Two Pakistani Tech Start-ups Going to Silicon Valley This Summer

[RiazHaq]

Lahore-based Groopic and Islamabad-based Tunacode have been accepted to be part of this summers Blackbox Connect program in Silicon Valley.

Founded by Pakistanis, both companies are start-ups with innovative products whose founding teams are looking to live, learn and network for two weeks at an Atherton mansion this summer from July 15 to 26, 2013. These young entrepreneurs are a reflection of Pakistan's growing human capital.

This year's summer program of Blackbox Connect is supported by Google.

Groopic is an application that helps put the photographer back into photos with his or her buddies. Eyedeus, the company behind Groopic, emerged from the first batch of companies at Plan9, the Punjab governments incubator which is named after an operating system project at the Bell Labs in the 1980s.

Tunacode specializes in optimizing complex software to graphic processing units (GPUs).

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The two Pakistani companies are among eight non-US start-ups selected to participate this summer by Google for Entrepreneurs partner programs around the world. The remaining six companies are Avocarrot (UK), EgzoTech (Poland), Inpris (Israel), Instabug (Egypt), Melusyn (France) and MyDoorHandle (South Africa). Here's how Blackbox Connect describes the program:

"Founders will come to Silicon Valley and live at the Blackbox Mansion for the two weeks, where they will have the opportunity to live and collaborate with like-minded entrepreneurs from all around the world and take part in an intense agenda of meetings and workshops with entrepreneurs, investors, experts and executives. Accepted startups must have launched a technology based MPV and gathered feedback from early adopter/customers. Ideally - but not required - a startup should have raised some investment capital, have a team between 3 to 20 people and have a product or service that can be launched globally".

Here's the curriculum for this year's program:

1. Interfacing with an Investor

Top Ten Mistakes Made in Business Plans
Short Building Elevator Pitching Preparation and Workshop
Perfecting Your Investor Pitch
How to Hold an Investor Meeting
Recruiting and Leveraging an Advisory Board

2. Basics of Venture Capital Investment Options

Founder Vesting Equity
Stock Options for Startup Founders
Introduction to Equity Term Sheets

3. Born-Global Startups

Building the Core Team, Recruiting and Scaling
UX-based Branding
Raising Money in Silicon Valley
First Hand Founders Success Stories
Leveraging Social Marketing
Setting up official US presence for international startup
Legal & Financial Issues of Born-Global Startups

4. Quality Networking Events

Dinners at Blackbox Mansion with local SV community members
Attend other select happening events in Silicon Valley
Demo/Pitch event to investors followed by dinner event

I believe the exposure to Silicon Valley start-up culture via the Blackbox Connect's immersion program can help founders of participating companies to emulate the success of some of the big-name world-renowned companies that have spawned the technology revolution sweeping the world.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2013/06/two-pakistani-start-ups-accepted-in.html

 

[Believer12]

Surprisingly no Indian company is listed among these eight,,,, very good work by Pakistani companies.

 

[RiazHaq]

Surprisingly no Indian company is listed among these eight,,,, very good work by Pakistani companies.

And two out of eight, that is 25%, of the companies are from Pakistan.

Earlier this year, VC funding of Pakistani-Americans Ashar Aziz's FireEye and Zia Yusuf's Streetline ranked #1 and #4 among top 5 VC deals in Silicon Valley announced in January 2013, according to Silicon Valley Business Journal.

FireEye is riding high on a wave of growing cyber security concerns amidst increasing cyber attacks being reported almost daily from around the globe. FireEye's founder Asgar Aziz is among the top recognized experts in the field of Internet and computer security. With the recent $50 million round from top investors, the company has raised $100 million to date. The new funding comes from new and existing investors — including Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, Juniper Networks, Silicon Valley Bank, and others.

Streetline is offering smartphone applications to help drivers find the increasingly scarce parking spots in crowded places. The company bills itself as "the leading provider of smart parking solutions to cities, garages, airports, universities and other private parking providers". The company has raised $25 million in January, 2013 from True Ventures, with participation by new investors Qualcomm Ventures and Citi and existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Fontinalis Partners. The company has now raised a total of $40 million, and it says it recently obtained a $25 million credit facility from Citi, too.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2013/02/2-pakistani-american-startups-among-top.html

 

[Unicorn]

Surprisingly no Indian company is listed among these eight,,,, very good work by Pakistani companies.

[hilar][hilar] Surprisingly!! anyone who applies and willing to pay the price to go there is accepted.

I know couple of guys(Groupic) who developed software for the camera so that you can take a " Group Picture " ie husband, wife and kid are out taking pictures its impossible to take a group picture with all of them in it unless you ask someone else to take the picture. With their software husband can take the picture of wife and kid then wife can take the picture of husband and the software combines it into a group. There is already software available that does this.

I have respect for entrepreneurs and don't blame these guys trying to find investor to fund their project but please keep India out of this India has similar programs internally.

 

[Believer12]

[hilar][hilar] Surprisingly!! anyone who applies and willing to pay the price to go there is accepted.

I know couple of guys(Groupic) who developed software for the camera so that you can take a " Group Picture " ie husband, wife and kid are out taking pictures its impossible to take a group picture with all of them in it unless you ask someone else to take the picture. With their software husband can take the picture of wife and kid then wife can take the picture of husband and the software combines it into a group. There is already software available that does this.

I have respect for entrepreneurs and don't blame these guys trying to find investor to fund their project but please keep India out of this India has similar programs internally.

you are degrading India by your own comments, my post was not critical but appreciating that Indians are very advance in making softwares and IT experts are best in the world, so i was surprised why they are not in the occasion.

 

[ahaseeb]

Its good. Strong connection between valley and PK will bring lot of money. Idea do not need to be unique. Execution is what matters

 

[Unicorn]

you are degrading India by your own comments, my post was not critical but appreciating that Indians are very advance in making softwares and IT experts are best in the world, so i was surprised why they are not in the occasion.

I am just telling you that you should not be surprised that Indians are not there. If Unicorn Software Inc develops a software I can apply to be a part of this camp, provided that I pay a hefty price to be there. I will meet other people who have done the same perhaps I can hook up with them and collaborate on other aspects and meet a few investors in the hope that they may fund my project. If 50 companies had applied all of them can be there and I know why many did not applied.

 

[RiazHaq]

[hilar][hilar] Surprisingly!! anyone who applies and willing to pay the price to go there is accepted.
.

Your claim is false!!!!

This program is sponsored by Google and it is paid for and limited to just 8 companies each summer selected by Google.

Read below:

Blackbox Connect is a 2-week immersion program for founders who are based outside the US. Founders come to Silicon Valley and live at the "Blackbox Mansion," where they have the opportunity to live and collaborate with like-minded entrepreneurs from all around the world and partake in an intense agenda of meetings and workshops with entrepreneurs, investors, experts and executives. Google for Entrepreneurs is sponsoring this summer's two-week session, from from July 15-26, 2013. Eight startups from Google for Entrepreneurs partner programs around the world will participate.

http://www.google.com/entrepreneurs/initiatives/blackbox-connect.html

 

[Unicorn]

Your claim is false!!!!

This program is sponsored by Google and it is paid for and limited to just 8 companies each summer selected by Google.

Read below:

Blackbox Connect is a 2-week immersion program for founders who are based outside the US. Founders come to Silicon Valley and live at the "Blackbox Mansion," where they have the opportunity to live and collaborate with like-minded entrepreneurs from all around the world and partake in an intense agenda of meetings and workshops with entrepreneurs, investors, experts and executives. Google for Entrepreneurs is sponsoring this summer's two-week session, from from July 15-26, 2013. Eight startups from Google for Entrepreneurs partner programs around the world will participate.

http://www.google.com/entrepreneurs/initiatives/blackbox-connect.html

Where does it say that it is paid for Google?. Being a sponsor is not paying for the event the money goes to " Blackbox " I personally know a devoloper who has been to similar meetings sponsored by big companies and still have to pay hefty price to participate.

I already told you what Groupic does, nothing. They have software I already told you what it does.

 

[RiazHaq]

Where does it say that it is paid for Google?. Being a sponsor is not paying for the event the money goes to " Blackbox " I personally know a devoloper who has been to similar meetings sponsored by big companies and still have to pay hefty price to participate.

I already told you what Groupic does, nothing. They have software I already told you what it does.

It's obvious you don't understand what "sponsorship" means, particularly in this context where Google for Entrepreneurs is directly involved in selecting and limiting the selection to eight companies from around the world.

If it was just a matter of the ability to pay then there would be lots of companies willing to sign up to get this kind of learning and networking with the top digitrati in Silicon Valley.

 

[miafridi]

Best of luck guys.