It's that time of year again. Georgetown University is once again gearing up to host their Summer Startup Program, a school-sponsored accelerator designed to help young, talented student innovators make their business building dreams come true. A home for entrepreneur hopefuls, learning facility, and networking center to boot, the Summer Startup Program at Georgetown is an incredible opportunity for any 20-something looking to transform their idea into a reality.
Today the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative, under the banner of Startup Hoyas, announced their newest class of Hoyapreneurs, a group of driven, relentlessly motivated individuals who are ready to do everything it takes to make their business a success. They have a lot to look forward to in the coming months as past startups accepted into the prestigious program have had nothing but rave remarks to say about their experience.
"The Georgetown Summer Startup Program has put some of the top student run businesses here in Georgetown in a really intensive environment where we're given office space here in the business school and access to top notch mentors throughout the duration of the summer," explained Luke Schoenfelder, CEO of Local Energy Technologies.
"We had weekly conversations with experts in a variety of fields including lawyers, investors, we had people come help us with our pitches. So each week we were getting a little more polished." added Kita McCord, Founder and CEO of Give Social.
Eleven weeks of free work space, an incubator to share their thoughts with fellow movers and shakers, mentoring and advising from Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, and the ability to connect with investors and other integral members of the extended Georgetown entrepreneurial community, these lucky 15 startups are in for quite a ride this summer.
Check out the newest Summer Startup Program roster below and mark your calendar for June 19 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Fisher Colloquium on Georgetown's campus to have the chance to meet some of these outstanding companies yourself:
- At Times Like These - Ema Kamara MBA '13 - "At Times Like These will be 'The Knot' for funerals and related services. Absolutely everything you need for the celebration of a life."
- Convert - Michael Turner MBA '14 - "Convert will be a data aggregation social platform with the goal of unifying the entire gaming community."
- Cuchina LLC - Darian "DJ" Amirsaleh COL '13 - "We are a mobile app that provides deals at local restaurants during off-peak hours at absolutely no charge to the consumer."
- Euforie Pet - Tara de Nicolas EMBA '14 - "Euforie Pet is a patent-pending pet shampoo that combines deodorizing technology with aromatherapy to create a lasting fresh scent."
- Gray Street Solutions - Tyler Gray SCS '14 - "Establish a new small business to meet increased federal and state government demand for agile website/mobile/app development."
- Himalayan Spirit 8848 - Joshua Leslie COL '13 - "A socially conscious and environmentally friendly fashion company from Nepal."
- J&C Suiting - John Hancock SFS '13 - "A concierge service providing DC's professional men with hand-crafted custom suiting that doesn't break the bank."
- LaunchPosse - Richard Amrbose MBA '06 - "LaunchPosse leverages social networks to make building a business collaborative, fun, and more accessible for aspiring entrepreneurs."
- OLS - John Courtney MBA '14 - "A language learning solution that combines the effectiveness of high-end language schools with the convenience of an online platform."
- Riide - Jeff Stefanis MSB '13 - "Revolutionizing personal transportation with the first stylish and affordable electric bicycle for young urban commuters."
- SeQR Pay ("secure pay") - Rob Ness SCS '14 - "#1 task for small biz: Get Discovered! We give clients: branded iPhone app, listing on ecommerce sites, huge traffic from ads/email mktg/SEO."
- Social Impact Partners - Ted Nelson MBA '14 - "A holistic program to reduce prison recidivism, funded with private capital and repaid contingent upon success by a government entity."
- Websites with Benefits - Sarah Weise MBA '13 - "Just-in-time solutions to enhance websites. We drive commerce through exceptional, engaging online experiences."
- WeSparkt - Sherief Khalil MBA '14 - "Impact investing platform SoonToBeHired.com Carlos Salgado SCS '14 We are developing a web platform for businesses to better source non-professional employees based on their interests and availability."
And in case you forgot about the impressive crew from last year, you can flip through their ventures below:
