The University of Michigan's Desai Accelerator announced its second cohort of startups> A group of six promising young companies were selected from more than the 80 that applied.
The
Desai Accelerator is a joint venture between the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business (
Zell-Lurie Institute) and the
U-M College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship. Last year it welcomed five startups to its 16-week program, its first cohort.
The startups have to spend at least four of the six weeks working in Ann Arbor, leveraging U-M's network. This is what sets Desai apart from other startup accelerators. The U-M Alumni Association has 540,000 living alumni and tens of thousands of students, making it one of the deepest talent pools in the world.
"These are people we tap for mentors, strategic advisors, investors and partners," says Kelly LaPierre, managing director of the Desai Accelerator. She adds that many U-M students could also serve as potential early employees for these startups.
The six startups chosen for the accelerator’s 2016 cohort are:
Ash & Anvil, an affordable, stylish, everyday clothing provider for shorter men co-founded by
Venture for America Detroit fellow Steven Mazur and Eric Huang.
"It's not a traditional tech business like most people are doing," LaPierre says. "But what they are doing is truly innovative."
Clash Audio, a neuroscience-based streaming service that uses human curation, neuroscience research and popular music theory to analyze new music and distill millions of songs into a small, optimized database.
Gaudium, a creator of anime-style mobile games; runner-up of 2016 Michigan Business Challenge.
MySwimPro, a social fitness platform for swimmers and triathletes.
Roomations, an online platform and subscription service that provides homeowners easy access to interior design services online, including 3D room designs, shopping lists, style boards and personal design advice, by crowdsourcing freelancer designers.
Sultant, a cloud-based SaaS platform that acts as a digital financial "advisor" for small businesses by providing quick and meaningful insights, actionable recommendations and intuitive visualizations
Source: Kelly LaPierre, managing director of the Desai Accelerator
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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