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There are many accelerator programs out there. Let's take it from home first. If we talk
about FounderFuel, some of the big success stories, obviously from the first cohort,
we like to talk about the success of OOHLALA, who from Montréal, is a great success, because
they were a Toronto-based company. They came to Montréal to take part in FounderFuel.
They completed the program here in Montréal, obviously. It was eight people who came to
this city. Once they finished the program, they raised upwards of $800,000. They continued
to rent space in Notman House and eventually actually moved the whole company here to Montréal.
Now, they have their office in Saint-Laurent. It's great for Montréal, because we brought
in a very smart group of people. They now call Montréal home. They're doing extremely
well, both in Canada and in US market right now, soon to be looking to raise their A round
in the US. For us, for FounderFuel, that's a great story.
If you look at another company, a local company again, OOOMF from the second cohort. They
came in and they had a product. They had something in market. Very quickly, the program accelerated
the failure of that business. They started thinking and riffing on a new idea. They really
had a lot of ground to catch up, because they were starting from scratch.
By the time they got to Demo Day, they had a great product. They already had a lot of
traction. They very quickly raised half a million dollars, coming out of the program.
Now, they're just continuing on that path. That's a very good success story, as well,
for FounderFuel.
Looking outside of FounderFuel, there are tech programs like TechStars. Coming out of
the TechStars, two of the big companies that are doing really well. Everyone knows SendGrid.
They're a TechStars alumni. That's one of their big success stories. You look at a company
like The Next Big Sound, also out of TechStars. Two big companies that they've graduated.
Looking further west at Y Combinator, one of the big success stories there is obviously
Airbnb.
The common thread around all these companies is that these people came into these programs
completely open-minded. They will all admit to significant pivots. They really came for
the mentorship and what that mentorship could do to their business and help them go to the
next level and build a great big company with big ambitions.