Nine female-led startups vied for the chance to win $5,000 at the Women’s Venture Summit Sept. 14. More importantly, each of them delivered their pitches to an audience of interested investors and business leaders at the annual conference.
The mix included companies ranging from medical devices to e-commerce platforms. Startups from across the United States traveled to San Diego for the competition, though it also featured four local founders.
The audience picked EnrichHer as the winner, awarding the company $30,000 worth of business services, $5,000 in cash, and the opportunity to compete for more at the San Diego Angel Conference. The Atlanta-based company connects female founders with lenders, with the goal of helping more women fund their small businesses.
The CEO, Roshawnna Novellus, said she founded the company after learning the abysmal statistic that just 2% of venture capital funding goes to female founders. It can also be challenging to get bank loans early in a company’s history.
Novellus’ platform allows startups to raise up to $250,000 to support their growth. It also vets startups, using an algorithm to calculate the likelihood that a founder will repay her loan. The company currently deploys $300,000 per week to women-owned businesses, Novellus said. EnrichHer makes it money through a fee on 2% to 7% of the investment.
Other companies pitching at the competition included:
The Crafter’s Box
Founder: Morgan Spenla
Headquarters: San Diego
Morgan Spenla said her startup is looking for a slice of the $44 billion arts and crafts industry. Her company lets hobby crafters subscribe to participate in digital crafting workshops, which include instruction videos from artists and a kit with the needed materials.
Currently, more than 90% of crafting sales are made at brick-and-mortar stores, Spenla said. Her company is looking to fill in the gap between crafting stores, such as Michael’s, and sites that sell finished products, such as Etsy. The company recently struck up a partnership with Anthropologie, a popular brand among the age group that the Crafter’s Box is targeting.
Vivid Genomics
Founder: Julie Collens
Headquarters: San Diego
Julie Collens, a former senior manager of market development at Illumina, founded Vivid Genomics after seeing a big unmet need among Alzheimer’s patients. Currently, no drug exists that can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, and dozens of clinical trials attempting to find a drug that can slow its progression have failed.
Part of the problem is that patients in a clinical trial can have various forms of dementia or subtypes of Alzheimer’s, Collens said. Vivid Genomics is using a combination of gene sequencing and machine learning to help companies select the best patients for clinical trials.
Vivid Genomics plans to launch a test of its technology later this year. The company has also received a letter of interest from Roche Pharma.
Sëkr
Co-Founder: Breanne AcioHeadquarters: San Diego
The Vanlife App, as Breanne Acio describes it, is like Yelp or TripAdvisor, but for outdoor activities. Acio, who has traveled cross-country in her van, was looking to help others find need-to-know information about campgrounds, such as where to find water and cell service. Acio said she currently has 7,000 users and 500 subscribers for the app. Sëkr is her third startup.
The Atlas
Co-Founder: Ellory Monks
Headquarters: San Diego
Ellory Monks and her two co-founders developed an online community where city officials can share details about public infrastructure projects. While many government officials will look to other cities for project ideas, there’s currently no easy way to search for, say, streetlights. Monks said one city manager told her, “I use Pinterest to search for sea wall options.”
Monks and her co-founders created the Atlas, which is currently used by about 4,000 city officials each month. The company has more than 70 customers, which include tech and engineering firms looking to highlight their municipal projects on the site.
Pumpspotting
Co-founder: Amy VanHaren
Headquarters: Maine
Amy VanHaren created Pumpspotting as a platform for women to talk about breastfeeding and postpartum health. While Pumpspotting is designed for new moms, it also has a big business case: Roughly 43 percent of new moms in a STEM field will switch careers, go to part-time work, or quit, according to a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
VanHaren’s platform currently has 25,000 users. She also has developed partnerships with two companies to develop a corporate lactation program. Her company has brought in $100,000 in revenue this year.
Light Line Medical
CEO: Vicki Farrar
Headquarters: Salt Lake City
Vicki Farrar, a patent attorney for medical device companies, was looking for a simple way to reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections. The majority of infections stem from catheters, with catheter-associated urinary tract infections being listed as the most common by the Centers for Disease Control.
Farrar’s company uses visible light to disinfect and sterilize catheters. The company has raised $1.5 million in seed funding, and hopes to commercialize its first product after raising a Series A round of funding.
Keko Box
Founder: Ashleigh Ferran
Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
Keko Box makes reusable containers for takeout foods. The goal is to reduce the 142 billion single-use food and beverage containers people use every year.
Founder Ashleigh Ferran plans to first focus her efforts on closed environments, such as airports, markets and stadiums. Her company provides businesses with systems of reusable containers, and it handles the collection and washing of them when diners are done. The company currently has a paid program with a food market called Smorgasburg in Washington, D.C.
Mixtroz
Co-Founder: Ashlee Ammons
Headquarters: Birmingham, Ala.
Mixtroz President Ashlee Ammons is putting technology to work to make networking less miserable. Her startup provides surveys to users in advance of an event, and then breaks them down into groups and uses conversation starters.
Often with networking, those who already know each other tend to flock together. But Ammons’ goal is to mix things up by bringing together people with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. She also provides data from the users’ responses back to the event organizer. Currently, Ammons is focusing on serving schools, companies and event planners with Mixtroz.