Portfolio
Portfolio
Meet the Desai Accelerator portfolio
Meet the Desai Accelerator portfolio
2024 COHORT
FOUNDED BY WILLIAM I. Y. BYUN, DANIEL TINAJERO, LI QIU
California Climate Exchange, Inc. (“CCEX”) is a social enterprise that provides climate change and sustainability-related corporate management services, including revenue generation through climate-related credits, sustainability project development, consulting, and exchange market platform services for revenue-positive corporate and enterprise net-zero and sustainability activities. CCEX is a minority-owned business and registered as California C Corporation.
FOUNDED BY BADRI VEERA
At Crigloo, our mission is to revolutionize the marketing and ad tech space by providing small and medium-sized businesses, startups, and agencies with accessible, AI-driven solutions. We are obsessed with democratizing AI to empower our clients to run cost-effective marketing campaigns without the need for costly consultants and providing superior customer experience and satisfaction.
FOUNDED BY MATTHEW STONE, KALEB NEKUMANESH
Ludare by Pathless Productions is a game subscription service meant to support indie developers based on the way you play their games. This helps players support in the ways they already love by playing games, and developers be rewarded for doing what they like, developing and maintaining great games.
FOUNDED BY VISHAL CHANDAWARKAR, ARTHUR YIDI
Verbalista is a multilingual communication assistant for global teams. Think in Spanish, work in English. Verbalista understands your company terminology and adapts to your communication style, creating translations relevant to you and your business.
FOUNDED BY SHAMS JUMA
The issue X-Ray tackles is the significant impact suboptimal product descriptions and visuals have on the entire e-commerce process. When sellers struggle to create compelling content, their products often go unnoticed, reducing discoverability and conversion rates. This not only limits sales but results in lost revenue opportunities.
2023 COHORT
Bastion
FOUNDED BY SEBASTIEN PATINO, EDDIE JUNG
Bastion's platform makes online fitness coaching accessible to anyone by offering world-class coaches for any fitness goal at a large range of budgets. Online coaches obtain a sustainable stream of clients and clients rest easy knowing that they are hiring a reliable, qualified coach. The platform gives coaches full autonomy to choose their pricing and training methods.
FOUNDED BY IAN HERDEGEN AND JACOB GLICK
BuyMySpot partners with landlords and lot owners on busy college campuses to rent out available parking spots with a central marketplace, connecting people to affordable and convenient long-term parking options on campus. BuyMySpot also employs an Airbnb model for large events, such as college football game days. With the platform, sellers avoid having to hold up cardboard signs on game days and can rent out their spare driveway spaces in advance.
FOUNDED BY DOLAN DWORAK, LIZ LOEHER, NOAM JACOBVITZ
Deal Dog is a localized marketplace app for college students with transactions that are common and unique to college campuses—such as student tickets, subleases, parking spots, furniture, and clothing. DealDog verifies students' addresses before they are able to buy/sell items to ensure there are zero bots and scammers.
FOUNDED BY IAN LEVINE, COLIN SMALL
ModernVivo is developing a software suite that provides crucial data to quickly design in-vivo animal experiments optimized for clinical success. The use of well-performing in-vivo models is pivotal for successful drug development. Using mass amounts of data from academic literature and proprietary client data, ModernVivo's model understands the wide variety of experimental conditions used in common animal models. The final output provides clients with a set of experimental conditions optimized to their individual needs, whether that be clinical success, cost, or speed.
FOUNDED BY WILLIAM CRANE
OrbAid's SaaS platform accelerates the transition to reducing carbon emissions and material waste by providing a profitable sustainability path and ongoing recommendations for manufacturers to improve sustainability.
2022 COHORT
FOUNDED BY JULIE SALTMAN, JOELL STOCCHERO, STEPHEN SOLKA
Lawyers have access to more information than ever before but they have no way to quickly find the best information and assess the credibility and quality of resources within their firm's systems. Standd is like an omniscient virtual librarian who helps lawyers find the right information for the work they're doing based on their preferences, so that they can gain a competitive edge in their cases.
FOUNDED BY BRENDAN HART
idX is a freestyle skiing and snowboarding app that gives anyone the opportunity to write the style of skiing and snowboarding from anywhere. idX allows you to understand, upload, and build your bag of tricks so that you can get noticed by the crew, sponsors, events, and the world. Underpinning idX is a data driven solution that helps brands and businesses lower their customer acquisition cost, action sport participants gain insight on talent and investment decisions, and action sports grow.
FOUNDED BY KIRK TURRENTINE & TYRAN CHANDLER
Detroit Design & Technology, Inc. is a Web3 firm committed to data privacy, control, and interoperability, with the goal of developing an open standard centered on our digital identity solution, Seeme. Seeme is a web and mobile-based identity assurance and authentication ecosystem for companies that rely on the identities of their customers in their business activities or services.
FOUNDED BY NATHAN REYNOLDS, AADISH SHAH, ALEX ELCONIN
College students want dating to be fun and casual, and their needs are not met by dating apps that display stale, static content or advocate serious relationships. Dabl is a video-based dating app designed to mimic how the 20+ million college student market dates and interacts online.
2024 COHORT
FOUNDED BY WILLIAM I. Y. BYUN, DANIEL TINAJERO, LI QIU
California Climate Exchange, Inc. (“CCEX”) is a social enterprise that provides climate change and sustainability-related corporate management services, including revenue generation through climate-related credits, sustainability project development, consulting, and exchange market platform services for revenue-positive corporate and enterprise net-zero and sustainability activities. CCEX is a minority-owned business and registered as California C Corporation.
FOUNDED BY BADRI VEERA
At Crigloo, our mission is to revolutionize the marketing and ad tech space by providing small and medium-sized businesses, startups, and agencies with accessible, AI-driven solutions. We are obsessed with democratizing AI to empower our clients to run cost-effective marketing campaigns without the need for costly consultants and providing superior customer experience and satisfaction.
FOUNDED BY MATTHEW STONE, KALEB NEKUMANESH
Ludare by Pathless Productions is a game subscription service meant to support indie developers based on the way you play their games. This helps players support in the ways they already love by playing games, and developers be rewarded for doing what they like, developing and maintaining great games.
FOUNDED BY VISHAL CHANDAWARKAR AND ARTHUR YIDI
Verbalista is a multilingual communication assistant for global teams. Think in Spanish, work in English. Verbalista understands your company terminology and adapts to your communication style, creating translations relevant to you and your business.
FOUNDED BY SHAMS JUMA
The issue X-Ray tackles is the significant impact suboptimal product descriptions and visuals have on the entire e-commerce process. When sellers struggle to create compelling content, their products often go unnoticed, reducing discoverability and conversion rates. This not only limits sales but results in lost revenue opportunities.
2023 COHORT
FOUNDED BY SEBASTIEN PATINO, EDDIE JUNG
Bastion's platform makes online fitness coaching accessible to anyone by offering world-class coaches for any fitness goal at a large range of budgets. Online coaches obtain a sustainable stream of clients and clients rest easy knowing that they are hiring a reliable, qualified coach. The platform gives coaches full autonomy to choose their pricing and training methods.
FOUNDED BY IAN HERDEGEN AND JACOB GLICK
BuyMySpot partners with landlords and lot owners on busy college campuses to rent out available parking spots with a central marketplace, connecting people to affordable and convenient long-term parking options on campus. BuyMySpot also employs an Airbnb model for large events, such as college football game days. With the platform, sellers avoid having to hold up cardboard signs on game days and can rent out their spare driveway spaces in advance.
FOUNDED BY DOLAN DWORAK, LIZ LOEHER, NOAM JACOBVITZ
Deal Dog is a localized marketplace app for college students with transactions that are common and unique to college campuses—such as student tickets, subleases, parking spots, furniture, and clothing. DealDog verifies students' addresses before they are able to buy/sell items to ensure there are zero bots and scammers.
FOUNDED BY IAN LEVINE AND COLIN SMALL
ModernVivo is developing a software suite that provides crucial data to quickly design in-vivo animal experiments optimized for clinical success. The use of well-performing in-vivo models is pivotal for successful drug development. Using mass amounts of data from academic literature and proprietary client data, ModernVivo's model understands the wide variety of experimental conditions used in common animal models. The final output provides clients with a set of experimental conditions optimized to their individual needs, whether that be clinical success, cost, or speed.
FOUNDED BY WILLIAM CRANE
OrbAid's SaaS platform accelerates the transition to reducing carbon emissions and material waste by providing a profitable sustainability path and ongoing recommendations for manufacturers to improve sustainability.
2022 COHORT
FOUNDED BY JULIE SALTMAN, JOELL STOCCHERO, STEPHEN SOLKA
Lawyers have access to more information than ever before but they have no way to quickly find the best information and assess the credibility and quality of resources within their firm's systems. Standd is like an omniscient virtual librarian who helps lawyers find the right information for the work they're doing based on their preferences, so that they can gain a competitive edge in their cases.
FOUNDED BY BRENDAN HART
IdX is a freestyle skiing and snowboarding platform that allows a community to watch, learn, and search for all kinds of tricks. The platform and community makes it easy for anyone from amateurs to pros to advance their skills, connect with pro athletes, mountains/training programs, and coaches via subscriptions to progress and build a bag of tricks so that a rider can be featured in competitions or get sponsors.
FOUNDED BY KIRK TURRENTINE AND TYRAN CHANDLER
Detroit Design & Technology, Inc. is a Web3 firm committed to data privacy, control, and interoperability, with the goal of developing an open standard centered on our digital identity solution, Seeme. Seeme is a web and mobile-based identity assurance and authentication ecosystem for companies that rely on the identities of their customers in their business activities or services.
FOUNDED BY NATHAN REYNOLDS, AADISH SHAH, ALEX ELCONIN
College students want dating to be fun and casual, and their needs are not met by dating apps that display stale, static content or advocate serious relationships. Dabl is a video-based dating app designed to mimic how the 20+ million college student market dates and interacts online.
2021 COHORT
FOUNDED BY IMANI RICKERBY, JASMINE SNEAD, SYDNEY PARKER
Aurora Tights is a niche performance athletic brand that produces and sells shade and size-inclusive tights for women of color, and athletes in performance sports such as ice skating, dance, cheer, and gymnastics. Aurora primarily sells tights D2C in five shades, two styles, and seven sizes.
FOUNDED BY AROHI JAIN
The BreezeBubble is a smart mask with a flexible edge design that provides high comfort, breathability, and protection. BreezeBubble’s next product is a high-tech version of this mask with a fan component for increased breathability.
FOUNDED BY AMULYA PARMAR & VARUN MADAN
LeaseMagnets is the first video-based digital leasing assistant that can be installed as an overlay to any apartment website, making it easier for renters to imagine what life really is like living at that property.
FOUNDED BY HUGH DAVIS, SOPHIE VANDEN BOSCH
Revolin Sports provides conscientious athletes with high performance, sustainable sporting equipment. They utilize cutting edge, renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable materials and sustainable manufacturing processes to create equipment that performs as well or better than existing products.
2021 COHORT
FOUNDED BY IMANI RICKERBY & JASMINE SNEAD & SYDNEY PARKER
Aurora Tights is a niche performance athletic brand that produces and sells shade and size-inclusive tights for women of color and athletes in performance sports such as ice skating, dance, cheer, and gymnastics. Aurora primarily sells tights direct-to-consumer in five shades, two styles, and seven sizes.
FOUNDED BY AROHI JAIN
The BreezeBubble is a smart mask with a flexible edge design that provides high comfort, breathability, and protection. BreezeBubble’s next product is a high-tech version of this mask with a fan component for increased breathability.
FOUNDED BY AMULYA PARMAR & VARUN MADAN
LeaseMagnets is the first video-based digital leasing assistant that can be installed as an overlay to any apartment website, making it easier for renters to imagine what life really is like living at that property.
FOUNDED BY HUGH DAVIS SOPHIE & VANDEN BOSCH
Revolin Sports provides conscientious athletes with high performance, sustainable sporting equipment. They utilize cutting edge, renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable materials and sustainable manufacturing processes to create equipment that performs as well or better than existing products.
2020 COHORT
FOUNDED BY NANA BRITWUM & JANNICE NEWSON
Lillian Augusta revolutionizes Black hair care by offering plant- based braiding hair, an alternative to the traditional plastic-based braiding hair that causes discomfort for women who wear it and plastic pollution in our environment. Combating plastic pollution will require solutions on all fronts, and our contribution is hair without harm.
FOUNDED BY NATALIE FANG
Nochi is a studio creating games with educational content in the form of young adult, visual novel entertainment while providing game-related experiences and merchandise related to its original IPs. Nochi's developed apps combine the two genres of manga (graphic novels) and gaming.
FOUNDED BY RIMA IMAD FADLALLAH & YASMEEN KADOUH
Thawra aspires to be the largest and most impactful media company representing Arabs and Muslims through authentic content. Audiences can feel proud of how they are depicted in Thawra. In 2019, Thawra launched its first production, the Dearborn Girl podcast.
FOUNDED BY ADAM SMIDDY, MICHAEL SKOWRONSKI, TONI SUH, MALCOLM CHILDS
The mission of YourCheck is to become the Credit Karma of background checks. We will provide a service that allows anyone to obtain their background checks and a Trusty score, indicating the individuals’ trustworthiness based on our unique algorithm.
FOUNDED BY ANGEL RODRIGUEZ
Vitresoft is a privacy-conscious Brain Computer Interface startup developing a revolutionary pair of earphones that allow you to connect with yourself, friends, and the digital world, using your mind. Utilizing our patent-pending approach, users and developers will have access to an intuitive digital toolset allowing them to create expressive art, share intimate experiences, and have a deeper insight into their own thoughts and emotions.
2020 COHORT
FOUNDED BY NANA BRITWUM & JANNICE NEWSON
Lillian Augusta revolutionizes Black hair care by offering plant- based braiding hair, an alternative to the traditional plastic-based braiding hair that causes discomfort for women who wear it and plastic pollution in our environment. Combating plastic pollution will require solutions on all fronts, and our contribution is hair without harm.
FOUNDED BY NATALIE FANG
Nochi is a studio creating games with educational content in the form of young adult, visual novel entertainment while providing game-related experiences and merchandise related to its original IPs. Nochi's developed apps combine the two genres of manga (graphic novels) and gaming.
