Highlights from Fast Forward’s 2017 Accelerator Launch

On Tuesday, June 13th Fast Forward, Comcast NBCUniversal, BlackRock, and folks from the NYC tech for good community braved the heatwave to come out to 30 Rockefeller Plaza and celebrate the launch of our 2017 accelerator cohort.

It was an inspirational evening, with talks from Jody Kochansky, Managing Director, Head of the Aladdin Product Group at BlackRock; Jessica Clancy, VP of Corporate Social Responsibility at Comcast NBCUniversal; Shannon Farley, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Fast Forward; Kevin Barenblat, Co-Founder & President of Fast Forward; Jared Chung, CEO of CareerVillage.org; Ashley Treni, Co-Founder of JustFix.NYC; Peter Gault, CEO of Quill; and Sam Sinyangwe, Co-Founder of We the Protesters.

We also announced our 2017 cohort! In case you missed the blog post, here’s a recap of our new teams:

• Beyond 12 a digital mentorship platform transforming first-generation students into college graduates (San Francisco, CA)
• Concrn a mobile 911-alternative to dispatch help for people in crisis (San Francisco, CA)
• IssueVoter a nonpartisan platform for engaging all citizens in today’s politics (New York, NY)
• MindRight proactive daily mental health support for teens via SMS-based coaching (Washington, DC)
• MyHealthEd sex education for middle school students delivered through text-based storytelling (Chapel Hill, NC)
• Online SOS a platform that connects victims of online harassment to resources and support (San Francisco, CA)
• Onward an employer-benefit platform helping low-wage workers weather financial instability (Kansas City, MO)
• Raheem.ai a chatbot for anonymously reporting and rating experiences with police (Washington, DC)

Many thanks to our supporters Comcast NBCUniversal and BlackRock for helping us make Fast Forward’s 1st New York event a success! Check out the gallery below for a glimpse at what the evening was like.