TAMPA, FLORIDA, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026— Embarc Collective today announces a new partnership with Cooth, which joins the organization as its newest Shared Services Partner, bringing brand, go-to-market, and growth marketing expertise to Embarc Collective’s community of early-stage technology companies. The three-year partnership is effective September 1, 2026.

Embarc Collective’s Shared Services Partner Program gives early-stage technology companies access to best-in-class banking, accounting, tax, legal, cybersecurity, marketing, and other strategic service providers that help founders build investor-ready businesses faster. By connecting startups with experienced advisors well before they would traditionally engage these services, the program helps companies strengthen core business operations, reduce complexity, and scale with confidence.

Through the partnership, Embarc Collective member-companies will have access to Cooth’s expertise across brand strategy and positioning, go-to-market strategy, messaging, content, demand generation, growth marketing, competitive analysis, websites, pitch decks, SEO, campaigns, and sales enablement. Embarc Collective members will also have access to preferred rates for Cooth services. Founders interested in exploring Cooth’s support can connect with the Embarc team, who can help facilitate an introduction when there is a relevant fit.

Cooth works with startups and growing companies across both marketing strategy and execution, helping teams sharpen how they position their businesses, reach customers, and build the marketing infrastructure needed to support growth. The partnership gives Embarc founders a resource they can tap as these needs emerge, whether they are preparing to raise funding, refining their go-to-market strategy, building a website or pitch deck, or looking to generate demand.

The partnership builds on an established relationship between the two organizations. Cooth previously supported Embarc Collective’s own rebrand and website refresh, giving the Embarc team firsthand experience with Cooth’s ability to combine strategic guidance, creative execution, and a highly collaborative approach. The success of that work made Cooth a natural fit for the Shared Services Partner Program and a trusted resource to extend to Embarc Collective’s member companies.

“Early-stage founders are constantly making decisions about how they position their company, reach customers, and communicate what makes their business different,” said Tim Holcomb, CEO of Embarc Collective. “Our Shared Services Partner Program gives founders access to experienced partners who can not only help shape the strategy, but also bring the expertise and capacity to put that strategy into action. Cooth brings that combination of strategic perspective and hands-on marketing execution, and we’re excited to make their expertise more accessible to our members as they build and grow.

As part of the partnership, Cooth will:

• Host biannual educational workshops focused on brand, marketing, go-to-market, and growth topics relevant to early-stage technology companies.
• Offer founder office hours and strategic guidance across brand, positioning, messaging, go-to-market strategy, demand generation, growth marketing, pitch decks, websites, competitive analysis, SEO, campaigns, and sales enablement.
• Participate in founder onboarding and other Embarc Collective programming opportunities throughout the year.
• Engage in curated founder introductions when Cooth’s expertise aligns with a company’s specific needs.
• Offer Embarc Collective member-companies a discount on Cooth services.

“I joined Embarc Collective’s Young Professionals Board in 2022 and co-founded Cooth while serving as Chair—this community is where a lot of our story started. We built our business alongside these founders, so we know what it feels like to make brand and go-to-market calls before you have the runway to be wrong twice. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be a Shared Services Partner and help the founders at Embarc Collective get it right the first time,” said Maria Cate, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Cooth.

“We started Cooth to help founders at every stage of the journey, and one of the hardest parts of that journey is knowing when and how to invest in your brand and go-to-market strategy,” says Courtney Bensinger, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Too often, founders don’t get that guidance until they’ve gone months, or even years, building in the wrong direction — a website that isn’t converting, messaging that isn’t landing with investors. Embarc Collective has built something rare: a community where founders have access to expert guidance early, before the wrong direction becomes expensive. That’s the kind of ecosystem we want to help build.” 

The partnership reflects Embarc Collective’s continued commitment to building a comprehensive support ecosystem where founders can access experienced advisors across every stage of company growth. By adding Cooth to its Shared Services Partner Program, Embarc Collective is expanding the resources founders can turn to as they build their brands, bring products to market, reach customers, and scale their companies.

About Embarc Collective

Embarc Collective, a 501c3 non-profit, is a central landing zone for the most driven and focused startup builders in Florida, ranked as a top startup support program in the world by UBI Global. Embarc Collective offers vetted, curated live and on-demand coaching and programming, an ever-growing repository of resources and frameworks, and access to a network of corporate customers and investors, all amongst a peer community of 330 founders and cofounders of 150+ early-stage tech startups and growth companies operating within an award-winning 32,000-square-foot startup hub in downtown Tampa, Florida. Since its launch in 2019, Embarc Collective member-companies have achieved a 96% survival rate, created 1,200+ high-paying tech and tech-enabled jobs, and raised more than $700M in angel, venture and growth equity, including more than half from investors outside the state of Florida. Annually, Embarc Collective’s Florida-based early-stage tech companies drive $100 million in direct economic returns to the state of Florida and attract more than $100 million annually in seed, venture, and growth equity investment capital, capital that is invested directly into Florida-based companies.

About Cooth

Cooth isn’t an agency. Cooth is an integrated consulting-meets-creative™ firm for startups and scale-ups that combines GTM strategy with premium creative execution. Cooth builds brands that earn trust on sight, then stays on as a growth partner to prove they work — across positioning, brand identity, web, and demand gen. The team you meet is the team doing the work: no agency bloat, no six-week onboarding ramp, no hand-off to junior staff, and no offensive price tags. Cooth works with technical B2B companies across fintech, healthtech, defensetech, cleantech, and adtech, and is 100% remote with core teams based in Tampa, FL and Charlotte, NC.

Media Contacts:

Embarc Collective

Kathy Osborne

kathy@kamelpr.com

607-434-2065