Haq's Musings: Two Pakistani Start-ups Accepted in Silicon Valley Immersion Program
Lahore-based Groopic and Islamabad-based Tunacode have been accepted to be part of this summers Blackbox Connect program in Silicon Valley.
Founded by Pakistanis, both companies are start-ups with innovative products whose founding teams are looking to live, learn and network for two weeks at an Atherton mansion this summer from July 15 to 26, 2013. These young entrepreneurs are a reflection of Pakistan's growing human capital.
This year's summer program of Blackbox Connect is supported by Google.
Groopic is an application that helps put the photographer back into photos with his or her buddies. Eyedeus, the company behind Groopic, emerged from the first batch of companies at Plan9, the Punjab governments incubator which is named after an operating system project at the Bell Labs in the 1980s.
Tunacode specializes in optimizing complex software to graphic processing units (GPUs).
The two Pakistani companies are among eight non-US start-ups selected to participate this summer by Google for Entrepreneurs partner programs around the world. The remaining six companies are Avocarrot (UK), EgzoTech (Poland), Inpris (Israel), Instabug (Egypt), Melusyn (France) and MyDoorHandle (South Africa). Here's how Blackbox Connect describes the program:
"Founders will come to Silicon Valley and live at the Blackbox Mansion for the two weeks, where they will have the opportunity to live and collaborate with like-minded entrepreneurs from all around the world and take part in an intense agenda of meetings and workshops with entrepreneurs, investors, experts and executives. Accepted startups must have launched a technology based MPV and gathered feedback from early adopter/customers. Ideally - but not required - a startup should have raised some investment capital, have a team between 3 to 20 people and have a product or service that can be launched globally".
Here's the curriculum for this year's program:
1. Interfacing with an Investor
Top Ten Mistakes Made in Business Plans
Short Building Elevator Pitching Preparation and Workshop
Perfecting Your Investor Pitch
How to Hold an Investor Meeting
Recruiting and Leveraging an Advisory Board
2. Basics of Venture Capital Investment Options
Founder Vesting Equity
Stock Options for Startup Founders
Introduction to Equity Term Sheets
3. Born-Global Startups
Building the Core Team, Recruiting and Scaling
UX-based Branding
Raising Money in Silicon Valley
First Hand Founders Success Stories
Leveraging Social Marketing
Setting up official US presence for international startup
Legal & Financial Issues of Born-Global Startups
4. Quality Networking Events
Dinners at Blackbox Mansion with local SV community members
Attend other select happening events in Silicon Valley
Demo/Pitch event to investors followed by dinner event
I believe the exposure to Silicon Valley start-up culture via the Blackbox Connect's immersion program can help founders of participating companies to emulate the success of some of the big-name world-renowned companies that have spawned the technology revolution sweeping the world.
Haq's Musings: Two Pakistani Start-ups Accepted in Silicon Valley Immersion Program
Lahore-based Groopic and Islamabad-based Tunacode have been accepted to be part of this summers Blackbox Connect program in Silicon Valley.
Founded by Pakistanis, both companies are start-ups with innovative products whose founding teams are looking to live, learn and network for two weeks at an Atherton mansion this summer from July 15 to 26, 2013. These young entrepreneurs are a reflection of Pakistan's growing human capital.
This year's summer program of Blackbox Connect is supported by Google.
Groopic is an application that helps put the photographer back into photos with his or her buddies. Eyedeus, the company behind Groopic, emerged from the first batch of companies at Plan9, the Punjab governments incubator which is named after an operating system project at the Bell Labs in the 1980s.
Tunacode specializes in optimizing complex software to graphic processing units (GPUs).
The two Pakistani companies are among eight non-US start-ups selected to participate this summer by Google for Entrepreneurs partner programs around the world. The remaining six companies are Avocarrot (UK), EgzoTech (Poland), Inpris (Israel), Instabug (Egypt), Melusyn (France) and MyDoorHandle (South Africa). Here's how Blackbox Connect describes the program:
"Founders will come to Silicon Valley and live at the Blackbox Mansion for the two weeks, where they will have the opportunity to live and collaborate with like-minded entrepreneurs from all around the world and take part in an intense agenda of meetings and workshops with entrepreneurs, investors, experts and executives. Accepted startups must have launched a technology based MPV and gathered feedback from early adopter/customers. Ideally - but not required - a startup should have raised some investment capital, have a team between 3 to 20 people and have a product or service that can be launched globally".
Here's the curriculum for this year's program:
1. Interfacing with an Investor
Top Ten Mistakes Made in Business Plans
Short Building Elevator Pitching Preparation and Workshop
Perfecting Your Investor Pitch
How to Hold an Investor Meeting
Recruiting and Leveraging an Advisory Board
2. Basics of Venture Capital Investment Options
Founder Vesting Equity
Stock Options for Startup Founders
Introduction to Equity Term Sheets
3. Born-Global Startups
Building the Core Team, Recruiting and Scaling
UX-based Branding
Raising Money in Silicon Valley
First Hand Founders Success Stories
Leveraging Social Marketing
Setting up official US presence for international startup
Legal & Financial Issues of Born-Global Startups
4. Quality Networking Events
Dinners at Blackbox Mansion with local SV community members
Attend other select happening events in Silicon Valley
Demo/Pitch event to investors followed by dinner event
I believe the exposure to Silicon Valley start-up culture via the Blackbox Connect's immersion program can help founders of participating companies to emulate the success of some of the big-name world-renowned companies that have spawned the technology revolution sweeping the world.
Haq's Musings: Two Pakistani Start-ups Accepted in Silicon Valley Immersion Program
