SEED SPOT, the Phoenix-based social entrepreneurship accelerator program, announced its first class of D.C. entrepreneurs at its kickoff party Wednesday night.
At the event, hosted at WeWork White House, each of the 10 entrepreneurs introduced themselves in one-minute pitches—ranging from a startup trying to better prepare potential political candidates to a machine learning software startup aimed at helping elementary school students find the right book. The group began their 14-week endeavor with SEED SPOT last week.
SEED SPOT opened its second location here in Washington, D.C. and partnered with Booz Allen Hamilton to set up the new space. As the title sponsor for SEED SPOT's D.C. location, Booz Allen Hamilton is already providing mentors for the SEED SPOT members.
According to a press release, SEED SPOT has supported 288 ventures with 49 percent of the founders identifying as female and 48 percent founded by minority entrepreneurs. The D.C. cohort, as new D.C. Director of Entrepreneur Initiatives Kate Glantz noted in a speech introducing the cohort Wednesday night, also has more advanced degrees than there are people. (No big deal.)
So, without further ado, here's the inaugural cohort of social entrepreneurs at SEED SPOT D.C. —
(Writer's Note: all descriptions are pulled from SEED SPOT's official press release.)
- Darren Cambridge, co-founder of Mia Learning: "Mia Learning uses technology to help people make choices about their learning."
- Michelle Chang, founder of imby: "At imby, we believe people are more important than real estate. Our vision is to empower citizens to learn what makes communities great, to participate in the public conversation, and to support the development of great places."
- Dipanwita Das, founder of Impact College: "Impact College works with our knowledge partners to teach skills that make the world a better place."
- Brooks Garber, founder of AcademME: "AcademME lowers the cost of higher education by increasing student access to, and information about, potential education providers and programs, while providing providers an affordable and effective way to market their options to and recruit high-quality and diverse potential students."
- Molly Matthews, founder of JOB-IQ: "JOB-IQ helps job seekers get smart about career paths through digital and e-learning job skills preparation. We help candidates believe in themselves, connect to mentors and work learn opportunities, build resilience, and foster discovery of meaningful life work."
- Janice Omadeke, founder of Mentor Method: "The Mentor Method builds the best community of underrepresented talent to create cultures determined to design the future."
- Lavinia Popinceanu, founder of i4Spy: "i4Spy is a SaaS cybersecurity solution that protects at-risk consumers against mobile spyware breaches."
- Naamal De Silva, founder of Mayla: "Mayla uses compelling storytelling to instill hope, grow community, and inspire connection to nature. We use our website to feature uplifting stories about the lives of people who protect nature, and build partnerships that nurture connections between people and nature."
- Steve Sinha, founder of Empowered to Run: "Empowered to Run grows the pipeline for public office by scalably addressing knowledge and resource barriers for prospective state & local candidates."
- Stephanie Westhelle, co-founder of The Forgotten Fruit: "The Forgotten Fruit strives to bring revenue opportunities for micro-scale farmers, by utilizing forgotten produce to make high margin snacks."
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story misstated the program length. The program is 14-weeks long.
