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iStart Valley, a leading business accelerator for the emerging technology-based startups is excited to announce the winning startups from the fourth batch of its Accelerator Program. Top Five startups were selected for an intense and rigorous immersive experience through six months Accelerator program. During the program, startups evaluated their Product-Market Fit, gained traction on customer development, validated the addressable market and utilized the growth hacking tools. Besides gaining access to the number of free resources, Startup teams received coaching and mentoring by iStart Valley’s Entrepreneurs in residence and several other seasoned serial entrepreneurs.
Top winning startups were chosen from the Final Pitch held at the end of the program based on the criteria such as Traction, Disruptive Power of the Startup, Feasibility, Team Effectiveness, etc.
And the winners are Final Thoughts, a startup working to connect those with a serious illness to loved ones during and after life and My Skills Tech a startup registered in China that offers a solution to create a fully-automated data analysis ecosystem for sports teams and players that will help improve competitive performance. Both the startup teams walked away with several in-kind services and a cash prize of $2500.
Mathew Hansard, CEO and Co-founder of Final Thoughts sharing his experience said “iStart Valley is an incredible resource for anyone with an early stage startup to gain some technical knowledge revolving around business models and commercializing your product. Their weekly session will give you the vocabulary you need to speak with authority to clients, customers, and investors. Very collaborative and lots of insights from the facilitators and the other startups.” Final Thoughts was also featured at the TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2018.
My Skills Tech made equally incredible progress through the accelerator program. The team conducted several customer validations working with a sports team in China and has an MVP to kickstart the next phase of the journey.
MJ Charmani, Founder and Chair of iStart Valley said “We are pleased with the progress of these winning startups from the fourth batch. These were strong contenders among the globally diverse startups that were selected to participate. We will continue to work with the startups that have successfully graduated beyond the program to help them accelerate their growth.”
The fifth batch of the Accelerator 2020 will begin starting mid-September 2019. For any questions, please contact –
iStart Valley announces Executive Entrepreneur in Residence and Human Capital Accelerator Leadership
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iStart Valley, a leading Business Accelerator, is pleased to announce the appointment of Vish Madhugiri as the “Executive Entrepreneur in Residence” to focus on Youth Entrepreneurship and Leadership Programs and provide strategic guidance to the Human Capital Accelerator. Besides Vish, Dr. Anwesha Banerjee is appointed as the Executive Director of Human Capital Accelerator and Chetan Unni as the Director. Vish in his role, will be working with Dr. Anwesha Banerjee and Chetan Unni for driving the strategy and roadmap of programs under the Human Capital Accelerator.
iStart Valley launched the “Human Capital Accelerator”, geared towards helping the workforce transition their careers to new and emerging Industries. And similarly help Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Startup enthusiasts learn to take advantage of these technologies. Primary goal will be to help prepare the workforce and entrepreneurs alike, for the fourth Industrial Revolution. Besides learning new and necessary skills, the programs offered through this accelerator will provide a holistic assessment of personal and professional goals, and leverage individual strengths for commencing a transformation journey.
Newly appointed Executive Entrepreneur in residence, Vish Madhugiri, is the Head of strategy and business at SAAZ Technologies, a digital imaging innovations company. Vish held positions in the past such as Chief Innovation Officer at Lycamobile, world’s largest Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). Vish has engaged in international commercial/research collaborations, and incubated start-ups in the UK, USA, India, Europe and Australia. Vish believes that most future innovations will occur at the intersection of technologies/disciplines; especially at the intersection of AI, genetics, big data, autonomous systems, blockchain, healthcare, VR, and deep learning. He is passionate about interdisciplinary innovation. As a notable accomplishment, Vish was honoured to be invited by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Buckingham Palace in 2014, in recognition of his decade-plus work and contribution to the UK Trade and Investment.
Dr. Anwesha Banerjee, Executive Director of Human Capital Accelerator, is a trained Neuroscientist who has completed her doctorate from University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and is currently working at Emory University, Atlanta. Her other degrees include a Masters in Biotechnology from Bangalore University and a Masters in Neuroscience from UTD. Anwesha holds certifications in Business of Science from University of Pennsylvania. Anwesha has authored multiple publications in prestigious journals, and presented at national and international conferences around the globe. Her recent and active interest involves research and development in the world of artificial intelligence, and how concepts of neuroscience can be applied to develop improved next generation AI.
Chetan Unni, Director of Human Capital Accelerator, will be working closely with Dr. Anwesha and Vish. He is a Technology Consulting Professional with proven record of successfully delivering IT Solutions with the ROI to customers, through combining industry best practice processes and Emerging technology. He is a Practice Lead with Quantum Integrators Group, LLC., with strapping exposure to Enterprise Resource Planning, Business process re-engineering, and Implementation of business process and solutions for various industry sectors. Chetan's recent focus is on the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning concepts, and exploring the impact of these emerging technologies.
MJ Charmani, Founder and Chair of iStart Valley says “We are excited about the opportunities ahead with the support of this leadership team, and fortunate to have them join us, in iStart Valley’s journey to offer experiential learning opportunities to foster workforce readiness for the 4th Industrial revolution, and develop the next generation leaders”
Programs will be launched and announced as they become available in the area of Artificial Intelligence. For more information, contact us at
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iStart Valley, a leading business accelerator for the emerging technology based startups is excited to announce the winning startups from the Third batch of its Accelerator Program. Top seven startups were selected for the six months Accelerator program that underwent an intense and rigorous immersive experience. During the program startups evaluated their Product-Market Fit, gained traction on customer development approach, validated the addressable market and utilized the growth hacking tools. Besides gaining access to the number of free resources, Startup teams received coaching and mentoring by iStart Valley’s Entrepreneurs in residence and several other seasoned serial entrepreneurs.
Top 3 winning startups were chosen from the Final Pitch held at the end of the program based on the criteria such as traction, disruptive power of the Startup, Feasibility, Team Effectiveness etc. Winner of the First place is ProjectMQ, the global discovery platform exclusively for independent video games. Project MQ team has finalized a partnership with Kinguin, the "Ebay of Video Games", to support independent video game developers (indie devs) worldwide. As a top influencer for independent video games (indie games), and Project MQ hand-picks the best indie games from around the world. Project MQ has also been selected for the Tampa Bay Wave's new startup cohort for TechDiversity Accelerator, a first of its kind in the world. Marcus Howard, CEO and Co-founder of Project MQ sharing his experience said “iStart Valley Accelerator program has a one-of-a-kind schedule flexibility that's perfect for bootstrapped and early-stage startups. Their structure helped me fit the meetings and online assignments around my day job, family, and other responsibilities. It covers all the best practices you need to validate your startup solution, and prepare your business for an investment!”
Runner-up is Amazity, an innovative platform that Transforms Smart City into Amazing city. Amazity is built on the emerging concepts of Internet of Things, Big Data and leverages the industry leading platforms such as Tridium from Honeywell and Service Now. Amazity was also short listed as top 500 Startups in India and competing for the Smart-Fifty. MJ Charmani, Founder and Chair of iStart Valley said “We are pleased with the progress of these winning Startups from the current batch. It’s impressive that startups across the border have been able to participate and collaborate with the rest of the startup teams. iStart Valley will continue to work with the startups that have successfully graduated beyond the program to help them accelerate their growth”. Startup Team – Cycloid was awarded as the “The Most Innovative Startup” which utilizes the combination of the built in data of the On Board Diagnostics forecasts about individual vehicles. Cycloid was also a Semi Finalist at the MIT pre-accelerator program. Startup “Root”, an Artificial Intelligence driven Healthcare market focused job portal was chosen as the “The Most Promising Startup”.
Next batch of the Accelerator will begin starting Mid-September and the startup teams can apply at - f6s.com/istartvalley/apply
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v 13 Startups participated/Graduated from the Startup Accelerator making significant progress beyond the 6 Months accelerator program.
v 100+ Young Adults and Teens graduated from iStart Valley’s Entrepreneurship Program as part of E-Mindset Initiative help achieve the first Milestone.
v Expanded the Board of Advisors to include the top leaders from the Academia that includes leaders from Accelerators and Incubators in UC Davis, Harvard Medical School and Arizona State University
v Created the office of entrepreneurship in residence and appointed Tom Charman as the Global Entrepreneur in Residence and Denis Salins as the Executive Entrepreneur in Residence.
v Achieved the Bronze Seal of Transparency from Guidestar, a world’s largest non-profits reporting agency
v Launched the Human Capital Accelerator Initiative and training programs on Blockchain Technology, Neuroscience Crash Course and Python programming for young adult 30+ Participants benefited from these low-cost and high value training programs that prepare them to 4th Industrial Revolution.
v Began the exploration of the opportunities for global impacts and lay a strong foundation in the Indian Market for finding roots to launch the programs in India. Our Chairman and Founder – MJ Charmani, met with India’s leading accelerator – AXILOR and many other leading organizations in the South Asian sub-continent forging the alliances for the future.
v Gained Partnership with American Airlines Business Extra program to offer the unique advantage for the Startups to accumulate the Mileage in addition to their individual Mileage.
v iStart Valley promoted the events such as Earthack, a Hackathon celebrating Earthday and Plano Startup Weekend with total participation of 300+ Startup Enthusiasts
v iStart Valley was once again Co-Sponsor and promotor of National Small Business Week 2017 organized by SBDC America.
