Freshsessions
Dan Miller, Founder/CEO
Email: dmiller@freshsessions.com
Website: freshsessions.com
City: San Francisco, California
Freshsessions is an online marketplace that allows recording artists to book studio sessions with artists and studios of all types. We provide an end to end solution for recording artists, record labels, audio engineers, audio producers, and studio owners. On the consumer side, we will enable the 3 million+ domestic musicians to search for and actually book studio sessions by a host of criteria, including price and equipment. As for the studio owners, we are building a platform for them to find new clients, as well as the software for them to manage their bookings, which there currently is none.
Dan, one of Business Insiders 46 most important African-Americans in tech, has a deep history with music. He grew up playing the saxophone, had his own radio show by the time he was 17, worked at Sony BMG, and recorded a mix tape while in college to promote his t-shirt line.
Twitter: twitter.com/FreshSessionsSF
Facebook: facebook.com/FreshSessionsSF
Medium: linkedin.com/@FreshSessionsSF
THE BOSS NETWORK
Cameka Smith, Founder/CEO
Email: cs@thebossnetwork.org
Website: thebossnetwork.org
City: Chicago, Illinois
Founded by Cameka Smith, The BOSS ""Bringing Out Successful Sisters"" Network mission is to promote and encourage the small business spirit and career development of women. The BOSS Network is an online community of professional and entrepreneurial women who support each other through conversation, online and event-based networking. The BOSS Network was named by Forbes.com as one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurial Websites for Women and 10 Best Career Sites for Women.
Speaker, Trainer and award winning entrepreneur, Cameka Smith is the Founder of the Forbes listed The BOSS Network. As a former educator she trained teachers and principals and developed student programs for Chicago Public Schools. Cameka since then has dedicated her life to providing resources and opportunities for women to develop in business and their professional lives.
Twitter: twitter.com/iamCameka
Facebook: facebook.com/camekasmith
Munivestor
Damon Burns, Founder
Email: damon@munivestor.com
Website: munivestor.com
City: New Orleans, Louisiana
Munivestor is a web-based financial data platform for the municipal bond industry. Our mission is to organize the universe of information on municipalities for the benefit of all market participants.
Damon Burns is the Founder and CEO of Munivestor. Prior to forming Munivestor, he was a public finance investment banker with Raymond James and Morgan Keegan. He was the lead banker on more than $1 billion in transactions for state and local governments.
Asurvest
Luke Cooper, Founder
Email: luke.cooper@asurvest.com
Website: asurvest.com
City: Silicon Valley, California
Asurvest is a technology enabled Insurance & Financial Services Company focused on average incomers. Our risk mitigation products are created by insightful data driven technology that meets average incomers at key decision points. Our single point API solution integrates agnostically with any funding and e-commerce site. We have soft investment commitments and are seeking a solid lead investor for this round.
Luke is a Baltimore based Entrepreneur & Lawyer. Growing up in poverty and with a father in prison most of his life, he is an articulate evangelist for the use of entrepreneurship as a tool for overcoming hardship. Luke is a JD/MBA from Syracuse University and Babson College.
Twitter: twitter.com/asurvest
Facebook: facebook.com/asurvest
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/asurvest-inc-
Stylle
Brittany Davis, Founder
Email: brittanycdavis@gmail.com
Website: stylle.co
City: Boston, Massachusetts
Stylle is a mobile and web shopping platform where, similar to the Pandora app for music, users create fashion searches and customize their results instantly via a like/dislike function. Users can click to buy items from the numerous retailers on the Stylle platform, save their Stylle searches, share with friends or follow others. Stylle is reinventing mobile shopping based on popular features and behavior on mobile apps—creating an experience where users love finding what they love.
Having worked at Bank of America and then Groupon, Brittany is now working towards her passion of building and growing companies from the ground up. She is an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, and recently worked as an Associate at Techstars before launching Stylle.
Twitter: twitter.com/iBrittDavis
Million Dollar Scholar
Derrius Quarles, Founder/CEO
Email: dq@milliondollarscholar.com
Website: milliondollarscholar.com
City: New Orleans, Louisiana
Million Dollar Scholar is an education technology social venture that offers an instructive e-platform to help students win scholarships and avoid higher education debt. Using a scalable web platform that can deliver educational content and services to student users remotely and on-demand, Million Dollar Scholar aims to become the first open online course focusing on scholarship success and awareness tailored to high school and college students.
Derrius Quarles is the winner of over 1.1 million dollars in scholarships. A first-generation college attendee and graduate, Derrius is a cum laude graduate of Morehouse College (BA Sociology) and the author of Million Dollar Scholar: Winning The Scholarship Race with extensive experience in scholarship education.
Twitter: twitter.com/mdollarscholar
Facebook: facebook.com/milliondollarscholar
WHOSE YOUR LANDLORD
Ofo Ezeugwu
Email: ofo@wylandlord.com
Website: whoseyourlandlord.com
City: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Whose Your Landlord enables college students to rate their on and off campus housing: including their landlords, residence halls, and housing complexes. WYL created the first ever housing hub for students to rate, review, and assess their living situations. Giving students the ability to rate their home providers has sparked the interest of home providers to take ownership of their profiles and list their housing directly to student users. As a stronghold is made in the student housing industry, like Facebook, WYL will move into the overall market, providing new age technology for those who live in the real world.
Ofo Ezeugwu is the CEO/founder of Whose Your Landlord, LLC. He graduated from Temple University in May 2013, where he was the VP of the student body and studied entrepreneurship and management and information systems. Ofo acts/models in New York City. He lives by the motto, “No steps backward; just forward progress.”
Twitter: twitter.com/WYLandlord
Facebook: facebook.com/WYLandlord
Instagram: instagram.com/WYLandlord
THE LASSY PROJECT
John Guydon, Founder/CEO
Email: jg@thelassyproject.com
Website: thelassyproject.com
City: Boulder, Colorado/Houston, Texas
The Lassy Project uses the perfect combination of technology and community to create effective localized rapid mass mobilizations. Parents are notified when their child strays from pre-determined routes to and from places like home and school. These allows them to quickly determine if the situation is serious; and if so, get help from the community faster than ever before.
In the 7th grade, John's father gave him lunch money for 2 days and said "make it last the whole week". Snickers and Carmel-apple pops made sure he never had to ask for lunch money again. John Guydon is a tenacious entrepreneur focused on solving the world’s biggest problems.
Twitter: twitter.com/TheLassyProject
Facebook: facebook.com/TheLassyProject
TALAWAH
Brian Fisher, Founder/CEO
Email: bfisher@talawahtechnologies.com
Website: talawahtechnologies.com
City: Orlando, Florida
TALAWAH's sensors are passive (requiring no battery or power source) platform sensor technology that is inherently temperature sensitive and may be adapted to detect additional environmental parameters such as distance, humidity, corrosion, magnetic field and the presence of certain gasses. TALAWAH's passive, wireless, temperature, hydrogen (H2) gas, magnetic closure and cryogenic-liquid level sensors were purchased and evaluated by NASA-KSC.
Dr. Fisher is an electrical engineer, co-inventor of the passive, wireless hydrogen gas, cryogenic liquid level, and magnetic closure sensors, and developer of the wireless communication system.
Twitter: twitter.com/TALAWAH_Tek
Facebook: facebook.com/TALAWAHtechnologies
Gotointerview.com
Crystal McDonald, President/CEO
Email: crystal@gotointerview.com
Website: gotointerview.com
City: New Orleans, Louisiana & Houston, Texas
GoToInterview.com is an exciting new web-based employment service that streamlines the hiring process by quickly connecting businesses with high turnover, hourly waged, entry level positions with a hire-ready pool of applicants via pre-recorded video interviews! The web service provides an employment system that offers employers the ability to view a job candidate's online job interview, prior to scheduling a face-to-face interview.
Crystal McDonald is the President and CEO of GoToInterview.com. She received her undergraduate degree from Dillard University (Economics and Finance) and her MBA from Chicago Booth. Crystal’s professional background is diverse with experience in banking, event planning, fundraising, and recruiting; all of which she leveraged to establish entrepreneurial ventures.
Twitter: twitter.com/Go2Interview
Facebook: facebook.com/Go2Interview
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/gotointerview-llc
Sitter Cycle
Helen Adeosun, Founder
Email: helen@sittercycle.com
Website: sittercycle.com
City: Boston, Massachusetts
SitterCycle mission is to improve the lives of families, nannies, and professional caregivers through supportive education, resources, and community. SitterCycle programs address the rigors of childcare and promote successful working relationships between nannies and the families who employ them. Our team is dedicated to developing the highest quality online education, certification programs, and career preparation available, and plan to develop tools and recourse to specifically address the needs of the millions of professional caregivers and parents who connect each year. We aspire to become the go-to education and professional support resource for nannies, families, and placement agencies.
As a 9th grade English teacher, Helen was excited about ways to drive learning in her classroom and how to serve her students. SitterCycle was born out of her own experience as a nanny. Helen holds a B.A. from Notre Dame and an EdM. from Harvard University.
Twitter: twitter.com/sittercycle
Facebook: facebook.com/sittercycle
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/sittercycle
Wedding Worthy
Tameesha Desangles
Email: tameesha@weddingworthy.com
Website: weddingworthy.com City: Memphis, Tennessee
For brides who are frustrated with the inability to source the merchandise featured in their favorite online photo sites, weddingworthy delivers wedding inspiration that's shoppable.
I'm the Founder & CEO of WeddingWorthy.com - a content driven commerce platform where brides can shop for everything they see. Before founding WeddingWorthy.com, I worked in ecommerce for great companies like AutoZone, Southwest Airlines Vacations and HanesBrands Inc. In my spare time you can find me adventure traveling w/my husband and 3 kids!
Twitter: twitter.com/weddingworthy
Facebook: facebook.com/weddingworthy
Pretty Padded Room
Bea Arthur, Founder
Email: bea@prettypaddedroom.com
Website: prettypaddedroom.com City: Brooklyn, New York
Through a streamlined, HIPAA-complaint interface, we connect clients with an all-female team of licensed therapists anytime and anywhere. By conducting online sessions via video chat or Digital Diary™—an interactive journal that facilitates written consultations with their therapist of choice—PPR transforms traditional therapy into an experience that is affordable, approachable, and anonymous.
Our web-based approach offers valuable talk therapy through accessible means. Users log in to secure accounts and speak with licensed professionals on a variety of topics in a convenient format. By breaking every barrier to entry, we’ve created an outlet for thousands of people worldwide, reducing stress for an increasingly stressed-out generation.
Called “innovative and inspiring” by the American Counseling Association, successful psychotherapist and entrepreneur Bea Arthur has become a leader in the field of mental health. The Columbia University has been profiled by Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, the Huffington Post, and was also named part of the New Guard of women in tech by Marie Claire magazine as well as an entrepreneur to bet on by Newsweek.
Twitter: twitter.com/prettypaddedrm
Facebook: facebook.com/prettypaddedroom
CandidCup
Thomas K.R. Stovall, President/CEO
Email: Thomas@CANDIDCup.com
Website: CANDIDCup.com
City: Chicago, Illinois
CANDID Cup is a web/mobile software platform designed to help busy Executives on the Corporate level and Managers on the Regional and Local levels cut costs and increase revenues by connecting directly to their customers and employees to have feedback conversations. Feedback requests can be added to any and all communications a company ALREADY sends to customers, by simply adding a QR code or one line URL to: Texts, Emails, Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest posts, Online videos, Online advertising, Print advertising, TV Commercials, Corporate website, Blog posts, etc.
All feedback responses are 140 characters or less, have "praise" or "critique" tone, and are tracked by location, by department, and by employee in real-time.
Thomas K.R. Stovall is an entrepreneur and two-time best-selling author with over 14 years of real-world business experience, specialized study, and training in the area of business amplification. Thomas is the Founder of CANDID Cup, the first real-time market research web/mobile software for the enterprise.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ThomasKRStovall
AmpSession
Terence Strong, Founder & Alex Forbes, Co-Founder
Email: terencestrong@gmail.com
Website: ampsession.com
City: New York, New York
Provides live an on-demand classes for music makers in the digital age. Classes will be streamed via Livestream and will allow aspiring music industry professionals and fans to take classes from their favorite artist, producer, songwriter and music business executive. Hands-on assignments will be given, and questions will asked through Twitter and Facebook. The platform magnifies the brand awareness of the instructor while educating aspiring music industry participants and fans.
Terence Strong, analyzed a $1B portfolio at The World Bank, managed partnerships for a $30MM initiative at the Rockefeller Foundation, and managed a $40MM innovation fund within the Caribbean on behalf of the Inter-American Development Bank.
Alex Forbes, Award-winning hit songwriter since 1985, songwriting book author, and Songwriting Forum co-leader at NYU Steinhardt.
Twitter: twitter.com/AmpSession
Facebook: facebook.com/ampsession
Instagram: instagram.com/ampsession
Rubitection, Inc.
Sanna Gaspard, Founder
Email: sgaspard@andrew.cmu.edu
Website: rubitection.com
City: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Rubitection is an early stage medical device start up company that spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Rubitection is addressing a large unmet global market need for low cost and reliable early bedsore detection tools by developing the Rubitect Assessment System (RAS).
The RAS revolutionizes early bedsore management by providing care givers with a low cost and reliable early monitoring tool. The RAS is targeting a $2.9 billion US market which includes hospital, long term care, and home care. Rubitection aims to launch its product within the next 2 years. A hybrid sales approach will be utilized to grow to penetrate the board US and international markets.
Dr. Gaspard is the driving force and visionary behind Rubitection. She is the founder of Rubitection and the primary inventor of the Rubitect Assessment System. She has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and is a serial entrepreneur. She has won several technical and business accolades including being name IEEE Face of Engineering and 1st Place winner at the Wake Forest Business competition.
Twitter: twitter.com/Rubitection
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Rubitection-Inc/435800646478761