Kerry Washington is increasing her angel funding portfolio, serving as lead investor within the pre-seed spherical of the marriage market Cheersy.
Cheersy, which was based in 2024 by Amy Shack Egan, helps {couples} discover day-of service marriage ceremony coordinators and has raised a complete of $550,000, from different traders together with Christina Tosi, the founding father of Milk Bar; Jennifer Gilbert, founding father of Save the Date; and Joanna Rosholm, the previous press secretary to First Lady Michelle Obama.
Washington didn’t instantly reply to our request for remark.
Shack Egan stated she met Washington via the actor’s director of social affect. They each attended a cocktail party in Los Angeles the place Shack Egan struck up a dialog. By the tip of the dinner, the director of social affect provided an introduction to Washington as a doable angel investor. Washington has been making a reputation for herself as an angel investor alongside different Hollywood titans edging their approach into the world of startups.
She’s an investor within the social web site Spill, a Black-owned different to X. She’s additionally backed the consuming dysfunction remedy startup Equip and, in line with Pitchbook, has minimize checks into the charity fundraising platform Omaze, the healthcare firm Solv, and was as soon as an investor in The Wing.
“The dinner was a number of days after I used to be presupposed to fly dwelling, however I knew I wanted to be in that room of energy gamers,” Shack Egan instructed TechCrunch. “I prolonged my journey and went to the dinner.”
From there, Shack Egan handled the remainder of the fundraising market, an expertise she known as difficult. “I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I stated sure to every thing. Jumped on a flight. Got strung alongside, instructed no, and put my foot in my mouth extra occasions than I can depend,” she stated.
This is Shack Egan’s second enterprise. She additionally based marriage ceremony planning enterprise, Modern Rebel, launched in 2015. She based Cheersy as a result of Modern Rebel was getting so many requests for day-of marriage ceremony coordination, that means having somebody be sure that the marriage is working easily the day it occurs.
“Day-of coordination is probably the most booked marriage ceremony planning service, and so I responded to requests for this service we didn’t supply with handpicked suggestions,” she stated, including that she then realized that her providing suggestions might merely be constructed right into a market enterprise. The results of that was Cheersy, which, she says, has an analogous mannequin to Airbnb
Couples search for vetted matches that match their funds, imaginative and prescient and vibe, looking by date, value, and specialty. Then, the 2 events can e-book a name and, if every thing is a match, the couple can e-book the expertise.
Shack Egan thought-about her small enterprise background a power, however stated it was not the “best capsule to swallow” for traders who have been searching for Big Tech firms on her resume.
“The fundraising journey might be so lonely and an actual knock in your psychological well being,” she continued.
She joined the Power to Pitch program, which helped join her with extra folks within the startup world. The firm will use this recent capital to boost the options on the reserving platform, and make some hires, akin to a consumer expertise designer. Shack Egan additionally desires to up the advertising funds a bit and herald a group supervisor as the corporate seeks to increase into six new cities within the upcoming months. It’s at present provided in New York City and Hudson Valley.
“I began on this trade in 2015 as an occasion freelancer,” Shack Egan stated. “I do know the ache factors of this job personally. I really like the concept we’re making the expertise of being somebody that works within the marriage ceremony trade, in such a tricky — and infrequently, thankless job — extra supported and extra enjoyable.”
