Startup Booster FACCSF

Last spring, Notifixious Inc was selected by the French American Chamber of Commerce, here in San Francisco to be part of the candidates for its Startup Booster. The Booster is a 8 weeks program where entrepreneurs in very early stage companies can receive mentoring from experts in the various domains that entrepreneurs will have to face : Accounting, PR, Negotiation, Legal, Pitching… The last session is dedicated to a presenting in front of several business angels from the Bay Area!There where 5 companies selected and Notifixious was the only company in the IT sector! It was pretty interesting to see start-up in various domains and at various stages!

Fruition Sciences was, for me, the most interesting project : they provide a technical solution to monitor physiologic parameters on the vines to improve their yield and quality. It’s another avatar of what Tim O’Reilly calls “Ubicomp“!
DeNovo Wines is a winemaker with an interesting approach : they do not own vineyards but they buy grapes from eco-responsible wineries and make good wines with them.

Both of these two companies have been operating for more than a year and received awards!

WeePlant sells PinkyTree! Pinkytree is a little capsule containing a cactus that you can hand to your cell-phone, your bag… etc. They intend to address the corporate gift market for companies who want to adopt the “green wave”!
MyFairAds offers a solution to chiropractors who want to advertise in their waiting rooms for local services that they endorse.

The Booster offers a good toolbox and help entrepreneurs work on matters they would however tend to skip! For me, the hardest sessions where the ones about presenting and I hope that my presentation skills improved (even though the road to “satisfaction”) is still pretty long!

Finally, I’d like to thank my two mentors : Eve Chaurand-Fraser and Marc Dangeard for their great help and support!