When reading any startup/tech publication or talking to anyone in the ecosystem, the word mobile is used an unfathomable amount of times. Mobile-friendly, mobile development, mobile commerce are all phrases that are exhausted on an hourly basis. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that a drinking game entitled, “Drink Every Time You Read or Hear Mobile,” would find itself on Nancy Grace tomorrow. TechCrunch recently ran an article entitled, “Mobile Internet To Be Worth More Than Apple By 2018.” What that article failed to mention is the fact that the opportunity for providing Internet access to developing nations is one of mammoth proportions.
While Internet access across the developing world is scarce, mobile phones are abundant. Using technologies already in your phone, Atlanta-based startup, Cosmos Browser, can provide an Internet connection where otherwise there’d be none. With Cosmos, you can browse the Internet via SMS, no data or WiFi required. What started as a side project gone viral has now developed into a company accepted to the world famous entrepreneurial program Techstars Mobility in Detroit. We recently chatted with CEO and Co-founder, Hunter Rosenblume, to get the scoop on this thrilling news.
“Cosmos was initially developed in September 2014 by 17-year-old Rohith Varanasi at MHacks IV, a 36-hour college coding competition at the University of Michigan. I left Georgia Tech to join as CEO,” says Rosenblume. “Our acceptance to Techstars marks an important milestone for the company as we continue to grow.”
“The Techstars program will not only provide us with funding, but also with mentorship from successful industry veterans and companies such as Techstars Detroit Managing Director Ted Serbinski, famed author and partner at Foundry Group Jason Mendelson, and Christian Guirnalda of Verizon Ventures,” he continues. “The three will join an already impressive group of mentors headed by Brian Cayce of Gray Ghost Ventures and Arun Gore, a former T-Mobile executive, as they direct us through a crucial point in our development.”
Startups Who’ve Been Through Techstars
Jay-Z once famously said, “numbers don’t lie, check the scoreboard,” and Techstars’ results would certainly have Young Hov’s seal of approval. Each company receives $2,772,322 in funding on average and of the 536 startups that have gone through their accelerators, 409 are active, 70 have been acquired, and only 57 have failed.
Needless to say, the stars have aligned for the Cosmos Browser team and at Hype, we love covering success stories coming out of Atlanta’s startup/tech ecosystem (check out our previous coverage on Rosenblume here). We’d like to congratulate Hunter and Rohith on their acceptance to Techstars Mobility and look forward to keeping up with their continued success.
Follow Cosmos Browser on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cosmosbrowser
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cosmosbrowser