On April 6th 2022, Founder Institute hosted a global Founder Showcase event featuring 7 up-and-coming pre-seed startup companies, and powered by Dell for Startups—more than 1500+ entrepreneurs, investors and tech execs around the world registered to join the virtual pitch and networking event.
We were pleased to welcome to the Founder Showcase stage for a special keynote fireside chat David Brown, co-founder, board member and former CEO of Techstars—watch his opening interview with Founder Institute CEO Jonathan Greechan:
This Founder Showcase event featured pitches and investor Q&A with 7 fast-growing international pre-seed stage companies. Previous startups of the Founder Showcase event have gone on to raise more than $1.5+ billion in funding, and include industry titans like Udemy, Relay Rides, Thumbtack, Realty Mogul, Kaggle, and many more.
The following 7 companies were chosen to pitch from hundreds of startup applicants around the world, because all are showing promising early traction - they hail from 7 different cities and 4 countries. Watch the founder pitches + investor Q&As from the April 2022 Founder Showcase event, linked below:
Equalicert Founder & CEO Rachel Dowling
Equalicert, based in New York, helps companies improve their DE&I with innovative AI-powered conversational analysis tools for virtual meetings.
Slice Founder & CEO Joe Bellavance
Slice, based in Indianapolis, is a software studio for business writers to focus better and write faster long-form content by promoting focus and flow.
Aplícate Co-Founder & CEO Liliana Medina
Aplícate, based in Guadalajara, creates personalized comprehensive wellness plans in seconds: for nutrition, exercise, and mental health in a single app.
Storius Co-Founder & CEO Freddy Law
Storius, based in Hong Kong, is a location-based GPS mobile app for audio walking tours, providing free travel stories and in-depth sites guides, insights and short audio content.
NuLife Virtual Founder & CEO JD Meints
NuLife Virtual, based in Los Angeles, is virtual care solution for behavioral healthcare and addiction recovery professionals to deliver care and connect with patients, anywhere at any time.
Blawesome Founder & CEO: Jennifer Kruidbos
Blawesome, based in Toronto, is a web3 platform for wellness creators and their communities to learn, grow and create culture together.
Mae - Making Auto Easy Founder Vivian Liu
Mae - Making Auto Easy - based in Vancouver, is an unbiased, guided car buying experience built FOR women, BY women to discover the right car for you.
About the Keynote Speaker: David Brown
David Brown is a serial entrepreneur who has founded three startups and been involved with two others. He is one of the original founders of Pinpoint Technologies, Inc. which is now part of ZOLL Medical Corporation and provides solutions to the emergency medical services market. He was president of the company from founding through over $50M per year in revenue and over 250 employees.
David later co-founded Techstars along with David Cohen, Brad Feld, and Jared Polis. He has been an investor and advisor to Techstars since inception, and served as CEO from 2013-2021. Recently, David stepped down from his CEO role at Techstars, but is still highly involved and serves on the board of directors.
David is also the author of No Vision All Drive: What I Learned from My First Company.
The next Founder Showcase date for summer 2022 will be announced soon, and you can learn more at FounderShowcase.com.
- Sergio A. Escobar is the CEO and Managing Director at BCF Ventures, a Canadian Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) Fund investing at the seed+ stage of technology-based startups mostly in the United States, Canada, and more recently in Europe/Israel. In parallel to BCF Ventures, he manages Lalotte Ventures, a Family Office backed Venture Capital Fund investing in sports, media and entertainment. Sergio is also the Managing Director of Founder Institute Montreal, a pre-seed accelerator program, where he has been awarded several times as best Director worldwide. Additionally, for 8 years he has been an active member of the Techstars Global Ecosystem, acting as Techstars Startup Weekend Global Facilitator, EIR and Curator for Techtstars Startup Digest. Sergio considers himself as a citizen of the world by having lived in Canada, Bolivia, Paraguay and France - he is a polyglot who speaks 5 languages.
- Bade Aluko is the Managing Partner at White Hibiscus Capital, a pre-seed commerce enabling technologies fund that focuses on working with talented founders in West Africa. Bade is also Mentor at Founder Institute Abuja and he has a successful track record as an experienced entrepreneur. Bade’s greatest joy in life is seeing people who pass through his various companies continue on to become major successes launching startups and forging innovation in their chosen industries.
- Maria Maso is the Founder and CEO of the Business Angel Minority Association- baMa, bridging the investment gap in minority-led start-ups or start-ups targeting minority-driven markets and building a growing business angel network and community. As CEO at Building Bridges, she supports immigrant entrepreneurs to access the USA. Maria also holds more than 10 years in corporate IT Strategy, and IT International Program management for several Fortune 500 companies, focusing on finance process improvements from an international perspective. She’s also lived in five countries (US, UK, NL, SPN & FR), and hold double citizenship (US & SPN). Maria’s objective is to support European and American innovation ecosystem development with her extensive international background, professional experience, and global network.
- Lucas Chaya del Pino is the Head of Dell for Startups at Dell Technologies where he leads a program dedicated to support entrepreneurs and startups with resources that help them grow and scale their technology. Lucas is originally from Argentina where he studied business administration and launched several ventures in the coffee industry before moving to the US. Lucas holds a Master in Business Administration from Duke university, with major in MSTEM and Finance, and focus in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Lucas joined Dell NA Small Business Division to work on implementing Dell Expert Network and Dell for Entrepreneurs programs. Lucas was a professional rally race car driver for 7 years and enjoys practicing and watching motorsports.
Watch the full event (livestream) nonstop replay, including the Featured Investor Panelist introductions:
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The Founder Showcase is Silicon Valley’s leading international startup pitch event, helping seed-stage startups learn, launch, and connect to investors.
These free online events feature presentations from up-and-coming pre-seed startups across the globe, and attendees can learn from world-leading venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. In addition, each Showcase features several networking sessions to connect with the featured companies, and other attendees from across the global startup ecosystem.
Since 2008, speakers like Elon Musk and startups like Udemy and Thumbtack have presented on the Founder Showcase stage. Learn more at FounderShowcase.com.
