to comprehend what Ross had just said. I knew he and two buddies from Brown were starting their own company; I just didn’t know they were already trying to bankroll it.

“That’s amazing,” I gushed. “Who’s writing the check?”

“Y Combinator.”

I was pumped, excited, and bursting with pride. But my follow-up question to my red-haired oldest son exposed my naïveté when it comes to raising money for start-up companies.

“Who’s Y Combinator?”

What’s a Ciro?

I was hesitant when Ross first told me he was starting his own company. He had a good job in an industry he worked really hard to get into. But Ross and his friends had an idea, and they wanted to run with it. Truth be told, it was the perfect time for Ross to pursue his entrepreneurial passion. He had just turned 30, his wife Caroline had a great job with Genentech, and they didn’t have any kids. Not only that, but two of his best friends from his 2013 class at Brown, Richard Lee and David Winer, agreed to partner with him. After hearing Ross’s initial pitch, the Pretty Blonde and I enthusiastically threw in our full support.

“What’s the name of your company,” we asked.

“Ciro,” he said. “It’s named after my favorite soccer player.” For those of you who don’t follow the world’s favorite pastime, Ciro (pronounced “seer-O”) is the nickname of Dries Mertens, a legendary Belgian striker who once played for Napoli (Italy), Ross’s favorite team. Caroline gave Ross a pre-worn Mertens jersey as a present. She now owns him for life.

What Does Ciro Do?

I must have asked Ross a dozen times to explain what Ciro does. I understood words like “small business” and “sales leads,” but he kept losing me at “programmatic data-mining.” I just couldn’t quite get my head wrapped around their business model. Finally, after another exasperating round of answering his dopey-dad’s questions, Ross asked me if I had ever heard of a company called ZoomInfo

“I have,” I answered. “They’re a huge software and data analytical company providing sales leads to large businesses.”

“That’s right,” said Ross. “Ciro does the same thing, only for small businesses.”

Boom. Got it.

Here’s the link to Ciro’s website.

Who is Y Combinator?

Y Combinator is considered by many to be the Ivy League of what’s known as “accelerator financing.” Founded in 2005, Y Combinator has helped launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, Stripe and Twitch. Every six months over 10,000 companies apply to participate in their accelerator program, and their acceptance rate runs about 2%. Assuming your company makes the cut, Y Combinator then invests $500,000 and takes a small equity stake.

Ciro made the cut and is a proud member of Y Combinator’s Class of Spring 2022.

Here’s what Y Combinator has to say about Ciro on its website.

What Happened Next?

Shortly after receiving Y Combinator’s seal of approval, Ciro’s three co-founders began the process of searching for venture capital firms to partner with. Their calendars quickly filled with a who’s who of Silicon Valley VC firms. After a thorough vetting process, Ciro partnered with two major players who’ve bankrolled many successful technology firms: CRV and SV Angel.

Here’s what CRV has to say about their partnership with Ciro.

Here’s what Ciro has to say about their partnerships with CRV and SV Angel.

Conclusion

Now comes the hard part…building a business. It’s safe to say that whether they are at Ciro’s San Francisco office or their homes, Ross, Richard and David eat, sleep and breath Ciro.

By the way, did I mention Ciro is hiring?