Celebrating Our 9th It Takes a Village Pre-Accelerator Cohort

On April 27, 2022; 7 incredible 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 the recording of our Demo Day here and enjoy seven spectacular 4 minute pitches, from these diverse entrepreneurs. 

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. Arcum, and Founder Sebastian Builes, won the Audi 6 month scholarship and WORKOPTI Founder Elkanah Reed, received the Truist 6 month scholarship. 

We also had three guest judges in the house who voted for their favorite pitches. Thanks to our sponsor, Microsoft For Startups, we were able to provide the top 3 selected companies with non-dilutive checks. Coming in 3rd place and receiving  $1,000 was Gerald Carter of Destined AI. Second place, taking home $2,500 was Karsihma Babu, founder of Upspeed and last but not least, your winner, bringing in $5,000 was none other than Anthony Joiner of Blooksy! 

We would like to extend a congratulations to all of the founders who took part in our 9th cohort and we look forward to welcoming the 10th cohort in the next month. Stay tuned to see who will be joining us for our next pre-accelerator program starting on June 13th!

Cohort 9 Founders: 

• Arcum - Sebastian Builes
• Blooksy - Anthony Joiner
• Destined AI - Gerald Carter
• Medsembly - Rodeline Joseph
• Players Club - Eddie Legrand-Sawyer
• Upspeed - Karishma Babu
• WORKOPTI - Elkanah Reed

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.