What do local student-born startups like CliqBit, Detrapel, Thero, Project 99 and Wanku have in common?
Answer: they were all members of last year's cohort of the Babson Summer Venture program, one of the annual initiatives of The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College—now ready to kick off its 10th edition.
The 10-week long program aims at accelerating the development of student ventures from Babson College, F.W. Olin College of Engineering and Wellesley College.
In a few days, a new cohort of 15 startups will start its own path to, hopefully, entrepreneurial success. As part of the program, there will be updates with the whole cohort, weekly meetings with a company's dedicated mentor and weekly “hot seat” sessions, where at least one team will pitch their business and get public feedback from mentors and other participants.
"This is an incredibly internationally and racially diverse group, more female founders than male, and a 50/50 split between graduate and undergraduate teams," a representative for Babson College wrote in an email to BostInno.
The program has had a few success stories -- Detrapel, a company from last year's cohort, announced the closing of a $200,000 deal with Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner in a January episode of ‘Shark Tank' for its new repellent spray for shoes.
Here are the 15 companies that will take part into the Babson Summer Venture Program 2018 (descriptions provided by Babson College and edited by BostInno). The program orientation is scheduled for May 21.
BikeLord
BikeLord (Sarah Friedman, Martin Gao, George Goetz, Henry Moche, Parker Remy-Miller, Jake Maude) is the easiest way to buy and sell a bicycle.
Dondoctor
Dondoctor (Felipe Acosta) is an Airbnb-like online service to find doctors and medical centers in Latin America.
Exclusive
Exclusive (Hari Mahesh) is a personalized digital platform to discover and interact with fashion.
Frostbite Face-Off / Croninja Conventions
Frostbite Face-Off (Emily Cronin) creates fun, coed social/athletic events for coed adult athletes to bond over a shared passion.
Gentle
Gentle's mission (April Chen) is for compassion to reach its destination. We bridge the gap between empathy and action through products designed to give the gift of connection. We have started with a series of empathy cards with colorable covers and unique exercises inside. Though our current focus is on cards, it is only the beginning. We aim to be a key player in using products to integrate compassion into everyday culture.
ignitED
ignitED (Georgia Gabriela, Larissa Moreira, Mara Steiu) is an educational platform where college students offer college counseling to university applicants.
Hope Sews
Hope Sews (Maya Mutalik) sells modern clothing made from Ghanaian fabric and provide tailors with electric sewing machines.
Jobortunity
Jobortunity (Marion Benitez, Mazen Danaf, Colleen Leung) is a virtual career counselor and placement service for university students.
Nanny A La Carte
Nanny A La Carte (Salimata Bangoura, Gladys Ngamo) is a one-stop-shop help for working parents with cooking, cleaning, laundry, transportation and childcare.
Shay Jaffar
Shay Jaffar (Shaymaa Gaafar) is a luxury ready-to-wear fashion line and marketplace that is transforming modest fashion into glamour.
Smask
Smask (Dillon Galynsky, Leny Prog) offers a new discrete smoke filtration device with true authentic feel, while also reducing fume emissions by 99.8% and eliminating odor.
TastePal
TastePal (Ralph Haddad) allows you to discover and capture experiences built for your own taste.
Waec
Waec (Victor Dubinsky, Sarveshwaran Jayaraman, Brett Wagner, Neal Wagner) provides low, cost, last mile delivery for restaurants using autonomous sidewalk robots.
William Palmer Eyewear
William Palmer Eyewear (William Tanadi) is affordable designer eyewear for the modern millennial of Indonesia.
Wish Route
Wish Route (Jessica Lynch, Molly Plunkett, Bailey Reagan, Kait Taylor) is a monthly subscription service that provides the inspiration, accountability and incentives to help users fulfill their wishes.
