The Accelerator kicked off the third session of the #CASDA2 cohort last week! The team was excited to welcome back the companies for another week of programming, collaboration, and preparation for Demo Day.
The third session started with an informational brief from Capt Jeremy Swaw on SpaceWERX, an organization seeking to form partnerships between military operational experts and top problem solvers in industry, academia, and the government. Following that discussion, Greg Caicedo, Vice President of Space Domain Awareness & Space Superiority at Kratos, and Stuart Daughtridge, Vice President of Advanced Technology at Kratos, briefed the organization to the Catalyst Accelerator and shared the ways that small businesses can get involved. Following these sessions, Mo Kanwischer, President of Momentum Business Consulting, met with the companies individually to refine their pitches and get ready for recording their Demo Day videos.
On Wednesday, the cohort spent the morning with Brian Ormsby, Founder and CEO at Pantheon Solutions, who led a workshop covering the topic of government accounting and compliance. This information will be invaluable for these small businesses as they navigate work with the government. Later that evening, the Accelerator gathered for a cohort dinner, offering the companies time to come together, share stories, and collaborate. The Accelerator team is eager to see these relationships grow and looks forward to how they may collaborate in the future!
Later in the week, Jim Kukla, CTO and Founder of RedShred, briefed the companies on RedShred and provided insight and perspective as an Accelerator alumni company. The rest of the week was dedicated to the cohort companies recording their Demo Day videos. This is an exciting phase of the program where each cohort member has the chance to apply what they’ve learned in the Accelerator to their videos and pitches! A big thank you to Joseph Marney, owner of Defy Design, and Mo Kanwischer for their work in preparing the companies’ videos and pitches ahead of the highly anticipated Demo Day! Stay tuned for the release of the Demo Day videos on the Accelerator’s website and social media pages on June 10th.
Jef Smith, CEO and Founder of Astra Ultra and one of the #CASDA2 cohort companies, shared his experience from week nine of the program, “We really enjoyed meeting with Brian from Pantheon Solutions and learning about government accounting. Coming from a purely engineering background, it was an amazing opportunity for some in-depth learning on how to set ourselves up for success.”
Thank you to each of the seven subject matter experts who donated their time to speak with the #CASDA2 cohort and answer their questions! We cannot run an Accelerator without the incredible support of our community!
