DreamIt Ventures Announces Its First Batch Of NYC Startups

@ripemp / 2:35 pm PDT • May 9, 2011

In January of this year, DreamIt Ventures, a Philadelphia-based VC firm and startup accelerator, announced that it would be expanding to the Big Apple, creating a startup accelerator program based in New York City.

The program offers $25,000 in seed funding to its portfolio companies, along with coaching, exclusive speaking engagements, a chance to pitch at a Demo Day to affiliated angel and venture investors, and a collaborative workspace.

After reviewing hundreds of applications over the first quarter of this year, today DreamIt is officially announcing its final NYC roster. The program will include 15 startups that hail from all over the U.S. The selected companies include students and alumni from Harvard Business School, Wharton, Yale, and Carnegie Mellon, and its founders boast prior experience at companies including Yahoo!, Microsoft, American Express, and McKinsey. Like DreamIt’s Philly program, 5 of the 15 startups are digital education businesses and were selected in partnership with Startl — a social enterprise dedicated to accelerating digital innovations for learning.

All 15 companies will spend the summer working out of 6,000 square-foot of shared office space at 28 West 27th Street in downtown NYC. The program is set to run through mid-August, at which point DreamIt will host a Demo Day to showcase each company’s summer progress.

The advisors for the accelerator program’s summer class includes Gil Beyda, founder of RealMedia (acquired by WPP), Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, founders of FutureNow and both New York Times bestselling authors, Jonathan Shapiro, the CEO of MediaWhiz and former Chief Strategy Officer at Doubleclick, Jonah Goodhart, co-founder of Colonize.com and board member of Right Media, and Michael Yavondite, current CEO of Hashable and former CEO of Quigo, which was acquired by AOL.

So, without further ado, here is a brief introduction to the 15 startups participating in DreamIt’s inaugural NYC program: