Celebrating the Successes of Engine's Startup Network in 2021
The Engine team is grateful for the startups in our network and the opportunities we have had this year to help elevate their voices in current policy conversations with lawmakers. As the year comes to a close and we get ready to start 2022, we want to highlight the incredible startups in our network whose work has contributed to a better and brighter startup ecosystem.
The startups in our network have achieved a lot over the last year. Here’s what they told us were some of their biggest accomplishments:
Doug Standley, CEO, niolabs: Before the pandemic, we established ourselves as a technical benchmark within the challenging agriculture and resource conservation sector. We presented to a technology who's-who about aligning our progress, IP, and software into a new 501c3 special purpose entity that will serve as an agriculture and education research entity. Helping to save the planet is our duty. Despite the challenges, our team was able to not only maintain but expand a highly challenging research SaaS license and services relationship with the world's largest CPG company. We did this by over-serving the program team far above and beyond our scope and SLA. Now, this mega CPG company is leaning on our team for the program's worldwide expansion.
Richard Hirsch, CMO, UnaliWear: We won the Austin Chamber of Commerce 2021 A-List Award for startups. Additionally, we developed an incredibly well received intro video that has dramatically increased our sales.
Megan Price, Founder & Director, Center for Applied Insight Conflict Resolution: Our program, Insight Policing: Conflict Resolution for Law Enforcement, which teaches officers strategic conflict-communication skills to gain cooperation and compliance without the use of force when faced with aggressive and resistant behavior from the public, was chosen for the MIT Solve and Stand Together Venture's Unbundle Policing Incubator program, bringing entrepreneurs together to help reduce adverse interactions between police and community. We're finalizing plans to launch our Insight Policing Train-the-Trainer program which will bring Insight Policing to scale and make the skills available to law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Maca Baigorria, Founder, Avocademy: Our vision for 2021 was to enroll 500 students into our Foundations UX/UI Design program. We've exceeded that number and enrolled over 700 students this year. Not only have we reached our goal, we continue to serve underrepresented students. Our student body is 75 percent women, 65 percent BIPOC, and 30 percent LGBTQ+. Avocademy was featured on the Best UX/UI Design Bootcamp list for 2021 by Course Report thanks to our amazing team & students.
Retha Hill, Founder & CEO, AncestoriesXR: AncestoriesXR is genealogy’s engagement platform. We are so happy to have completed our intake form and demo that we have been testing with real people, which is giving us valuable customer insight as we work on the MVP. We have received some private support and we are lining up pre-launch individual and institutional customers. Finding the right development company is key to a tech startup. We are grateful for the technology companies that have reached out to us to help us on this journey. We are asking for a lot and stretching the idea of what has been available for immersive family and national history storytelling. We could not have gotten this far without their help and input.
Manan Mehta, Founding Partner, Unshackled Ventures: Over the course of the past 12 months, the immigrant led companies we backed have doubled their total value. From $750M in Q4 of 2020 to $1.5B in 2021. But perhaps most impactful from that progress, is the progress in how many people those companies employ. This number went from 530 employees to well over 1,300 at the end of this year. This impact is incredible when you invest in immigrant led companies at day 0. We are uniquely proud to share our newest Partner is Maria Salamanca. Still not even 30, Maria was our first investment team hire back in 2015 and in Q1 of this year, we announced her joining the partnership. This was made official in early Q4 and we couldn't be more excited to welcome her into the team.
Jared Meyers, Co-Founder & CEO, Augment Health, Inc.: Our team joined ZeroTo510’s 2021 accelerator cohort, securing early investment, and becoming part of their extensive medical device network. We solidified our go-to-market, development, and regulatory strategies through the accelerator and engaged partners to help analyze and implement those plans in the coming months. Our team placed second in the National Inventors Hall of Fame Collegiate Inventors Competition. We received a $5,000 prize and a USPTO Patent Acceleration Certificate that will help us to push forward with product development and regulatory efforts.
Shelly Omilade Bell, CEO & Founder, Black Girl Ventures: This year we were able to secure partnerships that will allow us to impact the next generation of student visionaries with our BGV NextGen program in partnership with the NBA. We directly funded over 100 innovators and held over 13 pitch competitions this year. We also launched our Change Agents fellowship in two new markets—Chicago & Cincinnati—and expanded our efforts in Miami, New York, and Philadelphia.
Nikki Neumann, Onfleet: 2020 was a year of upheaval and change for everyone, which is why our founders set time aside to discuss diversity, inclusion and where we go from here. We made commitments to and have followed up on five key initiatives: focus on diversity in hiring practices, Ted Talk Tuesday, Learning and Development Stipend, Charitable Giving and Volunteer Program, and Virtual Donut Coffee Chats. Additionally, we grew the Onfleet team by 49 percent in the last six months.
Jeff Lawber, Founder & Industrial Designer, Marmals: I successfully launched a cross-category modular children's toy and grew the company to the point where I was competing with global companies like Spin Master for innovative toy of the year award. I didn't win but it's pretty great to see that I'm sharing the same orbit as much much much bigger companies. I've nearly sold out of my initial product stock in just 1 year. To me, this is a huge feat as I didn't even know if I really had a valid product. I took a risk and tested the waters with this crazy concept of mine. Now, I'm in 54 retail locations and my company's growth has far exceeded my initial projections and am now quickly pivoting to manage a year of personal success.
John Wilcox, CEO, Diatech Diabetes, Inc.: This past quarter, our company was awarded a $300,000 SBIR Phase 1 Grant from the National Institutes of Health. This funding will support our preclinical work as a startup that is improving diabetes technology for patients worldwide.
Sanna Gaspard, CEO, Rubitection: This year we were thrilled to receive both the RCTIP Innovation Award and Luminate Accelerator Award.
Ryan Heafy, Co-Founder & COO, 6AM City: 6AM City, the fastest growing newsletter-first local media company in the U.S. more than tripled in size in the second half of 2021, expanding from eight to 24 cities, continues 300 percent YOY consumer acquisition growth, and has scaled from 300,000 to almost one million subscribers. 6AM City has proven that a focus on "Pride in Place" has truly redefined local media—that an approach to local news and events which avoids politics, crime and punishment is a positive force on economic impact locally, especially in a post-Covid climate.
A. Bakarr Bah, President, MoreWithUs - Everyday Jobs: MoreWithUs - Everyday Jobs just reached 1,000 jobseeker profiles on our website. We now have over 1,000 people looking for jobs listed on our website. Many of those people have received job offers from employers using us. We have people across the United States, but there is a huge concentration of people in the Baltimore-DC, Chicago, and Houston areas. We are now able to present small businesses looking to hire a wide selection of ready candidates. The MoreWithUs - Everyday Jobs app has now been approved by the major app stores. It will be available for the public starting December 15, 2021.
Robbie Cabral, CEO & Founder, BenjiLock: We will be exhibiting for the first time since Covid at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas the first week of January 2022, and our latest product, the BenjiLock Fingerprint Sport Lock, is being recognized at the show with two Innovations Awards. The BenjiLock TSA Fingerprint Travel Lock made the Forbes 2021 list as a gift idea for travelers this Holiday season. We're living in an instant gratification world, so when it comes to travel, business, leisure, or exploring—the BenjiLock 'Fingerprint Travel Lock' is all of that and more. BenjiLock is the first and only Fingerprint Travel Lock accepted by the (TSA) Transportation Security Administration, responsible for protecting the U.S. transportation systems and the traveling citizens. On top of that, the lock is Travel Sentry approved, which covers more than 30 countries worldwide. It allows the security officer to open, inspect and relock luggage without damage.
James Silva, CEO, ConciergeBot: In September, ConciergeBot was awarded a $10,000 prize in the Latinx Launchpad Pitch Contest for Latinx-led startups, hosted by Hispanics in Philanthropy. The win led to a featured interview on Cheddar TV as part of their coverage of Latinx startup founders for Hispanic Heritage Month. In March, ConciergeBot was selected to participate in the Check-In Accelerator Program in Portugal, hosted by the Nova SBE Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute and Turismo de Portugal, in which hospitality-focused startups were paired with local companies in the hospitality space to partner on innovative projects, culminating in an in-person Demo Day event in June on the Nova SBE campus in Lisbon, Portugal.
Reva Minkoff, Founder & President, Digital4Startups Inc.: We experienced exponential growth, going from a five digit loss in 2020 to a six digit profit in 2021. We surpassed the $1 million mark in revenue.
We are excited to see more innovation in the next year and beyond! Are you a startup interested in joining our network? Join us.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email ian@engine.is.
