DURHAM – The cohort of 10 companies was selected from an applicant pool of more than 200 represent a mix of focus and geographic representation for the Black Founders Exchange program next week in Durham at the American Underground.

The group includes three Triangle-based companies.  The seven out-of-town teams will receive free housing for the week in downtown Durham, as well as most of their meals and access to receptions and sponsor events.

The selected teams focus on software, consumer products, renewable energy, healthcare, media, and education.

They are:

  1. MedHaul (Memphis, TN)—MedHaul exists to address and eliminate patient transportation barriers in distressed and rural communities. The company gives providers the tools and data needed to combat negative health outcomes of transportation as a social determinant of health.

  2. Earnster (Los Angeles, CA)—A digital platform that empowers teens to take charge of their earning power and potential by completing tasks with adults in their inner circle

  3. Resilient Wellness (Oakland, CA)—For public and private health systems who want to reduce expenditure on preventable chronic illness, Resilient Wellness offers a blockchain solution that functions as a social impact bond investment platform that then provides subsidized health plans comprised only of trauma-informed holistic services proven to solve chronic illness.

  4. Watch the Yard (Los Angeles, CA and Atlanta, GA)—A media company that aims to create an ecosystem of viral platforms for niche cultural affinity communities tied to upwardly mobile minority groups.

  5. Sightworthy (New York, NY)—Sightworthy transforms existing assets into a daily feed of timely 10-second social videos for brand marketers.

  6. Optimal Solar (Durham, NC)—Optimal Solar uses the full spectrum of the sun to deliver the highest efficiency solar module at the lowest cost of energy.

  7. SPA UTOPIA (Durham, NC)—SPA UTOPIA is Uberizing the luxury spa and wellness industry. We deliver holistic and customized spa services to your door—within 2 hours.

  8. Possip (Nashville, TN)—Possip gives schools and districts a weekly pulse on parent, teacher, and student feedback using a 1-minute multilingual weekly text survey.

  9. Coworks (Raleigh, NC)—Coworks is a Coworking Management System that helps automate the space, save money, gain and retain members, and grow the brand

  10. Panoptic Project Solutions, LLC (Mobile, AL)—Panoptic-PM is an open-source project management platform that makes planning more social and less stressful. The company plans to automate project management, by creating a shared ecosystem that includes a plethora of proven plans and milestone lists to save time and money.

Four of the ten teams belong to organizations within the Google for Entrepreneurs partner network, including the American Underground and Nashville Entrepreneur Center.