The Innovators Program -

The only accelerator for both startup founders and internal innovators


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About Us


The Innovators Program lays the foundation for talented and motivated founders to build great businesses.

We believe that nothing else matters until a startup builds something that their customers love.

We help our founders develop the skill set and mindset to achieve this.

This is our initial focus with each founding team, once achieved we help them build their business.

Who we are

Innovators Program Inc. is a partnership between HQ Raleigh and Nick O’Connor, designer and operator of previous Innovators Programs run by the Citrix Startup Accelerator. We also have a community of alumni founders and intrapreneurs.

Our mission

Our mission is to transform the workplace and society by creating the right environment for the best and brightest founders to solve the most important problems.

What we offer founders

A twelve week program that helps founders and internal innovators turn a good idea into a high growth business. Selected startups get $10K in equity free funding at the beginning of the program. At the end of the program, an additional $10k of equity free funding per team will be allocated to successful teams.

We love our sponsors

We are proud to have have both Citrix and Red Hat sponsor the 2017 Raleigh program.

  • 2015 Santa Barbara Program Alumni
    Citrix Convoi - Santa Barbara, CA


  • 2014 Raleigh Program Alumni
    EmployUs - Raleigh, NC


  • 2014 Raleigh Program Alumni
    Savii Care - Raleigh, NC


  • 2016 Raleigh Program Alumni
    Malartu - Raleigh, NC


  • Startups in our Network
    Lucid Cam - Silicon Valley


  • 2016 Raleigh Program Alumni
    Glance.ai - Raleigh, NC


    Glance Explainer from chris on Vimeo.

  • 2016 Raleigh Program Alumni
    VisionLTC - Raleigh, NC


  • Startups in our Network
    Nascent Objects - Silicon Valley


Six completed programs at four different locations

59 total teams

37 startups + 22 Internal teams

Our numbers for Internal startups

22 Internal Teams
6 Funded for Additional
3 Months
3 Funded for Additional
12 Months
2 Still active

Our numbers for external startups

37 Startups
27 "still active"
funded & bootstrapped
11 Seed funded startups
~$1M Raised
4 Acquired

by
Facebook
Citrix
PTC
Playmonster

Alumni Startups


A selection of startups that graduated from our programs in Silicon Valley CA, Raleigh NC, Santa Barbara CA, and Bangalore, India.

  • All
  • External Startups
  • Enterprise Innovation Teams
  • "I learned so much about how to go about building something that people want, I continue to learn and develop by coaching teams in the 2015 & 2016 programs "

    Grady Slane Product Manager, ShareFile at Citrix
    Raleigh, NC

  • " The program had a profound effect on my career and has fundamentally changed the way I approach innovation"

    Michele (Romo) Pavone Senior Manager Product Management, ShareFile at Citrix
    Raleigh, NC

  • " The program really helped us undestand that its not about the technology but building a product that people really want"

    Matthew Turk - CEO at Caugnate ( acquired by the Vuforia group of PTC)
    Professor at UC Santa Barbara
    Santa Barbara, CA

  • " The network, the connections, the community here in Raleigh is amazing"

    Geeta Vemuri - Cofounder & CEO, Duvtail,
    now Product Manager, Citrix
    Raleigh, NC

  • " The learnings from running pilots with both Red Hat and Citrix moved our product and business to a whole new level"

    Matt Wheeler - Cofounder & CTO, Duvtail,
    now Product Manager, Citrix
    Raleigh, NC

  • "Nick was instrumental in our success. He helped us a create winning product and go to market strategy."

    Alice Brooks - CEO, Roominate Toy,
    now STEM Monster @ PlayMonster
    Silicon Valley, CA

  • "Within weeks we had more customer data that in the previous six months. We got to a whole new level of understanding on customer and market needs."

    Baback Elmieh - CEO, Nascent Objects
    now Technical Project Lead - Building 8 at Facebook
    Silicon Valley, CA

  • " My program learnings with internal teams laid the foundation for how I went about founding Lucid VR."

    Han Jin - CEO, Lucid VR
    Silicon Valley, CA

  • " We learned so much about identifying customer needs, then how to build a product that exceeds our customers expectations "

    Sneha Sachidananda - Cofounder @ Voitrix, Citrix
    Santa Barbara, CA

  • " The high touch nature of the program really helped us turn a product intro a real business"

    Viral Carpenter - Cofounder @ Voitrix, Citrix
    Santa Barbara, CA

  • "Our plan A failed, we eventually found a plan B and within weeks we had a working product and pilot customers. We got funded and now I am leading this business for Citrix!!! "

    Hudson Haines - Cofounder, Addoo, Citrix
    Raleigh, NC

  • " The weekly checkins really pushed us to deliver week after week, this was awesome. Now I am leading an internal business that has 1000's of customer and growing MRR "

    Carey Caulfield - Product Manager, Convoi, Citrix
    Santa Barbara, CA

  • " We thought our product was done, we soon learned that we had to start over. We now have a product our customers love, we got funded and are growing like crazy"

    Malcolm Benitz - CEO, Medicom Technologies Inc.

  • "Within three weeks I had changed course and had acquired new skills to help me better assess the viability of a new business. I now lead a venture funded startup"

    Tony Diepenbrock - CEO, parrallelX
    now CEO, Learn Immersive

  • "I learned more in the past three months than I have in the past two years."

    Ryan O'Donnell - CEO @ EmployUs
    Raleigh, NC

  • "We were pushed to find paying customers before completing the product and we did!"

    Miro Salem - Founder & CEO, 3TEN8,
    Palo Alto, CA

  • "We learned who our first customers should be and then how to get them. Later we got help to get funded, we have now raised over $1M are growing revenue each month"

    Michelle Harper - Founder & CEO, Savii Care,
    Raleigh NC

Apps


We use three custom-made applications for each program and its startups.

Docket

Custom design your startup application & selection process. Track tasks & communicate schedules internally & externally. Track startup team progress in real time.

Courseworx

Design and deliver interactive content and workshops for your startups. Capture and upload each team's learnings and continue interaction with mentors online.

FIT

For startup teams to easily track prospects through discovery and validation funnels. Uncover insights and interact with mentors and coaches in real time.

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Program Team


Responsible for program design, delivery, and marketing.


Nick O'Connor, Managing Director, Innovators Program Inc

Nick O'Connor

Managing Director

Liz Tracy, Program Director, Innovators Program.

Liz Tracy

Program Director

Allyson Sutton, Marketing Director, Innovators Program.

Allyson Sutton

Marketing Director

Alex Kehaya, Startup Growth Team, Innovators Program.

Alex Kehaya

Startup Growth Team


Program Mentors


Founders with first hand experience going from an idea to starting to build a successful company.


Michelle Harper, Founder and CEO at Savii Care

Michelle Harper

Founder & CEO at Savii Care

Ryan O'Donnell is a co-founder and CEO at EmployUs

Ryan O'Donnell

Co-founder and CEO at EmployUs

Alex Kehaya, founder and CEO at ActionWins

Alex Kehaya

Founder and CEO at ActionWins

Miro Salem, Founder and CEO at 3TEN8

Miro Salem

Founder and CEO at 3TEN8

Han Jin, Founder and CEO at Lucidcam

Han Jin

Founder and CEO at Lucidcam

Patrick Muggler, Founder and CEO at Ambygear

Patrick Muggler

Founder and CEO at Ambygear

Nag Palavalli, Founder and CEO at TripCloud

Nag Palavalli

Founder and CEO at TripCloud

BJ Lawson, CEO at EHOP Health

BJ Lawson

CEO at EHOP Health

Selection Committee


Determines successful applicants, post program equity free funding allocation, and growth & investment program participants.


Jesse Lipson, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Services BU at Citrix

Jesse Lipson

Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Services BU at Citrix

Delisa Alexander, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Red Hat

Delisa Alexander

Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Red Hat

Jason Widen, Founding Partner, HQ Raleigh

Jason Widen

Founding Partner,
HQ Raleigh

Nick O'Connor, Managing Director, Innovators Program Inc

Nick O'Connor

Managing Director,
Innovators Program Inc






Investors


Investors who are big fans of our program and have made investments in alumni companies and / or are interested in future alumni.


David Gardner, Founder and Managing Partner, Cofounders Capital

David Gardner


Founder and Managing Partner
Cofounders Capital

Thomas Darden CEO, Cherokee Investment Partners

Thomas Darden

CEO
Cherokee Investment Partners

Jason Caplain General Partner, Bull City Venture Partners

Jason Caplain

General Partner
Bull City Venture Partners

Ravi Belani Managing Partner, Alchemist Accelerator

Ravi Belani

Managing Partner
Alchemist Accelerator


2015 Program Video


Demo day summary


Santa Barbara - 2015 Program


Partners & Sponsors of the program hosted at Citrix Online


Bernd Christiansen Chief Technology Officer at Citrix Online

Bernd Christiansen

Chief Technology Officer,
Citrix Online

Sunny Trinh Vice President, Arrow Electronics

Sunny Trinh

Vice President,
Arrow Electronics

Jan Campbell, Sr. Vice President Philanthropic Services, Communications and Marketing Santa Barbara Foundation

Jan Campbell

Sr. Vice President Philanthropic Services, Communications and Marketing,
Santa Barbara Foundation

Liz Eaton Marketing at Cox Business

Liz Eaton

Marketing,
Cox Business






Investors


Investors who are big fans of our program and have made investments in alumni companies and / or are interested in future alumni.


John Greathouse Partner, Rincon Venture Partners

John Greathouse

Partner,
Rincon Venture Partners

Jason Spievak Chief Commercial Officer at Apeel Sciences

Jason Spievak

Chief Commercial Officer,
Apeel Sciences

Michael Panesis President, Central Coast Network and Chairman Emeritus Tech Coast Angels

Michael Panesis

President, Central Coast Network and Chairman Emeritus,
Tech Coast Angels

Ravi Belani Managing Partner, Alchemist Accelerator

Ravi Belani

Managing Partner
Alchemist Accelerator


Sample Program Video


Program summary video


Silicon Valley - 2014 Program


Partners & Sponsors of the program hosted at Citrix Startup Accelerator


Alan Boehme, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Innovation Officer & Chief Architect, The Coca-Cola Company

Alan Boehme

Chief Technology Officer, Chief Innovation Officer & Chief Architect,
The Coca-Cola Company

Dr. Nikhil Balram, President & CEO Ricoh Innovations Corporation (RIC)

Dr. Nikhil Balram

President & CEO
Ricoh Innovations Corporation (RIC)

Mark Pappermaster, CTO, AMD

Mark Pappermaster

CTO
AMD

Beth Devin, CIO, SVB

Beth Devin

CIO,
SVB






Investors


Investors who are big fans of our program and have made investments in alumni companies and / or are interested in future alumni.


Dafina Toncheva U.S. Venture Partners

Dafina Toncheva


U.S. Venture Partners

Sean Jacobsohn Emergence Capital Partners

Sean Jacobsohn

Emergence Capital Partners

Tim Connors PivotNorth

Tim Connors

PivotNorth

Ravi Belani Managing Partner, Alchemist Accelerator

Ravi Belani

Managing Partner
Alchemist Accelerator


Sample Program Video


Program Summary


Bangalore - 2015 Program


Partners & Sponsors of the program hosted at Citrix


Pari Natarajan Co-Founder and CEO Zinnov

Pari Natarajan

Co-Founder and CEO ,
Zinnov

Satyam Kantamneni Group Director, UX & Design Citrix

Satyam Kantamneni

Group Director, UX & Design,
Citrix

Rakesh Singh VP and GM Citrix India Citrix

Rakesh Singh

VP and GM Citrix India
Citrix

Raghu Bathina Serial Entrepreneur and Startup Advisor

Raghu Bathina

Serial Entrepreneur and Startup Advisor






Investors


Investors who are big fans of our program and have made investments in alumni companies and / or are interested in future alumni.


Parag Dhol Managing Director Inventus Capital Partners

Parag Dhol

Managing Director Inventus,
Capital Partners

Sanjay Anandram Venture Partner, Advisor Seed Fund, Ojas Venture Partners

Sanjay Anandram

Venture Partner, Advisor Seed Fund,
Ojas Venture Partners

Ravi Gururaj Co-Founder & Co-Chair Harvard Business School Alumni Angels - India

Ravi Gururaj

Co-Founder & Co-Chair
Harvard Business School Alumni Angels - India

Ravi Belani Managing Partner, Alchemist Accelerator

Ravi Belani

Managing Partner
Alchemist Accelerator


Sample Program Video


3TEN8 demo day presentation


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