Meet the 7 ventures in FoundersBoost’s latest pre-accelerator program this fall
Startups from around the world spent 6 weeks — including five across the DC region — scaling their ventures from market research, pitching and beyond.
The FoundersBoost Washington, D.C. chapter has graduated the 2nd cohort (FBX2) for its pre-accelerator for early-stage tech-enabled entrepreneurs. The 6-week program accelerated seven ventures, majority of which are minority-owned, to prepare founders for accelerators, investment, and revenue.
This past spring, the pre-accelerator transitioned towards a virtual experience to ensure safety for the founders amidst pandemic safety concerns. This cohort of fellows spent six weeks engaging with mentors and strategic topic experts, and refining their pitch for the Demo Day capstone. The free pre-accelerator runs twice a year and concludes with a global demo day. Following the program, the cohort will continue to have access to SUEGO’s alumni network and guidance from experts across its programming and events throughout the year.
Here’s who graduated the latest cohort:
- Maya Halihan, founder and CEO of Ewedded
- Shams Zaidi, founder and CEO of Genus Hotels
- Scott Myers, founder and CEO of Giggzy
- Daniel Salehy and Joseph Sutton, cofounders of Hangouts Social
- Stan Podolski, founder and CEO of HundredGraphs
- David Levine, cofounder and CEO of Scoby
- Arun Mallikarjunan, founder and CEO of Symbiosis
This mission stands out as being especially relevant for 2022: The founders behind Hangouts Social allows people to find community by making it easy for them to meet up with groups of people around them same-day or for future events based on shared interests. A unique social app like this not only alleviates stress when meeting new people, but it further catalyzes quick and safe engagement in a more real-time scenario to strengthen community and reduce pandemic isolation residuals.
For descriptions of the rest of the ventures, check out the FoundersBoost Demo Day On Demand. The pre-accelerator is launching applications for the next cohort early January, so be on the lookout.
