Village Capital – Workshop 3
Workshop #3 – this one was FOR THE MONEY. Seriously, This is where the Village Capital Fin Tech accelerator differentiates from the other accelerators. The winner (because, who are we kidding, we are all competitive) is selected by the members of the cohort themselves. There is a fancy algorithm, complete with ranking, comment system, and z-scoring (for all your statistics lovers out there) that determines your ranking. The best part (in my opinion) was the openness and transparency of the whole thing – you know exactly what score each team gives to every other team. Because face it, feedback is the most valuable aspect of this entire experience — and who better to give you that feedback than members of your own cohort!
So the winners of this years cohort were eMoneyPool and WiseBanyan. The founders of these companies impressed the entire cohort and managed to secure 50,000 USD each in the process! But just like little league, we are all winners — we presented our final pitches to a room full of investors at the Fed building in San Francisco – an impressive setting for the final presentations (the running joke was that we could all take the elevator to the bottom floor where the fed takes damaged currency out of circulation. I’m happy to report nobody was arrested in the writing of this blog post).
I’m sure you are wondering how MPOWER ranked. Well, we came in 5th in the final ranking of our peers. We are very honored by this, and super motivated to continue at the break-neck speed of progress we have established (and been recognized for). It is truly motivating to be in the company of such great companies. The fintech space is a dynamic one — and the opportunities to innovate in this space continue to be limitless.
MPOWER wants to thank Village Capital, the Hitachi Foundation, the Ebay Foundation and the countless mentors and cohort participants who took time out of their busy schedules to make the Vilalge Capital FinTech Cohort such a valuable experience.
Wishing everyone continued success!
Mike Davis,
Co-founder + CTO of MPOWER
