The next round of the Boost VC accelerator program keeps getting more rewarding for Bitcoin entrepreneurs as the June 1 deadline to apply steadily approaches. Today, Boost is very excited to announce a deal that is bringing an additional $50,000 to each Bitcoin company that completes the next accelerator session which starts on June 24.
At the beginning of March, promptly following the end of the first Boost session, Adam Draper, CEO, announced on his blog that he and co-founder Brayton Williams were becoming increasingly obsessed with Bitcoin and decided to make five to seven slots of the next session available to Bitcoin companies. To raise the stakes even higher, Boost quickly became the host of the Hackathon at Bitcoin 2013, just down the road from their headquarters in San Mateo, California, and proceeded to bring together investors, VCs and entrepreneurs to judge the event.
Draper revealed in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine in March, “We’re figuring out what the prizes are. One of the prizes is acceptance into our incubator and we are excited that we got to do that.”
The newly announced $50,000 investment is the product of Draper and Williams seeking to draw the attention of investors to Bitcoin, specifically in the form of a follow-up fund for the Bitcoin companies that graduate from Boost in September. The meeting that happened just a few weeks ago, in mid-April, brought together Boost, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, Rothenberg Ventures and Ben Davenport. The idea grew to fruition at an impressive rate, to a fantastic degree.
“The people who ended up helping out with this were, to me, the true believers in Bitcoin.” Draper said. “It was really great to get the big names behind it and it came together fast, within a week.”
So far only two of the Bitcoin-specific slots in Boost’s summer program have been filled and Draper has mentioned that they are willing to accept even more Bitcoin companies than the previously allotted amount if the right companies apply. In the meantime, the rewards of acceptance are growing beyond the scope of the already spectacular opportunity. When the program starts at the end of June members of the participating companies will be moved into the newly renovated Benjamin Franklin Hotel and are given office space and mentorship to develop their business. At the end of the program each company that graduates is given an initial investment in the neighborhood of $10k to $15k which will now be significantly more for Bitcoin companies in particular.
“Every company going through the boost program already has these really great people who really want Bitcoin to succeed, and they are also really great investors.” As Draper explains, there is more than just money being rewarded to the Bitcoin graduates and the benefit spreads beyond those few lucky businesses, “Because we have such great investors behind it, I want more investors to get involved in Bitcoin.”
The application to the next Boost session is available on their website and is open to businesses at any stage of development located anywhere in the world. The program is purposefully sector agnostic while the VCs explore their defining characteristics in a rapidly changing economy. Draper and Williams’ excitement for Bitcoin is evident in their put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is attitude and hard work that is paying off for burgeoning Bitcoin businesses now and soon for investors that are becoming enlightened to the revolutionary capabilities of Bitcoin not only as a currency but also the technology and everything that it represents.