Inside PearX is a series that gives a deeper look into our pre-seed accelerator. Interested in joining PearX? We just announced that we’ll be accepting late applications until October 8th at 11:59 PM PST. Apply now.
Our goal at Pear has always been to build a firm that helped founders through the earliest and most critical stages of company building. Our team knows this experience firsthand, with most of our team having started companies of their own or operated at high growth companies from the earliest stages. That’s why when we started designing PearX, our pre-seed accelerator, we wanted to make sure we built a product that is founder-first.
Here at PearX, we intentionally provide partnership and support where founders need it most. While not all founders’ stories are the same, the story of ResiQuant (S24) co-founders Francisco Galvis and Omar Issa displays the power of this type of relationship.
According to the ResiQuant team, PearX felt more like having a third co-founder. This is really our goal: to partner with founders in a way that feels seamless. Whether it’s pushing them to deeply understand product-market fit, or ultimately, their customer’s needs, we want to be partners in the truest sense of the word to our founders
As Omar and Francisco shared with us, PearX was:
“True enlightenment. Structured discovery with experienced partners who are in your corner.”
Fast forward, and ResiQuant is now a leading solution helping property insurers with automated submission intake and underwriting, all built on engineering intelligence. Here’s the story they told us of how ResiQuant went from a classroom idea to a thriving start-up with PearX.
First meeting
Francisco and Omar met at Stanford during their PhDs in structural engineering and disaster risk. In their final year, they bonded over their frustration that not enough was being done to address rising catastrophe risk on properties.
Mar had the pleasure of teaching and meeting Francisco and Omar during the Lean Launch Pad Class at Stanford. They had working sessions every Sunday and began building a relationship. Omar and Francisco later reflected on these sessions, “Mar pushed us to think objectively and not emotionally to nail the real problem we were trying to solve.”
As Francisco recalled:
“Mar was a supporter but taught us to be skeptical about our business model. It brought us away from real estate and into insurance. When we found the problem, it turned out to be that underwriters don’t have the information they need.”
Applying to PearX
When Omar and Francisco applied to PearX, their main objective was getting feedback during the application process. Once they started the process, they interacted with other partners and were accepted into the cohort. Although their original intent was to simply go through the application process, the more they interacted with the team, the more they knew they needed to figure out a way to be part of the cohort.
Unwavering Support
As with any start-up experience, it’s not a straight line. Omar and Francisco found themselves at major crossroads when they lost one of their co-founders and had school endeavors that conflicted with PearX.
However, they saw how PearX looked at the entire picture and took on the founders, the market, and the product. The team was ready and able to figure out how to be really be part of PearX.
Resources for the Entire Business
Without PearX, the current form and success of the company would not exist according to Francisco and Omar. PearX provided the partner support, structure and focus, hiring support, and fundraising support through Demo Day to accelerate every part of their business. The Resiquant team took advantage of many PearX perks, including:
- Pear Studio: The physical space became their company headquarters. From whiteboard jams, founder feedback sessions, partner meetings, and dialogue with other founders, the homebase created a space to grow.
- GTM & Process: Ana Leyva (PearX’s GTM expert) helped the team with pipeline building, contracts, negotiation, and the sales process. They still meet with Ana every week to refine these processes.
- Camp Pear: Besides being memorable and transformative, the conversations sparked real action on how to do customer discovery and understand their feedback.
- Customers: They landed their first customer at Demo Day which ignited their pipeline.
- Hiring: Nate Hirsch not only coached the team on how to find and reach out to candidates, but actually found their first engineer hire. Learn more about our dedicated talent support.
PearX: By Your Side Every Phase
One memorable conversation the team recalled was with Partner Arash Afrakheteh about the hardest phase of start-up life, which is always “the next phase”. While each phase might bring on new challenges for Resiquant, we are so proud to have partnered with them in PearX and look forward to continuing to support them on their journey.