gBETA Houston Announces Fall 2021 Companies
HOUSTON, TX — Nationally-ranked startup accelerator gener8tor has announced the five startups selected for the gBETA Houston Fall 2021 cohort. The participating startups include companies offering delicious ready-to-eat African cuisine and snacks, fairer consumer lending practices and more meaningful connections between job seekers and employers. More information on each startup can be found below.
gBETA is a free accelerator for early-stage companies with local roots. The program is capped at five teams and requires no fees and no equity. Participants receive intensive and individualized coaching and access to gener8tor’s national network of mentors, customers, corporate partners and investors. The program is designed to help startups gain early customer traction on their product or idea, and establish metrics that make them competitive applicants for full-time, equity-based accelerators or seed investment. Since launching the first program in early 2020, 15 companies have graduated from the gBETA Houston program, who have gone on to raise over $1.7M in funding and participate in accelerator programs like Techstars and Google for Startups.
“Downtown Launchpad is an innovation hub like no other, and I am so proud of what it is already and what it will become,” said Robert Pieroni, Director of Economic Development at Central Houston, Inc. “The five startups selected for the gBETA Houston Fall 2021 cohort are exploring new challenges that can become high-impact Houston businesses. These founders are building their companies and benefiting from the resources Downtown Launchpad provides, and the proof is in the data — companies in these programs are creating jobs, growing their revenues and exponentially increasing their funding, which means these small starts up of today, working in Downtown Launchpad, are growing into the successful companies of tomorrow.”
The program kicked off in person on October 18th with five local Houston startups who will be working over the next seven weeks with the gBETA team to meet mentors, gain customer traction, and pitch accelerators and investors. The cohort graduates on December 14th at the gBETA Houston Fall 2021 Pitch Night (“demo day”), where each company will deliver a five-minute pitch to an audience of mentors, investors and community members.
“The five founding teams selected for our gBETA Houston Fall 2021 cohort are tackling unique problems they have each experienced personally, from finding access to cultural foods, fitness communities and authentic dating experiences to challenges with non-inclusive financing and hiring practices. The grit and passion these individuals bring to their roles as founders will undoubtedly have a tremendous impact in the Houston community and beyond,” said Kate Evinger, Director of gBETA Houston.
The gBETA program is offered in Houston thanks to the support of Central Houston, the City of Houston, the Downtown Launchpad, the Downtown Redevelopment Authority and Amegy Bank.
gBETA Houston is held two times per year with just five local companies accepted per cohort to ensure a high level of individualized attention. gBETA works with companies across all industries and business models. Startups interested in applying should contact gBETA Houston Director Kate Evinger (kate@gener8tor.com). For more information, visit gBETAstartups.com/houston.
gBETA HOUSTON | FALL 2021 ACCELERATOR COHORT
AllIDoIsCook exposes the world to Africa’s delicious flavors by manufacturing gourmet food products delivered directly to customer doors and available at grocers. AllIDoIsCook makes African cuisine accessible by solving the difficulty of finding African food, ingredients and the time consuming meal preparation process. Since launching, AllIDoIsCook has built out a manufacturing facility, shipped over 8,000 boxes and generated $1.1 million in revenue all without outside funding.
Tobi Smith: CEO & Founder | tobi@allidoiscook.com | allidoiscook.com
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Built by cyclists for cyclists, Chasing Watts’ web-based and native application makes it easy for cyclists to coordinate or find rides with fellow riders in their area. Cyclists create, manage and find geo-targeted group rides through the Chasing Watts platform. Cyclists have the ability to share, manage and download GPS routes through integrations with Ride with GPS, Strava and Garmin. Chasing Watts currently has 3K+ users on the platform and grew 135% from Q2 to Q3 in new ride views.
Scott Minard: COO | scott@chasingwatts.com | chasingwatts.com
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DanceKard’s dating platform connects individuals and groups with one another by bringing the date to the forefront of the conversation. DanceKard emphasizes scheduling the date faster by limiting the ability to chat until 24 hours before the date and partnering with businesses in the local community to offer geo-targeted special promotions and deals to daters. Daters benefit from easy date scheduling and special promotions, while businesses benefit from increased foot traffic and valuable feedback on the dating populations wants and needs. Since launching in August of 2021, DanceKard has over 170 users on the platform.
Erica Sinner: CEO & Founder | e@dancekard.com | dancekard.com
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Dollarito is a digital lending platform that helps the low-income Hispanic population with no credit history or low FICO score access fair credit. Dollarito applies AI into banking, transactional and behavioral data to evaluate the repayment capability more accurately than using FICO scores. Dollarito’s unique lending approach increases financial inclusion and avoids predatory lenders in the Hispanic community. Dollarito is a Houston-based Delaware C-Corp with 1,000 users on their waitlist and plans to beta test with 100+ customers in early 2022.
Carmen Roman: CEO & Co-Founder | crf@dollarito.com | dollarito.com/en
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SeekerPitch facilitates effective connections between jobseekers and employers to make better hires, faster. Jobseekers’ past job titles and resumes are not always indicative of their true capabilities. SeekerPitch empowers companies to see who jobseekers are as people, and get to know them through comprehensive profiles and virtual speed interviews. Since launching in September 2021, SeekerPitch already has 215 jobseekers and 20 companies on the platform, with one pilot at University of Houston and three more in the pipeline.
Samantha Hepler: CEO & Founder | samantha@seekerpitch.com | seekerpitch.com
About gener8tor
gener8tor’s turnkey platform for the creative economy connects startup founders, investors, corporations, universities, job seekers, musicians and artists. The gener8tor platform includes accelerators, upskilling, corporate programming, and conferences with content on community growth, impact investing, diversity, equity and inclusion, and innovation across education, agriculture, insurance, healthcare, and more. Recently, gener8tor was named one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators. For more information, visit gener8tor.com.
About gBETA
gBETA accelerates the growth of early-stage companies through its network-driven program. gBETA supports five teams per cohort and requires no fees and no equity. Since launching in 2015, gBETA program alumni have raised $272M+ in capital and created 2,700+ jobs across the US and Canada. For more gBETA statistics, visit gbetastartups.com/statistics.
