On a wintry Wednesday night, a select group of 150 frum Venture Capitalists, Founders and Business Gurus gathered at the trendy W Loft facing the Manhattan skyline for an evening dedicated to the frum community’s bubbling tech startup community. Full Story, Photos, Video
By Zev Gotkin
On a wintry Wednesday night, a select group of 150 frum Venture Capitalists, Founders and Business Gurus gathered at the trendy W Loft facing the Manhattan skyline for an evening dedicated to the frum community’s bubbling tech startup community.
The evening was a demo day for Crown Ventures Accelerator, the first of its kind in the United States. The top 5 startups that were selected to be part of the accelerator’s first class, pitched in front of a live audience of potential investors, their peers from the frum startup founder community and members of the press.
Demo Day began with a series of presentations from the founders of the startup. The founders of each of the 5 startups shared a presentation of their innovative companies on stage in front of an audience of investors and other members of the startup community. After each 10-minute presentation, the floor was open to questions so that potential investors could learn more about these startups. The companies were Belly/Gi Trak, TRUFYX, Musical Universe, Fluid Markets and Prettysmart.
After the presentations, the founders had the opportunity to network and mingle with the angel investors over a sumptuous buffet of sushi and drinks. Investors in attendance were VCs and business owners who want to invest in this exciting and lucrative space.
“Until now, there was a huge lack of support for the technology in our community, so [Crown Ventures] is a big help,” said one participant. Jacob EisenbachFounder/CEO of Geeker.co.
Hershy Goldsteinfounder/CEO of FRIDAY, said he attended the event because he wanted to “be around the heimishe startup ecosystem.”
“It’s been very inspiring to see young people in our community following this path that until now hasn’t been as accessible to people in our community,” Goldstein said. “It’s very exciting and I would definitely be interested in being part of next year’s cohort.”
“I believe that Orthodox Jewish founders are talented, capable, skilled and innovative, but in the area of technology and innovation, they remain underrepresented,” said the founder of Crown Ventures, Yehoshua Werde. “Crown Ventures was created to change that. Our vision is to enhance opportunities for Yeshiva-educated Founders in the technology and innovation sector. Our goal is to create a complete startup ecosystem to quickly launch and scale profitable businesses that will change the world for the better.
Jacob Raabi, co-founder of trufyx described his experience as a member of the inaugural cohort of Crown Ventures as “Incredible! I don’t even know where to start. Everything from start to finish was amazing. They have been so supportive and helped us shape our company vision, build new relationships, build our team, and get us to a point where we can now operate on our own. The mentors were all amazing. Each of them brought to the table their expertise in their respective fields. I recommend it to any founder or any startup!”
“It was a one-of-a-kind experience with a lot of very personalized one-on-one mentorship tailored to each startup’s needs,” said Yeshaya David Greenberg, co-founder of Musical Universe, on his experience with Crown Ventures. “There is no price you can put on good mentorship, advice and relationships. It’s so valuable to be part of a large cohort that you can rely on and go through the process with. This is the opportunity of a lifetime! If you are considering applying [to the next Crown Ventures cohort]don’t hesitate and do it, because it will open many doors for you and provide you with amazing information that will take you to the next level.”
“I think we definitely need more support for tech startups in the community and [Crown Ventures] is a great initiative to help promote this and move things in the right direction,” said a participant who works at a venture capital (VC) firm.
“I think the Demo Day event showed the incredible talent and innovation that is right under our noses in the religious Jewish community,” said Moshe Hecht, Founder/CEO of Hatch.ai. “All it took was for someone to pay attention and find those opportunities. Kudos to Crown Ventures for giving the opportunities and access to all these incredibly talented people!
yadid and Tova Herskovitz, co-founders of RapidzApp, a potential Crown Ventures startup applying to join the next cohort, echoed the widespread sentiment that we need more investment in technology in the Jewish world. “It’s really hard to break into the tech bubble of the outside world because a lot of us [Orthodox Jews] didn’t go to Stanford or the other universities where most future tech leaders go,” Tova said.
“A lot of business depends on who you know, so if you don’t have industry connections, it can be harder to break into the ecosystem and raise capital. That’s why it’s so great to finally have a place like Crown Ventures where you can meet other people in the community that you can relate to, and they can get to know you, trust you, and hear your ideas. startups in our community to find investments more easily.
“We are here because we are fortunate to be small investors in this cohort,” said Zach Firestone of Tiferes Ventures, a venture capital firm. “We got to know these startups well through Crown Ventures and we are incredibly impressed. Crown Ventures provides incredible service to the orthodox startup community and the startup community as a whole. All of the companies in this cohort are world-class startups that deserved to be on this stage! I look forward to going even further with a number of these companies and participating in future cohorts as well. Congratulations to Crown Ventures and thank you so much for all you have done!”
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