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Google for Startups Black Founders Exchange picks 12 teams for Durham event

DURHAM – Twelve teams, including ones from Durham and Charlotte, will participate in the Google for Startups Black Founders Exchange event coming up in the Bull City.

The virtual program is set for Oct. 3-8.

American Underground is the host.

Teams will participate in training, mentorship, collaboration, and community.

The list of attendees:

  • AppDrop (Washington, DC) – Appdrop is an end-to-end software that empowers non-technical teams to build their apps without writing a single line of code in weeks.

  • BatteryXchange (Charlotte, NC) – BatteryXchange has developed a charging platform & kiosk machine that allows cell phone users to rent portable batteries on demand.

  • Dashible (New York, NY) – We help local retailers find new customers and keep them coming back via a SaaS deals, loyalty and customer engagement platform.

  • Encounter AI (Oakland, CA) – Encounter AI accelerates restaurant operations using Voice AI technologies to help store workers handle orders faster.

  • FundBlackFounders (New York, NY) – FundBlackFounders is a friends & family capital alternative for Black Entrepreneurs.

  • GABA (Atlanta, GA) – A career development platform & peer learning community for students aspiring to health and STEAM careers.

  • The Labz (Atlanta, GA) – Labz drag and drop tools help users uniquely present content by mixing-&-matching media, guest activities, communication channels, games.

  • Maverick Innovations (Durham, NC) – Maverick Innovation is a sports-technology brand merging science and technology to create products enhancing skill development.

  • Nectar (Atlanta, GA) – We provide non-dilutive financing to real estate operators by securitizing and selling their cash flows.

  • SpenDebt (Houston, TX) – SaaS payment solution providing a frictionless way for companies to collect bill payments from customers leveraging everyday transactions.

  • SureShow (Kansas City, MO) – The SureShow app replaces no-show medical appointments with billable telehealth visits.

  • TinyDocs (Chicago, IL) – Health designed for kids. We create medical cartoons to educate kids about health.

Alumni from previous programs – dating back to 2016 – also are scheduled to participate.

“Most programs focus on supporting you while you’re in it, but BFE, the network, and the value of it all stays with you years after,” says Calvin Williams, CEO, Freeman Capital. “The fellow BFE members, advisors, networking, has resulted in my business growing and scaling in ways that would not be possible without the BFE alumni network”

According to the organizers, event alumni have raised more than $25 million in funding since participating in the program. Even more impressive considering the last 18 months of the pandemic, groups had seen an average 36x revenue growth. These results underscore the stated goal of the program: to close the proven funding gap for Black founders and propel them to success.

“To say our jaws were on the floor when we saw those numbers would be an understatement,” says Adam Klein, Chief Strategist, American Underground. “We knew there was immense value in bringing together different founders from a range of industries and experience levels to go through this curriculum provided by Google and other experts, but these results prove this is one of the most valuable programs in the country for Black founders.”

Program highlights:

  • Google for Startups’ Investor-in-Residence Tony Wilkins will lead sessions on leadership.
  • Founders will receive tactical, hands-on sales training as part of Google’s flagship two-day Sales Academy program.
  • 14 mentors from Google and American Underground’s network will be paired with the founders based on their stated challenge areas to provide support throughout the week.

Teams also will meet with investors such as Bull City Ventures and IDEA Fund Partners.

“Black Founders Exchange and its home in Durham are quickly becoming one of the most watched ecosystem programs in the country, with alumni groups taking what they’ve learned and experienced, and making huge inroads with investors as well as within their own markets and with customers,” says Nicole Froker, Partnerships Manager, Google for Startups. “Coupled with Google’s recent announcement to open a 1,000 person Google Cloud office in Downtown Durham, we’re so excited to deepen and extend our partnership with this unique, vibrant, and brilliant community.”