What CO.STARTERS does

CO.STARTERS is an entrepreneur education program suite operated by FINSYNC, Inc., a private financial technology company founded in 2011 and headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The suite consists of four programs - CO.STARTERS Core (a 10-week accelerator-style cohort), Bootcamp (a 2-day intensive), Workshop (a 3-hour introductory session), and Generator (a modular program for teen students) - all built on the CO.STARTERS Canvas, a proprietary visual business planning framework used to help participants understand, organize, and test their ideas. Programs are delivered through cohort-based sessions facilitated by local business leaders and are promoted primarily through the FINSYNC website, video content, and a testimonials/success stories library.

Distribution occurs exclusively through the FINSYNC Financial Network, a curated ecosystem of community organizations, entrepreneurial support organizations, accelerators, and business service providers (bankers, lenders, investors, coaches, accountants, lawyers). CO.STARTERS serves four customer personas - aspiring entrepreneurs, early-stage entrepreneurs, curious prospective founders, and teen students - and generates revenue via program enrollment fees administered through local partners, with multi-year subscription arrangements for the longer programs and pay-as-you-go pricing for workshops. FINSYNC, Inc. operates CO.STARTERS alongside other offerings including a business formation and financial operations platform, a Funding Navigator, an AI assistant named Fynn, and a working-capital sub-brand called CollectEarly™; the firm employs 1-10 people and is founder-led (Sheldon Grizzle, co-founder; Enoch Elwell, founder and Board Chair) with no disclosed institutional funding rounds or revenue figures.

Name

CO.STARTERS

Legal name

FINSYNC, Inc.

Website

https://costarters.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CO.STARTERS is an entrepreneur education program suite operated by FINSYNC, Inc., delivering cohort-based business planning curricula through a distributed network of local partners using the proprietary CO.STARTERS Canvas framework.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Entrepreneurship Education and Training

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (611430), Business Schools and Computer and Management Training (6114), Professional and Management Development Training (61143)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Entrepreneurship Foundations & Startup Basics (EDAMAHAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Youth Business Incubators & Accelerators (EDAMAHAC), Entrepreneurship, Business & Innovation Camps (EDAMALAL), Innovation & Design Thinking Programs (EDAMAHAD), Corporate Accelerators & Startup Programs (FSANAHAD)

Keywords

• Entrepreneur education
• Startup accelerator programs
• Business development training
• Small business curriculum
• Entrepreneurship workshops

Headquarters

HQ city

Chattanooga

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Program Enrollment Fees: CO.STARTERS programs are offered through local partners within the FINSYNC Financial Network. Participants enroll through these community organizations, which may offer standard or customized program versions. The specific revenue arrangement between CO.STARTERS and local partners is not detailed in available materials.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

CO.STARTERS designs and licenses entrepreneur-education programs—Core (10-week accelerator), Bootcamp (2-day intensive), Workshop (3-hour intro), and Generator (teen-focused)—built around the CO.STARTERS Canvas framework. Programs are delivered locally by trained facilitators from a partner network of community organizations, libraries, and economic-development bodies.

Product overview

CO.STARTERS is a suite of entrepreneur education programs offered through FINSYNC's platform, consisting of four distinct programs: CO.STARTERS Core (an accelerator-style 10-week cohort program), CO.STARTERS Bootcamp (an intensive 2-day hackathon-style program), CO.STARTERS Workshop (a 3-hour introductory session), and CO.STARTERS Generator (a modular program for teens). All programs use the CO.STARTERS Canvas as a common framework and are designed to be collaborative, actionable, and simple, facilitated by local business leaders through FINSYNC's Financial Network of local partners.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CollectEarly™: A cash advance service allowing businesses to access funds against outstanding payment requests or accounts receivable.
• Fynn

Products and services

• CO.STARTERS Core

Quantifiable outcome

• Participants gain ability to articulate business potential clearly to others
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• FINSYNC Financial Network PartnerscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCO.STARTERS programs are distributed exclusively through the FINSYNC Financial Network. Local partners including community organizations, entrepreneurial support organizations, accelerators, bankers, lenders, investors, coaches, implementers, advisors, bookkeepers, accountants, lawyers, and other business service providers deliver CO.STARTERS programs and connect entrepreneurs with additional resources. All local partners have access to the programs and can offer standard or customized adaptations tailored to their resources and expertise.
• Create BirminghamflagshipChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCreate Birmingham is a community partner that uses CO.STARTERS as an invaluable cornerstone of their work with aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs. The organization helps turn local talent and dedication into new businesses, serving as a reference customer and testimonial provider for CO.STARTERS programs.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Techstars: Techstars runs accelerator programs with structured curricula and mentor networks for early-stage entrepreneurs, comparable to CO.STARTERS Core's cohort-based, facilitator-led model.
• SCORE: SCORE, an SBA resource partner, delivers free business mentoring and educational workshops to aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs through a distributed network of local volunteers — directly paralleling CO.STARTERS' channel-partner delivery model.
• Startup Junkie: Startup Junkie provides founder education, community events, and accelerator-style programming for entrepreneurs in multiple US regions — overlapping with CO.STARTERS' community-organization-led model.
• Y Combinator (Startup School): Y Combinator's Startup School provides free online and cohort-based entrepreneurship education covering idea validation, customer discovery, and fundamentals — directly overlapping with CO.STARTERS Core and Bootcamp offerings for early-stage founders.
• DECA: DECA prepares high-school and college students for careers in entrepreneurship, marketing, and business through in-school programs — directly comparable to CO.STARTERS Generator's teen, school-based deployment model.
• MassChallenge: MassChallenge runs equity-free accelerator cohorts for early-stage startups with structured curricula and mentor facilitation — comparable in cohort design and target entrepreneur profile to CO.STARTERS Core.
• Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE): NFTE delivers youth entrepreneurship curricula in schools and out-of-school programs, closely mirroring the CO.STARTERS Generator teen program and its modular, classroom-deployable format.

Broad incumbents

• Small Business Development Centers (SBDC): The SBDC network, funded by the SBA, provides free business advising, training, and cohort-style programs to entrepreneurs nationwide — a publicly funded incumbent competing for the same aspiring founder audience CO.STARTERS targets.
• Coursera: Coursera hosts entrepreneurship and business management courses from universities and companies, offering an online alternative for self-directed learners who might otherwise join a CO.STARTERS Workshop or Bootcamp.

Others

• Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation: The Kauffman Foundation funds entrepreneurship education, research, and ecosystem programs and frequently partners with community organizations — an ecosystem enabler adjacent to CO.STARTERS' distribution model rather than a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/costarters
• Facebookfacebook.com/costarters
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/enochelwell

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CO.STARTERS