The 4th cohort of Parallel 18 entrepreneurs have arrived and the first week has been a smashing success. It’s the last day of orientation week at Parallel 18 and the fourth cohort of 34 entrepreneurs are learning the ropes of this community and kicking off their five-month journey as part of this accelerator. Five minutes ago, the session in which each of the 34 startups gave a 3-minute pitch to the community wrapped up and had to sit down immediately with enthusiasm to share 11 more companies I’m too amped about not to share with you after getting to know them in 3 minutes. Here we go.

11 Startups You Just Gotta Know

1. Excited // There isn’t a better way to kick off this list than starting with a company that has a name that reflects exactly what I’m feeling right now: Excited. And they are doing rad things for the 350M Gay people around the world who face discrimination in stores due to (a very f*cked up) lack of social acceptance. However, these stores are missing out on 350M VIP customers (their karma serving them right) in that Gay people spend 15% more than their straight counterparts due to the fact that they are “DINKs” – Double Income and No Kids – customers. They make more money and spend less on the cost-sucking tyrants which are us children (Sorry, Mom). Excited is the 1st Gay e-commerce and community platform in Latin America for services and products that Gay people around the world love. Having launched two years ago in Mexico, they have operations now in Chile as well and are proud to be 100% Gay, but Hetero-Friendly. I’m hoping they can team up with Parallel 18’s Generation 3 startup, SoyMacho, and create SoyExcited to collaborate and realize shared visions. Get excited for Excited. I know I am. #Excited
2. Awesound // To continue with my tradition of starting out with startups that have names which reflect my current feeling, Awesound is f*ckin’ awesome. Hailing from Ireland (which is the first company from Ireland to participate in Parallel 18), Awesound is tapping into the $3Bn billion audiobooks and podcasting market to help publishers and creators earn 2x more from their productions. We see thought leaders like Tim Ferriss, Andreessen Horowitz, and others leveraging this medium to connect with their followers, and they aren’t the only ones. And this trend of podcasts isn’t slowing down. It’s a huge opportunity so much in that advertisers are spending 85% more on podcast advertising each year. Why? Podcast listeners have a particularly beneficial profile – they tend to be young, rich and educated. Having landed a partnership with 70+ iTunes podcasts, Awesound is just getting started and they are awesome. See for yourself @awesoundapp
3. Kiwi Campus // Now here’s what I’d compare to a self-driving robot of an Uber for food delivery. This hardware-software fusion tech is leveraging the power of robots and the ease of ordering food to be delivered through an app (again, like ordering a ride from your Uber app), to radically cut costs for food providers from $8 a delivery, to $3 a delivery. I’m hoping that they’ll join forces with Parallel 18 alum Lunchera will take advantage of that and together take advantage of the $210Bn billion dollar global market. Kiwi Campus is the 1st robot for urban delivery service. @KiwiCampus
4. Intelag // This Chilean agtech company is combining the power of hardware and software to bring farmers real time analytics about their field conditions to improve their production and crop yield. Similar to P18 alum, Pycno, this company is providing game-changing technology to the 570 million farmers in the world that make up 8% of the global workforce and making them faster, better, stronger and overall, just more successful. @Intel_ag
5. Cloudboost // There’s a reason hiring a developer and developing an app is one of the biggest challenges for companies, costing vast amounts of time, energy, talent, and money – all of which are precious resources. Not to mention, developing an app requires finding an all-star developer, which doesn’t come easy or cheap. With operations in the United States and India, Cloudboost uses artificial intelligence and deep learning technology to automatically build apps for you. That long ass time it takes for app development gets radically cut down to app creation in 48 hours. 48 hours. What. @Cloudboostio
6. Workep // I represent just one of the 425M people who use Google apps. However, despite the fact that 77% of companies use project management software, Google has yet to offer this service as part of their fleet of features in Google Suite. Workep makes that no longer a thing. Their project management platform in partnership with and endorsed by Google is taking a slice of the $1.5Bn billion dollar project management platform market (currently dominated by platforms like Trello, Asana, or lesser known one which I love WeekPlan) and creating seamless project management and productivity for teams by adding a project management feature to work in tandem with their Google Suite. Try it for yourself. @Workep
7. CoinAction // CoinAction is another one of a couple of Bitcoin and Blockchain startups in this Parallel 18 cohort that I’m psyched are part of this cohort considering the recent surge of interest, investment, and promising results in the cryptocurrency-Bitcoin tech space. With operations in the United States, Chile, and Brazil, Coin Action is changing the way we use money with their technology and are dedicated to international money transfers and receipts and leading the charge in the future of financial services.@neoeconomics1
8. ByPrice // There’s a big problem in Latin America revolving around a huge lack of transparency regarding pharmaceuticals. Did you know that a prescription that costs you $20-40 could actually cost you $15 dollars less if you filled it at a pharmacy just one block away? 70% of all medications would cost you less if you filled them in a different store. And we’re not talking about a different medication or a generic alternative. The exact same medication. ByPrice connects with all pharmacies and supermarkets to collect 5M data points every day and improve pricing for their 50K users every month that is growing at an astounding rate of 50% every month. They are monetizing by leveraging their millions of data points to provide pricing intelligence for insurance companies and saving people filling prescriptions a great deal of money. @ByPrice_
9. StoreLevel // No matter how much you spend on advertising, 76% of consumers make their purchasing decisions in the store which is why that fact that StoreLevel is bringing local visibility to retailers and providing big results for customers like Bic and Nestle. By catalyzing a mobile on-demand workforce for clients, the millions of shoppers with smartphones around the world can get cash rewards for executing missions for brands by providing insights on the ground. This cutting edge tech combines the power of crowdsourcing and technology to instantly improve brands’ understanding of customer purchasing behavior.@StoreLevel
10. CamOnApp  // To say this is another cool startup would be just repeating myself too much, so I’ll stop. This platform leverages augmented reality on their web platform and mobile app for users to scan physical media content and discover digital content online. They also provide a content creation service for creators on their web platform. They are taking advantage of the gap between digital and physical media content by acting as the bridge that can connect the two seamlessly. @CamOnApp
11. BonjourAna // Who the f*ck likes the daily grind of adulting chores necessary to make you a grown up? Nope! Which is why I’m stoked about this company. BonjourAna is a personal assistant for recurring chores such as buying groceries, dropping off and picking up dry cleaning, cleaning the house, or picking up your medication from the pharmacy. BonjourAna provides you with your own personal assistant to do these for you and satisfy your lazy ass. In Puerto Rico alone, their services can satisfy the over 319,000 households who spend $122M each year for these services and satiate the hunger of us all to get these chores done but out of our hands. Yes Please.@bonjouranainc

So there you go. 11 more companies from Parallel 18’s Generation 4 doing are doing amazing things and are poised to grow exponentially over the months to come by accessing the funding, mentors, network, community, and financial incentives in Puerto Rico by participating in Parallel 18. I’ll be diving in deeper on each company in the months to come so stay tuned my friends.

Check out all 34 startups participating in the fourth cohort of Parallel 18!

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