Portfolio
Portfolio
Meet the Desai Accelerator portfolio
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.
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.
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.
2018 COHORT
FOUNDED BY ELISABETH MICHEL, ANN DUONG, BRANDON KEELEAN
Canopy is a web application that helps people talk about, make and share their end-of-life healthcare decisions with loved ones and medical providers through an advance care directive. By supporting both individuals and healthcare systems through advance care planning services and legal documentation, Canopy provides value across the healthcare ecosystem.
FOUNDED BY JON CURSI
Cheddur is a mobile and web platform that brings safety, accountability and legitimacy to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Beginners use it to discover, learn about and get started with any cryptocurrency in a fun and easy way. Experts use it to share their wisdom, knowledge and experience in exchange for cold, hard cash. And crypto companies use it to grow their communities by connecting with new users and investors.
FOUNDED BY ALEXANDER MILLS
Fluity offers an automated software service for rapid manufacturing. Today, machine shops spend countless hours bidding on new contracts and reprogramming machine tools. Fluity eliminates this bottleneck through automated processing of jobs into production-ready formats, and by simulating those jobs to provide precise, turn-key quotes based on actual metrics, not guesswork. With Fluity, shops can quote confidently and immediately enter production when they sign a contract.
FOUNDED BY DAWN VERBRIGGHE, NATALIE BRUNO, JORDAN ADEMA
Jottful is a SaaS solution that reimagines website ownership for the 4.6 million mom-and-pop small businesses that need an effective and modern website to be competitive — but have been left behind by agencies that cost too much and do-it-yourself software they find daunting to use. Jottful delivers mobile-responsive websites that are as easy to update as typing an email. With Jottful, every small business can benefit from an effective and affordable online presence, without all the hassle.
FOUNDED BY KIM GAMEZ
Mi Padrino is an online application that makes the planning and paying for Hispanic events, such as quinceañeras, weddings and baptisms, easy and effective. Mi Padrino offers planning resources, personal event pages and crowdfunding features tailored to the Hispanic community—a population that has been underserved until now.
FOUNDED BY ANSGAR STROTHER, ADAM JAKIELA
Movatic is a software platform that makes mobility hardware shareable. On the Movatic app, users can find, rent and pay for different mobility services—and the app's back-end allows for these services to be managed, pricing to be set, hardware to be maintained and customers to be supported.
2018 COHORT
FOUNDED BY ELISABETH MICHEL, ANN DUONG, BRANDON KEELEAN
Canopy is a web application that helps people talk about, make and share their end-of-life healthcare decisions with loved ones and medical providers through an advance care directive. By supporting both individuals and healthcare systems through advance care planning services and legal documentation, Canopy provides value across the healthcare ecosystem.
FOUNDED BY JON CURSI
Cheddur is a mobile and web platform that brings safety, accountability and legitimacy to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Beginners use it to discover, learn about and get started with any cryptocurrency in a fun and easy way. Experts use it to share their wisdom, knowledge and experience in exchange for cold, hard cash. And crypto companies use it to grow their communities by connecting with new users and investors.
FOUNDED BY ALEXANDER MILLS
Fluity offers an automated software service for rapid manufacturing. Today, machine shops spend countless hours bidding on new contracts and reprogramming machine tools. Fluity eliminates this bottleneck through automated processing of jobs into production-ready formats, and by simulating those jobs to provide precise, turn-key quotes based on actual metrics, not guesswork. With Fluity, shops can quote confidently and immediately enter production when they sign a contract.
FOUNDED BY DAWN VERBRIGGHE, NATALIE BRUNO, JORDAN ADEMA
Jottful is a SaaS solution that reimagines website ownership for the 4.6 million mom-and-pop small businesses that need an effective and modern website to be competitive — but have been left behind by agencies that cost too much and do-it-yourself software they find daunting to use. Jottful delivers mobile-responsive websites that are as easy to update as typing an email. With Jottful, every small business can benefit from an effective and affordable online presence, without all the hassle.
FOUNDED BY KIM GAMEZ
Mi Padrino is an online application that makes the planning and paying for Hispanic events, such as quinceañeras, weddings and baptisms, easy and effective. Mi Padrino offers planning resources, personal event pages and crowdfunding features tailored to the Hispanic community—a population that has been underserved until now.
FOUNDED BY ANSGAR STROTHER, ADAM JAKIELA
Movatic is a software platform that makes mobility hardware shareable. On the Movatic app, users can find, rent and pay for different mobility services—and the app's back-end allows for these services to be managed, pricing to be set, hardware to be maintained and customers to be supported.
