What one Philly founder learned from the Comcast LIFT Labs Accelerator

Applications are now open for LIFT Labs, the 13-week startup acceleration program from Comcast and Techstars which looks to back young companies in the connectivity, media and entertainment space.

The program, launched in 2018, offers companies access to mentorship, office space and seed funding, in keeping with the Techstars model. Its inaugural cohort of 10 startups made their final pitch presentations last fall.

This time around, the cohort will be comprised of up to 12 companies, which will receive insights and training from “100 mentors and product experts from across Comcast NBCUniversal’s businesses and the Techstars’ network,” according to a press release.

Techstars’ KJ Singh was announced as managing director for the 2019 accelerator program.

“I’ve been intrigued by the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator and the value it offers startups,” Singh said in an emailed statement. “When I learned there was an opportunity to pair my more than six years of experience and knowledge of the Techstars approach with Comcast NBCUniversal’s significant expertise in the connectivity, media, and entertainment space, I knew that we would be an unstoppable team.”

Philly-based founder Danish Dhamani, CEO of public speaking app Orai, told Technical.ly that having access to the inaugural program’s resources and networking opportunities proved valuable.

“Demo day was like pushing us out to the real world,” said Dhamani, a Drexel University grad who cofounded the company alongside CTO and cofounder Paritosh Gupta. “It opened the doors to investors and potential customers, and geared us up to scale 10X right after that.”

The program ultimately offered a combination of resources for scaling with the mentoring and leadership skills to make it happen, he said.

The application process is now live and will close on April 7.