Syracuse LaunchPad alumni Kelsey Davis ’19 G ’20, Founder and CEO, and Brendan O’Keeffe ’20, Chief Operating Officer, will take the stage as CLLCTVE pitches at Techstars Demo Day in Los Angeles. Join the live event October 8, 11am PT / 2 pm ET featuring special guests including LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, and hear from the Techstars LA accelerator cohort. RSVP here
Davis launched CLLCTVE as a student at Syracuse University, incubating at the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at SU Libraries while she completed her undergraduate degree in the Newhouse School of Public Communications and her master’s degree in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at the Whitman School of Management. O’Keeffe joined the team as an undergraduate in the School of Information Studies (iSchool).
While incubating at the LaunchPad, Davis also mentored other student startups as a LaunchPad Rubin Family Innovation Mentor. Davis and O’Keeffe participated in the Blackstone LaunchPad and Techstars Propel program, where Davis won $10,000 in a global network competition. Davis was selected to participate in the spring 2020 cohort of LaunchPad Lift. The program took ten college student business ventures from the United States and Ireland to the next level by providing a $10,000 grant, dedicated mentoring, peer networking and critical education on advanced startup topics like fundraising, growing sales, hiring executives and formalizing their supply chain. In addition, the CLLCTVE team won numerous Syracuse University campus competitions as students, securing seed funding to grow their idea.
CLLCVTE was accepted into the highly competitive Techstars Los Angeles Accelerator program this summer. The student startup is now scaling its digital platform connecting college creatives with brands targeting Gen-Z. The team moved to LA this summer, while still maintaining a strong relationship with the Syracuse community.
Ten ventures were selected for the Techstars LA 2020 program which kicked off in mid-July. “While we received hundreds of applications from across the world and chose these companies while socially distanced, we have stuck with our commitment to invest in and support the best companies in the greater LA region,” said Anna Barber, managing director of Techstars Los Angeles Accelerator. Nine of the 10 companies in this year’s program are headquartered in Los Angeles, with the final company, CLLCTVE, joining us from New York.”
“We chose teams that have grit, curiosity, a learning mindset and a deep commitment to positive impact by way of a bold vision. The enduring motif of Techstars LA is that personal growth drives company growth — and all of this year’s founders have shown the willingness to rise to the occasion that 2020 has presented by embracing growth and change.”
“The Techstars LA 2020 selected class also represents our ongoing commitment to investing in diverse teams, with nine of the companies including women, Black or Latinx founders, six in the CEO seat,” noted Barber. “This year, we have seven mixed gender founding teams, which is pretty unusual, and we are looking forward to seeing how this affects the class dynamic. Research shows that mixed gender teams perform better overall when compared to all-male teams specifically.”
CLLCTVE will be pitching on Demo Day with the Techstars LA Class of 2020:
- Ayana Therapy, which provides online therapy for minorities with an emphasis on intersectionality.
- CLLCTVE, a platform connecting college creatives with brands targeting Gen-Z consumers.
- JoyHub, an enterprise software platform that integrates multifamily operator systems into a single, centralized data platform.
- Lactation Lab, which provides breast milk analysis and personalized recommendations for mothers to optimize their child’s health and nutrition.
- Pod People, a full-service podcast production and staffing agency with a network of over 700 audio professionals across the globe.
- Preveta, which is transforming cancer care by arming clinicians with data and insights to improve outcomes and blazing a trail for providers to deliver value-based care.
- Shop Latinx, the leading fashion and beauty lifestyle brand with products designed by and for the Latinx community.
- Sike Insights, which powers remote teams to work better together, with its first product, Kona, an AI-powered Slackbot that helps communicate.
- StatsHelix, a B2B gametech company focused on esports and streaming.
- Thrive Education, which provides remote tele-assessments for learning differences (LDs) such as dyslexia, ADHD, and autism.
Upon acceptance to a Techstars accelerator, ventures receive $20,000 which is commonly used as a stipend to support living expenses during the 90-day accelerator program, and in return receives a small equity of the company. In addition, all accepted companies are offered a $100,000 convertible note. Historically, on average, Techstars companies go on to raise more than $2M of outside capital after the program.
“Techstars LA is at the center of one of the most exciting, diverse and thriving tech ecosystems in the country. Strengthened by a large and growing alumni network here in Los Angeles, the LA program focuses on investing in southern California startups across all sectors. We are interested in founders who are committed to growing themselves as they grow their companies, and innovations that make the world better.”