Last week, to kick off the new year, our friends at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator unveiled its latest class for its four month program accelerator program. A total of 11 companies were vetted and selected to receive $40K in investment and mentorship from over 200 industry professionals for the program whose past alumni include some notable New York startups such as Bespoke Post, TripleLift, and CardFlight. This class encompasses a broad composition of industries and verticals including marketplaces, telemedicine, campus recruiting, and ecommerce.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 10 COMPANIES IN ER ACCELERATOR’S LATEST CLASS
Negotiatus
Founded by Zach Garippa and Tom Jaklitsch, Negotiatus is an online platform focused on introducing savings in the procurement process for companies. The platform negotiates on behalf of its customers on a variety of services and for its efforts, Negotiatus takes 20% of any savings. With the simple mantra of “We make expenses less expensive”, Negotiatus is taking on the procurement software market which research firm Gartner indicates grew 10.8% in 2014, outpacing the overall software market.
Snap!
Founded by Robin Levine, Jacqueline Loeb, and Craig Perler, Snap! is an employment platform geared towards campus recruitment. The company has developed a matching service that streamlines and modernizes the process both for employers and college students that are entering the workforce for the very first time. According to National Association of College and Employers in 2014, 91.4% considering branding a very or extremely important component of university recruiting while average cost-per-hire is ~$3600. The future may be bright for Snap! if it can nail the branding in an industry that obviously has some room to reduce acquisition costs for employers.
Cartified
Founded by Vlad Kartashov, Eddie Chu, and Dmitry Karpov, Cartified is an online market place for user car buyers and sellers. The company certifies or rather “certifies” every vehicle on its platform with a 200 point inspection and money back guarantee. The company also handles some of the mundane tasks associated with purchasing a vehicle including the DMV paperwork and state inspection. In the future, the Cartified plans to offer insurance options as well. Vroom has recently taken on a tremendous amount of funding in the space and it will be interesting to see how Cartified fares against this well funded competitor.
DocFlight
Founded by Sally Wang, Peter Liu, and Nancy Li, DocFlight is a telemedicine service that connects patients in China with doctors in the United States. Medical tourism as an industry in Asia is massive as access to quality healthcare is not readily available. As the son of a doctor, I have personally witnessed thousands of instances where my father was doing informal consults over the phone/Skype for friends overseas when it came to medical care. DocFlight has formalized the process through its platform that offers a video consultation, expert opinion, and integrated travel if further treatment is necessary. It will be interesting to see if the service expands beyond the Chinese market.
BookBuses
Founded by Oscar Aabech Jung and Bjorn Broby Glavind in 2014, BookBuses, as the name implies, is an online platform that allows you to charter buses. The platform allows a user to enter in the specs surrounding his/her needs and the user receives quotes from 3 bus operators within 48 hours. BookBuses operates nationally and currently has a team of 7 attacking the $5.6B industry.
Smart Screen
Founded by Subrat Nayak and Ryan Gottfried in 2015, Smart Screen is an online service focused on background checks for employers. One way the company is leveraging technology to make the process of applicant screening more efficient is by introducing an API that can be integrated with existing workflows. The background screening market was $1.7B in 2015 according to IBISWorld in 2015 with a 3.2% growth rate.
LearnLux
Founded by Rebecca Liebman and Michael Liebman, LearnLux is personal finance education and management tool catered towards millenials. According to the company’s site millenials spend $200B a year and stand to inherit $30T. Educating this market on financial literacy is the aim of the platform competing in a crowded space. The company was selected as a finalist in 1776’s Challenge Cup last year.
Seashells
Founded by Harrison Hines and TJ Signa, Seashells is an app that rounds up to the next dollar amount on your purchases with credit or debit cards. This amount is then “deposited” into a “savings” account that can be used for future purchases via the platform. With each round up savings, the app gives you an additional bonus of 15%. These balances or “Shells” can then be spent on a number of different merchants including Zappos, American Airlines, Gap, and Sears. I am not really sure if you are “saving” if you are required to purchase something to get access to money that was taken from your account but the 15% bonus is interesting.
Frank
Founded by D’Arcy Coolican, Evan Abel, and Lucas Coffman, Frank is an online financial platform that makes the process of lending and borrowing among friends easier and less awkward. The startup has built the capabilities to form a lending/borrowing group, pool finances, and set repayment schedules with up to a 1 year duration.
Please and Carrots
Founded by Stephanie Chan and Shilpa Barchha, Please and Carrots is a subscription-based service for parents for educational products for children. Each box contains 5 toys and books that are curated each month in addition to tips and a booklet for games and activities that are all designed to support developmental milestones.
iSharing
Founded by Reese Cho and Richard Chuh, iSharing is a real time app for iPhone and Android that allows users to locate their family and friends. Given that nearly 800K children go missing each year, the size of the market is large but it will be interesting to see if this startup can survive as a stand alone business or if larger platforms mimic and or incorporate similar technologies into their offerings.
