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Technology Against Crime in Africa (TAC Africa), an organization connecting law enforcement, subject matter experts, and civil society to solve issues that affect the African society using technology is thrilled to announce our partnership with Silicon Valley Accelerator GSDLabs. The Accelerator was founded by GSD Venture Studios, a Silicon Valley-based firm, led by CEO Gary Fowler and COO Derek Distenfield. Gary and Derek travel the world to locate and cultivate promising st

GSDLabs Helps Startups Turn Ideas into Reality The GSDLabs 2021 cohort came together for an epic demo day after ten weeks of hard work and dedication with the common goal of building a future unicorn to pitch to investors. There were eight globally diverse participants such as India, Nigeria, Israel, and Eastern Europe, spanning AI, fintech, healthcare, cryptocurrency, and more. The mission of GSDLabs is to bridge the gap we so often see for early-stage companies with the lac

Gary Fowler: Transforming businesses to thrive in volatile markets The competition in today’s world is not just confined to local markets. Entrepreneurs now pine for more than just regional success and aspire to build a brand that is well-acclaimed in the global markets. As difficult as it may sound, decent planning, research, carefully crafted strategies, and fail-safe execution can make this journey much less drawn-out. Gary Fowler’s award-winning growth stage AI venture st

Gary Fowler is a force to be reckoned with in the technology and artificial intelligence space. He is the CEO, President, and Co-founder of GSD Venture Studios. Based in Silicon Valley, they travel the world inviting resilient teams to establish partnerships leveraging their decades of experience, trusted reputation and vast network. At GSD, Gary Fowler’s extensive experience with both the AI industry and the Russian startup community enables him to quickly spot promising you

GSDLabs is a 10 week cross-border virtual accelerator that sprang out of GSD Venture Studios. Our Demo Day showcased our portfolio companies with roots from all corners of the globe including Buenos Aires, Uzbekistan, Australia, United Kingdom Poland, Africa, Singapore, Nigeria and Austria. We are proud that we were able to propel their businesses to the next level, even during uncertain times of the COVID pandemic. This cohort is validation that value can be delivered from a

Silicon Valley investor, Derek Distenfield writes about his visit to Lagos and his thoughts on Africa's fastest-growing tech hub. Entrepreneurship is a journey that I am excited to embark on with the people of Lagos. It takes a village to catalyze a city and I hope to be one piece of the Nigerian tech revolution puzzle needed to build lasting companies from Africa. I visited Lagos, Nigeria on behalf of GSD Venture Studios for nine days where I hosted an event called “Hacks fr

Derek Distenfield is an entrepreneur, co-founder and COO of GSD Venture Studios, a Silicon Valley-based investment and venture building firm. GSD Venture Studios (GSDVS) travels the world investing in resilient teams with an ambition to take them global. Describing GSDVS further, Derek says "Unlike traditional investors, we take senior operational (often co-founder) roles in these companies, capitalizing on our trusted reputation, experiences and network to drive explosive gr

XCOOP signed a joint venture with GSD Venture Studios to accelerate global expansion of this fintech born in Latin America. GSD, led by Gary Fowler and Derek Distenfield, already successfully launched 15 start-ups globally. This agreement ensures that Fowler and Distenfield will take an active role and will assume executive positions in XCOOP Global as chairman of the board and CRO to carry out the goals of global expansion and growth. "We believe that XCOOP has all the neces

Silicon Valley, CA February 3, 2020 — GSD Labs, a project of GSD Venture Studios, is thrilled to announce our 2021 cohort. Challenging times require innovative concepts and also a world without borders. We are thrilled to have a diverse group of founders, each from a different country, working on future unicorns in cybersecurity, robotics, health and wellness, clean energy, and more. “This is an opportunity to combine experience with top-tech talent from around the world and

Hello Everyone! Our New Year’s resolution is to continue to improve contact with the friends of GSD and to provide you with more ground-floor opportunities to invest and advise hot tech companies in AI, Quantum Computing, and other leading technologies from around the world. Below is a link to our recent accelerator demo day. It will lead to a summary of the companies and a link to their pitches. Simply select the company you are interested in connecting with. https://bit.ly/

2020 is now over. We’re entering a door where a new year awaits, and with it come new opportunities, new possibilities, and new challenges. True, the pandemic has crippled many business owners across the world, but there are many who’ve adjusted and stayed afloat amid this hurdle. They are the ones we need to watch out for this year—businessmen and women who have braved all odds and flexibly maneuvered the abruptly changing landscape of the commercial world. Here are the top

SANTA CLARA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 11, 2020 / As 2020 comes to a close, the world has experienced a huge disruption in the economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the retail industry. This has prompted retailers to take a hard look at how they will create the in-store shopping experience of the future. AI Visionary, CEO, President, and Co-founder of GSD Venture Studios, Gary Fowler is bringing new life to brick and mortar with Silicon Valley start-up Displayfo

Silicon Valley, CA November 2, 2020 — On November 2 GSD Labs, a project of GSD Venture Studios, is thrilled to announce their 2020 cohort. Challenging times require innovative concepts and also a world without borders. We are thrilled to have a diverse group of founders from five different countries. These future unicorns are breaking ground in work-tech, hard-tech, FINTECH, and mobile ecommerce. “This is an opportunity to combine experience with top-tech talent from around t

Startups face a number of difficulties when trying to raise capital and expand globally. GSD Venture Studios travels the world inviting resilient teams to establish partnerships to ensure organizations grow the right way. Unlike traditional investors, they take senior operational (often co-founder) roles in these companies, capitalizing on their trusted reputation, experiences and network to drive explosive growth. International companies typically feel locked into just one c

2020 has been an eventful year for GSD. I have traveled the world to meet with talented tech and AI startups that are determined to #GoGlobal. Recently I was invited to speak to the Presidential Program in Voronezh, Russia about Digital Transformation and Agile Teams. I also paid a visit to various tech companies such as RMCSoft, Comprehensive Automation, and Angels IT. I was warmly welcomed by the startup community in Voronezh, where I delivered a talk on how to build a stra

On a recent trip to Voronezh Russia, Derek met with a key government leader named Roman Golovanev. Roman is the Director of My Business Center, which is part of a national project for “Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Support of Individual Entrepreneurship Initiatives” “It’s exciting to see the growth in tech innovation taking place across Russia right now” - Gary Fowler The center provides over 200 services including consultations on the measures of state support f

As GSD’s co-founder, I have been traveling extensively to Russia to work closely with the startups that we support in their quest to #GoGlobal. I recently took a trip to Siberia, which is a vast region of Northern Asia also known as “the budding Silicon Valley of Russia.” On this eventful trip, I had the opportunity to meet with government leaders, up and coming startups, establish partnerships, and deliver powerful keynote speeches to the entrepreneurs of Siberia. My first

On a recent trip to Siberia, GSD Co-founder Derek Distenfield met with many budding and experienced entrepreneurs. Derek had the opportunity to tour one of the top startup accelerators in all of Siberia called A:Start Academpark. This accelerator is one of the best programs in Russia for launching innovative start-ups in the field of instrumentation, information technology, nano-biotechnology, and medicine. Throughout the tour, Derek got a feel for this exciting entrepreneuri

On a recent visit to Siberia, Derek had the opportunity to meet with key leaders, give powerful keynote presentations, and establish

Innovation is about doing things differently, and finding ideas that answer the call of the market. It’s about not looking at how things were and are, but looking at how they can be. Derek Distenfield, COO and Co-Founder at GSD Venture Studio, does that by looking everywhere and at everything. He searched the globe looking for resilient and talented teams. Intellectual capacity is evenly spread across the world – but opportunity is not. Derek innovates by finding ways to prov