What's New at Company Ventures: AI Learn-a-Thon, a New Residency Cohort, And More

👋 What's new at Company Ventures

Hello? Is this thing on? It's been a minute since we've communicated with our mailing list. Clear of the twists and turns of COVID, we're rededicating ourselves to communicating more regularly with you, our community. So expect to see a newsletter from us quarterly summarizing the latest and greatest from Company Ventures, but also offering opportunities for you to engage. Without further ado... 

Which of the following best describes your feelings on AI?a. I'm worried about AI's ethical implications.b. AI makes me feel unsure about the long-term strategy of my business.c. I'm excited about technology again because of the promise of AI.d. AI makes me want to build and learn new fundamental skills.e. AI gives me existential angst.f. OtherChoose all that apply—and then apply to join our AI learn-a-thon on April 21! We'll be having candid conversations around the state of AI today. Whether you're AI curious, an AI builder, or a little freaked out by AI, come — no matter your level of sophistication or orientation towards AI, you'll walk away with a better understanding of artificial intelligence (we'll be orienting the programming around attendees' varying levels of expertise). Apply here.

Nine years ago, we launched Grand Central Tech — our zero-rent, zero-equity residency program for early stage startups — with one central objective: to build an exceptional venture community. Our branding has evolved over time, as has our scale and resources, but this has always been our north star. We combine space, programming, expertise, and capital in unique fashion to accelerate success for exceptional founders and startups. Since 2014, we’ve graduated more than 300 founders across 162 companies who have collectively gone on to raise >$3B in funding from the world’s top venture firms.

Last week we welcomed our newest cohort to the Grand Central Tech family and we’re excited to introduce to you the spring 2023 GCT cohort. Read about the companies in our cohort on our website.

📝 Community updates

• Recent fundraising updates from our community: Wingspan raises a $14M Series A to improve payroll for contractors; Passthrough raises a $10M Series A to streamline investor onboarding; Elaborate raises a $10M seed round to modernize health diagnostics. 

• We announced the publication of our DEI Playbook for early stage startups, in collaboration with JPMorgan Chase Commercial Banking. This resource gives operators for early stage startups a quick guide to developing a lens for DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) across their business with a set of tools and resources for building an inclusive culture, thoughtful hiring practices, and better methods for product design. Want to learn more? Download the full playbook from our website. 

• ​​Join us in-person for the inaugural Boost Founder Fellowship Demo Day. This is an opportunity to meet and interact with talented, diverse founders who are actively fundraising as they build their tech companies here in NYC. RSVP here.

🏙 Our city partnership programs 

This year marks milestones for two of our programs run in partnership with the New York City Economic Development Corporation: the launch of the Boost Founder Fellowship and the second cohort of the City Fellowship at Company Ventures. We established the City Fellowship because we believe that the expertise embedded in the venture community should be made available to a broader audience than the people who typically have access to these resources. Check out coverage of the new City Fellowship cohort in Crain’s New York, featuring our head of impact Lindsay Siegel. 

We’re also proud to announce the launch of our newest program: the Boost Founder Fellowship. Boost is part of the citywide Founder Fellowship program, coordinated by NYCEDC and supporting 100 tech founder teams. Our 4-month program works with founders from historically underserved backgrounds leading venture-scalable tech startups raising pre-seed or seed rounds of funding. The program offers an array of free services and culturally competent support founders need to successfully scale their businesses, including partnerships with Gunderson, Goodie Nation, and the Diversity Marketing Consortium.

We are invested in creating a more inclusive tech ecosystem. For years Company has been working with the City University of New York (CUNY) to facilitate a paid internship program for CUNY students and recent grads to work for startups in our community. This program works — 41% of interns last year continued full-time/part-time/contract work with their host company after their program ended. This summer we are again matching CUNY students with startups in our community through CUNY’s Internship to Employment program, an important way for the diverse student body, including many first-gen college students, to break into tech careers. One of our 2022 interns wrote about her 'transformative' experience with City Fellowship organization Leap Fund—read about it here.

🎶 Culture Club 

We (the Company Ventures team and our friends from the fall 2022 Grand Central Cohort and the City Fellowship) collaborated on a playlist of some of our favorite songs to listen to on the commute, or do some deep focus work to. It's all on Spotify for you to enjoy. It's a pretty good mix, if we do say so ourselves. Check it out— you might just hear some of these songs the next time you stop by 22 Vanderbilt for a mixer.