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From Dream Viewer App to Africa’s Financial Terminal, This Serial Entrepreneur Gives Tech Startups New Life

Jon Gosier Third Cohort Capital

After years of launching and growing his own businesses, serial entrepreneur Jon Gosier is giving new life to innovative tech startups.

Gosier has successfully launched and scaled an abundance of businesses and now he’s ready to lend innovative tech startups his expert advice and some substantial financial backing.

The long-time investor and philanthropist is one of eight partners behind the Third Cohort Capital, a seed-stage investment group that focuses on “high-potential technology companies,” according to the company’s official website.

While the entire team is comprised of successful business-minded individuals, Gosier explained that his experience as a serial entrepreneur makes him incredibly valuable to both his clients and partners.

“I’ve started companies and scaled them several times,” he told AtlantaBlackStar. “Having experience as an entrepreneur is invaluable when it comes to investing. It makes me more valuable to my partners who mostly haven’t been entrepreneurs and it makes me more valuable as a mentor and advisor to the companies we invest in.”

Third Cohort Capital offers two financing vehicles to its clients with one option specifically for other fellow Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program alumni, graduates and participants.

While all clients are eligible for equity investments for any amount up to $25,000, only those who have graduated from or are currently working with the Goldman Sachs program are eligible to receive low-interest loans for up to $10,000.

While the company is still relatively new, it already boasts two successful clients who have created innovative mobile apps that are taking tech markets by storm.

Shadow, a mobile application based in San Francisco and Berlin, helps users remember and record their dreams.

By incorporating a social media aspect, the app’s users are also allowed to view the dreams of others around the globe who have decided to share their dreams.

In a more revolutionary aspect, experts believe the dream-viewing app could help make major scientific advancements in the psychology and other health-related fields.

Gosier has also helped to launch Market Atlas, which is described on the company’s website as a “modern financial terminal that uses real-time information and graph search to improve emerging market investment decisions.”

The internationally recognized data scientist serves as the chief technology officer of the self-proclaimed “Bloomberg for Frontier Markets,” which has the ability to help hedge funds, private equity firms and impact investors in Africa make informed business decisions.

These types of revolutionary ideas have led to publications recognizing Gosier as one of the “20 Angel Investors Worth Knowing” and “Innovators of the Year 2013” by Black Enterprise Magazine.

 

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10 Young Black Tech Innovators You Should Know

Kimberly Bryant

Bryant founded San Francisco-based Black Girls Code in 2011 to help close the digital divide for girls of color. So far the nonprofit organization has trained more than 1,500 girls to work in technology fields such as robotics, video game design, mobile phone application development and computer programming.

This past July, Bryant, a biotechnology and engineering professional, was one of 11 people to receive the White House Champions of Change for Tech Inclusion award. The award is given to celebrate people in the U.S. “who are doing extraordinary things to expand technology opportunities for young learners—especially minorities, women and girls, and others from communities historically under-served or under-represented in tech fields,” according to whitehouse.gov.

Dr. Paul Judge

Dr. Paul Q. Judge is a serial entrepreneur and noted scholar with a doctorate in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. The Atlanta-based entrepreneur has founded several companies that expanded and resulted in successful acquisitions. In 2000, Judge joined the founding team of CipherTrust, an anti-spam email software company, which became one of the fastest growing firms in North America with 300 employees and over 3,000 customers, including half of the Fortune 500 companies, in more than 50 countries. CipherTrust was acquired by Secure Computing for $273 million in 2006.

Judge has received many awards and was recognized by the MIT Technology Review Magazine as one of the top 100 young innovators in the world in 2003. He was also featured in Black Enterprise magazine’s list of “50 Most Powerful Players Under 40.”‘

Ory Okolloh

Harvard-educated Ory Okolloh of Kenya has created both the watchdog site Mzalendo and the crime reporting site Ushahidi, and now serves as Google’s policy manager in Africa. Recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Technology last year, she is set to become the new face of entrepreneurship on the continent.

Shaun Evans

Shaun Evans is the chief executive officer of OMBO Apps, which is becoming one of Atlanta’s hottest tech companies to take on the mobile industry. His startup company develops cutting-edge mobile applications targeting the African-American market. Evans is a game-changer with one hit already under his belt, Urban Gossip FREE, the No. 1 black celebrity news app for iPhone and Android mobile devices.

Anthony Frasier

Anthony Frasier is a native of Newark, N.J., former co-founder of mobile startup Playd, and the award- winning gaming site TheKoalition.com. Anthony was also profiled in the online hit documentary Black in America: The New Promised Land – Silicon Valley, which has received over 1 million viewers.

In 2012 CNN Money profiled an elite group of eight minorities diversifying the tech industry and Frasier made the list. He was also listed in NBC The Grio’s “100: Making History Today” for his acclaimed work. Currently he’s working on building up the Newark tech scene and a new tech startup.

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