Born Global Ventures is excited to partner with Women in AI USA to launch WaiVALIDATE, a free 4-week boot camp specially designed for early-stage founders to validate and develop their tech startups.
Why VALIDATE?
90% of startups fail, and one of the top reasons is lack of product market fit. Most founders don’t conduct enough market research until they launch their product. We believe it is critical to integrate market validation at ideation and in all the stages of startup development, instead of an afterthought. It will save lots of time and effort and greatly increase the chance of startup success.
Why Women?
Women entrepreneurship is increasing globally, and recent research suggests that there are 114% more female entrepreneurs in the US today than 20 years ago, and women have started 49% of new businesses in the US in 2021 compared with only 28% in 2019. However, only 2% of U.S. venture capital funding is allocated to female-led ventures.
What is WaiVALIDATE?
The WaiVALIDATE program is a free 4-week intensive boot camp offering educational workshops, mentorship, coaching and counseling, strategic partnerships, investor relations, and startup perks.
Every week, founders will attend ONLINE synchronized sessions of two hours: the first hour dedicated to hands-on workshops on problem identification, market validation, strategic planning, and selling/pitching and the second hour to relationship building in breakout rooms with experienced founders, partners, investors, and most importantly, mental health counselors and professional coaches.
Additionally, you will gain a supportive network of mentors, partners, and investors as well as perks and resources for your startups.
How to Apply?
If you’re a pre-seed startup founder looking for guidance to validate and develop your startup, submit your application at the link given below. We believe that investing in diverse entrepreneurs means tapping into previously unexplored potentials. Therefore, in the spirit of “zero exclusion”, founders from all backgrounds regardless of gender and ethnicity are welcome to join.
How to Get Involved:
With the mission to “cultivate the galaxy of global innovation,” we welcome all the stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to join us. You are more than welcome to be a part of WaiVALIDATE if you are an
Please fill this form to let us know you’re interested in getting involved. We look forward to hearing from you and exploring ways to collaborate on this mission.
Victor Koosh serves as Managing Director for ACT Capital Advisors and has built and sold multiple businesses over his 35-year career. As a former founder, Victor is sympathetic to the challenges business owners face and brings a creative approach to finding the best solutions. He served as CEO of Caesar Systems-PetroVR, an oil and gas software business acquired by Aucerna. He was also the co-founder & CEO of Meedio, a premier provider of digital lifestyle software acquired by Yahoo! in 2006. Victor’s expertise in the software industry for more than 20 years gives him a unique perspective on the needs and demands of these companies. He strives for simplicity and leverages teamwork to integrate multiple points of view that illuminate opportunities. He also speaks Russian, Spanish, and German. Victor, a Native American Jump Start board member, studied business administration at the University of Houston. In addition, he’s received the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award, the Centurion Award, and the Silver Beaver Award.
Marc J. Sharpe is the founder and chairman of The Family Office Association (“TFOA”), an organization formed in 2007 to provide a forum for education and networking and to serve as a resource for single family offices to share ideas and best practices, pool buying power, leverage talent and conduct due diligence. Mr. Sharpe’s career in the investment and asset management industry spans more than 25 years. He has held positions in investment banking for Wasserstein Perella & Co. Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in addition to founding a venture capital incubator in the UK and working for Dell Inc. He subsequently took a position as portfolio manager and research director for Galapagos Partners LP, a full-service multi-family office serving a select group of ultra-high net worth families. After successfully growing the firm and surviving the 2008 market crash with a positive net return, Mr. Sharpe joined SigmaBleyzer Investment Group, an international private equity firm specializing in control investments with assets valued at $1 billion. He was also a managing director for a boutique investment advisory firm providing alternative asset strategies to ultra-high net worth families and registered investment advisors. Marc is currently an Operating Partner with Satori Capital, LLC, a Dallas and Fort Worth-based investment firm founded upon the principles of Conscious Capitalism. Immediately prior to Satori, Marc served as Partner & Managing Director at LCR Capital Partners, responsible for building strategic partnerships and investment opportunities throughout the world. Marc holds an M.A. from Cambridge University, a M.Sc. from Oxford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Sharpe is active in the community and has served on the Board of the Holocaust Museum Houston, the HBS Angels, and on the Investment Committee for two Texas based foundations.
Rohit is an experienced entrepreneur and leader with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and software industry. He has been providing innovative Data and Analytics solutions and products to clients in Healthcare, Financial Services, Retail, Automotive, Manufacturing and other industry segments.
He is skilled in business and IT strategy, M&A, Sales; Marketing and Global Delivery. He holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering, is a Wharton School Fellow and a graduate from the Harvard Business School.
He has completed executive education programs in AI in Business and Healthcare from MIT Sloan, MIT CSAIL and Harvard School of Public Health. He is completing the Global Healthcare Leaders Program from Harvard Medical School.
Rohit is currently the Managing Partner at Bigr.io and Saviance.
Davy Wang currently works as the senior director at Oracle Cloud, responsible for top-tier customers. He was previously the founding team of AWS China and served as chief architect and solution director of Amazon AWS Greater China, the first batch of getting AWS expert certification. He has helped many of China's top Internet companies, making full use of cloud platforms and taking the advantage of technological innovation, and thus promoting the business model of innovation.
Davy was a senior technical expert at Ali Yun. He has many years of IT consulting and implementation experience. He was a Senior Architect Manager at IBM Global Services, where he was responsible for the promotion and service consulting of solutions such as SOA, enterprise systems integration, and cloud computing platforms in China and the Asia Pacific region.
Key Focused Areas:
Published two best-selling books about Cloud Computing and Application Architect (Both books have been sold for more than 100,000 copies)
Rich experience in Enterprise Level Application Architecture including strategy, design, implementation, and integration
Helped MNC design and implement Digital Transformation
Certified PMP for more than 15 years and expert at project management as the head of PMO
In-depth knowledge in global scalable infrastructure and helped a lot of multi-national companies design their infrastructure globally
More than 20 years experience working in IT Consulting and Cloud Computing Company, including IBM, AWS, Ali Cloud, Tencent Cloud
Frequent public speaker about cloud/DevOps/SaaS etc.
Mr. Stephen Read is happily married to his wife Sarah with whom he has 3 children (Nora, Isaac andMarcus). Stephen founded HIT Investments; the General Partner of the Hedge fund HIT Capital in 2011.
Mr. Stephen Read has spent the majority of his life researching, investing and learning how to compound wealth. His personal expertise lies in strategy, programming, behavioral finance, and investment analysis.
Stephen is a lifelong learner who believes the best way to learn is by doing. Since graduating from Missouri A&M with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering he has:
Worked 14 years at ConocoPhillips as a Drilling Engineer, Rig Supervisor, Development Team Lead, Exploration Project Manager, A&D Lead, Strategic Planning, Reserves Coordinator, Commercial Lead and Water Manager Played professional baseball which was capped off with a Continental League Championship Founded the investment firm HIT Investments and oversees +$10 million in AUM Manages the hedge fund HIT Capital which has +14% CAGR since its 2013 launch Saved and compounded enough $ for his family to reach financial independence by age 37 Built a website and writes a blog on personal and behavioral finance Invested in startups since 2011, which includes one unicorn (and counting) Developed and lead a Python programming program, producing more than 100 translators and coders Stephen’s investment expertise lies in the markets available to the hard-working middle class: public equities, real estate, and early-stage startups. He is passionate about helping others save, invest, and follow their calling. Stephen is a registered Investment Adviser in the state of Texas.
One of Stephen’s favorite quotes is from 2 Corinthians 9:6 “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”
Shuang Leng is an attorney licensed in Illinois and Texas. She works with both startups and establishedcompanies and assists them with their ongoing business and legal needs. Her practice mainly focuses oncorporate governance and transactions, commercial transactions, data privacy and security, and blockchain-related matters. Shuang is also a certified information privacy professional (CIPP/US/E) with experience in boththe US and European data protection laws. The CIPP is the global standard in privacy certification, developedand issued by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Shuang is adept in contract review, analysis, and drafting, and has a deep understanding of corporatestructures and business entities. She is well-versed in corporate transaction deal structures (deal steps, equitystructures, fund flow, due diligence, and M&A taxation). She developed all essential algorithms for a taxcalculator, which compares and ranks tax liabilities and benefits resulting from all available deal structures(stock sales, assets sales, mergers, 338(h)(10) elections, etc.) for sales or acquisitions of C corporations, Scorporations, LLCs and partnerships.
Shuang works with tech companies on a regular basis. In addition to transactional work, she advisescompanies on securities regulations, capital raising activities, legal issues surrounding the Internet of Thingsand related legislative activities, and other compliance matters.
Education
J.D., University of Kansas, School of Law, USA
LL.B. Renmin University of China, Law School, China
Other Qualifications
CIPP/US (Certified Information PrivacyProfessional/US)
CIPP/E (Certified Information PrivacyProfessional/Europe)
Bar and Court Admissions
Texas
Illinois
China (Legal Professional Qualification Certificate)
Southern District Court of Texas
20+ years focus on innovation, marketing, and psychology
17+ years of business school teaching and consulting
Pioneering research on e-commerce since 2000 and social networks since 2005
Published in premium journals and spoke at international conferences
Tenured marketing professor at Cameron School of Business, Univ. of St. Thomas
Co-founded Z LAB Global in 2017, a global innovation studio
Full-spectrum integrated service provider to tech startups for the last 5 years
Investor and builder of TrueLeap, myEnergyBudy, and GeoChemPro
Founder of the Born Global Community for immigrant entrepreneurs and investors
Program Advisor of Women in AI USA leading startup development programs
Board of Advisor at George H. W. Bush Foundation of US.-China Relations
Established strategic partnerships with hundreds of organizations
14 years in the largest Independent Energy Company in the world (both technical and leadership roles)
10 years developing new ventures in the energy industry
Eagle Ford Shale Asset (US L48): Considered to be one of the biggest success stories for ConocoPhillips (Day zero technical team member)
European Shale Ventures: Led COP's first international Shale venture
Led venture projects with $1B+ in assets (Deepwater Gulf of Mexico)
Managed venture portfolio's with $100M+ in yearly budgets (Deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Poland Shales)
Managed major project exits (Deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Poland Shales)
Co-founded Z LAB Global in 2017, a digital innovation studio
Full spectrum service provider to technology startups for the last 5 years
Full spectrum service provider to technology startups for the last 5 years
