If you've been following the Boston startup scene for a while, you probably know of Lovepop, the local startup that landed an investment from Kevin O'Leary on ABC's "Shark Tank" for its 3D pop-up greeting cards.
A fact about Lovepop that may have faded into the distance is that the startup went through Harvard Business School's Rock Accelerator in 2015 before gaining greater acclaim.
The startup accelerator, which is part of the school's Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, provides startups that have at least one HBS student on the founding team a number of resources. Those resources including potential funding, coaching from veteran entrepreneurs and industry advisors and opportunities to validate, build and test their business models.
The Rock Accelerator recently held its Demo Day event to showcase the startups that are demonstrating early traction in the program's spring cohort. A couple of those should be familiar to BostInno readers: Impact Labs, which has former New England Patriots punter Zoltan Mesko as a co-founder, and Veho, which is developing a peer-to-peer system for package deliveries.
Here is a list of the 14 HBS startups that presented at Demo Day (descriptions provided by the Rock Center). You can find a complete list of the spring cohort's startups here.
Aday is a digital matching firm providing a liquid universal workforce. HBS student on founding team: Rahkeem Morris ’18.
ATLAS provides field-verified asset database to support grid and market operators working with high levels of distributed solar penetration. HBS student on founding team: Joe Zhou’17.
C16 harnesses the power of synthetic biology to brew sustainable palm oil from microbes. Shara Ticku’17.
Endorse.gg: Influencer marketing in esports: We connect brands looking to reach millennials with esports influencers looking for product sponsorships. HBS students on founding team: Brandon Freiberg ’18, Joe Kiernan ’17.
Finfox is an intuitive financial modeling tool for startups that helps turn business ideas into numbers. HBS students on founding team: Armand Mignot ’17, Dmitry Zhdankin ’17.
HealthWiz clears the path to better healthcare decisions and empowers access to effective and cost-efficient care. HBS students on founding team: Nate Maslak ’17, Nate Fox ’17.
Exero Labs (formerly Impact Labs) is developing and producing add-ons for football and other helmets to reduce damaging impact forces to the brain. HBS student on founding team: Ben Rizzo ’17
Keyturn Public Benefit Corporation: Construction management platform that delivers projects faster and cheaper, designed by and for those who perform work. HBS student on founding team: Marc Howland ’18.
Lock.in guarantees rent payments to small landlords by bearing the financial risk of missed rent. Xavier de Gracia ’17.
Magpie brings a single-click buy experience to any image, video, or app by letting publishers natively tag products in their content. HBS students on founding team: Damjan Korac ‘17, Andrea Fantacone ’17, Gerrit Orem ’17.
Noken is reimagining the tour operator concept for millennials by curating instant-bookable itineraries that are guided through our app. HBS students on founding team: Marc Escapa ’17, Emily Brockway ’18.
ONEE is designing smart fashion jewelry that facilitates and habituates bystander intervention. HBS students on founding team: Michele Choi ‘17, Alison Lyness’17, Aaron Whittemore ’17.
Phosify is a digital health platform that connects devices and apps to enable at-home pre-clinical trials powered by block chain technologies. HBS students on founding team: Andrea Coravos ‘17, Brian Smith ’17, Sofia Warner ’17.
Veho is replacing those large delivery trucks (FedEx/UPS) with a platform that enables anyone to delivery packages in their own car. HBS students on founding team: Matthew Graham’ 17, Itamur Zur ’17.
