On Wednesday MassChallenge announced their 2012 Accelerator finalists. Of the 125 finalists, 5 of them are Grasshopper customers! How cool is that? We’re very excited for them and can’t wait to see what these companies have in store.
Over the next few months these startups will be working hard preparing their business and pitches for the final judging round which will take place in October. Last year we hosted a few educational events around building buzz and tips and tricks for startup design for the finalists and we’re looking forward to doing the same this year!
Meet the 5 Grasshopper customer Accelerator finalists:
Fetch Storage
In 2002, Fetch Storage was established with the goal of changing the storage industry forever by helping you avoid the headache and hassle often associated with self-storage and pod-type services. Fetch's mission is to offer the most convenient door-to-door storage and delivery service anywhere. Currently the company only services the greater Boston region – however, with the help of Mass Challenge, they hope to expand.
CoachUp
CoachUp is an online platform that helps kids achieve their full potential in sports by connecting them with private coaches. Headquartered in Boston, MA, CoachUp allows you to search its database of private coaches by location and sport, including baseball, basketball, golf and squash. The site targets middle- to upper-income parents who have kids in middle school or high school playing a sport competitively, and who naturally, want to see their kids improve.
iSpecimen
Clinical research is expensive, but iSpecimen hopes to bridge the gap between hospitals and medical researchers by making medical advancements through the use of what previously was considered waste. iSpecimen’s solutions make it possible for laboratories and hospitals to safely discard specimens that can then be re-used by medical researchers and other research programs. The company has helped in studies on asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and superior diagnostic tests by using discarded specimens.
OnDeckBiotech
OnDeckBiotech bridges the gap between Biopharma companies and service providers to increase productivity, communication and security. Working in an extremely regulated environment Biopharma companies struggle to work with a variety of highly specialized resources while maintaining the productivity and momentum to make the necessary advancements in research. iSpecimen gives service providers visibility into a network of Biopharma companies needing their services, while helping Biopharma companies streamline service requirements.
Texifter
Text analytics firm Texifter helps to streamline the process of sorting through large amounts of unstructured text (blog comments, tweets etc.) therefore improving business efficiency. Texifter offers off-the-shelf enterprise class business applications specifically developed to meet the complex needs of researchers and federal rule writers. Texifter utilizes SaaS & cloud-based solutions for topic modeling, duplicate detection, and other information retrieval tasks involving users in an active learning loop.
Congratulations to all of the finalists, especially our customers, and good luck!
