Top-ranked start-up accelerator gener8tor announced today the participants selected for its gBETA St. Thomas summer 2020 cohort. The six start-ups (see the list below) each are affiliated with the University of St. Thomas and have business models ranging from SaaS to online marketplace. The companies include curated gift boxes for any gift-giving occasion and marketing software.
“We selected our six teams from a very competitive candidate pool of start-ups. The St.Thomas community has some of the best and brightest minds solving problems,” said Jake Smith, director of gBETA St. Thomas.
gBETA St. Thomas is a free, seven-week accelerator that works with start-ups for no fees and no equity. Each cohort is kept small (five to six teams) to ensure meaningful engagement with sponsors and other resources. Participants receive intensive and individualized coaching and access to gener8tor’s national network of mentors, customers, corporate partners and investors. The program is designed to help start-ups gain early customer traction on their product or idea, and establish metrics that can make them competitive applicants for full-time, equity-based accelerators or seed investment.
“The work of entrepreneurs will be more important than ever as we rebuild our economy,” said Dr. Laura Dunham, associate dean of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. “The University of St. Thomas and gener8tor have joined forces to create an outstanding program to support St. Thomas students and alumni who are ready to start and grow new businesses.”
The program kicked off on Thursday, July 23; the teams will work over the course of seven weeks with the gBETA team to meet mentors, gain customer traction and pitch to investors. All programming is being held virtually. There will be an opportunity to listen and learn more about these companies through a Virtual Pitch Night on Sept. 10 at 5 p.m. Central time. To register, visit www.gbetastartups.com/st-thomas/pitch-night.
gBETA St. Thomas is sponsored by the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship and runs once a year, with companies connected to the University of St. Thomas. Five to six companies are selected per cohort to ensure a high level of individualized attention. gBETA works with companies across all industries and business models. Start-ups interested in applying should contact gBETA St. Thomas Director Jake Smith. For more information, visit www.gbetastartups.com/st-thomas.
| Ambient Intelligence’s software provides data architecture for mobile patient monitoring and health care informatics. Ambient uses proprietary integrations and algorithms to provide real-time monitoring for health care facilities, rural patients and technology partners. Ambient has received $200K in non-dilutive funding, completed their MVP and will begin patient pilot tests with a Minneapolis health care facility in Q4 2020. | Founder: Brian Bradley Johnson | b@ambienthealthgroup.com | ambienthealthgroup.com |
| Annum uses calendar-based software to provide a universal view of multichannel data for corporate and agency marketers to optimize planning. Annum’s patent pending user interface gives managers holistic visibility while their teams are free to use preferred project management tools. Annum has an active waitlist of 16 marketing agencies and a scheduled product release in Q4 2020. | Founder: Patty Radford Henderson | patty@annumplanning.com | annumplanning.com |
| Giften Market takes the stress out of gift-buying for busy professionals by sourcing unique and thoughtful products from emerging and underrepresented entrepreneurs. Giften Market’s wide variety of curated gift boxes are suitable for many gifting occasions. Over the past 30 days, Giften has shipped 528 gift boxes resulting in $38,427.89 in revenue. | Founder: Martha Krueger | martha@giftenmarket.com | giftenmarket.com |
| Piff Apps’ Resale Assistant (RA) software provides secondary market retailers a platform for sellers to easily trade in and automatically list authenticated products to their website at scale. RA also helps retailers manage inventory, reporting and third-party sales channels. In their recent pilot with a secondary market sneaker store, the Resale Assistant increased online sales more than 4,000% month-over-month. | Founder: Ben Alberts | ben@piffmpls.com | Website in beta |
| Sparrow consolidates social media insights through their software to ensure client performance at scale for marketing agencies and freelancers. Sparrow saves time for marketers by helping set goals for clients, act on personalized recommendations and simplify white-labeled reports. Sparrow is actively running pilot tests with four companies and just successfully closed its first paying customer. | Founder: Braden Ericson | braden@sparrowmarketing.com | www.sparrowmarketing.com |
| TripOutside’s online marketplace enables outfitters to rent available gear and book human-powered adventures. Outdoor enthusiasts can research outfitters, compare prices and book their adventure on TripOutside. Outfitters improve new customer reach and utilization rates while saving time to focus on customer experience. In the past 30 days, TripOutside had 6,900 users choose from almost 300 outdoor activities in over 160 destinations. | Co-founders: Julie and Reet Singh | info@tripoutside.com | www.tripoutside.com |
