Nine startups pitched onstage at Microsoft’s third accelerator program, which selects companies to participate in a startup program that provides resources and introductions to customers.
One startup makes a website that connects high-school students with the ideal college. Another operates a chatbot that can answer your simple medical questions. All have the resources of Microsoft backing them.
Nine companies made pitches onstage Thursday night at Showbox SoDo as part of Microsoft Accelerator’s third demo day in Seattle.
The program selects 10 to 15 companies twice a year to participate in a startup accelerator program that provides resources, Microsoft Azure credits, and — perhaps most compelling — introductions to Microsoft’s deep pool of customers.
“We signed some customers and have ongoing conversations with many others thanks to Microsoft,” said Arturo Devesa, founder and CEO of MedWhat.
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The startup lets patients ask simple medical protocol questions to a virtual assistant or chatbot, rather than having to call their doctor or request an appointment. MedWhat leverages machine learning, a technology that teaches a machine to recognize patterns and “learn” over time.
All the companies in Microsoft’s third Seattle cohort practice machine learning in some way, an area of technology Microsoft thinks will become increasingly valuable.
The accelerator was led by Hanan Lavy, who launched the company’s first accelerator program in Tel Aviv, Israel, and moved to Seattle this year to take on the company’s efforts locally.
“We believe startups are very important for our company, industries are being disrupted on a constant basis by startups,” Lavy said. “We would like to be part of the loop.”
The accelerator’s sole local startup, Kirkland-based DefinedCrowd, said the four-month program helped to expand its reach. The company originally planned to create algorithms to help companies with voice technology.
Now, co-founder Amy Du said DefinedCrowd plans to work with companies on a broad array of machine-learning challenges by creating algorithms and tapping into help from humans — specifically, linguistics students at universities around the world.
“We learned everybody has a data problem,” she said.
Another accelerator startup, Plexuss, uses machine learning to teach a system what types of colleges students are interested in, and what types of students colleges are interested in.
Co-founder JP Novin said the company uses similar examples and recommendations to create a “recruitment DNA” for colleges.
More than 700 startups applied to the program, which focuses on startups that have at least mostly established a product.
Technology accelerators have popped up all over the region, offering resources and mentorship to young companies. Most offer some investment money in exchange for an equity stake. Microsoft’s does not.
“It’s not about investments, it’s about pushing them to market,” Lavy said.
Microsoft’s next Seattle accelerator will launch in Seattle in September, focusing on machine learning and Internet of Things technologies for businesses.