Meet the GCT Startup-in-Residence 2021 cohort
Each year we have the distinct honor of reviewing applications from some of the most impressive people and companies in NYC one could ever hope to come across. It’s truly exhilarating and this year was certainly no exception.
This year marks our seventh class of Grand Central Tech (GCT) and is made up of companies working on everything from physical NFTs, to memes as serious (perhaps superior) sources of educational value, to supporting overworked and overwhelmed family caregivers, and everything in between.
Sadly, no one knows the contours of how COVID-19 will continue to play out. There is certainly a type of startup that has adapted to the remote work environment and is thriving. But there is absolutely another type dying to get back in the office to invent the future shoulder-to-shoulder with colleagues.
Founders applying to this year’s class resoundingly told us that determining where and when to have a physical location has never been a heavier cognitive load. We provide them a baseline of peace of mind, while delivering the upside of a robust community of other founders from a broad range of backgrounds, intentional programming around values-based leadership and various best practices, bespoke fundraising strategy and support as, and when needed, and much more. We take great pride in providing some clarity here, be it for everyday use of space, or just occasional team gatherings, and can’t wait to see what this year’s cohort of companies will build in the coming year.
Without further ado… Meet GCT Class 7!
Antimatter is building a world for learning and education that is intensely visual and speaks internet: memes, shitposts, graffiti, and more.
Ascend is an insurance management platform that replaces outdated financial infrastructure and processes with technology that provides consumers, agents, brokers, and carriers with simple payment, financing, and billing solutions.
Beehiiv is a web platform designed to help creators create, monetize, and grow from newsletters and more. It offers no-code solutions for newsletters, websites, revenue tracking, and analysis on referrals, segmentation, and cohorts.
CareCopilot is a platform that provides desperately needed resources for overworked and overwhelmed family caregivers who are caring for their adult family members. By unifying research and booking capabilities of disparate day-to-day support services, CareCopilot gives caregivers confidence in their decisions and saves them time when making choices for their loved ones.
Daybase is a distributed network of on-demand workspaces, in street-level retail, located “close to home” and designed for the needs of today’s remote workforce. Daybase locations are independently owned and operated franchises that use Daybase’s technology stack, giving the new remote worker a productive space of consistent quality.
Deep is a sleep coaching company that uses scientifically validated behavioral techniques to treat insomnia. With proprietary metrics and personalized communication, Deep helps people achieve meaningful and sustained improvements in their lives through improved sleep health.
Elaborate is transforming the conventional lab testing experience using software to reduce administrative burden for doctors and deliver better patient care. The platform guides patients through lab work and results in a clear way that fairly compensates physicians for previously non-billable effort.
Guava is a digital-first platform to build relationships with underserved SMB customers. Launching small business checking accounts gives Guava the foundation for long-lasting client relationships that expand into comprehensive services for growing businesses.
Hyp is a social bidding platform for exclusive releases. Brands can launch collections and capture profits that are currently lost in the aftermarket. Hyp shifts the elevates the consumer by leveraging users’ virtual identities.
Legitimate is a digital identity platform that creates secure identities for every physical object through a decentralized protocol for physical ownership and provenance, enabling a new ecosystem of metaphysical applications. The platform provides brands with both anti-counterfeiting solutions and the ability to create end-to-end digital product experiences.
Liist is a travel app that lets users populate maps of destinations from Instagram or TikTok with two taps. By integrating with other platforms, Liist reduces the friction of researching new activities and finding them later — eliminating messy lists, maps, and never-visited-again screenshots.
mBark is an analytics and implementation platform for creating optimal onboarding experiences. With a drag-and-drop flow builder, tools to make experimentation painless, and built-in funnel analytics, mbark gives a product builder control over users’ highest-leverage interaction with their business.
MyHomePathway is improving access to home ownership through technology-driven credit guidance. By simplifying the home financing process and providing actionable next steps for customers to quickly improve their creditworthiness, MyHomePathway earns banks new customers while also helping to usher in a new generation of wealth and financial prosperity for its customers.
Neura Health is a virtual neurology clinic on a mission to improve access and quality of care for neurologic conditions. Through comprehensive device-based symptom tracking and direct interactions with top neurologists, Neura provides a streamlined platform for managing chronic pain and receiving appropriate medication and care.
Orbiit is a virtual networking platform helping community managers systematically activate members through curated 1:1 connections. Orbiit’s systematic engagement platform provides algorithmic matching, logistics, insights and more to help communities foster growth and drive impact.
Quiltt is building low code consumer fintech infrastructure that significantly lowers the technical barriers of building modern fintech solutions. With the mission to empower anyone to build modern fintech experiences, Quiltt’s turnkey infrastructure allows customers to focus resources on core functionality and differentiators instead of repeatable engineering work.
Salvo is building a series of D2C, digitally-native specialty medicine clinics that go beyond transactional telemedicine to radically improve patient health, increase access, lower systemic cost, and bring a more integrated, “whole patient” approach to care.
Siro is an app that lets field sales managers coach every sales rep every day. By addressing the unique needs of 3 million sales professionals in the US alone (think solar & energy, home automation & pest control, real-estate, heavy machinery, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, etc.), Siro enables managers to virtually shadow and coach their employees.
StealthCo is an e-commerce platform that leverages the most cost-effective channel for DTC customer acquisition — organic social sharing.
StreetFC is building apps that spawn pickup street soccer games and the world’s largest community of players to participate. StreetFC reactivates unused public spaces with socially-motivated, intelligent matchmaking.
Stepful is a workforce training platform that prepares and places HS-educated people into healthcare jobs in 4 months. With intense unmet employer demand for healthcare workers, Aja builds pathways for economic opportunity for its members through quality jobs.
Themis is a workflow visibility platform that helps organizations and partners collaborate on risk controls within and across organizations. Through its modular approach, Themis builds more trust between regulators, tech vendors, and banking partners by allowing companies to select governance controls based on their individual needs.
Trace is building a unified metrics layer to power data-led organizations.
Walnut is a point-of-sale embedded lending product that allows a patient to break up a medical bill into small monthly payments. With no fees and no interest, Walnut helps patients afford healthcare while increasing provider revenue and collections rate.
Zaya Care is building a network to help mothers afford full-spectrum maternity care. By enabling previously out-of-network specialists to take insurance at rewarding terms, providers can grow their practice, while allowing a diverse population of parents to access their services.
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