Meet the Graduates of Founder Gym Cohort 4
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“Because of Founder Gym, I am confident that my company can raise the venture capital it needs to scale if I’m willing to put in the right work.” ~ Jeff Gamble, Founder of Dynamic Surgical
“I now realize that I’m the most important person in my own startup journey and that it’s my responsibility to keep going and reach my own destination. VCs are people you carpool /become friends with along your journey, but they also have their own journeys and their own destinations. Before Founder Gym, I was betting on some future VCs to make my startup successful by throwing money at my startup and that money will make all my startup problems go away. After Founder Gym, I’m betting on myself.” ~ Elisa Swan, Founder of Wellnite Health
“I took a major inventory of what I was doing and took off my blinders. I looked clearly at my plans and made serious adjustments to my roadmap. I started scrapping the old and rebuilding towards what investors would actually fund, instead of what I hoped they would fund, which in my view was worth this investment alone. I’m not sure I would have gotten that “ah-ha” moment on my own. I got a sense that success is possible, and learned where I should be working harder and smarter.” ~ Allison Bland, Founder of Abouts
For six weeks, from September 19th to October 26th, we trained another 48 founders from three countries (Mexico, Canada, and the United States), and 34 cities to create the essentials of a fundraising toolkit and hone their two-minute pitch. It was our largest class to date!
Founder Gym has now trained over 170 founders, which means…
Founder Gym’s membership has grown by 84% since launching Cohort 1 just 10 months ago.
Prior to being admitted into Founder Gym Cohort 4, many of our founders created incredible solutions. They ranged from an app that leverages AI to match people of color to the right beauty products…to tech-enabled health pods that connect elderly and disable patients to remote multi-specialty doctors…to an app that provides anonymous 1-on-1 dating, relationship, and sex coaching…to a platform for employees to directly reach and hire talented people with disabilities in tech.
Our founders are building products and services that are making the world a better place for their customers and communities.
But there was one major challenge before they joined Founder Gym.
These underrepresented founders did not have the capital needed to transition their solution into a fully-fledged business, and they didn’t know how to raise that capital.
That’s where Founder Gym stepped in to help. For six weeks, we provided an intense virtual training experience for select founders, that was led by some of the most experienced venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. (More on them below).
Now, after completing the rigorous requirements to graduate, we are excited to officially introduce the graduating class of Founder Gym Cohort 4, along with their Peer and Expert Trainers! But before we get into that. . .
Here’s a quick breakdown of Cohort 4 membership:
Gender
- Female: 48%
- Male: 52%
Race
- African American / Black: 77%
- Hispanic / Latinx: 17%
- White: 8%
- East Asian: 6%
- Southeast Asian: 2%
- South Asian: 10%
Age
- Twenties: 33%
- Thirties: 40%
- Forties: 23%
- Fifties: 4%
Parenting Status
- With children: 58%
- Without children: 42%
Geography
- Bay Area: 25%
- Boston Area: 8%
- NY Area: 19%
- Other areas in the US: 44%
Immigrant Status
- Native to the country they reside in: 79%
- Immigrated to the country they reside in: 21%
Employment Status
- Full-time founder: 67%
- Part-time founder and full-time employee: 21%
- Part-time founder and part-time employee: 12%
Product Stage
- Product in the market: 27%
- Product in private beta: 40%
- Product in development: 33%
Technical Ability
- Engineer: 31%
- Designer: 12%
- Other type of technical ability: 4%
- Non-technical: 52%
Previous Fundraising Experience
- No previous fundraising experience: 33%
- Family: 37%
- Friends: 42%
- Incubator and/or accelerator: 8%
- Venture capitalists: 0%
- Angel investors: 21%
- Pitch competition: 19%
Meet the Graduates of FG Cohort 4
Albert Hwang
- Company: QPi Education, is enabling any educator to teach tomorrow’s STEM today.
- Location: Berkeley, California
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Allison Bland
- Company: Abouts, a business redesigning the office suite to seamlessly integrate WordPress with Google Drive.
- Location: Northampton, MA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Arielle Jordan
- Company: Curafied, helps users curate digital content they’re passionate about and build communities in real-time around that content.
- Location: Dayton, OH
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Arthur Bart-Williams
- Company: Vizzit, a mobile publishing and advertising platform that connects people to places with location-based stories as self-guided experiences.
- Location: Hercules, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Avis Atkins
- Company: Sprout is a mobile application that helps current students leverage their community in order to create micro-scholarships and take on less student debt.
- Location: Boston, MA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Bethany Peak
- Company: Taupe Coat is a direct to consumer clean beauty company that develops high quality, non-toxic nail polish.
- Location: Upland, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Brianna Rader
- Company: Juicebox is an app that provides 1-on-1 sex, dating, and relationship coaching anonymously.
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Dennis Dawson
- Company: BeautyUp Technologies is an augmented reality based PasS for the $600 billion cosmetic industry.
- Location: San Diego, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Derrick Johnson
- Company: Encounter AI provides voice-first digital customer service solutions for the Quick Service Restaurant and Retail industries.
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Ed Jones
- Company: Drone Feeds, is the Twitch for the drone community.
- Location: Escondido, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Elisa Swan
- Company: Wellnite Health provides one-stop integrated diabetes care by creating a platform for diabetics anywhere to have 24/7 access to high-quality diabetes care team.
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn
Elkanah Reed
- Company: Eleven Digital is building a marketplace to connect publishers and advertisers for more branded content opportunities.
- Location: New York City, NY
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Esther Melton
- Company: Ayce Labs has created Vibe, a mobile platform for students to find peer support communities for their mental health and wellness on college campuses.
- Location: Mountain View, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn
Eugene Baah
- Company: Resoltz Education makes it easy for physical education instructors to reach more students and earn more money in less time.
- Location: Oakland, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Evonya Easley
- Company: Love E Fashion created Styled, a mobile app where clients can order a personal stylist to shop, deliver and style them.
- Location: Atlanta, GA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Faraji Whalen-Robinson
- Company: aBlackWall invests in real estate and ventures to build sustainable communities in opportunity zones.
- Location: Washington, DC
- Get connected: LinkedIn
Frances Chua
- Company: Morena is an app that leverages AI to match people of color to the right beauty products.
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Fred Burns
- Company: CultureSnap is a digital platform that bridges the gap between the Culture and Social Media outlets.
- Location: Dallas, TX
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Garry Johnson
- Company: KnowCapp makes it easy for small business owners to get the financing they need.
- Location: New Castle, DE
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Hans Marshalleck
- Company: BNDWGN makes it painless to book travel with social media.
- Location: New York, NY
- Get connected: LinkedIn
Ian Felder
- Company: FYTR is an online platform that customizes meals from restaurants to fit an individual’s caloric needs and or food intolerances through portion manipulation as well as ingredient substitutions.
- Location: Brooklyn, NY
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
James Malone
- Company: BCA Gallery is a digital market place for discovering, collecting and buying the art work from the greatest Black contemporary artists.
- Location: Brooklyn, NY
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Jay Tolentino
- Company: Morena is an app that leverages AI to match people of color to the right beauty products.
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Jeff Gamble
- Company: Dynamic Surgical develops tech-enabled health pods on wheels that connect local elderly and disabled adults to remote multi-specialty doctors using live video streaming and advanced diagnostic devices.
- Location: St Louis, MO
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
John Thomas
- Company: RedBag is a gifting platform that allows you to send thoughtful and personal gifts no matter where you are in the world.
- Location: Atlanta, GA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Kai Frazier
- Company: Curated x Kai creates inclusive virtual reality classrooms.
- Location: Oakland, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Kevin Celisca
- Company: Integrate Tech, Inc. is an all-in-one school software that helps teachers manage the classroom, students to stay organized without distractions, and gives admins feedback on school data.
- Location: Ridgewood, NJ
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Maria Worley
Mark Jones
- Company: FYTR is an online platform that customizes meals from restaurants to fit an individual’s caloric needs and or food intolerances through portion manipulation as well as ingredient substitutions.
- Location: Brooklyn, NY
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Marvin Smith
- Company: Jouzu is a sports platform that drives engagement for non-professional teams and leagues.
- Location: Atlanta, GA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Maurice Womack
- Company: OASIS provides hands-on, video-led STEAM labs for kids.
- Location: Columbus, OH
- Get connected: LinkedIn
Naitik Mehta
- Company: NextBillion.org, is the only platform for employers to directly reach and hire talented people with disabilities in tech.
- Location: Vancouver, BC
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Olamide Olowe
- Company: Topicals is a direct to consumer digital health company providing access to acne and hyper-pigmentation prescriptions.
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Patrice Drayton
- Company: Marilyn’s Secret, is an anonymous women’s only social network that helps women remove the shame of speaking their truth.
- Location: Atlanta, GA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Paul Watkins
- Company: Ayce Labs, a mobile platform for students to find peer support communities for their mental health and wellness on college campuses.
- Location: East Palo Alto, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Pierre Laguerre
- Company: Fleeting, links CDL drivers to Fortune 500 companies for on-demand and temporary transportation needs.
- Location: Brooklyn, NY
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Purnima Sreenivasan
- Company: miHygge, is making senior living available, affordable, accessible, attainable.
- Location: San Ramon, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Rohan Brown
- Company: Barley Sober, uses data to gamify the nightlife experience.
- Location: Philadelphia, PA
- Get connected: LinkedIn
Rudy Chavez
- Company: FAM-in is a family-focused FinTech platform to help families save for their children’s needs.
- Location: Beltsville, MD
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Shironda White
- Company: CauseEDU is a tech company that increases student and university fundraising by making the giving process more transparent and efficient for donors.
- Location: Boston, MA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Sonia Guimil
- Company: VillaShare is a marketplace where travelers and digital nomads meet to book and share the costs of a luxury villa.
- Location: San Diego, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn
Sonia Smith-Kang
- Company: Mixed Hub is a tech-enabled digital content, lifestyle brand and commerce platform for multicultural parents by multicultural parents.
- Location: Los Angeles,CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Tami Garcia
- Company: Mully Lingua is developing the first language and cultural learning platform to help parents raise globally aware kids by providing a step-by-step guide to their child’s development and connecting them with activities, vendors and resources for their kids, ages 1–17.
- Location: Washington, DC
- Get connected: LinkedIn
Tia Lyles-Williams
- Company: LucasPye BIO is a biotherapeutic contract manufacturing organization.
- Location: Gary, IN
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Tiffany Markarian
- Company: Glowmode is a lifestyle method that helps you achieve your skin goals.
- Location: Vienna, VA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Vittorio Watson
- Company: FAM-In is a family-focused crowdfunding web-based application to help families save for their kids.
- Location: Brooklyn, NY
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Vivien Macnguyen
- Company: QPI Education is enabling any educator to teach tomorrow’s STEM today.
- Location: Berkeley, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn
Yoly G. Avalos
- Company: Bquate is a full-stack platform that helps music creators and music companies have control of their music, data, and money.
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Shoutout to the FG Cohort 4 Peer Trainers
There was so much talent in Cohort 4 that Founder Gym hosted Peer Training sessions. Select cohort members stepped up to share best practices, resources and tips to train their peers on popular startup topics. Thank you to these amazing founders:
Meet the Incredible Trainers of FG Cohort 4
Cohort 4 founders were trained by five founders-turned-investors, who helped them learn the ins and outs of raising venture capital. We would like to thank them for their commitment to help bridge the knowledge, network, and capital gap for underrepresented founders.
Michael Seibel
- Michael is CEO and Partner at Y Combinator. He was the co-founder and CEO of Justin.tv (sold to Amazon for $970m), and the co-founder and CEO of Socialcam (sold to Autodesk Inc. for $60m). He’s made over 50 investments, including Cruise, Luxe, Walker and Company, Bluesmart and Jopwell.
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Amit Patel
- Michael is the Managing Partner at Owl Ventures. He founded and sold Personal Academic Trainers, an after school tutoring company. Amit has worked closely with all companies in the Owl Ventures portfolio and serves on the board of Kuali, Lingo Live, Panorama Education, Securly, Swing Education, Thinkful and Tinkergarten.
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Arlan Hamilton
- Arlan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are of color, women, and/or LGBT. She has made over 100 investments, including Blendoor, On Second Thought, Wildfang and Localeur.
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Kathryn Minshew
- Kathryn is the Founder and CEO of The Muse. Kathryn has spoken at MIT and Harvard, appeared on The TODAY Show and CNN, and contributes on career and entrepreneurship to the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. She was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Media and Inc.’s 15 Women to Watch in Tech.
- Location: New York, NY
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Carolina Huaranca
- Carolina is a Principal at Kapor Capital. In 2012, she founded Spriggle, a marketplace helping parents identify science and math inspired products for children ages 3–9. She’s made over 100 investments in companies that close gaps of opportunity and access for low income communities.
- Location: Oakland, CA
- Get connected: LinkedIn and Twitter
Applications for FG Cohorts 5 and 6 are now open!
Submit your application today to get a chance at learning how to fundraise like a boss.
- Cohort Topic: Raising Venture Capital
- Cohort Duration: January 7 to February 15, 2019
- Location: 100% virtual, so you can participate from anywhere in the world.
- Live Virtual Programming: Weekdays at 12:00 pm or 5:00 pm PST
- Cohort 5 Expert Trainers: Kanyi Maqubela (Frm. Partner at Collaborative Fund), Holly Liu (Visiting Partner at Y Combinator), Hayley Barna (Partner at First Round Capital), and Ash Rust (Managing Partner at Sterling Road)
- Cohort 6 (Black Founders Edition) Expert Trainers: Adeyemi Ajao (Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Base10), Morgan Debaun (Co-Founder & CEO of Blavity, Inc.), Troy Carter (Atom Factory and Cross Culture Ventures) and Uriridiakoghene Onovakpuri (Partner at Kapor Capital)
- Learn More: FounderGym.com
- Application Deadline: November 25th at 11:59pm PST
SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION HERE
NEW: Sponsor a Founder
Due to high demand, we’ve created the new Sponsor a Founder option. Firms and investors have reached out to us because they want a founder that they’ve mentored, invested in or are interested in investing in to learn how to raise venture capital. Now, you can pay for 50% of 100% of a founder’s tuition to be a member of the FG Cohort.
Sponsor a founder here.
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