Local Tech Startup Gets into Top Global Accelerator, Receiving $500,000 Investment 

(GRAND RAPIDS, MI) - Grand Rapids-based tech start-up and Start Garden tenant Payload CMS has been accepted into and received a $500,000 investment from highly competitive tech accelerator Y Combinator. With an acceptance rate of less than 3% and alumni like Airbnb, Dropbox, Doordash, Instacart, and Reddit, Y Combinator is more difficult to get into than Harvard.

Since 2005, Y Combinator has invested in more than 3,000 start-ups worth $400 billion combined. 

Dan Ribbens, Elliot DeNolf, and James Mikrut started Payload CMS to build complex websites and apps efficiently with an omnichannel content management system (CMS) that keeps front-facing pages intact while developers make changes to backend systems. 

"We didn't expect to be accepted into Y Combinator," co-founder James Mikrut said. "We applied and they validated our idea. It showed us that there is potential here ... it has really catapulted things. I am very excited, and I also realize that my work is just starting." 

Y Combinator accepts start-up applicants twice of year for an intensive three-month program that culminates in a Demo Day, where they will have the opportunity to pitch to an audience of specially selected blue-chip investors and media personnel. 

In 2018, Payload CMS received $20,000 from Start Garden as one of the winners at the start-up incubator's very first 100 competition, which is currently open for submissions for 2022. They began incubating out of the Start Garden space rent free, due to a subsidy available through the Grand Rapids SmartZone for tech startups. Before the recent investment from Y Combinator, that $20,000 was the only outside funding they received. By bootstrapping Payload’s development with work from his website development company TRBL, Mikrut, along with Ribbens and DeNolf, retained 100% equity in the startup. 

"I'm always a big fan of when a start-up can delay needing to go knock on doors for investments," Start Garden Director Paul Moore said. “Although it took longer to develop, they’ve been really able to dig in and get feedback from their community." 

After Payload finishes the Y Combinator program in August, the company will launch a seed funding round. 

Since launching a beta in 2021, Payload averages 2,000 downloads per week. The company’s competitors include Contentful, a Berlin-based company valued at over $3 billion, and WordPress, a CMS with a market share of 43% of all websites. Payload stands out as a tool that focuses on creating an exceptional user experience for developers. 

The company’s goal is to have Payload be a top-of-mind tool for developers. Last month, it announced the CMS was going open source, meaning it is free to use and anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance the code. This shift to an open-source model is part of a strategy to gain developer exposure and adoption. 

"We want every developer to know about Payload and go to Payload first when building a new project," Mikrut said. "We want to catapult across the Internet." 

Moore says that Payload's acceptance into Y Combinator is a testament to what Start Garden has been saying all along. 

"It is hugely validating," Moore said. "Our experience has always been that great startups are already in Grand Rapids, working under our noses. Payload is an excellent example of that." 

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