It Takes a Village Pre-Accelerator Cohort #7 Goes Out with a Bang
On May 27th, nine amazing founders took to the stage to present their startup after participating in our 16 week pre-accelerator program, It Takes a Village! Just in case you missed it, please check out our pre-demo day post here and watch the recording here, you won’t regret it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK-z3smLEOk&t=1811s
Graduation may be over but these graduates are forever members of the Village family. Thanks to our incredible sponsors at Audi and Truist, two of these founders earned free Community Memberships here at the Village, and all other founders were offered a scholarship rate for their future membership. Vower, and Founder Rejoice Jones, won the Audi 6 month scholarship and Maverick IQ, and Founder Dalero Berkeley, received the Truist 6 month scholarship. We are so proud of the hard work of all 9 of these amazing founders!
Cohort 7 Founders:
- BESN - Timothy Fields
- Cul De Sac - Amy Hollibaugh
- Creative Critique - Eban Bisong
- MaverickIQ - Dalero Berkley
- StageWing - Arsed “Sed” Joseph
- Stream Suites - Marsha Jean-Louis
- TaxZen - Saurav Bhandari
- Very Individual Protection Services (VIP) - Samuel Austin Evans
- Vower - Rejoice Jones
Here is what a few of these Founders have to say about the program:
"Being a member of ATV Cohort #7 was very refreshing for me as a first time Founder and CEO. The amount of resources that I was made aware of both at ATV, and nationally was incredible. The Cohort made me, and my company, aware of the structure and key ingredients for starting a successful business. It was a beacon of light in the rough seas. I am a true believer."
- Dalero Berkely, Founder of MaverickIQ
“The It Takes a Village program has helped TaxZen in solidifying our strategy and building a community. We were post-revenue and still had so much to learn from the program. This enabled us to get access to great resources and build a supportive network.”
- Saurav Bhandari, Founder of TaxZen
“The mentors and advisors I met during the ATV ITV cohort were incredibly insightful in helping me refine my product and avoid common early start-up mistakes. The icing on top was the family I gained amongst my cohort. As a founder, sometimes all you need is a little encouragement from others who can relate to what you are going through. This really made all the difference to push my company forward.”
- Marsha Jean-Louis, Founder of StreamSuites
“As a female founder of color, the ITV pre-accelerator program has given me reassurance that I can definitely pull up a chair to the tech startup world table and make major plays with the best of them. It all seems very attainable now with continued focus and having the right people around. I'm so appreciative of the connections, knowledge, and resources I gained as a result of this program - it truly ignited me!
Since starting this program, StageWing™ membership sign-ups have increased by 50% and we're just getting started. We also brought on an intern to help us with digital marketing thanks to my ITV cohort 7 wing-woman Rejoice and Vower!!”
- Sed Joseph, Founder of StageWing
“The Atlanta Tech Village Program made me feel we were actually on our way to being a full-fledged individual protection service. The nurturing from both the Program managers and the program participants made being a part of the program a profound joy. The program helped me to clarify my goals and set a new direction for our project. Perhaps the greatest contribution the program made to date is to validate our protection service as a worthwhile project.”
- Samuel Austin Evans, Founder of Very Individual Protection
“ATV has given me a wider community; a pocket of fearless peers who have comforted me through tears, doubts, and triumphs. I'm grateful. Since joining #Ittakesavillage, Vower has gained some notable partners like SAP, Googleforstartups (current cohort members), and Verizon Marcomm mini-accelerator. We've extended our partnership with Atlanta Public Schools by signing MOU's with two additional high schools. Early sign-ups have increased from 853 to 1,638. Our MoM MRR is now 30%, and we have successfully matched three (3) ATV companies (Tax Zen, Stage Wing, & Stepping Blocks) with skilled gig workers.”
- Rejoice Jones, Founder of Vower
Our team’s diversity and inclusion initiative emphasizes the importance of supporting diverse perspectives and inclusive work environments in technology. The It Takes A Village Pre-Accelerator is becoming one of the nations most prestigious programs for pre-seed startups led by women and people of color. Some of our past alumni wins, continued success, notable sponsorships, and recap of the previous cohort can be found here!
Stay Tuned
To make a real change it takes perseverance and consistency which is why we are excited to build on our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion. This 16 week program is designed to prepare underrepresented founders to successfully get to the next level which is defined as gaining traction by acquiring paid customers, receiving a seed investment, and/or earning a spot in an accelerator program. By providing an inclusive community for these diverse groups of founders, we believe providing direct access to community, curriculum, and capital will help build and grow the next generation of sustainable startups and diversity in tech.
Stay Tuned! – You don’t want to miss the amazing things in store for this group.
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