[June 15, 2011] Hub TechStars program eyes two sessions per year Tweet Jun 15, 2011 (Boston Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Start-ups may have a better chance of making it into TechStars as a second, three-month session of the program is under consideration for its Cambridge outpost. "We're thinking about it," said Katie Rae, managing director of the start-up accelerator and seed-stage investment program. The Boulder, Colo.-based TechStars, which has programs in Boulder, Cambridge, Seattle and New York, already is offering two sessions in the Big Apple. After launching a winter program in January, applications are now being accepted for a summer program there. Meanwhile, this year's Cambridge class is one of TechStars' most diverse, spanning health care, gaming, data and mechanical engineering. "That's the cool thing: They're so diverse yet, because of the depth of mentorship in Boston, all of them can be massively accelerated," Rae said. TechStars' approximately $2 million in annual funding, comes from more than 50 venture capital firms and 25 angel investors, about a quarter of which are based in the Boston area. "If you get into TechStars, you're backed by 75 funds, which is pretty broad," said David Cohen, founder and CEO. This year's Cambridge class of start-ups, who are making their pitches today at Demo Day, with descriptions from TechStars: -- EverTrue -- a donor intelligence platform that connects to the social graph, providing the first meaningful fund-raising data service. -- Ginger.io -- a behavioral analytics company using mobile devices to collect big data for personal and enterprise health-care applications. -- GrabCAD -- connects CAD engineers with manufacturing and product development companies to reduce time and cost spent on designing models, finding a partner for drafting jobs or designing and building a new prototype product. GrabCAD also provides a free CAD model library. -- Help Scout -- the only e-mail-based customer service solution tailored for small and medium-sized businesses, combining the personal touch of e-mail with the scalability of a help desk. -- Kinvey -- the first "Backend as a Service," making it ridiculously easy for developers to set up, use and maintain cloud backends for mobile apps. -- Memrise -- an online learning platform that combines the best insights from the art and science of memory to provide extraordinarily effective, game-like learning experiences. -- Placester -- making real estate advertising simple and effective, connecting online publishers and real estate professionals on a pay-for-performance basis. -- Promoboxx -- the first online promotion platform that allows brands to launch, promote and track online social marketing campaigns with their retailers. -- Senexx -- a company that uses artificial intelligence (natural language processing) to connect people within corporations in need of information with the information owner, by unlocking trapped knowledge in e-mails, Sharepoint and other systems. -- Spill -- an online, anonymous peer support system that connects communities of individuals experiencing similar life problems. -- Strohl Medical -- developer of an "EKG for strokes." -- The Tap Lab -- creators of TapCity, the first massively multiplayer city-building game set in the real world, and the first of many titles on its real-world gaming platform. [email protected] To see more of the Boston Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bostonherald.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Boston Herald Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]