Cohort II Graduation | Cohort III Applications Open!

Last Friday, May 16th at Milestone9 we had the honor of graduating nine companies from our second cohort. This capstone event is a conclusion to an intensive four month-long program focused on mentorship, advising and coaching startup companies. Descriptions of companies at the close of this post.

We're also announcing that applications are now open for our next round, Cohort III. All information on our application process can be found at apply.9milelabs.com. Here are the key dates:

- Monday, 6/2: Early Bird Application Deadline (midnight) - Monday, 6/16: Final Application Deadline (midnight)

Want to connect with us face-to-face, learn about 9ML and applying to our cohort? Here are a handful of opportunities.

Open Coffee: One-on-one conversation with a 9ML partner

- Every Tuesday (5/20 – 6/10), 1PM – 4PM, Tully’s in Bellevue (10812 Main Street; Bellevue, WA 98004) - Every Thursday (5/22 – 6/12), 1PM – 4PM, Tully’s in Seattle (2^nd & Marion; Exchange Building, 821 – 2^nd Avenue; Seattle, WA 98104)

Entrepreneur Town Halls: Learn more about 9Mile Labs and the application process

- Thursday, 5/29, 4PM – 6PM, Dice Cabana (Exchange Building, 821, 2^nd Avenue, 4^th Floor, Seattle) - Tuesday, 6/10, 4PM – 6PM, Eastside venue TBD

Questions about applying to 9Mile Labs? Check out our Q&A page at 9MileLabs.com as well as earlier blog posts:

- Are you ready for an accelerator? - Is my startup too late / too early for an accelerator? - How is a B2B startup different from a B2C startup (Part I)?

 Meet our graduated cohort!

- 3D Product Imaging (3dproductimaging.com):3D Product Imaging allows online brands and retailers to create photo-realistic, high-fidelity 3-dimensional images of products thereby helping to improve sales conversion rates and reduce returns. - Angles Media (anglesmedia.co): Angles Media helps businesses close more sales by delivering the right content to the buyer with the highest likelihood of influencing the sale. Learn exactly how your landing pages, white papers, videos, and emails influence prospects during the sales cycle. - Cloudadmin (cloudadmin.mx): Cloudadmin is a cloud-based inventory management and order management system specially designed for SMBs in Latin America. - Connect Consignment (connectedconsignment.com): Cloud e-commerce software, enabling resale and consignment businesses to; Sell anything, to anyone, anywhere. - Engineroom360 (engineroom360.com): Engineroom360 helps small and mid-size online retailers, utilizing hosted platforms, to create online promotions and improve discoverability of products on their websites. - Ghostruck (ghostruck.com): Ghostruck is a ridesharing solution for moving trucks that connects moving trucks with consumers who need a truck for moving bulky items. - GreenKrate (greenkrate.com): GreenKrate delivers grocery items to consumers and small businesses thereby saving them time. - Pawzii (pawzii.com): Pawzii delivers automated software solutions for animal shelters to free up human capital, generate new types of revenue, and bring focus back to what’s most important: saving animal lives. - Theme Dragon (themedragon.com): Theme Dragon helps marketers in SMB’s make smarter video marketing decisions through actionable recommendations and intelligent data. It supports them from planning and production to measuring results.

Keep up on 9Mile Labs news by signing up to our mailing list - Visit 9MileLabs.com to add your name to our mailing list.

Does Seattle really need yet another accelerator in 9Mile Labs?

Few people have asked us this question directly, others by implication. So we thought we'd share our point-of-view. We all know Seattle is rapidly becoming an attractive startup destination (#4 in the world according to the Startup Genome report) not just for WA state but also for the Pacific Northwest. An organization that helps nurture and grow early stage startups may not be a bad thing for our startup community. We certainly hear it all the time how the early stage startup ecosystem could use more support. Not just that, the Seattle area has been relatively sheltered from the economic crash of 2008 and as things begin to look up in the economy, we believe that the startup activity will intensify.

And how is 9Mile Labs different from the dozens of other incubators and accelerators in town? First off, we believe lumping incubators and accelerators together is like comparing apples and oranges, they are fundamentally very different business models. For a lot more on this topic, and which one is more appropriate for you as a startup, see this short YouTube video from Brad Feld or the discussion thread on Quora. So just focusing on the oranges (just go with it people!) while TechStars and Fledge.co are doing a great job with their startups, this region could certainly benefit from another early-stage accelerator. With all the technology talent and aspiring entrepreneurs in this region (rated #2 in the world in the Startup Genome report), there’s surely more than 10-20 competitive startup ideas that can use help from an accelerator.

One other way that 9Mile Labs is slightly different is our exclusive focus on B2B startups. All of us founders are career B2B software guys and the mentor network we are recruiting are all B2B-focused superstars. While we acknowledge that we end up narrowing the applicant pool with the B2B-only strategy, we believe we improve the chances of success for our startups with the laser focus.

So do we have what it takes to compete and succeed? You bet we do! We are entrepreneurs / executives ourselves and understand that our success is tied to the success of our startups. We continue to expand our slate of mentors, will have our program closely hew to Steve Blank’s customer development methodology, are creating customer panels to provide critical customer input, and offer great support to improve the success of our startups. There’s a lot more that goes into it, but you get the idea!

So what are you waiting for? Hop on over to www.9MileLabs.com and apply today!

9Mile Labs has opened the application process!

9Mile Labs (www.9MileLabs.com), a Seattle high-tech accelerator focused on B2B software and cloud technologies, is now accepting applications for its program starting April 2013. 9Mile Labs invites startups from Washington state, Oregon state, and the Vancouver B.C. region to apply. 9Mile Labs will run two 3-month programs every year, each with a group of 9 startups. During this 3-month period, 9Mile Labs will invest $20k in each of the companies joining the program in exchange for equity. Startups receive access to our wide network of mentors and advisors who have extensive startup, technology, business, and functional experience. Startups also get great perks such as free workspace, internet access, and hosting.

At the end of the 3-month program, the startups in the program have the opportunity to pitch their businesses to angel investors, venture capitalists, industry influencers, and executives during the 9Mile Labs Demo Day.

Perhaps one of the greatest value startups will get from the 9Mile Labs programs is the mentor network. The 9Mile Labs mentors come from a cross-section of the high-tech industry. A majority of the mentors are successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business veterans from the startup world. Many are executives from the high-tech business world who have excelled in an executive or functional capacity. Yet others are VCs and angel investors who have worked extensively with startups.

The 9Mile Labs website provides many more details. Application deadline is Feb 22, 2013, so don’t wait, APPLY NOW!