Proud to announce: pr.co is selected for Blackbox Connect 20

This edition of Blackbox Connect is powered by Google for Entrepreneurs. The competition was particularly fierce, and we feel honoured to have been selected from a pool of over 200 talented entrepreneurs from more than 40 countries.

Blackbox Connect, is an intensive, residential program for international founders looking to hone their craft of entrepreneurship. It was founded in 2011 by Fadi Bishara, and it wasn’t long before some of the Valley’s biggest players began to take notice. In 2013, Google for Entrepreneurs, which provides financial support and the best of Google’s resources to dozens of startup communities across 140 countries, formed a partnership with Blackbox Connect to offer the program to founders across their partner network.

Six years ago, Fadi Bishara, a Syrian-American immigrant who settled down in the Bay Area in the early 90s to launch a career in tech recruiting, had the idea to bring startup founders from outside the United States to connect with the innovation mecca of the world — Silicon Valley. Driven by strong belief in the importance of the human element in building great companies, and in the existence of talented founders working to solve real problems in every corner of the globe, Bishara set out to create something that would fill a gap in the rapidly-growing startup accelerator space — a focus on founders, and a model that valued potential over proximity.

The last 19 editions of Blackbox connect have seen over 400 entrepreneurs go through the program.

Of the 400 entrepreneurs who have come through the program since its inception, more than 180 have been selected from Google for Entrepreneurs partner communities across 35 countries. Among that group, 52% are women, many of whom have come through Blackbox Connect: Female Founders Edition, which takes place each May.

Apart from the Blackbox Connect 20 program, pr.co is also selected for the Startup Advisors program by Google for Entrepreneurs. Startup Advisors is a skill-based mentorship program (modelled after Adopt a Startup, run by Google Ireland) between Google offices and local startups. Every successful startup applicant will be assigned to a Google mentor (Startup Manager). Over the last few weeks pr.co's commercial team has received training from Richard van Cleeff, Sales Operations Lead at Google Marketing Solutions.