They’ll Never Be Normal – Introducing Batch 007!
500 Global Team
PUBLISHED
2013.10.29
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When we opened up applications for Batch 007 secret agents a few months ago, we received more applications than we knew what to do with – almost 1300! After countless interviews with talented founders, the 30 startups of Batch 007 have finally entered the building! They started our rigorous training program a few weeks back and are excited to take on their first #500Strong mission from Agent DMC.
So, where are our new agents from? Pretty much everywhere – they hail from Sweden, UK, Italy, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, India, and Brazil, just to name a few. We also have founders from all over the US, including Hermosa Beach, NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Gainesville, Nashville and other cities.
This time around, we have startups that do everything from micro-biome sequencing to electric skateboards. Oh, and we even have a few that focus on inventory management (can you say “unsexy”?). As always, the founders are incredibly diverse, with 5 female founders and 12 startups from outside the US.
For their big debut, our secret agents decided to put their own startup spin on the pop hit Royals. Check it out.
We also interviewed nearly all the Batch 7 companies in the latest episode of the Startup Founders Podcast! Listen to their 3-minute lightning interviews here:
Do YOU want to be #500Strong? You’re in luck – we’re already taking applications for our next accelerator class! This batch will kick off January 2014 in a brand new San Francisco office! Warby Parkers and fixies are optional, but recommended. You can APPLY NOW through AngelList. Applications CLOSE on Nov 27 at 11:59pm, so don’t delay!.
Learn more about all our fall accelerator companies on AngelList or below. Welcome to the family, Batch 7!
Full List of Batch 007 Startups
A search engine that helps people find, connect with and hire technical talent.
AngelList: https://angel.co/3sourcing
Founders: Tom Savage, Razvan Dinu
From: London, UK and Bucharest, Romania
Fun Fact: Tom is living in a campervan while at 500. Raz has always been more sensible. Oh, and we won a European iTalent Award and acquired 400k users for previous product, but decided to pivot.
Super easy SaaS to manage and optimize Facebook Ads for SMBs and media agencies. On average, our customers achieve savings of up to 40%.
AngelList: https://angel.co/adespresso
Founders: Massimo Chieruzzi, Carlo Forghieri
From: Milan, Italy
Fun Fact: 2 Years ago we came in Silicon Valley to get feedback for our MVP of AdEspresso. Our first event, “The Startup Conference,” was located in the plaza in front of 500 Startups, and Dave was the keynote speaker. 2 years later here we are…that’s fate 🙂
We empower universities to recruit socially.
AngelList: https://angel.co/anyadir-education/
Founders: Manish Katyan, Duleep Deosthale
From: New York and Bangalore
Fun Fact: Founder is a Spanish professor who became an entrepreneur to fix education after visiting 500+ universities in 100+ countries.
A contest platform for brands to run creative contests.
AngelList: https://angel.co/bounty-hunter
Founders: Hana Chang, Roxman Yang
From: Taipei, Taiwan
Fun Fact: We bootstrapped and managed to get Google, Blizzard, Adobe and Microsoft as our customers.
A distribution as a service (DAAS) platform that takes any content from an advertiser, creates a value reward for sharing, and then has the brands’ most ardent followers make it go viral. We deliver results that are 6-7X more effective than any other online campaign.
AngelList: https://angel.co/buzzstarter
Founders: Ken Zi Wang, Alex Gold, Alexi Nedeltchev
From: San Francisco, CA
Fun Fact: We have over $350,000 in revenue after just a few months.
The first and leading global peer to peer bitcoin lending platform, and the first to offer a global credit score to its users. It’s a disruptive credit model powered by the bitcoin economy.
AngelList: https://angel.co/btcjam
Founders: Celso Cardoso, Paulo Lellis
From: São Paulo, Brazil
We digitize the construction industry by providing free SaaS for small and medium contractors.
AngelList: https://angel.co/builk
Founders: Patai Padungting
From: Bangkok, Thailand
Fun Fact: Launched in Thailand and Indonesia. More than 500M USD of construction information on hand.
Destination site for Beauty Professionals: provides career development and leverages small businesses while boosting online distribution.
AngelList: https://angel.co/carreira-beauty
Founders: Rui Miadaira, Antonio Miadaira Filho
From: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Fun Fact: Brazil is the third largest beauty market in the world after the USA and Japan.
The #1 eCommerce platform to discover unique fashion brands.
AngelList: https://angel.co/cityblis-2
Founders: Christopher Scott Price, Pouria Sanae, Emily DeSanctis
From: Australia, Sweden and USA
Fun Fact: Cityblis was born during NY Fashion week and now boasts 3000 Brands across 60 countries.
A stock market for private companies. Shareholders get cash for their stock and small investors access investments in large private firms like Warby Parker, ZocDoc, and DropBox.
AngelList: https://angel.co/equityzen
Founders: Atish Davda, Shriram Bhashyam, Philip Haslett
From: New York, NY
Fun Fact: Every year, $500M is lost by employees who don’t exercise their stock options when they leave their company. Enter EquityZen.
A platform designed for the modern wholesaler. Goods provides an intuitive, easy-to-use, and secure service that enables any wholesaler to accept B2B transactions, manage inventory, and create digital catalogs.
AngelList: https://angel.co/goods-platform
Founders: Duy Huynh
From: New York, NY
Fun Fact: The team ran a wholesale distribution business that sells to major retailers like Costco, Target, Home Depot, Amazon, SkyMall, Fab, etc. Through all of these transactions, we used paper, pens, and fax machines. We created Goods to fix this problem.
Live, on-demand travel concierge on your smartphone.
AngelList: https://angel.co/grata
Founders: Andrew Schorr, Ellis Rahhal and Alex Miller
From: Beijing, China
Fun Fact: All three Caucasian American founders are fluent in Mandarin.
Intelligent ticketing that turns each ticket into an opportunity to build a relationship with simple communication tools, analytics, and reporting.
AngelList: https://angel.co/launchtrack
Founders: Jonathan Cordeau, Dave Clausen
From: Tampa, FL
Fun Fact: Jonathan has previously produced concerts for artists such as Maroon 5, Queens of the Stoneage, Jessica Simpson, Wyclef Jean, Live, and Wu Tang.
Twilio for handwritten letters. Real handwritten letters, automated for enterprises. The $42B direct mail industry just got personal.
AngelList: https://angel.co/maillift
Founders: Daniel Jurek, Brian Curliss
From: Austin, TX
Fun Fact: One founder previously exited. We hire artists and retired teachers to handwrite our letters.
A proactive virtual travel agent that saves travelers time and automatically finds them the best hotels based on their preferences.
AngelList: https://angel.co/olset
Founders: Gadi Bashvitz, Amyn Sheriff
From: San Francisco, CA, USA
Fun Fact: We have traveled more than 2M miles and stayed in hotels more than 1,000 nights over the last decade, so we really understand the pain that frequent travelers feel.
Via a few taps and swipes on iOS, Partender brings bars into the 21st century and reduces the time it takes managers to do bar inventory from 6 hours to 15 minutes or less.
AngelList: https://angel.co/partender
Founders: Nik Kundra
From: Gainesville, FL
Fun Fact: We started Partender because we were trying to hook up with bartenders/managers. They couldn’t meet up because they were stuck doing inventory until 7AM. We looked into it, and it turns out inventory blows and is a serious problem. That’s why we created Partender.
Creates highly personalized weekly menus based on health goals, lifestyle, and dietary preferences. PlateJoy then partners with grocers such as Whole Foods to next-day delivery all of the ingredients and easy recipes you need to prepare your meals.
AngelList: https://angel.co/platejoy
Founders: Christina Bognet
From: Boston, MA
Fun Fact: Christina was inspired to start PlateJoy after losing fifty pounds. She realized how difficult it was to consistently eat healthy meals at home without wasting considerable time planning and shopping.
We design and manufacture limited edition micro collections for women. Each collection includes three pieces of clothing and accessories, sold as a set for under $100 with free worldwide shipping.
AngelList: https://angel.co/popbasic
Founders: Madeline Veenstra, Coen Hyde
From: Brisbane, Australia
Fun Fact: We are featured in InStyle’s ”Best of the Web 2013.”
A micro-publishing platform that helps business people easily deliver information through single web pages. You don’t need a designer or a developer to create a web page that is attractive, mobile optimized, secure, and most importantly – trackable.
AngelList: https://angel.co/populr-me
Founders: Nicholas Holland, Jared Scheel, Daniel Nelson
From: Nashville, Tennessee
Fun Fact: We created the micro-site http://bestpitchdecks.com while testing Populr, and it has over 25K visits with almost 19K clicks. The best part is that it took less than 15 minutes to create once we had the pitch decks!
An online investment platform that uses crowdfunding to pool investors into private real estate investments. Accredited Investor members can browse a variety of investment opportunities, review details on the investment and invest as little as $5000.
AngelList: https://angel.co/realtyshares
Founders: Nav Athwal, Ray Sturm
From: San Francisco, USA
Fun Fact: We funded our last deal for $101,000 in about 12 hours.
Sales Beach automates your outbound sales. With our technology, you can send personalized emails to hundreds or thousands of possible contacts in your target industry and turn responses into meetings.
AngelList: https://angel.co/sales-beach
Founders: Tim Schwab, Andrew Evans
From: San Francisco, USA
Fun Fact: Our 4 person team has collectively lived in over twenty cities.
Shopeando is the largest online retailer for unbranded products in Latin America.
AngelList: https://angel.co/shopeando
Founders: Isaul Gomez
From: Mexico City, Mexico
Fun Fact: This is our second accelerator program in less than 5 months.
We simplify running a retail business and help merchants reach more customers. Shopseen now helps 750+ worldwide grow their businesses.
AngelList: https://angel.co/shopseen
Founders: Adeel Ahmad, Aakash Desai
From: San Francisco, USA
Fun Fact: Shopseen was started when Adeel tried to grow and manage his vintage retail shop, Vacation (featured in 7×7), in the Tenderloin of San Francisco.
We crowdsource and deliver awesome comments to improve the quality and engagement potential of discussion/comment sections on sports websites. Our vision is to power every sports discussion on the Web and on Mobile by becoming the social arm of all major sports content publishers.
AngelList: https://angel.co/sidelines
Founders: Marios Assiotis, Arka Ray
From: San Francisco, USA
Fun Fact: The founders were partly responsible for causing an earthquake during the Seahawks-Saints Playoff game in 2011.
A platform for mobile advertising that converts. It helps advertisers retarget the existing users over mobile and social ad ecosystems, and get new users based on profiles of existing users.
AngelList: https://angel.co/silverpush
Founders: Hitesh Chawla and Mudit Seth
From: New Delhi, India
Fun Fact: Hitesh learned coding just to build this product.
The first direct-to-consumer microbiome sequencing company. Learn about your bacteria!
AngelList: https://angel.co/ubiome
Founders: Jessica Richman, Dr. Zachary Apte
From: San Francisco, CA USA
Fun Fact: There are 10 times as many bacterial cells as human cells in your body. You are 90% bacteria!
Viral Marketing at scale through technology that measures how consumers watch, share, and talk about video content. The ViralGains Viral Marketing Platform is the first of its kind that maximizes views, shares, and conversations in real time for YouTube content.
AngelList: http://angel.co/viralgains
Founders: Jay Singh, Dan Levin, Kate Willett, Doron Gan
From: Boston, MA, USA
Fun Fact: While teenagers, our founders assisted viral marketing campaigns for brands like Sears, Coca-Cola, and Proctor & Gamble.
WePlann is an easy way to discover and book unique vacation experiences.
AngelList: https://angel.co/weplann
Founders: Oliver Camargo, Jarrett Vamvakidis
From: Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
Fun Fact: $1.2M Revenues, 7 team members, 6 nationalities, 5 languages, and customers in 30+ countries
A web and mobile shopping app that lets you bookmark any product, from any retailer website, and get alerted when the price drops.
AngelList: https://angel.co/wishplz
Founders: Dan Cheung, Eric Goldberg, George Revutsky
From: San Francisco, USA
We design, build, and sell the ZBoard Weight-Sensing Electric Skateboard. Lean forward to go. Lean back to stop. ZBoards are made in California and shipped worldwide.
AngelList: https://angel.co/zboard
Founders: Ben Forman and Geoff Larson
From: Hermosa Beach, CA
Fun Fact: The first time we wired up the ZBoard it worked perfectly…in reverse.
500 Global Team
