Atlanta Tech Village (the Village), America’s fourth-largest tech hub, is excited to announce its third graduating class from its “It Takes A Village” pre-accelerator program. The four-month program helps diverse founders hurdle the obstacles preventing them from getting to the next level by providing space to work with like-minded individuals, advice from seasoned professionals and educational workshops to strengthen skills.
Manifesting Diversity & Inclusion
It Takes A Village is Atlanta Tech Village’s diversity and inclusion initiative that emphasizes the importance of supporting diverse perspectives and inclusive work environments in technology. Launched in 2018, the program operates on the belief that a community with different skill sets, backgrounds and cultures is needed to produce the most productive and innovative companies. Additionally, the initiative prepares participating startups for milestones that include admission into an accelerator program, seed investment and pilots.
“We launched the It Takes A Village program to give early-stage startups led by women and people of color the opportunity to gain direct access to community, education, mentorship and capital at no cost or equity exchange to them,” notes Karen Houghton, vice president of Atlanta Tech Village. “This was an incredibly strong cohort of founders that have now become part of the Village family. The program now has a combined $450,000-plus raised in seed investments and $1.8 million generated in revenue with this third cohort. We are so proud to know all of these founders and look forward to celebrating their continued progress.”
Graduating 2019 Spring “It Takes A Village” founders include:
- Construwise – Dana James
- ScrapSports – Niesha Butler
- Activvely – Stefanie Jewett
- Spirit – Connor Ford
- Omodé – Justina Olatunde-Davis
- SweatPack – Umama Kibria
- Musicbuk – Dumarkus Davis
- Click-A-Shift – Ariam Sium
- Smart Convos Inc. – Danielle Major
The It Takes A Village Scholarship
This year, the Village welcomes a new partner of the graduation. Audi will sponsor a full-year scholarship at the Village valued at more than $3,500 for the winner of the live-vote crowd-favorite pitch at spring graduation – Umama Kibria, founder of SweatPack.
Applications are now open for the It Takes A Village pre-accelerator program 2019 fall cohort. Learn more and apply here: https://atlantatechvillage.com/programs/pre-accelerator-program/.
About Atlanta Tech Village
Atlanta Tech Village (the Village) is a community of technology innovation powered by a 103,000-square-foot office building in the heart of Buckhead dedicated to fostering the growth of new, disruptive technology startups. As one of the fastest-growing technology startup centers and co-working communities in the Southeast and the fourth-largest in the United States, the Village is dedicated to fostering innovation, encouraging collaboration and driving economic development in the Atlanta community and beyond.
Media Contact:
Morgan Tatum
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(404) 214-0722 Ext. 127
