Where do Yeezy, Atlanta, Tesla, floods, blockchain, AI, and Demo Day intersect? Right here at The Farm.
It’s been torture to keep quiet about The Farm’s fall 2018 cohort: we’re so excited about these founders and their companies, we just want to shout it from the rooftops. We’ll share all the exciting details with you at Demo Day on November 9. But in the meantime, here’s a little teaser to tide you over.
A Focus on Founders
This cohort — The Farm’s second — is diverse, highly skilled, and world-class. These founders have advanced degrees in robotics, systems engineering, machine learning, and multicore processing. They’re working on tech like virtual / extended reality, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D visualization, and blockchain, in industries ranging from entertainment to climate to hardware. They’re building companies around cloud services, hardware solutions, STEM underrepresentation, and workforce productivity. They’ve partnered with major brands such as Tesla, NBC, and BET, and with artists like Ray Charles, Kanye West, and Will Smith.
One company is streamlining how organizations can map employee donations to corporate social responsibility initiatives. Another is building AI-powered vision technology for drones that could save lives during wildfires, floods, and hurricanes.
This cohort also happens to be 18% female and 77% people of color, with founders hailing from the US, Nigeria, India, and the UK.
A Space Designed for Innovation
We’re so fortunate that The Farm’s offices are located in The Battery Atlanta — a community of offices, shops, and restaurants next to the Atlanta Braves’ SunTrust Park, and home to Comcast NBCUniversal’s Central Division headquarters, The Farm’s corporate partner. It means that our founders are taking advantage of premium work spaces, a hardware / 3D design lab, and access to Comcast mentors with expertise in business, branding, tech, and strategy.
The Farm’s Managing Director, Burunda Prince, explains why founders are the accelerator’s central focus. “Our program is passionate about the founder because we believe it takes exceptional people to build extraordinary companies. We place a strong emphasis on leadership and cultivating cultural intelligence when building a company. When you have a business landscape where over 90 percent of startups fail, the strength of the founder and the company culture is vital to ensure long-term success.”
“We place a strong emphasis on leadership and cultivating cultural intelligence when building a company. When you have a business landscape where over 90 percent of startups fail, the strength of the founder and the company culture is vital to ensure long-term success.”
– Burunda Prince
The Farm’s 12-week program, designed by Boomtown Accelerators, is helping teams find product / market fit, build and iterate on their solutions, collect customer feedback, and craft an investment-worthy pitch, among other skills. The curriculum is customized to each individual startup’s needs.
Bill Connors, president of Comcast’s Central Division, said he’s thrilled to have these founders in-house. “The second cohort of The Farm continues to attract the best tech talent to Atlanta,” he said. “We welcome this impressive class of Millennials and look forward to supporting the innovation and culture shift they bring to the Atlanta startup ecosystem.”
An Event You Don’t Want to Miss
We invite you to join us for Demo Day, November 9, from 6 to 8 PM at the Coca-Cola Roxy, to celebrate these founders and hear them pitch their companies. More than 800 people turned out (in a thunderstorm!) for our last Demo Day, so we encourage you to register early to save your spot. Accredited investors should register here for the Investor Preview.
See you in November!
