The Vancouver Founder Institute, the local chapter of the world's largest pre-seed accelerator, announced today that 7 new technology companies have completed their journey and graduated from the Spring 2020 cohort. After receiving 185 applications (63 of which were accepted), Founders in the program were subject to an intensive four-month process of challenging company building assignments, and constant evaluation from top startup mentors.
The new program alumni include:
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ActivScout is a two-sided marketplace that unites facility-based sports through a universal booking distribution system and in the process provides vendors with an ideal social marketplace.
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BuilderCycle has a patent-pending method of planning and tracking work on high-rise construction projects and uses a SaaS mobile app to improve construction site productivity.
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CIIRVE is an employer-funded wellness program that supports working parents by offering online learning for their children.
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Impresario will help senior marketers at small & medium B2B tech companies to connect all their event management technologies in one place to better gather, analyze, and uncover insights from their data in dashboards and reports.
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Machinery Analytics is developing a user-friendly interface between machine sensors and cloud-based AI to help mechanical engineering startups leverage the full power of AI for product development.
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Newsly.me is a news aggregation audio mobile application that delivers to the customer-defined and filtered news topics to the listener in a high-quality text-to-speech format.
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UnifyStack is in the IT operations management (ITOM) market and automates the mitigation of software operational issues, saving tech companies considerable money per-incident and reducing DevOps stress.
The Vancouver Virtual 2020 program was led and supported by Kailin Che (Counsel, Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae), Todd Embley (Partner, BoostXLabs), and Wade Larson (Founder and Executive Vice President, UrtheCast Corp).
“We’re incredibly proud of this graduating cohort of Founders,” says Todd Embley, Director of the Vancouver Founder Institute. “When we moved the program online to deal with COVID-19, our Founders never missed a beat. And we now have eight new ambitious technology companies joining Vancouver's burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
In addition, the new alumni received feedback and guidance from some of Vancouver's top startup mentors during program, including the following:
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Aurelie Guerrieri, CMO, Open Systems
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Alex Hobbs: CEO, Oxford Lock
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Andrea Welling: Regional Director BC & Yukon, Futurpreneur Canada
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Annika Lewis: Associate, Vanedge Capital
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Bijan Vaez: Founder and CEO, Fractional CTO
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Bill Tam: VP, BC SuperCluster
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Boris Mann: Co-Founder, FISSION
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Casey Lau: Head of Asia, RISE (Web Summit)
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Chris Hobbs: President, TTT Studios
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Christian Gauthier: Partner , Bennet Jones
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Colin Brown: Principal, Gallowglass Consulting
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Conor Aylwin, Director at Cultivate Advisors
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Ed Levinson: Director, Ensibuuko
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Erin Campbell: CEO, ECMB Capital Partners
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Grandy Chu: Founder and Designer , Atelier Grandi
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Grant Lawrence: President, Valhalla Private Capital
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Hartland Ross: Founder, eBridge Marketing Solutions
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Ian Gilbert: Chief Revenue Officer, Guidespark
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James Reyes: Vice President Global Sales & Marketing, Aquatic Informatics
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Jayson Wyner: Co-Founder, Nutrabolics
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Joel Semeniuk: Vice President of Growth and Innovation, Communitech
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John Chan: CEO, 2x Growth Agency / 2x Ventures
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Kookai Chaimahawong: VC Associate, Pangaea Ventures
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Kwang Lim: Partner, Bennett Jones LLP
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Lisa Payne: CFO, Mine Sense
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Mary Ryan: COO, PKI Capital
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Michael Souza, CTO Screenfluence
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Nicole Donnelly, SaltyWaffle
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Pete Duggan: Executive Vice President Operations, UrtheCast Corp.
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Robert Delmar: Business Advisor, Bull Run Capital
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Robert Foxall: Director of Business Development, Timia Capital
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Ryan Smith: CEO, FTSY
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Scott Larson: CEO, HeliosWire
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Sean Hodgins, Co-Founder, Tandem Innovation Group
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Shahab Samimi: Senior Associate, 7 Gate Ventures
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Sid Sharma: CEO, REHUMAN
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Stephanie Wetterwald: Marketing Manager, Entreflow Consulting Group
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Steve Oldham: CEO, Carbon Engineering Ltd.
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Thealzel Lee: Founder, President & Director, e-Fund
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Tyler Douglas: Former Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, Vision Critical
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Viviana Matheus: Director of Digital Strategy and Brand, Comm100
The Vancouver Virtual 2020 program was also supported by ThinkingLab, RBC, BennettJones, Valhalla Angels and Cultivate Advisors.
Based in Silicon Valley but with chapters across the globe, the Founder Institute provides the structure, mentor support, and global network of entrepreneurs needed to start an enduring company. Founder Institute Graduate companies include fast-rising startups across 6 continents like Udemy, Realty Mogul, Travelcar, goplaceit, Appota, and many more.
The new Vancouver Founder Institute alumni now have a fast-growing company that has been fully validated by experienced startup founders, with access to the Founder Institute's global network and post-graduate support programs to continue building their business. The Founder Institute represents the world's largest network of startup founders and mentors, with over 4,300 companies and 14,000 mentors spanning 185 cities and six continents.
The next Founder Institute program will take a large step forward itself to encompass the entire Western Canadian region East of Ontario. The new Western Canada Founder Institute program begins on August 25th, and anyone interested in launching a company with the program can register to get updates at http://fi.co/apply/vancouver.
Alumni of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.85BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
