Photo: Of the eight companies that graduated in the first cohort of Communitech Rev, three split $100,000 at the Centre Stage event in September. Nicoya Lifesciences took a top prize of $50,000.

Communitech Rev has selected four startups for the second cohort of its revenue-focused accelerator, as the program moves to a more-frequent admissions schedule and boosts its mentorship capacity with dedicated Executives-in-Residence (EIRs).

The four new companies, which have taken up residence in the Rev space in the Communitech Hub, are:

    • BluePoint Technology, whose wireless router, called Kindera, allows parents to supervise their children’s home Internet usage from their smartphones via an easy-to-use web service. Kindera connects directly to an existing home router, and the web interface allows parents to access the system from wherever they are.
    • Knowledgehook, a cloud-based math software that helps teachers and school boards enhance two of the most well-researched ways of improving student outcomes: increasing student engagement with the material, and helping teachers implement a strong formative assessment process.
    • FunnelCake, which helps B2B marketing teams understand their buyers’ journey from awareness to purchase. Marketers get insights into marketing influence across their entire funnel. By aggregating data from existing sales and marketing apps, like Google Analytics, Twitter, HubSpot, and Salesforce, FunnelCake helps marketers make decisions faster, prove ROI for marketing activities, and accelerate deal velocity by improving conversions at each stage of the funnel.
    • TallyFi, which builds a high-tech replacement for the mechanical counter used to count people at nightclubs, festivals and events. Its purpose-built hardware is used by security staff and provides real-time statistics of entrances and exits, along with time-stamped logging and deep analysis of past data.


Rev, which launched in March of this year, originally pledged to take in up to 10 companies every six months, which aligned with its six-month program to help companies to scale revenue.

Under the new approach, the Rev program will remain six months long and take in the same overall number of companies, but bring in smaller cohorts more often – up to five companies every three months – so that the groups overlap.

“Based on our early experience and feedback from our first cohort, we believe staggered intakes will make for a more dynamic learning experience, as new companies learn from those who are just a few months ahead of them,” said Marylin Ma, Rev Program Manager.

Rev is also adding to the rigour of its programming by dedicating four experienced EIRs to help keep companies on track and accountable for hitting their targets. They will work closely with the companies during the initial three-month sprint to develop and refine their sales and marketing processes, which is followed by three months in which companies execute and automate the processes they’ve developed.

The Rev EIRs and their focus areas, are:

    • Heather Galt (marketing), former VP of Marketing for Kik Interactive, the mobile chat platform recently valued at $1 billion. Galt built Kik’s marketing, customer support, customer analytics, recruiting and privacy functions as it grew from four million to more than 250 million users. She previously spent 11 years with BlackBerry, and began her career in marketing and product management with two startups.
    • Daryl Sherman (sales), a serial entrepreneur with a diverse background in the life sciences, medical, and consumer packaged goods sectors. Sherman’s strength is teaching science and technology founders to create repeatable businesses processes.
    • Jeff Fedor (product and design), founder of Covarity and co-founder of Ardesic and ParkVu, who has more than 20 years’ experience in startups and software. Fedor has held such titles as VP Product; Senior Data Scientist; CTO; President and CEO in the analytics, CRM, entertainment, financial and travel industries.
    • Steve McCartney(leadership), VP of the Startup Services Group at Communitech, whose previous roles include President and CEO at Bering Media Inc.; Partner at Tequity Inc.; and President and CEO of Atria Networks LP, leading the fibre-optic network company through rapid growth before it was sold to Rogers for $425 million.


Of Rev’s inaugural cohort of 10 companies, eight graduated and three went on to split $100,000 in prize money at Communitech Rev Centre Stage, a pitch event in September where Silicon Valley startup guru Steve Blank served on the judging panel. Nicoya Lifesciences took a top prize of $50,000, and Bridgit and PiinPoint were each awarded $25,000.

Communitech Rev is a first-of-its-kind accelerator designed to help product-ready startups optimize their sales and marketing engines. It takes no equity in participating companies.

More information on Rev and how to apply can be found on the program’s website.