Busbud CEO LP Maurice has been named to the list of 2014 NYC Venture Fellows, which is a “world-class, year-long fellowship and mentorship program designed to help high-potential entrepreneurs scale their ventures in New York City.”
Busbud is a Montreal-based startup that created a platform for people to search, compare and book bus tickets all over the world.
The 2014 class’ 28 entrepreneurs represent startups originating in five different countries, from a diverse cross-section of industries such as media, enterprise software, biotech, education, financial services, and real estate. A Selection Committee of New York City industry leaders chaired by Stuart Ellman (cofounder of RRE Ventures) selected the group from nearly 200 applicants.
Maurice’s inclusion in the list likely points at expansion plans of some sort in New York, potentially an office opening. Last year the company participated in the Government of Canada’s CTA@NYC program in New York City, in collaboration with the Consulate General of Canada in New York.
In general it’s been quite a fruitful past few months for Maurice. In November his company was selected as one of the Canadian Innovation Exchange’s (CIX) top 20 innovative companies and also was selected as part of the C100’s 48Hrs in the Valley December 2013 cohort. In early December Busbud was also selected alongside nine other startups to participate in the CDMN’s Brasil-Canada 3.0 conference in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. Finally, Maurice made headlines on BetaKit just before Christmas when his team crated GeoDonation, a website that maps out over 1,000 different donation boxes and locations throughout Montreal.
Back to the NYC 2014 Venture Fellows, the program connects the chosen CEOs with experienced mentors, kicking off January 15-16 with a series of events, including an opening reception, mentor-matching events, and leadership workshops.
“If you’re building a business and you need to accelerate, Venture Fellows is the program that can help that happen,” said Shane Snow, a 2013 Fellow and Co-founder of Contently. “It instantly plugs you in to the most powerful network that there in New York City.”
The program is designed for entrepreneurs whose businesses are at a critical stage in development, when the companies have the potential to substantially increase their number of employees and make a significant impact on New York City’s economy.
Past participants of the program headed up successful US startups Foursquare, Etsy and SecondMarket, CodeAcademy and Songza.
Photo by Generation Inc.com