Tandem Innovation Alliance, a community of entrepreneurs and supporters, has announced the first 13 participating companies in the Tandem Product Academy. The educational program will help technology product entrepreneurs in the Greater Washington region scale their businesses.
It’s targeting 25 companies for the initial program cohort – the deadline to apply is Oct. 31.
The four-month, part-time program is free for participants, and Tandem doesn't take any equity. Participants must be senior leaders of a business that has a technology product ready for customer adoption, and whose company, within the last year, has done any of the following:
Had gross revenue in excess of $500,000, obtained at least $500,000 in capital from sources other than the founder’s immediate friends and family, or received at least $500,000 in federal research and development funding.
The selected companies include successful government services businesses on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing businesses, venture backed technology product startups and federally funded research and development businesses looking to commercialize products.
Here are the startups that have joined the first cohort so far:
Beezio – Rockville, MD
Breezio provides associations, trade groups and event managers software to create ongoing communities around the content and attendees.
Centeye – Washington, DC
Centeye is a research and development business working with DARPA and the Air Force, primarily in vision sensors and sensing for robotics in particular miniature drones.
ConnectDER – Arlington, VA
ConnectDER is developing and deploying technology to interconnect solar power and electric vehicles in the home with utility grids.
CoorWorks – Herndon, VA
Coorworks specializes in productizing complex logistics management solutions in niche sectors of the financial services, retail, and telecommunications industries and helps manage distributed workforces in physical security.
CrossLead – Washington, DC
CrossLead is a SaaS company providing and platform and tools to facilitate team management, organizational change and strategic alignment.
CU Rise Analytics – Tysons, VA
CU Rise Analytics provides technology serving the credit union industry through data analytics and knowledge management.
Fieldforce – Arlington, VA
Fieldforce is deploying a next-generation platform to manage 5G, Internet of Things and telecom networks.
Hatch Apps – Washington, DC
Hatch Apps provides a platform that allows its customers to build mobile apps for a fraction of the time and cost of existing solutions.
Higher Digital – Tysons, VA
Higher Digital provides higher education institutions with analytical tools and insights to assist in the development and deployment of digital experiences and educational products.
Precise Software Solutions – Rockville, MD
Precise is a rapidly growing government technology services business with expertise in healthcare technology.
REI Systems – Sterling, VA
REI has developed a SaaS grants management product – GovGrants – that helps federal, state and local governments evaluate and manage the grant-making process.
RFID Global – Reston, VA
RFID Global is a provider of real-time asset management solutions for enterprise and supply chain applications.
WireWheel – Arlington, VA
WireWheel combines machine learning and data analytics to provide new approaches to data protection and data protection regulations.
Each company selected will be able to designate up to three members of its leadership to participate in the academy, which is part-time and stretches four weeks. It will launch Nov. 10 and hold full-day classes once a month on Saturdays, with optional evening seminars mixed in during the week. Teaching the sessions will be UMD business school professors and local tech entrepreneurs.
Fairfax County and AARP have provided the seed capital to launch the program.
The academy’s partners include Greater Washington Partnership, Greater Washington Board of Trade, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Northern Virginia Technology Council, Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce, Virginia CIT, Maryland TEDCO and UMD's Robert H. Smith School of Business.
