Betaspring debuts seventh-season cohort at fall open house

PROVIDENCE – More than 300 supporters, investors and Betaspring alumni crowded Betaspring headquarters on Thursday for an open house introducing the accelerator’s fall 2013 class of startups.

Since the start of the fall session six weeks ago, the 11 companies have undergone a rigorous entrepreneur bootcamp, refining their business plans, meeting with potential investors and customers from the Betaspring network, and learning the craft of growing a company.

“We’ve learned that building a critical mass of entrepreneurs is not about a building,” said Betaspring founder Allan Tear. “It’s about creating a community and a culture of entrepreneurship.”

Traveling from as near as College Hill and as far as Israel, and ranging in age from 22 to 50, the startup teams showcased what Betaspring organizers already knew – that entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes.

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“Most people, when they hear the word ‘entrepreneur,’ they jump to the conclusion that they’re all young, recent grads, mostly men,” said Melissa Withers, Betaspring’s chief of staff.

While many of this session’s startup founders do fit that profile, she said, others – like Aurora Duque – break the mold.

Aurora, Betaspring’s “youngest founder,” was just two weeks old when her parents, Steven and Heather Duque, made the trip from Newbury, Mass., to join Betaspring’s seventh-season cohort.

Their year-old company, Momba, develops customized vending machines to provide tenants of large-scale residences such as college dorms with easy access to the items they need most.

“When I was an undergrad at Harvard, I needed things, and the CVS in Harvard Square seemed far away at two in the morning,” said Steven Duque about his motivation for founding Momba.

Harvard University, Westfield State University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Boston University have already adopted Momba’s pilot vending machines, and 15 other colleges and universities are vying to join them.

Duque joined representatives from each of the 11 fledgeling companies in presenting a 45-second elevator pitch telling the audience about their businesses. This season’s startup projects range from a athletics training data tracker to a decision-making messenger app to the first internet-enable cigarette lighter.

The fall 2013 cohort was selected from a pool of more than 200 applications. Over the next six weeks, the teams will continue to hone their businesses and emerge from the 12-week program with the skills to acquire more users and customers and grow their businesses.

Through its six previous sessions, Betaspring has accelerated 83 companies and raised $27 million in follow-on funding from its alumni.

This session’s companies (with business model descriptions) include:

  • Accessibility Now – A Web-based platform that offers an instant and simple tool to ensure any website is fully accessible to the one in five Americans who have special needs like hearing or visual impairments.

  • Achievery – A global platform for recognizing and verifying new and emerging skills, standards, and credentials. Using Achievery, people and organizations can make, manage and earn verifiable digital certificates and badges.

  • APE Systems – Enables coaches and sports organizations to manage their training and use data to make better decisions, avoid injury and help athletes reach their full performance potential.

  • CompNet – The first online, real-time quoting and purchasing engine for workers’ compensation insurance across the U.S.

  • Crowdsurf – An analytics and marketing platform for the live entertainment industry, helping producers of live events identify core customers, understand markets and connect with fans in a more intelligent way.

  • DapperJobs – A job-posting platform where job seekers and employers are matched based on core values.

  • Dropkic.kr – Connects crowdfunding supporters with projects they care about by aggregating projects from all major platforms and making smart recommendations based on ratings users provide.

  • GreatestPatron – Turns the sale of each piece of fine art into an event that increases patron’s urgency to buy and makes transactions frictionless for both parties.

  • Momba – Gives people who live in large-scale residences access to things they want and need, when they want them, via customized and intelligent vending machines.

  • Quitbit – The world’s first internet-enabled, battery-operated lighter that seamlessly tracks smoking and guides users through a smoking reduction process.

  • WIP – A mobile messenger that lets users know which of their friends are ready to help in making daily decisions.

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