gBETA Oklahoma City Startup Accelerator Announces Inaugural Cohort
By: Selena Skorman, gBETA Oklahoma City Director
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — Nationally ranked startup accelerator gener8tor announced today the five companies selected for its first cohort for the gBETA Oklahoma City program. The startups were recruited from the greater Oklahoma City area and represent a wide variety of industries and verticals, ranging from monoclonal antibody discovery kits to high-quality South Asian cooking products. gBETA Oklahoma City focuses on supporting early stage startups based in Oklahoma City.
gBETA is a free, seven-week accelerator that works with five startups at a time for no fees and no equity. gBETA is a program of gener8tor. Each cohort is kept small to ensure meaningful engagement with the gener8tor team, network and other resources. Participants receive intensive and individualized coaching and access to gener8tor’s national network of mentors, customers, corporate partners and investors.
“We are thrilled to see a diverse group of founders and companies in gBETA OKC’s inaugural cohort. Overall, the roster of applicant companies was impressive and I believe the amount of interest gBETA received spoke to the demand for a program like this in Oklahoma City,” said Evan Fay, Program Manager of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. “We’re honored to be part of their journey through our support of gBETA Oklahoma City and will continue working to build an ecosystem where they can thrive as alumni companies.”
The program is designed to help startups gain early customer traction on their product or idea, and establish metrics that can make them competitive applicants for full-time, equity-based accelerators or for seed investment.
“gBETA provides key resources to early stage companies and helps fill a gap within Oklahoma City’s entrepreneurial pipeline,” said Robert J. Ross, Chairman and CEO of Inasmuch Foundation. “I’m excited to see these companies develop over the next seven weeks and beyond.”
The program kicked off on Sept. 30, and the startups will work with the gener8tor team over the course of seven weeks to meet mentors, gain customer traction and pitch to investors.
The program will culminate on Dec. 2 at the gBETA Oklahoma City Pitch Night, which will highlight each of the five companies. This event, held at The Yale Theater in Historic Capitol Hill, will be an opportunity for the public to listen and learn more about the startups and network with the founders and other community members. For more information and to RSVP, visit www.gbetastartups.com/oklahoma-city/pitch-night.
The gBETA program is offered in Oklahoma City thanks to the support of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, Inasmuch Foundation, American Fidelity, Square Deal Capital, Oklahoma State University, University of Oklahoma and Love’s Travel Stops. To learn more, connect with Selena Skorman, gBETA Oklahoma City Director at selena@gener8tor.com or visit www.gbetastartups.com/oklahoma-city.
gBETA Oklahoma City Fall 2021 Cohort
FlasHOLR connects people who need hauling to people who own cargo vehicles. FlasHOLR’s integrated platform links customers with a marketplace of items to sell and drivers who perform on-demand delivery. FlasHOLR has generated $15,000 in revenue to date and is operating in 24 states since launching in January of 2021.
Founder: Lily Jiang | lily@flasholr-app.com | holr-apps.com
GetCaddie matches golfers with caddies for an elevated golfing experience at courses without active caddie programs. Through a secure integration with tee booking software, golfers compare pricing and book through their mobile device, desktop, or pro shop. Golf courses leverage the power of a local caddie community to supply their players with caddies while maintaining their course. Golfers, no matter their skill, enjoy the experience of a caddie while walking or riding on any course. Caddies are vetted, trained, and ready to represent the course whether it’s public, resort, or private. GetCaddie is a fully functioning application found on Apple and Google stores and currently deployed at Twin Hills Country Club in Oklahoma City.
Founder: Houston Johnson | Houston@GetCaddie.com | GetCaddie.com
Imperial Bioworks streamlines the discovery of monoclonal antibodies from months to days, rapidly creating tools for researchers, as well as new diagnostics and therapeutics. Imperial Bioworks customers are biotech enterprises who need novel antibodies across various disciplines. Imperial Bioworks has secured a partnership with Oklahoma Christian University and has a patent pending on the technology.
Co-Founder: Nathan Gillock | nathan@imperialbioworks.com | imperialbioworks.com
LandGuest connects landowners with people who want to hunt, fish or camp on private land. LandGuest offers an online marketplace where people can book land by the day, week or weekend. With LandGuest, landowners can make 3–10x more income than leasing their land annually. Since launching in March 2021, LandGuest has onboarded 7 listings.
Co-Founder and CEO: Ryan Laughlin | ryan@landguest.com | landguest.com
Roop Living creates innovative, high-quality kitchen products for South Asian cooking enthusiasts. Roop Living’s products are built for aesthetics, functionality and ecological sustainability. Since July 2020, Roop Living has generated $4,100 in revenue and fulfilled 71 orders.
Founder and CEO: Rakhi Patel | rakhi721@gmail.com | roopliving.com
About gener8tor
gener8tor’s turnkey platform for the creative economy connects startup founders, musicians, artists, investors, universities and corporations. The gener8tor platform includes pre-accelerators, accelerators, corporate programming, conferences and fellowships.
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 $258M+ in capital and created 2,514 jobs across the US and Canada. For more gBETA statistics, visit gbetastartups.com/statistics.
