👥 Issue #91: On Deck's Claremont Founder Spotlights
The exciting Claremont-founded startups that have gone through On Deck's programming
💬 Welcome to issue #91 of Between the Lines
Good morning & happy Thursday. A few weeks back, we shared some of the impressive successes that Claremont founders have had going through Y Combinator. Unsurprisingly, Claremont founders’ success also bleeds into other cohorts and startup communities.
This week, in our efforts to continue spotlighting Claremont founders, we highlight some of the most dynamic entrepreneurs and companies that have come out of On Deck over the past four years. It’s a Claremont world out there. 👇
~ Josh, Miles, Pat
📊 6th Street Stats: On Deck's Claremont Founder Spotlights
Authors: Josh Tatum & Miles Bird
The well-known boom of startups and venture capital over recent years has coincided with the emergence of various new players in the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Of these new players, startup accelerators and founder cohorts/communities have been among the largest and most influential. We’ve written in the past about the impressive success Claremont-founded startups have had going through accelerators and founder communities like Y Combinator:
Over the past twenty years, YC has been one of the most prevalent investors in Claremont-founded startups, investing in and helping accelerate 40 different Claremont-founded startups to date. These 40 companies have collectively raised over $16B in funding, and ten of them have already exited for over $4.3B in combined exit dollars — nine acquisitions and one IPO. Even more impressive is that these ten companies, on average, had their exits within under four years after incorporation.
Unsurprisingly, Claremont’s entrepreneurial success also bleeds into other founder and startup communities like On Deck.
On Deck is a collective of founders and technologists that offers curated connections, introductions, communities, capital, and resources. Over the past four years, On Deck has helped launch over 1,000 companies and bring together hundreds of co-founders, many of which have been Claremont alumni. Recently, A few months back, On Deck highlighted and showcased some of the most dynamic entrepreneurs and companies they have supported, and numerous Claremont startups and founders made the cut.
These Claremont co-founders and startups are building in various industries and have all been supported through On Deck’s programming and community cohorts. On Deck highlighted these companies as four of the most impressive twenty-eight that have gone through On Deck.
Levels is a health and wellness company committed to improving metabolic health through biowearables. Claremont alumnus Sam Corcos is one of the co-founders, and the company finished raising its $38M Series A last summer. Sam had this to share about how he met one of his other co-founders, Andrew, through On Deck:
We met somewhat spontaneously in the hallway at one of the founder retreats and started talking philosophy. Next thing you know, 3 hours had passed and we hadn’t moved 😆 We followed up later when we started getting more serious about starting a company and the rest is history. On Deck is one of those places where you can interact with a curated group of like-minded people, and you never know where that might lead.
Sensible is a software company creating a powerful API to transform documents into structured data. Claremont alumnus Josh Lewis co-founded the company, and last summer, they finished raising their $6.5M Seed.
Crew is a professional training and coaching software platform that offers group-based courses that combine the power of coaching and design thinking to help people design careers they love. Claremont alumnus and co-founder Mollie Mueller had this to say about On Deck and meeting her co-founder Steffan:
Steffan was running a pilot called Writing Party for ODF’ers. It was a weekly zoom session where we’d sign up for focused writing time with light facilitation and excellent tunes. I signed up as a way to get to know him and his company and loved the experience.
That’s what led to us starting conversations. First just to get to know each other and our companies. Then, as we kept chatting, we both were realizing independently how similar our visions were, and how complementary our skillsets are. I think it was Steffan who first mentioned it out loud: “Should we think about joining forces?”
We continued meeting daily for several weeks, getting to know each other deeply. Eventually we decided to collaborate on a project to test out how we’d work together. Needless to say, the experiment went well. That project turned into v1 of Crew’s platform. Steffan had a term sheet for his other idea. I had another potential co-founder lined up. But we both took the leap, and the rest is history.
Subcity is a comprehensive cash flow management and planning system democratizing access to capital for small businesses and manufacturers. Claremont alumnus Gil Gonzales is one of the co-founders and the President of the company.
These impressive Claremont founders and startups have all raised capital from top-tier early-stage investors like a16z, Craft Ventures, Correlation Ventures, HomeBrew, Founder Collective, and Clocktower Technology Ventures. Other co-founders from Claremont have also found success through On Deck’s communities and programming, including:
Frame Fertility — the first and only evidence-based platform that enables the early identification of fertility risk and care navigation leading to better fertility and overall health. Claremont alumnus Corey van der Wal co-founded the company in 2020 and went through On Deck’s Health Fellowship.
Ethos Wallet — a reimagined wallet built for discovering apps, games, and NFTs on Sui. Claremont alumnus Jared Cosulich founded the startup in 2021 after being a Founders Fellow in On Deck.
On Deck is just another one of many pockets where Claremont alumni and founders are finding success and leaving their mark. We’re excited at StoryHouse Ventures to continue investing in, highlighting, and supporting this next generation of ambitious Claremont founders. 👇
🤝 Pardon the Introduction: Sergio Monsalve
VC and HMC Board of Trustee Sergio Monsalve is the Founding Partner of Roble Ventures – an early-stage seed fund investing in entrepreneurs who are passionate about building solutions that help human progress, diversity, and inclusion. Sergio is well-known as a serial investor in education startups, having co-founded the Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where he also lectures and mentors. Before that, he was a Partner at Norwest Venture Partners with tenures at household names like eBay and PayPal. He was also an early investor in unicorns, including Kahoot! and Udemy.
Sergio recently sat down with Forbes for an interview where they talked about his thoughts on the education industry and his experiences as the Founding Partner of Roble Ventures. He also shares their mission centering around human enablement, their work on market roadmaps around AI, and what that it will mean over the next decade:
“What we’re really hoping to see is technology that becomes a sort of augmented intelligence buddy that scales all the critical information such as lesson planning, grading, and individualized support — thus freeing up the teacher to do what they do best, which is connect with and motivate their students.”
📣 Pardon the Announcement: Help the CMC Community!
The CMCAA and RLCIE have partnered to launch an opt-in, up-to-date list of highly-skilled and experienced CMC alumni who are currently looking for new job opportunities in various industries. Claremont graduates coming from Ernst & Young, Yahoo, Alloy, Uber, and more are on the list. Check it out now if you’re hiring:
If you’re a CMCer who is hiring or wants to reach out to offer help, you can view the list of available alumni HERE.
If you’re a CMCer who is currently looking for new work opportunities, you can add your information HERE.
Join the conversation around this initiative HERE (engage.cmc.edu).
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Bret Jorgensen & Jennifer Holmgren
Bret Jorgensen (CMC ‘81) and Jennifer Holmgren (HMC ‘81) are Claremont graduates and highly-recognized leaders in their respective industries.
Bret is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of several healthtech companies, including TheraTx (acquired by Kindred Healthcare for ~$350M) and Crossover Health, which has raised over $280M in capital. He is also currently the Chairman and CEO of MDVIP – a personalized healthcare program. Under Bret’s leadership, the company has grown to more than 1,000 physicians and 380,000 patients nationwide, making it the country's largest membership-based primary care network.
Jennifer is the CEO of LanzaTech – a carbon capture and transformation company that harnesses the power of biology and big data to create climate-safe materials and fuels. Before LanzaTech, Jennifer was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. After Jennifer’s ~13 years of leadership as a private company, LanzaTech completed its business combination with AMCI Acquisition Corp. II last February and is now trading on the Nasdaq.
Ernst & Young recently named both leaders as finalists for Entrepreneur of the Year, Jennifer in the Midwest and Bret in the Florida program. The regional award winners will compete for national recognition this November, and the winner will represent the US at the World Entrepreneur Of The Year competition.
💼 Who’s Hiring?: Speakeasy & Sage Collective
Speakeasy is a developer-first API Ops platform building Zero Ops APIs and helping other companies deliver Stripe-quality API experiences to their customers. Their platform takes the heavy lifting out of providing a great API experience by integrating directly into your GitOps and propagating changes. The company was co-founded by Claremont grad Sagar Batchu (HMC '15), previously the Director of Engineering at LiveRamp. If you’re interested in learning more, check out this recent BTL Interview we had with Sagar. He’s looking for more talents to join their founding team:
Sage Collective is an evergreen investment platform built in partnership with the Lauder Zinterhofer family. Using human and data-centric approaches, Sage invests in high-integrity founders and fund managers across sectors, stages, and geographies, as well as other investment categories and company formation initiatives. As investors, Sage is a conduit for connected capital, holistic partnership, and collective wisdom. VC and Claremont grad Tyler Dean (CMC) is a Partner at Sage Collective, and they are currently hiring a Platform VP of Operations in New York. If you or someone you know would be perfect for this, learn more about the open position and apply here:
Check out the other ~5,000 open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 1,000+ remote jobs, 100+ internships, or 40+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention, Claremonsters!
If any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or, if you are an employer looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s must-watch 📺
Deepfake detection expert and Claremont grad Ben Colman (CMC) sat down with Brian Sullivan on CNBC’s Last Call to show how challenging it is to separate AI-generated images from real ones. He also briefly explained how his company, Reality Defender, detects these deepfakes and helps organizations identify deepfaked audio, video, and images. Ben and Reality Defender are the winners of this year’s SXSW Pitch Awards.
This week’s Claremont financing 💸
Congratulations to Cardea Bio and Claremont Associate Professor Kiana Aran on their recent successful exit. Kiana is the Co-founder and CSO of Cardea Bio, the world’s only mass producer of biocompatible semiconductors capable of translating real-time streams of multiomics signals into digital information. The company was recently acquired by UK-based graphene electronics producer Paragraf.
This week’s top listen 🎧
Claremont grad Asher Weiss (CMC ‘18) shares why he thinks tickets on chain will be the next big step for web3. He was recently on the Go With The Flow podcast talking about his background working in the NBA, how he pivoted that into joining the web3 space, the founding story of Tixologi, and what’s next for him and his company. Asher is the CEO and Co-founder of the blockchain-based ticketing software company, Tixologi, which was recently featured by Business Insider as one of the 24 most promising retail startups.
Everything else you need to know💡
Claremont grad and serial entrepreneur Neal Kemp (CMC) is the previous CTO and Co-founder of Women.com – an engaging online platform and the ultimate destination for women-centric lifestyle content. The brand was recently acquired by leading digital media company Static Media.
Can’t get enough of Between the Lines? Follow and connect with us on Twitter!
🍽️ BTL Snacks:
⚒️ Skills-based Hiring Becomes All The Rage….. As the world of work changes, companies are now dropping college degree requirements from job postings and adopting a more skills-based approach in selecting new hires. Claremont grad Julia Stiglitz (PO) shares her insights and talks about the solution to the common challenge of job seekers in communicating the skills they have to potential employers. Julia is the CEO and Co-founder of CoRise – an AI driven upskilling platform that helps professionals build technical, high-demand skills.
🚀 Prize-Winning Research Heads To Space….. Claremont grads David Marash (CMC ‘14, KGI ‘19) and Alexander Hilbert (KGI ‘19) are co-founders of early-stage biotech startup Machine Bio. The company is developing a proprietary protein synthesis platform to produce pure protein from a DNA template in a single-step process. They recently won the annual Technology in Space prize and the opportunity to conduct further research aboard the International Space Station. The prize also came with $350K in grant funding and will be launched in 2024.
🤖 An Exciting Time For Teams And AI….. The AI development in the past 12 months has felt like a game of catch-up for many founders and operators. Claremont entrepreneur and Remitly FinTech Product Manager Daniel Shi (CMC ‘07) shares his mental frameworks for thinking about how teams could effectively use AI tools. By thinking critically about the right layer of the stack to solve their problems, Daniel explains that teams can avoid becoming overwhelmed with the rapidly changing landscape of AI.
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