Team Parrots Year in Review for 2022!
Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!
As Team Parrots has been preparing for the holidays & the end of yet another year, we can’t help but look back with pride in our accomplishments & immense gratitude for the friends, clients, partners, advisors, and supporters who have helped to make 2022 such an impactful year. We hope you’ll join us for this quick “squawk” down memory lane as we recap some key highlights from another year in flight at Parrots!
2022 By The Numbers
Let’s begin with a quick recap, purely by the numbers, shall we?
Over 200% growth on number of users.
Over 300% growth on number of partnerships.
3 new members of Team Parrots
Acceptance into 3 accelerator programs.
Over 36 conferences, competitions, and events were attended.
Winning over 9 competitions and grants.
Now let’s dive into the details that made 2022 so spectacular!
January
We kicked 2022 off in style in Las Vegas, at the Consumer Electronics Showcase as part of the Washington State Department of Commerce booth! Our Founder, David Hojah, introduced conference attendees to Polly and all of our exciting tech to advance independence for people with severe neurological challenges. It was a fantastic experience, which you can read all about here, and here!
That same month, we made some noise in an article from the fine folks at GeekWire, who highlighted us in their article, “Assistive tech startup led by former NASA engineer uses AI ‘parrot’ to help people with disabilities.” That same month, we also found ourselves as part of the 2022 Global Good Fund cohort, working with other entrepreneurs to develop a better, more inclusive world. Between the conference, a new accelerator program, and all the buzz being generated, January proved to be a great headwind launching us to fantastic heights in 2022!
February & March
By February we were well underway with our continued efforts to improve our software platform, making it more efficient & accessible, while also meeting with additional potential hospital partners. We capped February off with a bang, taking home the Ignite 25+5 Most Socially Impactful Award! You can watch the full awards ceremony here, or you can click here to see David Hojah present Parrots & take home the award. We’re immensely grateful to everyone at Ignite Northwest for believing in us & celebrating our social impact!
In March, we were thrilled to be accepted as part of Expert Dojo, receiving a significant investment & participating in a multi-month-long accelerator program. That same month we were also officially joined by startup marketing & pitching expert — and disabled entrepreneur in her own right — Heather Lawver, as our Chief Marketing Officer! While in Expert Dojo, David & Heather worked together to further enhance our marketing strategy & pitch deck, ultimately winning Expert Dojo’s Beast Vision Sprint! Meanwhile, David was continuing to participate in the Global Good Fund’s programming, working hard to learn as much as possible, advance the reach of our network, and continue to grow, grow grow!
We also participated in the Unicorn Cup Finals & Exhibition, one of the world’s largest startup pitch competitions! It took place virtually, with startups competing from all around the world. It was an invaluable experience, building up our confidence & helping us to further refine our pitching strategy for the year ahead! We made a lot of valuable connections at the event, expanding our network and the reach of our software.
Things really took off in March, where we flew off to Dubai as a featured competitor at AIM 2022 Startup Pitch Competition as part of Expo 2022 Dubai! That was a wonderful experience, being back in the middle east to showcase our vital work to an international audience.
April & May
We continued to take flight, traveling around the region & the country as a whole, attending conferences, meeting with potential partners, and making sure Polly got noticed! We were especially thrilled to join our partners, Washington State University’s Gleason Institute for Neuroscience, at the Washington State Convention Center for the largest annual life science conference, Life Science Washington. It’s always exciting to see old friends & work together to advance the rights of people with neurological challenges & disabilities, standing shoulder to shoulder with peers who are equally passionate about this important work.
By May, the Global Good Fund program was coming to a close, celebrating everything we’d accomplished together & capping off an amazing experience with all of the fellows & the remarkable people who ran the program for us. It was a memorable evening at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC, one we certainly won’t soon forget! What a night!
Our travels continued, taking us to Dallas, Texas for the MedVentures 2022 Healthcare Dealmakers Conference, where we were a featured speaker and participated in their 15th annual Healthcare Innovation Pitch Competition. We were incredibly pleased, honored, and grateful to take home First Place! As you can see, David was overjoyed to be presented with the top prize of $5,000 by the competition judges! We especially want to thank Dr. Hubert Zajicek, Lindsey Settles, Bobby Guy, Neil Johnson, Chrissy Liotta, and Rachel Laureno!
We weren’t done yet! May had one final surprise in store, this time in San Francisco, where we attended the AI Med Global Summit 2022! There we emerged victorious, claiming top honors at the AIMed Shark Tank pitch competition! It was an incredible conference, featuring some great people and organizations that are helping to drive the agenda for artificial intelligence in healthcare.
A High-Flying Summer
Things really started to take off in June, with the announcement that Parrots was selected as a finalist for the CTIA Wireless Foundation Catalyst 2022 awards, a competitive grants program accelerating social entrepreneurs using 5G innovations to enhance American communities. Best of all, we were nominated alongside our fellow Halcyon Incubator alumni, OxiWear! It was a truly outstanding experience and we’re deeply grateful for CTIA’s ongoing support. If you’d like to watch some of the event, click here to check out CTIA’s LinkedIn Post all about it! Believe us, we were on pins & needles all summer, waiting to see if we would win. Now it’s your turn to get a tiny taste of what that anticipation was like! Keep reading to find out.
The summer was truly just beginning! We were thrilled to be selected to participate in the Mass Innovation Network’s exclusive 7-month accelerator program, The Eddies! It was fantastic to be back in Massachusetts, reconnecting with old friends & making new ones to further expand Parrots’ network.
In June, we ended up circling right back to Las Vegas, this time for Amazon re:MARS 2022 Conference, an inspiring & motivating week where we were honored to present & showcase our technology alongside other global innovators & creators. We were invited by Amazon Web Services & Mass Robotics, for which we are deeply grateful. Team Parrots was represented by both our Founder, David, and our COO, Dina Abdou! We had a fantastic time connecting and collaborating with other startups, entrepreneurs, and companies who are passionate about the potential for advanced technology to reshape and improve our world, especially when it comes to robotics, space, and — our specialty — healthcare. It was a profound experience, seeing glimpses of our near future, inspiring us to dream bigger, imagine what we can do together, and ultimately, propel us to keep flying higher! Thank you, Amazon!
By August, we decided to migrate south for a bit for the Louisiana Startup Prize in August! It was a spectacular opportunity, where we were nominated among a great list of finalists! David & Dina participated in an intensive one-hour pitch competition and deliberation in front of 18 judges and investors. It was all worth it, as we deeply valued the expertise and feedback of the impeccable panel of judges!
“I was so proud to be among a crowd that wants to make a difference in our society and is committed to providing solutions to make the world a better place,” said our COO, Dina Abdou. “Thank you for the crazy innovation journey! If you have a startup dedicated to tackling healthcare problems, I highly recommend participating in the 2022 Startup Prize!”
Clearly, 2022 offered a summer to remember! But we weren’t quite done yet. We came in for one spectacular landing! Remember how at the mid-point of the summer, we were named a CTIA Wireless Foundation Catalyst 2022 Finalist? Well get ready!
We won!
We could not be more proud, honored, grateful, or excited! I mean, just look at the faces of David & Dina! Catalyst is a profoundly competitive grants program for social entrepreneurs using 5G and leading-edge wireless technology. We received a $50,000 grant from the CTIA Wireless Foundation, in recognition and support of our work. In its third year, Catalyst 2022 focused on solutions that take advantage of the speed, efficiency, and versatility of 5G to deepen our connection to one another and make our communities stronger. Polly certainly exemplifies that, by making it easier than ever for people with neurological disorders to speak their minds, connect with their loved ones, and maintain more of their own independence.
Needless to say, our deepest gratitude to everyone at CTIA Wireless, as well as the event’s sponsors & organizers! We also want to congratulate fellow Catalyst 2022 winners, Kai XR and OxiWear!
Autumn Highlights
With as action-packed as our summer was, we certainly didn’t let up steam come autumn! In September we participated in the HARMAN International-XTC Startup Challenge, which culminated in San Francisco at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 in early October! It was a massive event where it was great to reconnect with friends & fellows, including Robert Luo from our cohort at the Global Good Fund. It was a lot of fun & we enjoyed showing off some of our latest updated marketing materials, thanks to our CMO. Check out this fabulous summary video shared on LinkedIn to get a taste of what the conference was like!
Shortly thereafter we were also named an Impact Startup to Watch in Assistive Tech by Impact Shakers, a leading global impact ecosystem tackling complex societal challenges through inclusive entrepreneurship. It was an honor to be noticed & featured, having a bright spotlight shine on our work to advance disability awareness, independence, and inclusion.
In October, we participated in the Product10x SaaSsy Startup Showcase Pitch, where we proudly took home the AI/ML Innovator Award! Watch our pitch below to see how our messaging has continued to refine & improve throughout the year, helping us bring home over 8 pitch competition titles in a single year!
Finally, in November, we were featured in an article from Business Insider, which helped to shine a spotlight on our work.
Now, as we wind down the year in December & reflect back on the amazing year we’ve had, we’re filled with gratitude for all of the wonderful people, partners, organizations, investors, advisors, and — of course! — users who have helped us to build Parrots, Polly, and an overall brighter future for everyone facing neurological challenges. We’d like to leave you with these final thoughts from Team Parrots.
Reflections on Lessons Learned in 2022
“If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world meeting people from different backgrounds, it is the power of hope; the power of one person. All it takes is one person, like Stephen hawking, Mohamed Ali, Mandela, Einstein, even the girl from Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai. One person can change the world by giving people hope. So if you want to change the world, start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help through life. Respect everyone. Know that life is not fair, and you will fail often. But if you take some risks, step up when time is the toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden, and never ever give up; if you do these things, all generations that follow will live in a world that is far better than the one we have today.”
- Dina Abdou, COO
“Parrots is close to my heart, because I’m disabled myself. Having had a small taste of extreme neurological disabilities, it’s amazing to me that solutions exist right now in the tech industry, yet too often they’re out of reach for the people who need them. That simply has to change. It begins with refusing to see ‘disability’ as a dirty word. Finally, this year, after facing disability discrimination in 2022, I think I finally understand why no one wants to talk about being disabled. Because confronting the reality of disability - how it can lead to exclusion, isolation, and discrimination - is a reminder of our own frailty as human beings. But I’ve learned this year, there is power in confronting your frailty. There is power in acknowledging our challenges, our differences. Because once we do, we unlock the true infinite beauty of human empathy, kindness, and compassion. I’m excited to fly high in 2023, knowing that I may fall, but trusting in the knowledge that my disabilities will always empower me to uplift & enable others. Who can you empower in 2023?”
- Heather Lawver, CMO
“As Stephen Hawking said, ‘Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.’ We are here to serve, to adapt, and empower all people to reach their full potential. We have been growing and evolving together. Let’s keep moving forward, together, in 2023!”
- David Hojah, Founder & CEO
Thank you to everyone who had a hand in uplifting us throughout 2022! We see you, appreciate you, and acknowledge your kindness, generosity, and support.
Happy Holidays & sending you all our best wishes for a happy, healthy & successful 2023!
