S1: 00:02 Hello, hello. Welcome, everybody. You are welcome to pop on your video. It's always nice to see your face if you like, but no pressure, whatever feels most comfortable for you. Excited you all are here today. I'll give it maybe a minute or so more so that we can have everybody join and get started at the same time. But I am really excited you're all here and excited to hear all the questions that you have about Remarkable and all the fun that we can have together this year through the accelerator.
S2: 00:47 And, Molly, if you want to spotlight yourself, then you're going to be in the video with me. Otherwise, I think I'm the only one in the video.
S1: 00:53 I mean, you look great. I'm good with that. [laughter]
S3: 01:04 Molly, I'm very glad to see that everybody is not in a suit and tie or a button-down or something like that. I was like trying to figure out like, "What am I supposed to wear to this?" I just showed up, so.
S1: 01:17 I mean, I would say come as you are, but that's kind of how we roll here. Definitely not more like Boston, New York. We're a little more casual here. All right. So I am going to share my screen quickly. And we will start off today just showing you a video of Remarkable and kind of the work that we do. And then I will hop into a quick presentation about what the accelerator is about. Apologies for the pausing. I am also letting people in from the waiting rooms. And then we'll jump into your questions at the end. So let's get going. And if there is anything you can't hear, see, any accessibility things, let me know. This should share.
S4: 02:28 Various scenes of disabled people--
S1: 02:30 Supposed to share with captions. Let's try that again.
S4: 02:48 Various scenes of disabled people in day-to-day activities.
S5: 02:51 Many of the greatest technological advances enabling the world right now.
S4: 02:55 A girl brushes her teeth.
S5: 02:57 We're originally created by.
S4: 02:59 A workshop.
S5: 03:00 And four people with disabilities.
S4: 03:01 A family has a sign language video call. Rapid views of deaf and disabled people with disabilities, utilizing various technologies enhancing their aptitude.
S5: 03:09 Remarkable exists to amplify those innovators.
S4: 03:12 A man in an electric wheelchair.
S5: 03:13 To help transform their ideas into revolutionary tools whose benefits are felt universally.
S4: 03:19 A high-tech diagram. Men in wheelchairs in the gym. A man and woman walk with prosthetic legs. A mechanical hand is activated.
S5: 03:25 Because technology can not only drive inclusion and equity for people with disabilities.
S4: 03:30 People apply technology.
S5: 03:31 It can do it for everyone.
S4: 03:33 Scenes of the disabled, empowered by technology. A girl plays a keyboard. A man with a prosthetic leg dives into a swimming pool. A man weight trains. Another man joyfully finishes a race. A senior woman looks through virtual reality goggles. A blind man walks down a street. A girl embraces a gymnast. A woman types on a screen. A man in a wheelchair waves to a cheering audience. A little girl tries on glasses.
S5: 03:53 Remarkable disability tech, amplifying every human's potential.
S4: 03:57 Made possible by Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation. Various scenes--
S1: 04:09 Okay. So that was just a preview. And I know some of you all came in while we were sharing that. So that was just kind of an overview of what we've done in Remarkable and who supports us. So now we're going to get into the programming. But before we start, I just wanted to take a minute. And I got all your accessibility requests, but I wanted to pause and see if anybody was having any accessibility issues, anything that you might need support on immediately, feel free to drop that in the chat or come off mute at any point if you are not able to access that. So without further ado, let's get into what Remarkable is about. Everyone see my screen okay? Yeah? Okay, so.
S4: 05:15 Various scenes--
S1: 05:17 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
S4: 05:18 Various scenes of disabled people and--
S1: 05:25 Okay. So today, what we're going to talk about is about Remarkable, about our Accelerator program specifically, what the startups are looking for, what startups we're looking for in this year's cohort, how to craft a successful application, and any questions that you might have. I will audio describe slides as they come on for all relevant information. And as you can see, we also have an ASL interpreter who is on with us today. So Remarkable was founded in Sydney, Australia in 2014. We're one of the longest-running assistive technology accelerators in the world. We started through an organization called the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which is one of the largest direct service providers for people with disabilities in Australia. Three and a half years ago, they tapped their sister organization in New York, the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, to bring Remarkable to America. So they brought me on four years ago to look at the American market to think about how we can get assistive technology into the hands of the people who need it. So we have supported across both programs around 120 startups that are all building products for people with disabilities. You may have heard me say that we are funded by a Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation. It means that we look at all disabilities because CP is co-occurring with so many different disabilities. And so we've had companies that focus on blindness, mobility, health-related devices, things like that. We really look across the spectrum of disability. And so if you are building anything in the disability or aging space, we could be a good home for you.
S1: 07:22 Remarkable itself has a variety of different programs that we offer, and these are global programs. So we have opportunities. We have our insights podcast. We have research, and we have designathons that really started the beginning around the problem statements in the disability space. We just concluded our launcher program, which is for earlier stage, kind of just getting out an idea, getting out a prototype, really at that beginning stage, testing your market. That just wrapped up. We'll run another one next year. You're here for the Accelerator Program. This is two programs. So there's a US program, and then there is what we call an Australia Plus program. The Australia Plus program and the US program run at the same time. We have overlapping resources, but the US one specifically is focused on US companies. And we are hitting that kind of product-market fit stage. So generally, we're looking for companies that are post-product, post-revenue, if you are kind of a consumer or a B2B company and if you are a med device, we realize that those things can take much longer. So we understand that you can come in a little earlier. Oh, I apologize. There's one last part, which is Scaler. So Scaler is a fund that we started about a year ago. It is kind of follow-on funding. So companies that are past accelerator stage that kind of need that funding to get to the next stage, we offer some additional funding that can be deployed kind of on a rolling basis.
S1: 09:14 So at Remarkable, we set out to accelerate groundbreaking startups that can have life-changing impact on disabled people while also proving the space has economic opportunity. I think that's really important. I've said that we are a nonprofit, but that does not mean that the impact that we believe is the most effective is charity, right? I think the charity model of disability is something that we all understand is not really the way forward. And we know that so many of the innovations that we use today had a genesis in accommodation, had a genesis in disability. And so we are looking for companies that both are making an incredible impact on the disabled space as well as companies that have the opportunity to grow in the more traditional startup sense of things. It does not mean that there isn't space for all kinds of companies, but these are the companies that we're looking at most specifically for the accelerator. And I think an important proof point for the market that this is a really investable space. So just to give you some stats on our US program, we've been running for three years. This will be our fourth year. We've accelerated 13 startups. So our cohorts are really small. They're really personalized. We'll talk more about that. Those 13 startups have gone on to raise $49 million in funding. They're serving 130,000 and growing customers. I say and growing because some of our startups serve a whole university, and that counts as one. So I'm guessing the number is much larger than this data set shows, but still a good impact, just the same.
S1: 11:05 They've secured 32 patents. They're exporting to seven countries. And 25% of the team members have disabilities. And that's really at the start. We do have really great data that says many of our companies go on to hire also people with disabilities. And so that number increases even after they leave the program. This is a slide that just has images of some of the startups that we've supported. So there's two men at the top walking with a cane. That is Wearworks. They help people navigate via haptics. So if you're blind, you're able to access your map via vibration. Participant makes low-cost wheelchairs for people in lower to middle-income countries that are really customizable. At the bottom, you'll see a woman wearing a bra that's spring rose. The founder of that company makes an adaptive bra that can be put on with one hand. Next to that, there's a man holding up a medical device. That's ORI. They make a reusable no-touch catheter that helps decrease the incidence of UTI versus people with spinal cord injury or people who need catheterization. Next to that is a man controlling his device with his face, and that is Cephalable. And they create a more accessible and effective way to interact with any device in the way that your body moves. These are just some examples. Two years ago, I could put all our startups pictures on this slide, and I could talk about them. But now we have many. And so I'm not going to tell you, go through every one of them. But I brought these up just to show you the range of the types of things that we invest in. It's across the board, really.
S1: 12:56 So what makes our accelerator unique? So I like to think about our accelerator in terms of our commitments to you because I know that the two most valuable resources a founder has are their equity and their time and an accelerator asks for both. And so I think it's really important for us to tell you what we will do. I've been a founder myself. I went through Y Combinator. I've been through multiple accelerators. I know a lot of accelerators are decelerators. And that is my worst nightmare, to run a decelerator for founders, but especially founders in this community that are doing such important work that needs to happen. So we really focus on accelerating. So our accelerator commitments are accelerate. We will accelerate you. We take the companies that we accept, and we do deep dives before the program starts. And our goal is really to get under the hood of what is happening. I say to our founders, "You've been accepted. Now you have to show us all your dirty laundry because otherwise we are going to be wildly unhelpful to you." And so we expect you to accelerate. And part of that acceleration process is being able to commit to it, right? Really being able to say, "I'm going to show you what's going on. I'm diving into this program with you. I believe in the capacity to accelerate through this program, and I'm in." So we'll accelerate you, but it's a two-way street.
S1: 14:33 Commitment number two, we will add value. We will add value while respecting your time because, again, I know your time is a premium, and we don't want to use it unless we believe that the time we're using is worthwhile to your company, which is why our accelerator's super personalized. I've never run it the same. It's been different every single year because every company is different every single year. And so it is very much built around who we have. Tailored, my point exactly. We will tailor the program to your startup. We'll make just-in-time content, just-in-time connections. We don't have a curriculum in the traditional sense. So we're not going to say like, "All our startups start out doing sales 101," and then by the end, they've done X, Y, or Z. That is not how I believe that you will accelerate. And so we really try to tailor who's coming, who's speaking, who you're meeting, what coaches you're working with, what mentors you're working with, right to the things you need that week. We won't always get it right because we'll have a medical device, and we'll have someone who's selling it somewhere else, right? So it won't always be perfect, but it will be really personalized. And then community. We have incredible community. I'll talk more about all the networks we're a part of. But we have the Head of Accessibility at Google, the Head of Accessibility at Intuit. We're connected to a 30 hospital network that includes Johns Hopkins and a whole bunch of the ones that you would know. We are connected to a ton of people in the community, disabled people who want to get feedback, who want to be a part of the companies that we support because they see the impact that they can have on their lives.
S1: 16:24 So you'll have that community. But I think even more importantly, you'll have the community of other founders that are going through this with you. I think being a founder is lonely. I think that being a founder in the disability space can be exceptionally lonely. It can be exceptionally hard. Fundraising is hard. We know that. So I think having this extended community, really close-knit community-- it's only 13 companies that have been through the US program so far, so they all know each other and they all support each other. I think there's a lot of value in that. Okay. So accelerator operating principles. We build programming around each startup's objectives and evaluate our success on our ability to accelerate them in those areas. So we have-- come in. We understand what's under the hood. We create OKRs with you. We have program objectives that you will meet. And then our collective goal, the accelerator team, the coaches, and you, is to say, "Okay, now we know where you need to be. Let's get you there." And we assess our success on if you get there. It's not just, "Did you do it? You came through the program." We look at that as a milestone for us. We really focus on developing the startup's understanding of accessibility and inclusion. It's a big part of this accelerator, something that I think you don't get in a lot of your more traditional accelerators. But you may be building for one part of the population, but that does not mean that you know everything about accessibility or you know everything about disability, and we want to support you in being able to be even more inclusive than you potentially already are.
S1: 18:20 And another focus that's kind of unique to us is we support leadership and team development. I think a good, functioning, healthy team is probably one of the make or break aspects of a startup. And I don't meet a lot of them, which isn't to say that all of our teams are wonderful, but I think every team can grow in this area if you want to be really successful. So we have an incredible leadership coach who really dives in with all of our teams. You meet every other week. She comes to all of our in-person events. She's done this now for three years, and she's changed the trajectory of some teams who really dive in with her. So that's kind of a special value-add that we are able to bring. Coaching and mentoring, the way that we'll do things, the way that we did things last year is you will meet with me every single Monday, and we'll go over what your goals are. Then I will find the correct coach, the correct mentor, to work with you on those specific things. So we have people who are unbelievable manufacturing, unbelievable hardware and software, unbelievable at fundraising. We have people in a lot of different areas who are paid coaches and are ready to hop in with you for whatever many hours you need that week. And so that's kind of how we use it as like, "I'll be your air traffic controller to figure out what you need," and then we'll make sure that you get the support that you need from our coaches and mentors every single week. [inaudible] connections. Cover that again on another slide.
S1: 20:06 So the programming is 16 weeks. This year, it runs from September 7th to January 7th. We will meet in person three times throughout the accelerator. And outside of that, it will be virtual programming every week. This year, the three in-person events will be-- the first week, our kickstart is in Massachusetts, really great time to come together, get started, set your goals, meet the other teams. Then we'll go to the Fort Lauderdale Abilities Expo where you'll really get to meet five, six thousand people with disabilities, people who serve them, get to know the community. Usually, we go to Chicago, but the timing is in Fort Lauderdale there this year. And my husband is very excited to go to Disney after, so should you want to make an extended trip. [laughter] And then we're really excited because we're going to go and do some version of a demo day at CES in Vegas in January. CES is really becoming a disability and accessibility place. It's where a ton of investors will be. And so for the first time, we're going to be able to bring our founders to that in January. And I think it'll be great. The investment we give is $50,000, and that is in the form of a safe note. I'm sorry, I haven't been looking at the chat well. I'm going to loop back to that question you just asked, John.
S1: 21:44 But the investment is a 50K safe note. If you look up the YC safe note, we're pretty much mirror that pretty closely. We try to come in with really fair terms. We will often match the terms of your current round. And our goal is not to take your equity in a big way that it makes your company difficult to move forward with. But the nice part about how we take equity is that it's kind of regenerative. So if you are wildly successful, which we all hope that you will be, and your company sells, your equity will then go back into our nonprofit and will go towards future founders that are building for people with disabilities. So it feels slightly less bad than just filling someone's pockets with money. You're kind of creating a ripple effect in the space. Okay. Coaching and mentoring, like I said, one-on-one coaching, mentors with subject matter expertise, and just-in-time connections. Okay. So community, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of our community, but it's like some of the more formal community that we have. So there's two cohorts that will be running mostly at the same time. You will have access to both cohorts. You'll have access to both the remarkable team here in the US and the remarkable team in Australia. You'll have access to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, which is the nonprofit in New York that is funding Remarkable here.
S1: 23:34 I see a few of my colleagues popped in. And then you'll have access to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which is the nonprofit in Australia that is funding the Australia Plus program. We have a 100, a 150 coaches, mentors, alumni, lots of people that you'll be able to have access to through the work. We have partners. We have industry folks. Like I said, we have people at a lot of the big companies. We have people at a lot of the big hospitals. Every week, we will run-- almost every week, we will run what's called a remarkable roundtable. So remarkable roundtables are essentially networking events where you will get to meet either specifically people with disability who can give you feedback on your product or people in industry that can maybe accelerate your product in a certain way. And so instead of just giving you a mentor directory, which we will also give you, we find it really helpful to just do weekly speed dating and weekly feedback sessions with our community. And so over the course of the program, you will meet a ton of people and have a one-on-one conversation with all of them. We are part of what's called the +N Network. We started that, and that is a consortium of 11 disability tech accelerators around the world, Canada, China, Africa, India. We have connections with all these organizations, and we meet with them quarterly. And so should you decide you want to expand to certain countries, we are able to connect you to folks who kind of understand that market better.
S1: 25:25 And then through our work at CPARF, which is the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, not to be confused with me saying, "Barf, it's CPARF." And I'm going to use that going forward. We also work with CPRN, which is the CP Research Network. And they work with many hospitals and many practitioners that focus on people with CP. So that could be an additional avenue of introductions that we could make. I've shared most of this. We'll do deep dives if you're accepted. Those will happen over the course of two weeks. Then the accelerator will run for 16 weeks. And then we'll do one to two group sessions per week for virtual weeks. One to two because we'll definitely be doing a roundtable every week. And then I will add in just-in-time content as I see folks needing it. So if we're starting to hear a lot of people need manufacturing support, maybe we'll pull somebody in for that. We do founder Q&As, where we bring in alumni or people who have created much bigger companies, and you get to ask them whatever you want. We have a variety of different types of programming that we might sub in. So that's what that menu of programming is. And then, of course, we'll take you to the events that I mentioned. These are the dates for the in-person events. So Kickstart September 8th to the 12th in Grotonwood, Mass. Normally, we get a big Airbnb and everyone stays there. But this year, I've rented a summer camp for people with disabilities. So it should be fun.
S1: 27:09 And then October 16th to the 19th is the Fort Lauderdale Abilities Expo, and then January 4th to the 8th is Demoday at CES. The way we cover travel, we usually cover travel for one founder and lodging for one founder with the exception of the Abilities Expo. We also give you the $50,000. So our assumption is that it would be great to have your whole team there if they can be there. But unfortunately, we cannot cover it ourselves, but we've given the money, and most companies don't have an issue paying for it because between what we cover and the investment, most people are able to get there. I'm going to skip that. So this is the weekly average commitment for a virtual week. So one to two times a week, cohort programming for about an hour and 15 minutes each. We expect that you'll do at least two hours of coaching. That would be a meeting with me and then a meeting with one of our coaches. That would be a just-in-time support for that week. And then bi-weekly. So every other week, you'll work with our leadership coach. And so when we're not in person, you can expect your commitment to be about six to eight hours a week. But hopefully, again, that's not like going to class. Hopefully, it's supporting your startup and actually working alongside the things that you need. For program accessibility, we will ensure that program meets the accessibility needs of the participants. Certainly, some programming is designed for in-person. If you cannot travel, we will figure out how to make accommodations for that. Although if you are able to be in person, we do find high value in having everyone together. But we will certainly make accommodations as needed.
S1: 29:09 And the programming is delivered in English, and sign interpretation is available if required. Let me see if I have it. Okay. So the investment, like I said, 50,000 in the form of the safe. I know there's some specific questions about the safe. Again, if you find the YC safe and download it, that is the safe. So you can kind of dig through that and probably get all your questions answered. They have that available on their website. You will need to be registered as a US corporation. So we cannot accept nonprofits, and we cannot accept LLCs. And we cannot accept companies that are not based in the US. If you're not based in the US, you can apply for the Australia Plus program. We have had situations where people are switching all their operations to the US, and they move their status to be registered as a Delaware corporation in the US. That's okay, but we will have to have that conversation when it happens. We've also had LLCs that needed to shift to being corporations after acceptance. Again, don't shift your company until you're accepted unless you want to. But we have had situations where people were not the correct entity, and where we shifted that. Nonprofits, unfortunately, I don't know how to untangle a nonprofit into a for-profit, and we can't make an investment in any entity that is not registered as some form of a corporation.
S1: 31:01 The SAFE, which, again, is like the YC Safe downloadable from their website. We'll share it. We're just kind of getting the final touches on ours from our lawyer, which is why I'm not immediately sharing it here. The safe and the side letter, which kind of spells out your commitments to the program, will need to be signed and reviewed by our deadline. And funding is dependent on program participation. You will get a portion of your money at the beginning and then the rest at the end of the program. We haven't determined how much at the beginning and how much at the end, but we will determine that within the next couple of weeks. And so I will let folks know as you go through the application process what that is looking like. What are we looking for in startups? So disability tech. Does your startup benefit people with disabilities, whether directly or indirectly? It could be disability, it could be health, it could be aging. Ideally, post-product, post-revenue. Again, earlier stage MedTech products are okay, for-profit, for purpose, business structure. And we're really looking for tech that is able to scale. So there's a lot of amazing service-based industries out there, and I'm very glad that they exist. But we are looking for companies that have the ability to scale quickly. And I think when you think about a consulting firm or something like that, your man hours are tied to your output. And that's a great business model, but it's not necessarily the business model that we are investing in.
S1: 32:52 And so if you are a service-based business, this may not be the right fit for you. And I'm happy to have that conversation with you separately, or later today, if that is something that you have questions about.
S3: 33:05 Hey, Molly. I just had a quick question for you real quick. Just following up on the bullet point number two startup page. Are you amenable to companies that are not yet in the market, but will be in the market before the accelerator starts? And the same with them, from an incorporation perspective. We just started getting our-- well, I just finalized our founding team, and we're ready to make moves quicker, basically.
S1: 33:38 Yeah. So the short answer is apply. It may end up being that this year is not right, but next year will be. But I would say, certainly, we make exceptions for remarkable technology. So things that we haven't seen before, things that we think are super impactful. We sometimes take earlier products, and we have done that before. But I would say on average, you are most successful in our accelerator if you are in that growth stage, not in that build stage. And so that's kind of the-- that would be kind of the question we would ask for companies that may not fit that, is like, "Actually, is this year the right year?"
S3: 34:21 Can you actually gain value out of the program?
S1: 34:24 Exactly, exactly.
S3: 34:26 And so, for me, we're building an education technology. And of course, that space just got hammered because of some of the recent regulations that were passed down. So that threw up our go-to-market strategy, I mean, honestly, literally tore it to smithereens. So we basically had to go back to the drawing board, recollect, and we're focusing more on evidence-based and having a stronger case for pilots and other institutions. Because you really can't accelerate sales cycles for education markets.
S1: 35:01 No. And I've worked in that space, so we could talk offline for a long time about that. But yes, I would say apply. And if you are accepted, we would ask you to switch your status, whatever your company is. That's not a problem unless it's a nonprofit, and then maybe it's a problem, but.
S3: 35:23 We're not even incorporated at the moment.
S1: 35:25 Okay. Then I would say you probably want to start as a Delaware C corp if you're just getting started.
S3: 35:31 Yeah. I was trying to line up whether I want to be a C corp or something like that in my own state, or whether I would want to do something in Delaware. I don't really know. I don't know the legal side very well.
S1: 35:46 Yeah, yeah. We can talk offline about this. I will just say Delaware C corp is usually considered the friendliest to investment. And so that's kind of why it's become the gold standard of that. But people make different decisions for a variety of things. So we can talk a little more offline if it's helpful for specifics.
S3: 36:08 That sounds good. I don't want to interrupt everybody, but I just [crosstalk].
S1: 36:10 Yeah, no worries. Well, I'm trying to run through this so I can answer any questions at the end. So I think I've covered most of this, but let me make sure I haven't. So application, we have an FAQ on our website, worth reading through that. That will cover a lot of things. Use simple and clear language. We have a variety of reviewers. Every application will be reviewed by at least five people, usually more. Everyone will be reviewed by somebody who has lived experience with the disability that you are primarily serving, somebody who has industry experience with the disability that you're primarily serving, and then a variety of different reviewers. You have some sort of impact in the disability space, whether it's corporate or nonprofit or hospital or whatever it is. We try to align because we're so broad in what we will accept. We try to align as best that we can with the industry. We try to bring people in that industry to be able to give us feedback on what exists. But that being said, use as simple and clear language as you can. I think that is one of the hardest things for a startup to do to get themselves out of the thick of it in the way that they talk about their product and make it simple because we're reading a lot of applications. And if you're kind of letting us get stuck in the weeds in your application, it makes it more challenging. And more clear and simple language is more accessible language. Don't skip things, but long answers don't mean better answers. And be honest and authentic.
S1: 38:01 So you can preview the questions ahead of time online. You can also, this year, for the first time, which is amazing, save your application halfway through and come back to it. So applications can be found on our website, remarkable.org\accelerator, and our applications close May 15th. Like I said, judging, we have diverse judging team based on gender, ethnicity, lived experience, [sexual?] experience. If you get an interview, you will be notified, and those will take place between June 1st and June 15th. And then we're going to be accepting startups kind of on a rolling basis. And so those acceptances will go out between June 23rd and July 23rd. And that would be when we would have negotiations around terms and where your fundraising is and that kind of thing. It's a collaborative process. It's not a process you have with me. It's a process you have with the executive director of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation. But we're pretty fair and pretty amenable if you've gotten that far in the process. Okay. I said a lot, covered a lot. I see there's been some questions in the chat, so maybe I will start there. If I'm not answering the question you asked in the chat, please feel free to pop off mute and let me know. And then with whatever time is left, I'm happy to just talk through whatever people have questions about. Okay. Does Remarkable have a platform to match co-founders together? If the question is will you meet co-founders from other companies? Will you meet the founders from other companies? Yes.
S6: 39:54 Yeah. So my question is, being in this space, it's hard to find people who have the same interests that you have. So some kind of imagining [inaudible].
S1: 40:14 Yeah. You cut out a little bit. But yes, the answer is you'll be connected to many, many startups that are serving similar things. That kickstart, where we all come together, ends up being one of the more powerful ways our startups have connected and really found people that are in a similar space as them. If you're asking, "Do you find your own co-founders?" Like, do we have co-founder matching? We don't, but that doesn't mean that we can't introduce you to folks that could be good helps. But we don't formally do any co-founder matching. And safe with no cap. I will have to look it up, but I can't remember off the top of my head. Again, I don't do those negotiations, so I know less about our legal document, but it is the YC document. So I can get back to you on that. Is it possible for US applicants to join the Australia cohort? No. But you can be connected to them. And you can always go visit them. They always welcome visitors. Travel and accommodation. Again, one person will be covered for most things. And then beyond that, we will give you the investment, which can be put in that direction. I think I answered that question. I think I answered that question. If you have additional questions, I will put my email in the chat. You also should have gotten a confirmation email from me about an hour ago. That is my email. So feel free to just reply. We tend to accept-- so the question is, how many applicants get accepted every year? We accept around five companies a year, which tends to be around 7% of applicants.
S1: 42:13 So it is competitive. That being said, I really want to encourage people to apply again because sometimes, we don't accept you, not because we don't think you're great, but because we don't think we're at the right stage to help you. And I think that's important for people to understand, is just because you didn't get in this year doesn't mean that it's about you. It very well could be about us and our capacity to say, "This is the year that we think we can help you make an impact based on where you are." So again, apply again if you have. I don't know if folks are on here that have already applied, but we always welcome people to apply again. There's no flag there. Average word count of applications. I want to say 1,000 characters, but I may be guessing. It should be listed after every question.
S3: 43:17 Yeah. Well, yeah. So some of the questions have 1,000 characters as a word count. I don't know if that's a min or a max, and also how that translates because I know-- so it's not word count. It's listed as character count, so, not work count. So that's why I was like, "Can--" that's why I just wanted to [crosstalk].
S1: 43:36 It is a max.
S3: 43:39 Max.
S1: 43:40 Yeah, it's a max.
S3: 43:41 [inaudible] and sweet, not 20-page pitch then.
S1: 43:43 Exactly. Exactly. Is there a minimum amount of revenue for growth? No. Technically, revenue indicates to us that you've found some market fit. So some revenue is helpful, but there's no necessarily minimum-- I mean, if you know your mom is the only one who bought it, maybe that's a problem. But if that's how you get your revenue, that's great. So, okay. I recently shut down my startup, provided tech for people with disabilities, but I'm interested in the space. I'm wondering if remarkable has any need. Yes. To Brett, yes, we would love to have you support. Send me an email, and I can get you more information on that. For Kim, we are post-product for a different population, autism. We were looking at adapting CP.
S3: 44:45 Right. You're adding all of my back and forth. Now, you're reading all my back and forth. That's all good. We're targeting a similar population. Forgive me, guys. I'm spreading my dirty laundry everywhere.
S1: 45:02 For Karen, is there a preference for consumer or B2B? There is not. Is patenting required or encouraged for physical products or devices? Not necessarily. Certainly, IP is great, but not necessarily. Do you have mentors for EdTech sales and technical leadership? Well, I built my company in education and have worked at some of the bigger education companies in different capacities. So we certainly have network for that. Technical leadership, yes, we do. How does the Scaler program work with the Accelerator Program? Yes. So the Scaler Program, they have invested in many-- not many, but they've invested in a couple of our US startups after they've left the accelerator. Anyone can apply to Scaler at any point. You probably have some favorability if you've been through the accelerator just because they do most of their backchannel with me if you're going through Scaler. And so I'm able to kind of give more direct feedback on growth. But it's not a requirement. You could certainly apply to Scaler. Scalar looks more specifically at your impact on CP. It's the fund that comes through our Australia program. And so you'd be invested in on behalf of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. That would be the investment that would go in. But it has to be CP related. They're a little bit more strict than remarkable as more traditionally.
S3: 46:53 This question was not in the chat. Great questions, everybody. I feel like you probably took all the questions I already had in my head and just put them right there. My question for you next is-- of course I forgot the question.
S1: 47:11 And if folks want to pop off mute, why don't you just raise your hand so I can make sure I'm going through everybody in equal time? Do I lose.
S3: 47:25 Oh, okay. I got the question, finally. So the question is, do you prefer first-time founders, or do you prefer second-time and founders that have already had an exit or anything like that? Because I know speaking with different VC communities, I've had a lot of people tell me, "Oh, well, you're a first-time founder. Let me know when you've done it once already."
S1: 47:49 I mean, VCs are very good at volleying any excuse for not investing, and I've definitely heard that one. We have no preference. We just want remarkable technology that makes an impact on people with disabilities. If you've done it before, great. If you haven't, we'll help you figure it out. Any other questions? I don't see any hands. Oh, well--
S7: 48:15 Hey. This is a specific question. But as a med tech company that's been in the market for just under a year and hoping to apply for this program that has some growth aspect to it, but also being an Australian program, a lot of med tech companies kind of follow through looking at other countries and by both being Australian and knowing about the Australian and New Zealand market. Is there kind of some aspects of working with potential Australian distributors that saying, "Hey, we might have a pathway of going through, say, insurance in the US," but going through this pathway takes a lot longer? Australia and New Zealand might have a different pathway. So we have connections because there is-- okay.
S1: 49:12 We share all of our mentors. So if you're a mentor for the Australia program, you're also a mentor for the US program, and so you will have access to everybody. We also have somebody on our Australian team that job is to look at getting technology from Remarkable into CPA. So they serve most of New South Wales in terms of what we call group homes, what they call care homes, OT, PT, all sorts of things. And so they look at that. And if we have med tech companies, we will offer a session on the NDIS, which is the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which is how people in Australia with disabilities pay for assistive technology. And so we'll have somebody from there run a nighttime session. It'll be probably at like 7:00 PM Eastern on what that looks like.
S7: 50:14 Awesome. Thank you.
S1: 50:15 Yeah. Any other questions?
S8: 50:22 Excuse me. Hi, Molly.
S1: 50:24 Hi.
S8: 50:24 I'm Ken During in Seattle, but soon to be in your neighborhood. In September, we're moving to Boston. So yeah. Scary too.
S1: 50:34 Yeah. Well, I have to admit, I moved to Rhode Island, so.
S8: 50:38 Okay. Yeah. So that's what I saw. And so, yeah, we may come down that far. We just made the decision about seven weeks ago that we were going to uproot ourselves and come out there primarily because of the ecosystem that's being developed there. And Seattle's just no value to me after 20 years. In any case, I'm sorry. I didn't read the application form yet. Is it one and done, or we submit it, there's a chance to have a discussion of whether I've done it well enough or-- some have this. Once you submit it, it's locked and loaded. So I guess that's my question.
S1: 51:12 Once you submit it, it's locked and loaded. I'm always open to talk about applicants that didn't get through this year. I've talked to folks who didn't get in last year about their application, and I give feedback on that for next year. But it is locked and loaded just because our timeline is so quick.
S8: 51:32 Yeah. It's like 90% of them, so thanks.
S1: 51:35 But it's a good idea. I like it.
S3: 51:37 So just popping this question out. Since you said 1,000 characters, I'm just going to roughly equate that to 250 words for those questions. Is that a realistic guideline?
S1: 51:48 I think so. I mean, unless you use really long words.
S3: 51:53 That's going to be tight.
S1: 51:54 How many times are you writing anti-disestablishmentarianism? And I would see that the interpreters signed that.
S3: 52:00 Very, very few times. I was just wondering because, yeah, I'm going to probably have to trim what I have at this point, but that's okay. It's going to be a tight window. So I just wanted to understand.
S8: 52:19 CS, is it done in conjunction with the CTA Foundation, or how are you expecting to do that?
S1: 52:26 So we have worked with CTA previously. They were a funder of last year's Demo Day. This year, I think we're just working together as partners. But our hope is to get a booth, and then a small one, but a booth, which is the same thing we do for the Abilities Expo. We get everybody a booth. And then we are going to figure out how to do some sort of presentation. Ideally, I would love for that to be some sort of programming at CES because booking a venue at CES is very, very expensive. But at least we will have a booth, and at least we will have specific introductions for you all. For folks that we know are coming, we'll make sure that they're visiting the booth and getting to know what you do. So it might be like Demo Day, slightly different than usual, but the goal is, again, it's like how do I create the greatest impact for you? Sometimes standing on a stage, pitching your product isn't that. And so we're hoping we can figure out a good way to do that with CES.
S8: 53:38 So it's Venetian, the basement?
S1: 53:40 Oh, yeah.
S8: 53:41 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, but yeah. Okay.
S1: 53:44 We are not the AARP [inaudible].
S9: 53:47 Molly, do you want me to check in a little bit more on CTA's [inaudible]?
S1: 53:50 Sure. Yeah.
S9: 53:52 Hello, everyone. I'm Elizabeth Boyt. I'm the Director of Development for CPARF. So we are working to strengthen our partnership with CTA Foundation and then by way of CES. So that is going to look like a couple of things that we're working through, which is a feeder to their pitch competition, potentially sitting on roundtables or other sort of thought leadership discussions around this. The goal for both of our organizations is to amplify the awareness of this technology. So we're positioned really well to leverage each other in this in a multitude of different ways beyond CES as well.
S1: 54:35 Awesome. Thank you, Elizabeth. You said that way better than I could have. Okay. Last call for questions. This has been a lively discussion so far. Grateful you all spent the hour with us. Would love to see your applications come in. Make sure you get them in before May 15th. Yes. Lizzie? Are you signing?
S10: 55:06 Check the chat for my question.
S1: 55:08 Okay. Background to my question, I've seen accelerators looking for disability tech founders, Passover founders with lived experience doing the same thing as other fully able-bodied founders because, of course, they had moderate traction and experience. Not dealing with bias like the disabled founder who had a much lower trajectory, it creates an inequitable situation when VCs are not prioritizing founders with disabilities over able-bodied founders. Where does remarkable stand with this value and ethic? Yeah. I totally understand this question and where it's coming from. We are absolutely interested in someone creating a product from their lived experience. I think that that is one of the more valuable ways to create a product because you know deeply what is needed. And so there's absolutely no preference for one type of entrepreneur over another. I think lived experience is certainly a plus in our book. Let me know if that answered your question. I can look in the chat for the answer, too.
S11: 56:28 Can I toss in one last question? This is Karen [inaudible].
S1: 56:31 Yeah.
S11: 56:31 I know a lot of accelerators have non-disability accelerators. Sometimes they're very focused on fundraising and pitching and your story and your business model. And I was getting the impression from your presentation that, depending on the company and the year, that may be a smaller or larger part of what you're focused on. But I just wanted to clarify how much of the time you're spending in the accelerator is working on the core elements of your business versus your fundraising pitch and things like that.
S1: 57:12 Yeah. Good question. So the answer is, if nobody needs that, we spend zero time on it. But if people need it, we have an incredible coach that can walk you through everything from crafting your story, making your data room, how to do all those things. The pitch is like this much of fundraising, right? What we actually dive into more than anything, if it is needed, is understanding the investment memo, which is kind of a flip on how you would do that. It's not writing a pitch. It's saying, "Actually, what is the investor going to go back and write on behalf of this company so you can get in the mind of the investor, which kind of helps you speak to that community better, as well as the data room because the data room is the thing that the investor is going to dig through after your pitch. And I don't know any accelerators that really spend time on the data room, and often, that is such a crucial next step to actually closing fundraising. So if founders need that support, we have an incredible coach who will work with you one-on-one to do that. If you don't need that support, we're not worried about it.
S11: 58:26 Okay. Great. Sounds very individualized. Awesome.
S1: 58:28 Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Well, we are at time. My email is molly.lazarus@remarkable.org. You also got an email from me, but I'm going to put this in the chat anyway. Feel free to reach out with questions. Applications are at remarkable.org. Apply for the US program unless you're not in the US, then you can apply for the Australia+ program. But excited you're all here and really grateful for you being here and for all the work that I know that you're doing on behalf of the disabled community. All right. Have a good afternoon.
S3: 59:13 Thank you.
S8: 59:15 Thanks, Molly.
S1: 59:16 Thanks. Bye.
S7: 59:16 Thank you. Bye.
S3: 59:17 Thanks, everybody. Bye.
S8: 59:19 Yeah. Good to meet everybody.
