WAFFAHave you heard of Pitch & Run NYC? It’s a running group for founders and funders to hang. It was started in NYC by Nihal Mehta C99 ENG99 (Co-Founder of Eniac Ventures) and has now expanded to other cities. For those of you in NYC – they run every Monday and Friday at 9am from Chelsea Piers (meet at Bluestone Lane at 22nd/Hudson River). More details here.
Watch Debbia Dickinson WEV91, Co-Founder and CEO of Thermaband on NBC News with Johanna Gomez. As a perimenopausal cancer survivor battling hot flashes, Johanna was excited to learn that these smart wearable provides immediate, discreet and natural hot flash relief with digital health insights. Thermaband and founders Debbie and Markea Dickinson also scored big in Urbangeekz as one of the10 Fem Tech Founders taking the industry by storm.
Love this – Rachel Neill LPS09, the Founder of Figgyplay.com, a home adventure kit – and reports that they “launched on Kickstarter and did $40k in 8 minutes – hitting our month long goal – and then moved into the DTC space. Aside from selling on our website – we are on Houzz, Nordstrom, Newton Baby, and The Tot.”
An enormous shout out to to these four Alumnae named to Forbes 30 Under 30 2023, three women in Venture Capital and one in the Education category.
Congratulations to Vlasta Schutzenhofer and Abi Szabo (P20 classmates), Co-Founders of roura who just won Essity’s inaugural co-creation challenge, held in Munich Germany. Driven by innovative engineering, roura empowers people with periods to take charge of their well-being and engage in honest communication about menstrual health. Essity is a leading global hygiene and health company. Read more about Vlasts in our WAFFA interview here.
Big News! SF-based b2b marketplace Full Harvest says it has acquired FarmersWeb, a farm sales and inventory management solutions provider. Full Harvest Founder and CEO Christine Moseley (WG11) says, ““Climate change considerations have become a pressing priority…We understand the need to move as quickly as possible to provide effective solutions to reduce food waste and acquiring FarmersWeb will help us make our vision of 100% full harvests a reality faster.” Full Harvest was Fast Company’s 2020 #1 World Changing Idea in Food. Read our interview with Christine here.
Watch Novoloop Co-Founder and CEO Miranda Wang (C16) at the Slush New Materials Showcase. Novoloop is a Circular Materials startup with $21.4 M Series A funding. Based in the US, Novoloop is upcycling plastic waste into quality chemicals and materials.
Congratulations to SuperGoop Co-Founders Amanda Baldwin (WG06) and Holly Thaggard who were named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 National Overall Award winners. “Holly and Amanda have stood out in an extremely competitive industry by demonstrating an uncanny ability to create and market SPF-boosted skincare and beauty products in a way that makes consumers excited to use them. The mission-driven duo has grown a booming business built on trying to save lives.”
And a big OMG WOW to the recent Global GameChangers Summit, an extraordinary 48-hour non-stop live event. The Summit is organized by the Ascendance Social Enterprise X Penn (ASELxPenn) Club. It’s a student initiative that aims to bring together student leaders to learn about the latest news and developments in the business world. WAFFA member and teen phenom Harsha Ravindran LPS23 was one of the key organizers (read her WAFFA interview here) and we were thrilled to see that Alta Founder (and our Female Founder Shop app developer!) Son Ca Vu WG16 was a panelist on “How Do I Get My Idea Started?”