It’s a unique moment to graduate from a startup accelerator.
THE 12 teams who has just completed a three-month stay with Techstars Seattle will navigate a slowing technology market and more cautious investors compared to the past few years.
“I think we can all agree that some of the most successful companies are born in times of turmoil,” said the Techstars Seattle general manager. Marius Ciocirlanspeaking onstage at the Museum of Pop Culture on Thursday night for the Accelerator’s final Demo Night.
Techstars expanded to Seattle in 2010, and since then 132 companies have gone through the program. They have collectively raised over $2.5 billion in private capital since graduating. The class of 2011 alone produces three unicorns.
Ciocirlan took over as CEO of Techstars Seattle after Isaac Kato quit last year.
The format of the demo was different this year: the founders pre-recorded their pitch, Ciocirlan asked them a series of questions, then they demoed their product in a showroom.
We were there to cover the action. Read on to learn more about our favorite locations.
Stay
Founders: Julie Salman, Joell Stocchero, Stephen Sokla
The best pitch of the evening came from Standd, a startup developing a knowledge discovery and navigation platform for legal teams using natural language processing. Founder and CEO Julie Salman understands the market as a former attorney and assistant professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
Here’s the pitch: “We’re using AI-enabled search that harnesses the power of ChatGPT so lawyers can access our web platform, enter a query in natural language, and get a summary response written like a lawyer with appropriate case citations.”
Saltman highlights two trends that could differentiate the startup in a crowded legal tech market:
- Lawyers view legal documents generated by generative AI with skepticism because it reduces their billable hours.
- Some are skeptical of the trust in generative AI, as one client compared it to an “untrustworthy freshman associate.”
“Instead, we’re focusing on the search problem, which is a big driver of unbilled time,” Saltman said.
The startup initially targets small and medium-sized businesses. The United States is made up of 500,000 businesses in this segment, presenting an $8 billion market opportunity through its subscription-plus-metered pricing model, according to the company.
Unplug
Founders: Caroline Cadwell, Tim Smith, John Richter
At your next house party, the host could take your car keys and your Unpluq.
The startup sells a small piece of hardware that locks and unlocks mobile apps to wean users off of digital distractions. Cadwell, CEO and startup veteran, said the company’s biggest differentiator is its ability to keep users engaged and engaged.
“Our retention is an outlier,” she said, adding that her subscriber retention is 63% at 30 days and 60% at 90, respectively. “Because our unique solution solves our customers’ problem in a way that no one else has been able to.”
The startup is coming to market at a time when the broader conversation around mental health and social media use is a national agenda item.
Silico Data Services
Founders: Hiep Luong, Jason CheongRohit Kuma
CEO of Silico Data Services Hiep Luongwho spent more than a decade at pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences, said he was “shocked” when the FDA suspended the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to quality concerns.
“They finally told J&J to throw away 75 million doses of their vaccine,” he said.
The startup aims to streamline medical quality assurance procedures by digitizing and automating the process through natural language processing. The goal is to reduce the assessment time from two weeks to just one hour, minimizing human error in the process.
Luong said the company has already generated revenue through successful proof-of-concepts with some pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Here’s a look at the rest of the Techstars Seattle cohort
Founders: Almond Singh, Ramakant Yadav
The pitch: A no-code app developer that integrates AI and ML.
Quote from Demo Night: “The fundamental difference is that a Streamlit the user has to write lines and lines of code, even if they have to create a simple application,” Singh said of the competition. “On the other hand, we are completely codeless, and users can build very sophisticated ML applications without writing a single line of code.”
Founders: Adam Baker, Kim in the center
The pitch: A software sales platform that enables two-way collaboration between buyers and sellers.
Quote from Demo Night: “There’s an inflection point where they don’t meet their revenue targets,” Baker said of client companies. “And so that forced them to evaluate the sales tools that they currently have. Dealpad will allow these companies to replace two or three of their existing sales tools and consolidate them on a central platform. »
Founder: Hannah Brannan
The pitch: A market that connects flower buyers with local farmers.
Quote from Demo Night: “We monetize with our 26% market margin, which we were able to double in the first year,” Brannan said.
Inner Collective
Founders: Adrienne Humblet, Catherine Humblet
The pitch: A mobile app that connects to a user’s rower for immersive training and racing.
Quote from Demo Night: “There are 40 million people who go on an indoor rowing mission every year,” Catherine said. “Nearly all of them have never been in a rowing boat.”
Founders: Ariella Chorn, Kobi Schonberger
The pitch: Provides real-time pet care recommendations via an AI chatbot.
Quote from Demo Night: “Koala is a pet insurance company that is revolutionizing the market by reducing the number and cost of vet bills so pet owners don’t have to choose between treating their pet’s broken leg and breaking the bank,” Chorn said. “Our differentiator is our AI-based symptom checker. We provide pet parents with personalized pet health recommendations based on similar cases.
Founder: Laura Crain
The pitch: A digital community for women in menopause and selected products.
Quote from Demo Night: “Most of these brands have already been in the Perry app to gain access to our consumers,” Crain said. “So the community part is really our moat.”
Founders: Caleb John, Jamari Morrison
The pitch: A text messaging service for creators to interact with fans.
Quote from Demo Night: “We really see the creative economy as the future of digital advertising,” John said. “We’re seeing ad dollars flow out of traditional media networks and into creators, so we’re really helping creators leverage their audience data to make the most of this trend.”
Founders: Irshad Ahmed, sajid Khan
The pitch: An Uber-like marketplace for tow truck operators and drivers to connect to towing and other auto repair services.
Quote from Demo Night: “Over the past year, we’ve booked approximately 35,000 tows on TowGrace across 35 cities,” Ahmed said. “Our net monthly income is $65,000 per month. The average towing company pays us $400 a month.
Surveillance
Founders: Gal Broker, Almog Avitan
The pitch: An XR software provider that works with out-of-the-box VR headsets.
Quote from Demo Night: “Emergency response teams around the world use primitive classroom exercises and tools such as PowerPoint to prepare and practice for routine and critical missions,” Dalali said. “A recent study showed that only 5% of the information heard in classroom exercises is actually remembered, compared to 75% retention in interactive learning methods.”