BootstrapLabs charges ahead with talent and funding
Armed with funding and a ‘Brain Trust’ of advisors, global accelerator BootstrapLabs hopes to help more founders take their startups global
Silicon Valley-based BootstrapLabs, a global accelerator for technology startups, has announced today that it has both, raised an undisclosed amount of growth capital, as well as set up a ‘Brain Trust’ of advisors that consisting of some of Silicon Valley’s top talent.
Started in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Nicolai Wadstrom, BootstrapLaps assists talented and ambitious entrepreneurs all around the world to relocate their startups to Silicon Valley and help them build global companies. Today, BootstrapLabs receives applications and referrals from over 40 countries. It also launched local accelerator programmes in South East Asia and Korea last year.
Comprising strategic investors, angels and successful entrepreneurs such as New Age Ventures and EON Venture, this investment into BootstrapLabs will let it scale its operations internationally and back more foreign founders in Silicon Valley each year. At the same time, BootstrapLabs will also be reinforcing its international presence in geographic areas where talent abounds, but local and regional opportunities are limited.
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New ‘Brain Trust’
In addition to the funding, the company has announced that it has recruited few of Silicon Valley’s startup and tech talent to join its advisory board, acting as a ‘Brain Trust’ to BootstrapLabs and its founders. The aim is to enable BootstrapLabs to expand its reach and influence, accelerating equity value creation for stakeholders by letting more talented entrepreneurs join Silicon Valley’s excellent startup ecosystem.
Below are the members of this ‘Brain Trust’:
Jason Hoffman is a VP at Ericsson, handling Ericsson’s cloud software, hardware and services business. Prior to this, he was the Founder and CTO of Joyent, a pioneering high performance cloud software provider. Hoffman also sits on the boards of the WordPress Foundation, npm Inc and New Context as an angel investor, strategy and execution advisor.
Rikard Steiber is the Chief Digital Officer and Executive VP of European entertainment broadcasting group Modern Times Group (MTG AB). Previously, he served as a Global Marketing Director of Mobile and Social Advertising at Google and was a Co-founder and CEO of XLENT Strategy and Digiscope Consulting.
Ariel Poler is a board member at Freedom Financial Network and Strava. A serial entrepreneur, mentor and investor, he is the Founder of web analytics company IPRO, email community Topica, and SMS marketing firm TextMarks. He has also served on the boards of Kana Software, LinkExchange, StumbleUpon and Odeo, as well as made angel investments in AdMob, Flixster, Slideshare, Viki and NexTag.
Wadstrom emphasises the importance of this ‘Brain Trust’. “As an entrepreneur, founder and operator for 20 years, I know that one of the most important things for a founder is to have smart advisors and stakeholders who contribute their expertise and networks,” he noted, “I am very excited to have some of these visionaries that have been part of building the Silicon Valley ecosystem, on our advisory team.”
With these, BootstrapLabs will also continue its partnerships with large corporations, accelerating its foray into Global Innovation Discovery. “Innovation is top of mind these days for most senior executives at large corporations,” said Benjamin Levy, Partner and Co-fFounder, BootstrapLabs. ”BootstrapLabs can provide a unique pre-screened window into this world of potentially disruptive early stage technology companies globally,” he added.
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