MyDoorHandle receives Google invitation to Blackbox Connect

Dylan Kohlstadt and Steven Ellis from the Cape Town based startup MyDoorHandle have been invited to attend the Google for Entrepreneurs and BlackBox.vc entrepreneurial accelerator programme in San Francisco. This is an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs to gain and share valuable knowledge of the Valley.

As part of a sponsorship by Google for Entrepreneurs, the Blackbox Connect is a two-week immersion programme where non-US based startups get the opportunity to be inspired, grow and connect with the top VC’s and game changers in Silicon Valley.

Part of Bandwidth Barn’s 88mph acceleration programme, MyDoorHandle is a location-based service that allows you to give a short, easy to remember name to any location, for example: www.mydoorhandle.com/shifthappens. This link can then be shared with friends and foes alike for them to easily track your location. MyDoorHandle offers a cost-effective, fast and simple way to create GPS-based addressees also known as “handles.” These could then be used for any mobile device.

Kohlstadt and Ellis’s startup is part of eight other stirring ventures from around the world nominated to attend Google for Entrepreneur’s Summer 2013 Programme. The programme will take place 15 to 26 July.

Although all living expenses are paid for, Kohlstadt and Ellis are still required to cover their own traveling costs. The two therefore say that they are happy to give full sponsorship rights, branding and marketing access to their time in San Francisco.

Through initiatives and opportunities like these, MyDoorHandle is planning on making its mapping data compliant with more application programming interfaces apart from Google Maps. The service has a great potential of making an impact on international markets as well. Since launching the site back in April, more than a thousand of people have signed up for the service.

Through this wonderful opportunity the startup will be able to see how “it’s done in Silicon Valley and be able to bring back the learnings to incubators in Cape Town.” The company will also be able to “learn how to scale [their] business globally, and find out what things to watch out for, what to cater for and what is relevant in other countries.” The team is hoping to share its experience abroad and to share it with local entrepreneurs as well.

Kohlstadt and Ellis also plan to “host a feedback session at the Bandwidth Barn where [they’ll] present [their] learnings and insights to the large groups of startups and entrepreneurs there.”

For more information about the Blackbox Connect programme, take a look at this video: