[June 16, 2017] |
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Thiel Foundation Announces 2017 Thiel Fellows
The Thiel Foundation today named 25 people into the 2017 class of Thiel
Fellows. The two-year fellowship provides young entrepreneurs with
$100,000 and mentorship from the Thiel Foundation's network of
technology entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists. Launched in 2011,
the program encourages fellows to pursue full-time entrepreneurship
instead of going to college.
"This year's fellows were selected from thousands of applications that
we received from around the world, ranging from Denmark, to Spain, to
Israel, to India, and the UK," said Jack Abraham, Executive Director of
the Thiel Fellowship. "These young founders demonstrate incredible drive
and courage to tackle problems that often haven't even been addressed
before, let alone solved."
To date, companies created by Thiel Fellows are worth more than $2
billion combined (not including Thiel fellow-created Ethereum, a
computing network with a cryptocurrency market cap of $30 billion as of
June 16).
"Our applicant pool continues to get stronger each year," said Blake
Masters, President of the Thiel Foundation. "That makes our selection
process harder, but we're not complaining: skipping college used to be
unthinkably risky; then it became annoyingly cool; now it's rightfully
seen as no big deal-the responsible move for talented young people eager
to build new things in the real world."
About the 2017 Thiel Fellows
Ashish Pandhi (New York, NY) Bettr Software Ashish
founded Bettr, a service that creates a more unified social media
management experience.
Colton Jang (Berkeley, CA (News - Alert)) Machine Learning Colton
is working on a machine learning company.
Daria Evdokimova (Moscow, Russia / San Francisco, CA) VoiceOps Artificial
Intelligence Daria founded VoiceOps, an AI platform for
analyzing enterprise voice. The platform analyzes sales and support
conversations to maximize successful outcomes.
Dean Travers (London, England / Boston, MA) Luminopia Digital
Therapeutics DeanĀ is CEO and co-founder of Luminopia, a virtual
reality healthcare startup initially focused on treating lazy eye.
Fred Turner (Halifax, UK / Santa Clara, CA) TL Biolabs Genomics Fred
founded TL Biolabs, a company building a low-cost genotyping platform
for farmers to understand an animal's likely productivity and disease
susceptibility at birth, allowing for increased profits and reduced
environmental impact.
Helson Taveras (San Francisco, CA) Riley Real
Estate Technology Helson founded Riley, which provides lead
qualification as a service. Riley helps businesses prioitize their
sales leads by responding to them within two minutes, 24/7.
Iddo Gino (Haifa, Israel / San Francisco, CA) RapidAPI Software Iddo
founded RapidAPI, which helps nearly half a million developers find,
test, and deploy APIs.
James Graham (Boston, MA) Caffeine Enterprise
Software James founded Caffeine, which uses a new Internet
protocol to improve the load-speed of mobile apps by up to three times.
Jesper Theil Thomsen (Virum, Denmark / Los Angeles) SOUNDBOKS Hardware Jesper
is CEO of SOUNDBOKS. Its first product is the world's loudest
battery-powered speaker.
Jordan DeCicco (New York, NY) Sunniva Health/Wellness Jordan
founded Sunniva, whose first product, SuperCoffee, blends coffee,
protein, and superfoods.
Jorge Izquierdo (Madrid, Spain) Aragon Cryptocurrency Jorge
founded Aragon, a platform for creating and managing effective
decentralized organizations using blockchain technology to enhance
corporate governance.
Laura Vaughan (Ottawa, Canada / Waterloo, Canada) Acorn
Cryotech Biotechnology Laura is co-founder of
Acorn Cryotech, a biotechnology company that conveniently cryopreserves
clients' stem cells.
Lani Lazzari (Pittsburgh, PA) Simple Sugars Skincare/Beauty Lani
founded Simple Sugars, an all-natural skincare line developed especially
for sensitive skin. Simple Sugars products are sold online and in over
400 retail locations throughout the US.
Mark Prokoudine (Moscow / Toronto / San Francisco) Kickback Gaming Mark
is CEO of Kickback, a company building the casino of the future.
Kickback allows users to bet on video games like CS:GO and DotA.
Micah Green (Austin, TX) Maidbot Robotics Micah
founded Maidbot, a robotics company that created the first housekeeping
robot for hotels.
Nicholas Shekerdemian (London / San Francisco / Hong Kong) Headstart Recruitment
Software Nicholas co-founded Headstart, which uses machine
learning to help companies identify who they should hire.
Peeyush Shirvastava (Kuala Belait, Brunei / Mason, Ohio) Genetesis Medical
Device Peeyush is CEO of Genetesis, a medical device company
that developed CardioFlux, an imaging platform that leverages
next-generation sensors and advanced computing to noninvasively measure
and analyze the heart's natural magnetic fields.
Phat Le (Portland, OR) Sleeker SaaS (News - Alert) Phat
is a founder of Sleeker, which uses unique insights and data to help
auto service centers increase revenue via effective scheduling and
customer messaging.
Prahasith Veluvolu (Indianapolis) Mimir Software Prahasith
is CEO of Mimir, which builds a classroom automation tool for computer
science and programming courses.
Robert Kirstiuk (New Brunswick, Canada / Vancouver / Seattle) Coastline
Market Seafood Marketplace Robert is CEO and
co-founder of Coastline Market, a predictive marketplace that allows
commercial seafood harvesters to sell their fish to storefront
businesses in advance of boat landings.
Sam Bernstein (New York, NY) LoftSmart Real
Estate Technology Sam is CEO and co-founder of LoftSmart, the first
end-to-end marketplace for student rentals. Students across the country
use LoftSmart to discover, lease, and pay for local rentals instantly.
Shahed Kahn (San Francisco, CA) Loom SaaS Shahed
founded Loom, a cloud-based video messaging service used by more than
200,000 employees at companies such as Hubspot, Uber, and Nielsen.
Sol Chen (Cambridge, MA) Clara Health
Technology Sol founded Clara, which is building a platform to
support patients throughout the clinical trial process, from
identification to enrollment and beyond.
Tara Bosch (Vancouver, BC) Smart Sweets Wellness Tara
founded SmartSweets. SmartSweets innovates confectionary products that
kick sugar - naturally.
Zaid Rahman (Dubai, United Arab Emirates/ San Francisco, CA) Volley Artificial
Intelligence Zaid is CEO of Volley, an artificial intelligence
company focused on personalizing enterprise learning.
ABOUT THE THIEL FOUNDATION
The Thiel Foundation supports science, technology, and long-term
thinking about the future. For more information, see thielfoundation.org.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170616005607/en/
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