Skip to content
We are pleased to introduce the founders who will be part of our next Diverse Founders Fellowship cohort. The goal is to bring together five founders who can learn from and support each other in the context of Coco’s work and social environment. This cohort begins in June 2019. Learn more about the Diverse Founders Fellowship
The Diverse Founders Fellowship is made possible with the support of Google for Startups. Learn more about the program.
John Doan | Mobility 4 All
“Mobility 4 All is the kinder, gentler ride service for seniors and people with disabilities. The lack of accessible, reliable and trusted transportation leaves seniors and people with disabilities isolated from their communities and limit their ability to work, access healthcare and engage in other meaningful activities.
Through our tech-enable brokerage platform, called MO, we match riders who need reliable, on-demand, door thru door service with fully vetted and trained caredrivers. MO offers enhanced caregiver involvement, the option to choose your favorite driver, simplified cashless payments and multiple booking channels, including mobile, web and call center. Our highly scalable platform aggregates and optimizes supply and demand in a much more efficient and cost effective manner, making MO the premier special transport broker.
Our long range vision is to integrate self driving cars to benefit those who cannot drive. As a member of the Coalition for Safer Streets, founded by Ford, Waymo, Lyft, Uber and Volvo, we work with them to promote universal design and accessibility for those with special needs at the front end of the technology adoption curve through our integrated caregiver portal.”
Aneela Idnani | HabitAware
“HabitAware makes Keen, a smart bracelet to help manage trichotillomania (hair pulling), skin picking, nail biting and other compulsive behaviors. Keen allows users to retrain their brain by vibrating whenever it detects a specific trained behavior. The vibration brings the user into awareness and allows them to make a different choice.
As a direct-to-consumer product, Keen has helped thousands of people worldwide (58 countries!) suffering from trichotillomania (hair pulling), dermatillomania (skin picking) and onychophagia (nail biting). HabitAware is a HAX hardware accelerator alumnus, the MNCup 2018 Grand Prize winner, and a TIME Magazine 2018 Best Invention. HabitAware is partially funded by a research grant from the NIH/SBIR.”
Michael Jackson | The Premium Experience
“The Premium App is the most advanced event marketing platform on the market! With features such as digital ticketing, GPS based marketing, promoter pages, analytic reports and push notification campaigns, it’s the ultimate promoters tool!
The Premium App was built for promoters by a promoter. The number one obstacle that the average promoter has is getting the word out about their events, tracking marketing efforts and fanbase retention. Through Premium, event organizers can upload events, setup a targeted push notification campaign to our user base, share their event page link on outside platforms and view event specific data reports.
With data tailored to both promoters and event goers, The Premium App solves the problem of reaching relevant customers and understanding their target audience which will boost sales and lower marketing costs.”
Simon Okiror | Suprabook
“Suprabook is legal software that will use AI to gather information from case files and assemble it into ‘smart binders’ that are accessible on any device. Lawyers will use the binders to prepare and present arguments to judges and juries using touch or voice commands.
We believe that Suprabook can increase access to justice by knocking down barriers to getting legal representation. The number of people going to court with no lawyer or with an overworked public defender is astonishing. We can be one of the legal tech companies changing that.
We are currently in beta after 15 months in R&D. We started onboarding cohorts for our invite-only beta in the fall of 2018.”
Mary Kay Ziniewicz | Bus Stop Mamas
“Bus Stop Mamas is a workforce ecosystem connecting businesses with educated, motivated, and local moms by identifying employment opportunities aligned with the scheduling needs of their school-age children.
Bus Stop Mamas launched in January 2019 and is operating while testing. Our BSM mom network includes three “mommy tracks” of moms with resume gaps: pre-bus moms who work 2 to 25 hours a week, bus stop moms who work 9 to 3, and post-bus moms who are available to work at all times. We connect an underutilized, educated, workforce directly with employers–no resumes collected, no algorithms generated–just good old-fashioned introductions via email. BSM business network grows daily too, all via word-of-mouth. Every Tuesday new job opportunities are posted to the mama network, and as moms review openings, they share relevant openings with friends too–growing the BSM mom network daily. We have successfully placed moms in professional and non-professional positions for temporary, part-time, full-time and instant need work. Feedback from employers confirms the model works exceptionally well for businesses of all sizes and the talent is exceptional too.
Bus Stop Mamas addresses three macroeconomic issues: not enough workers to fill jobs, women are under-represented in executive leadership roles and fertility rates are well below the replacement-rate level. We believe it is time to consider a new model of working in the 21st Century. Women are graduating from college in greater numbers than their male counterparts, and, importantly, women have babies. Babies convert into workforce. Bus Stop Mamas offers a workforce sustainability solution that opens a talent pool, provides access to executive talent, and offers a system that promotes career-life growth and loyalty. We are spearheading what we believe is a revolution–placing civility into business practices. “
