8 Companies Launch from the 2015 Cohort of the Iowa Startup Accelerator
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Jessalyn Holdcraft, Marketing & Communications Coordinator
jessalyn@iowastartupaccelerator.com
Cedar Rapids, IA, November 5, 2015
8 Companies Launch from the 2015 Cohort of the Iowa Startup Accelerator
Flowers, taxis, golfers, caregivers, piglets, music, nonprofits, oh my! Iowa Startup Accelerator’s eight teams launched tonight with about 900 of their closest friends and 200-300 virtual attendees (thanks to live-streaming efforts by Ben McDougal and Nicole Forsythe).
Over the last 95 days with guidance from ISA Managing Director Eric Engelmann, ISA Program Manager David Tominsky, and more than 120 mentors from around Iowa and across the country these teams have developed their products, found their first customers, and worked together to launch their high-potential startups.
Each team told their story tonight.
SwineTech started off the summer at the University of Iowa’s Venture School Student Accelerator with a technology that can prevent piglet layon deaths. In August, the team was accepted into ISA’s 90-day program and refined their technology, built several prototypes, and finalized their business model. Just six months since forming their team, SwineTech has now added a CTO and will run field trials by January 1, 2016.
“We took time off of college to join a program that helped us learn far more than being in a classroom. What we learned here can’t be taught in school; joining Iowa Startup Accelerator was the right choice because we wouldn’t be near where we are today without it,” SwineTech CEO and Founder Matthew Rooda said. “It is really cool to see people get excited about pigs and emotional about piglets, and now when people hear about pigs, they think of us (SwineTech), which is pretty great.”
GolfRz develops mobile apps for private golf clubs. Their first app went live on October 1 during the 90-day program. They have added eight clubs since starting the accelerator as well as bringing on two new members to their team. Over the next 90 days, the team will be focused on refining their onboarding process with additional courses and following up on their referral network.
“One 5 minute conversation with a mentor from the program completely changed the face of our company,” GolfRz CEO and Co-founder Dustin Hemesath said. “He helped us take our market opportunity from $25 million to $100 million simply by adding multiple pricing levels to our plan. This is one of many reasons the Iowa Startup Accelerator was one of the best decisions I have made for our company to date.”
EarMashin, which makes a music discovery app, traveled halfway across the country to be in the 2015 cohort. They quickly connected with Cedar Rapids’ and Iowa City’s music scenes, so much so that they have an event in two days on Saturday, November 7, in downtown Iowa City. The second version of their app is set to go live in December.
“The music scene in Iowa is surprisingly big. We have met a lot of talented artists in the electronic music genre. With technology, we can help artists gain exposure, no matter the location,” EarMashin CEO and Co-founder Ash Naguib said.
TaxiTapp is the only taxi app you will ever need, and they assembled a team of developers, marketers, salespeople, designer, and … an astrophysicist, who happens to be their CEO. They go live in two cities: Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Mobile, Alabama, next week.
“We are going to save the taxi industry, and we wouldn’t be able to do it without the help of ISA and all its mentors. The accelerator completely changed our startup and brought our team even closer,” CEO and Co-founder David Lomiashvili said.
Stratbase’s CEO, David Shafer, is a solo founder who’s a double threat with coding skills and an MBA. Shafer’s nonprofit strategic planning and implementation tool are live and available on any device. He already has two early adopters: Newport News Fire Department in Newport News, Virginia, and To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation in the San Francisco Bay area.
“I created Stratbase because nonprofits don’t have the modern tools they need to help them plan for the future and follow through on their plans,” Shafer said. “ISA helped me turn my idea into a marketable product. They challenged and encouraged me, and now I have the knowledge and tools to take that product to market.”
Goquets is an Iowa startup story. The co-founders Shawn Harrington and Lyndsay Horgan met at Startup Weekend Ames in 2013, continued building their company in Venture School in 2014, and joined ISA in 2015. They made the most of their 90 days: sales are up 370 percent over last year.
“Our next focus following ISA is to capitalize on our network of 25,000 florists, and we have some fun ideas up our sleeves of how we’re going to take Goquets nationwide,” Goquets Co-founder Lyndsay Horgan said.
CareAcademy came to Iowa for the fields of opportunity in caregiving.
“Our experience in ISA helped us focus our efforts on improving caregiving. We are tackling a big problem, and we are needed in the space,” CEO and Co-founder Helen Adeosun said. “We want to show how important this work is to the future aging population.”
CareAcademy now has nine partner agencies including Comfort Care, one of Iowa’s largest eldercare service providers.
CareDrop is ISA’s corporate innovation pilot sponsored by Geonetric and Mercy Medical Center. Kathy Good first brought the idea to life at Startup Weekend Cedar Rapids in March. Then, a core team took the concept through the University of Iowa’s Venture School, and starting in August, entrepreneur-in-residence Trevor Carlson led the idea through the 90-day accelerator program.
“We’ve been able to advance CareDrop incredibly quickly in the accelerator,” Carlson said. “We’ve already built a first version of the product and are actively selling it to hospitals around the Midwest.”
With the second ISA cohort in the books, the accelerator staff is ready to help the teams over the next 90 days, nine months, and beyond.
“I am so proud of these teams, of how much progress they made in just fourteen weeks,” Engelmann said. “All of them were driven, focused, and able to make big things happen and took advantage of everything ISA had to offer. I’m excited to see their progress as they launch.”
About the Iowa Startup Accelerator
Iowa Startup Accelerator is an intensive program that matches tech-based startups, especially those in AG, health, education, manufacturing, and transportation technology, with world-class mentors, Midwestern work ethic, seed funding and development expertise to take them from concept to successful launch in 90 days.