Foras has selected the 14-person cohort of Scottish entrepreneurs for next month’s programme of activities in New York, including visits to the Techstars accelerator and customer relationship management specialist Zendesk.
Leah Hutcheon of Appointedd, Rowan Armstrong of Bioliberty, Ishani Malhotra of Carcinotech, Kate Cameron of Cytochroma, Michael Cockburn of Desana, Monica Camino Moreno of Dialexy, Paul Mooney of NCTech, Dave Hughes of Novosound, Chris Downie of Pasabi, Rotimi Alabi of RAB Microfluidics, Ian Kerr of Raven Controls, Jude Cook of ShareIn, Laura Garcia-Caberol of Touchlab, and Ian Mackenzie of Trojan Energy, will join Foras’ first programme in the city.
The trip, from 10 to 17 April, is supported by the Scottish Government and Scottish Development International (SDI).
The programme is aimed at making connections with the east coast US start-up community, including peer learning and investor engagement.
The New York tech eco-system has the second-highest number of early-stage investments in the world after Silicon Valley, with a local start-up community valued at $147bn.
The programme was designed by Foras founders Dec McLaughlin, Nick Murray and Carolina Melendez. The delivery team also includes representatives Elitsa Marinova and Victoria Ross from Scottish Development International’s Capital Investment Team.
The trip follows similar visits to Silicon Valley and Helsinki’s Slush conference last year.
It stems from Mark Logan’s 2020 Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review.
Logan recently stated that: “To succeed, our start-ups must be as good as the world’s best, our founders need to be outward-looking, learning from world-class techniques and frameworks, and from those who have already built global tech companies.”
The cohort will visit Techstars, Zendesk for Startups and venture capital firm Insight Partners, before pitching their businesses to US investors.
The group will also participate in the Tartan Day Parade, as part of an annual celebration of Scottish culture and heritage in New York.
Michael Cockburn, co-founder and chief executive of proptech scale-up Desana, said: “We’re fortunate enough at Desana to have been servicing customers across the US for the past couple of years, and in doing so have been exposed to just how different the ecosystem there for building businesses is.
“We think this kind of additional exposure to investors and people at the top of their game in scaled US technology businesses is incredibly important in raising the overall ambition of Scottish technology businesses - we’re excited to see what the week brings.”
Leah Hutcheon, founder and chief executive of booking and scheduling platform, Appointedd, said: “We have a number of clients and partners in New York, so we hope to get to meet as many of them as possible, but I'm also so excited to spend time with the amazing founders on the cohort.
“We've only spent a few hours together so far and already I'm inspired, so I can't wait to see what the week brings.“
Foras co-founder Carolina Melendez added: “We’re excited to bring together a richly diverse cohort, not only in the focus and aspiration but also in age, ethnicity, gender and lived experience.
“Selected from different locations across this amazing country, our delegates are a true illustration of Scotland’s tech ecosystem.”
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