Announcing the Graduates of Founder Gym’s Inaugural Cohort
On August 4, 2017, I purchased the domain FounderGym.com.
On November 8, 2017, Founder Gym made its public debut.
On January 1, 2018, Cohort 1 launched.
We’ve been moving fast, and we’ve been making waves. In just 3 weeks, we received nearly 200 applications from every continent (except Antartica — anyone know founders out there?), and during our first quarter of operation, we received some incredible press coverage (shoutout to Megan Rose Dickey at TechCrunch for kicking things off).
Through it all, we’ve never taken our eyes off our goal:
Create the best online training center for underrepresented tech startup founders.
Ultimately, 26 founders from four continents were admitted into Founder Gym’s inaugural cohort. Here’s a snapshot of who they are:
Gender
- 58% women
- 42% men
Race/Ethnicity
- 35% Black
- 23% Asian
- 19% White
- 15% Latinx
- 4% Middle Eastern
- 4% Pacific Islander
Age
- 35% in their 20s
- 38% in their 30s
- 27% over age 40
Geography
- 84% in the U.S. (of those, 65% outside the Bay Area)
- 16% outside the U.S. (South America, Africa, and Europe)
Company stage
- 39% have a product that is in the market
- 44% have a product that is in private beta
- 17% have a product that is in development
Over the span of four weeks, these founders completed a rigorous training regiment that included expert trainings, personal trainings, accountability groups, and a strength and conditioning program. By the end of the cohort, the graduates were equipped with the knowledge, network, and know-how to successfully navigate their fundraising journey.
It is with great honor, that we are proud to announce…
The Graduates of Founder Gym Cohort 1
Amy Nelson, Founder of The Riveter
The Riveter is a female-forward workspace and community designed for business and impact. Update! Amy raised $4.75MM after gradating from Founder Gym.
Al Nolan, Founder of Notearise
Notearise is a preparation company specializing in building conversational note-taking tools.
Arjita Sethi, Founder of Equal.ly
Equal.ly is a public benefit corporation with a mission of bringing equal education and opportunities to everyone using cutting edge technology.
John Barrera, Founder of Rybot
Rybot creates technology so that parents can influence their kids to make better choices. Our entry product, Ryfi, is a smart router to control kids’ screen time.
Charu Sharma, Founder of Next Play
Next Play is a mobile enterprise solution for employee development and retention
Darian Edwards, Founder of Stack
Stack is redefining financial services for the unbanked and underbanked.
Eman Abouelatta, Founder of Quirkpod
QuirkPod is an online platform that coaches students on 21st century skills through hooking learning experiences.
Josh Josue, Founder of Bibky
Bibky builds interactive products that let kids go for real-world adventures by combining immersive storytelling and movement — all without relying on screens.
Illana Milkes, Founder of World Tech Makers
World Tech Makers is a pioneer in training programs for high-demand technology skills, offering in-person and online bootcamps.
Irving Chin, Founder of Tassel Software
Tassel Software builds intuitive products that augment the ability of college advisors and counselors to collaborate with their students.
Sevetri Wilson, Founder of ExemptMeNow
ExemptMeNow simplifies the creation, maintenance and compliance processes for nonprofits, corporations and government entities.
Julia Winter, Founder of Alchemie
Alchemie is a new path to student understanding and assessment using interactive digital tools, machine learning, and data analytics.
Kyle Miller, Founder of Foodease
Foodease empowers small business vendors to grow their business and focusing on doing what they by optimizing the way we locate and order food.
Laura Wittig, Founder of The Brightly
The Brightly is a community-driven, curated marketplace that highlights ethically, consciously made products and the stories behind them with an aesthetic and voice that appeals to a broad audience.
Luis Bermudez, Founder of TechFit
TechFit makes sure that Your Clothes Fit when you order them online
Michelle Bonat, Founder of Data Simply
Data Simply helps people align their values with their investments by automating
investment research for sustainable investing (Environmental-Social-Governance).
Paris Petgrave, Founder of We Love Work
We Love Work builds highly engaged teams and great company culture.
Rick James Chatas, Founder of FriendFund
FriendFund helps people integrate travel into their everyday lives by avoiding common roadblocks like empty savings, unexpected expenses, and routine spending.
Robert Dates, Founder of Yaheard
Yaheard is a social network mobile app that takes debating to the next level.
Shani Dowell, Founder of Possip
Possip gives schools a weekly pulse on parent feedback.
Sunny Washington, Founder of Because Learning
Because Learning provides exciting a hands-on STEM program for the classroom and home to engage students with hands-on Sensor Kits and over 130 experiments that they can conduct with their kit.
Susan Sierota, Founder of Waggit
Waggit is the future of pet health with the entry point being a collar and app that can improve and extend the lives of our dogs.
Tammy Kwan, Founder of Cognitive ToyBox
Cognitive ToyBox develops an early childhood platform for kindergarten readiness.
Tashoma Vilini, Founder of Nitrate
Nitrate is a blockchain enabled video marketplace where content creators save
money marketing their content, and users can make money by discovering
content when it’s new and selling it on to their followers.
Tunji Williams, Founder of dealWIP
dealWIP is a legal technology company developing integrated, cloud-based, workflow solutions to power seamless business-to-business contract negotiation and world-class attorney-client experiences
Xiaohoa Michelle Ching, Founder of Literator
Literator enables teachers to reach every single student with the relevant strategies they need to improve in reading.
Go here to read testimonials from the FG Graduates
Thank you to the Cohort 1 Trainers
7 venture capitalists and 7 venture-backed founders graciously contributed their time and expertise to train the founders, and we’d like to recognize them for their incredible contributions.
Venture Capitalists
Charles Hudson, Precursor Ventures
Shauntel Poulson, Reach Capital
Marlon Nichols, Cross Culture Ventures
Carolina Huaranca, Kapor Capital
Venture-Backed Founders
Thank you to the Cohort 1 Team and Contributors
Gabriela Zamudio, Cordelro Brown, Vanessa Slavich, Jeremy Young, Sarah Holden, and Karen Rodruiguez-Ponciano.
