Two Research Triangle Startups Selected to Participate in Founder Gym, Prestigious Global Accelerator for Underrepresented Founders

DURHAM, N.C., Oct. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, two Durham-based startups, All Elements and POLARISqb announce graduation from cohort #14 of Founder Gym, a global startup accelerator. Unpublicized until the cohort completed the program, Founder Gym announced their 2020 graduates, 45 entrepreneurs from four continents, in a Medium post Tuesday, October 6th.  All Elements founder, Mutuk Karpakakunjaram and POLARISqb's Shahar Keinan were nominated by Durham's American Underground, to receive Google for Startups scholarships.

All Elements
Founded in 2014 to reinvent people management for the experience economy, All Elements is HR technology, designed for humans. "The goal is to change the relationship between managers and employees by replacing siloed, frustrating HR tech solutions with continuous, collaborative, unobtrusive conversations," says Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mutuk Karpakakunjaram. A former IBMer and corporate veteran who experienced the pain of poorly designed people management tech, Karpakakunjaram has bootstrapped All Elements with a modest team and attracted paying subscribers nationwide.

On being selected to attend, Karpakakunjaram says: "The  Founder Gym experience sharpened my knowledge about the investment landscape. Every week, I learned something new, a better way to do something, or the context behind a process. I leveled up, fast. Now, I'm confident knowing I have the tools and the support system to efficiently navigate fundraising."

POLARISqb
Founded in 2020 by Dr. Shahar Keinan and Bill Shipman with the mission of creating drug blueprints to treat all diseases for all people, POLARISqb brings market-ready methods that utilize quantum-inspired computing to accelerate by up to 90% the identification of new pharmaceutical assets. In the time it takes to complete a typical internet search, POLARISqb's technology can narrow the potential field of candidate molecules from billions to dozens.

Of the Founder Gym program and her participation through support from Google for Startups, POLARISqb founder Keinan says: "I am much more confident in my pitch. Now, I'm part of a community of other founders who are also underrepresented in tech, share the same difficulties, and support each other."

Founder Gym
Led by subject matter experts in Silicon Valley and beyond, Founder Gym is an accelerator program that teaches underrepresented founders how to raise money to scale their startups.  Participants are chosen through application or nomination and over six weeks are coached on pitch crafting, fundraising and teambuilding by venture capitalists and other experts. Since its inception in 2017, more than 440 founders from over 20 countries have graduated from Founder Gym, having been featured in Forbes, WIRED, Essence, CNBC and on NPR.

American Underground
Both All Elements and POLARISqb are located in Durham, the beating heart of the triangle startup community,based out of American Underground. In partnership with Google for Startups, American Underground sharpens members' skills promoting a growth mentality amongst its membership, primarily founder-led startups.

For All Elements--
Julie Bryce
919-414-1052
[email protected]

For POLARISqb--
Will Simpson
[email protected]
202-246-2332

SOURCE POLARISqb