SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Thiel Foundation today named 25 people into the 2017 class of Thiel Fellows. The two-year fellowship provides young entrepreneurs with $100,000 and mentorship from the Thiel Foundation’s network of technology entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists. Launched in 2011, the program encourages fellows to pursue full-time entrepreneurship instead of going to college.
“This year’s fellows were selected from thousands of applications that we received from around the world, ranging from Denmark, to Spain, to Israel, to India, and the UK,” said Jack Abraham, Executive Director of the Thiel Fellowship. “These young founders demonstrate incredible drive and courage to tackle problems that often haven’t even been addressed before, let alone solved.”
To date, companies created by Thiel Fellows are worth more than $2 billion combined (not including Thiel fellow-created Ethereum, a computing network with a cryptocurrency market cap of $30 billion as of June 16).
“Our applicant pool continues to get stronger each year,” said Blake Masters, President of the Thiel Foundation. “That makes our selection process harder, but we’re not complaining: skipping college used to be unthinkably risky; then it became annoyingly cool; now it’s rightfully seen as no big deal—the responsible move for talented young people eager to build new things in the real world.”
About the 2017 Thiel Fellows
Ashish Pandhi (New York, NY)
Bettr
Software
Ashish
founded Bettr, a service that creates a more unified social media
management experience.
Colton Jang (Berkeley, CA)
Machine Learning
Colton
is working on a machine learning company.
Daria Evdokimova (Moscow, Russia / San Francisco, CA)
VoiceOps
Artificial
Intelligence
Daria founded VoiceOps, an AI platform for
analyzing enterprise voice. The platform analyzes sales and support
conversations to maximize successful outcomes.
Dean Travers (London, England / Boston, MA)
Luminopia
Digital
Therapeutics
Dean is CEO and co-founder of Luminopia, a virtual
reality healthcare startup initially focused on treating lazy eye.
Fred Turner (Halifax, UK / Santa Clara, CA)
TL Biolabs
Genomics
Fred
founded TL Biolabs, a company building a low-cost genotyping platform
for farmers to understand an animal’s likely productivity and disease
susceptibility at birth, allowing for increased profits and reduced
environmental impact.
Helson Taveras (San Francisco, CA)
Riley
Real
Estate Technology
Helson founded Riley, which provides lead
qualification as a service. Riley helps businesses prioritize their
sales leads by responding to them within two minutes, 24/7.
Iddo Gino (Haifa, Israel / San Francisco, CA)
RapidAPI
Software
Iddo
founded RapidAPI, which helps nearly half a million developers find,
test, and deploy APIs.
James Graham (Boston, MA)
Caffeine
Enterprise
Software
James founded Caffeine, which uses a new Internet
protocol to improve the load-speed of mobile apps by up to three times.
Jesper Theil Thomsen (Virum, Denmark / Los Angeles)
SOUNDBOKS
Hardware
Jesper
is CEO of SOUNDBOKS. Its first product is the world’s loudest
battery-powered speaker.
Jordan DeCicco (New York, NY)
Sunniva
Health/Wellness
Jordan
founded Sunniva, whose first product, SuperCoffee, blends coffee,
protein, and superfoods.
Jorge Izquierdo (Madrid, Spain)
Aragon
Cryptocurrency
Jorge
founded Aragon, a platform for creating and managing effective
decentralized organizations using blockchain technology to enhance
corporate governance.
Laura Vaughan (Ottawa, Canada / Waterloo, Canada)
Acorn
Cryotech
Biotechnology
Laura is co-founder of
Acorn Cryotech, a biotechnology company that conveniently cryopreserves
clients’ stem cells.
Lani Lazzari (Pittsburgh, PA)
Simple Sugars
Skincare/Beauty
Lani
founded Simple Sugars, an all-natural skincare line developed especially
for sensitive skin. Simple Sugars products are sold online and in over
400 retail locations throughout the US.
Mark Prokoudine (Moscow / Toronto / San Francisco)
Kickback
Gaming
Mark
is CEO of Kickback, a company building the casino of the future.
Kickback allows users to bet on video games like CS:GO and DotA.
Micah Green (Austin, TX)
Maidbot
Robotics
Micah
founded Maidbot, a robotics company that created the first housekeeping
robot for hotels.
Nicholas Shekerdemian (London / San Francisco / Hong Kong)
Headstart
Recruitment
Software
Nicholas co-founded Headstart, which uses machine
learning to help companies identify who they should hire.
Peeyush Shirvastava (Kuala Belait, Brunei / Mason, Ohio)
Genetesis
Medical
Device
Peeyush is CEO of Genetesis, a medical device company
that developed CardioFlux, an imaging platform that leverages
next-generation sensors and advanced computing to noninvasively measure
and analyze the heart’s natural magnetic fields.
Phat Le (Portland, OR)
Sleeker
SaaS
Phat
is a founder of Sleeker, which uses unique insights and data to help
auto service centers increase revenue via effective scheduling and
customer messaging.
Prahasith Veluvolu (Indianapolis)
Mimir
Software
Prahasith
is CEO of Mimir, which builds a classroom automation tool for computer
science and programming courses.
Robert Kirstiuk (New Brunswick, Canada / Vancouver / Seattle)
Coastline
Market
Seafood Marketplace
Robert is CEO and
co-founder of Coastline Market, a predictive marketplace that allows
commercial seafood harvesters to sell their fish to storefront
businesses in advance of boat landings.
Sam Bernstein (New York, NY)
LoftSmart
Real
Estate Technology
Sam is CEO and co-founder of LoftSmart, the first
end-to-end marketplace for student rentals. Students across the country
use LoftSmart to discover, lease, and pay for local rentals instantly.
Shahed Kahn (San Francisco, CA)
Loom
SaaS
Shahed
founded Loom, a cloud-based video messaging service used by more than
200,000 employees at companies such as Hubspot, Uber, and Nielsen.
Sol Chen (Cambridge, MA)
Clara
Health
Technology
Sol founded Clara, which is building a platform to
support patients throughout the clinical trial process, from
identification to enrollment and beyond.
Tara Bosch (Vancouver, BC)
Smart Sweets
Wellness
Tara
founded SmartSweets. SmartSweets innovates confectionary products that
kick sugar - naturally.
Zaid Rahman (Dubai, United Arab Emirates/ San Francisco, CA)
Volley
Artificial
Intelligence
Zaid is CEO of Volley, an artificial intelligence
company focused on personalizing enterprise learning.
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