Newswise — Nineteen high-potential women entrepreneurs, representing eighteen ventures, have been selected to participate in Babson College’s Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab® Boston—a unique, five-month accelerator designed for women entrepreneurs, by women entrepreneurs, in order to empower them to build scalable businesses.
Each year, WIN Lab® Boston selects leading women entrepreneurs from Babson College, in addition to opening up seats to founders in the broader startup ecosystem.
Built by Babson College, the institution responsible for The Diana Project – the first paper reporting the major gender discrepancy in venture capital investments – the WIN Lab integrates an impressive network of stakeholders with a business curriculum that is backed by research-based insights on the challenges uniquely faced by women entrepreneurs.
The program launched in Boston in 2013, and in 2016 expanded to Miami—a top-ranked U.S. city for startup activity. To date, 189 WIN Lab participants have completed the program with another 40 entering this year between the two cities.
“We are incredibly impressed by the group of applicants we had for the program this year, representing a wide range of industries,” said Babson’s WIN Lab Boston Director, Kara Miller. “We have selected a fantastic group of women entrepreneurs and look forward to helping them bring their businesses to the next stage of growth.”
Meet the 2019-2020 Boston WINners
Altamira Susan Ticse, Founder & CEO Altamira is a sustainable, premium alpaca apparel business with a strong social, economic and environmental engagement.
Dottie Meagan Priest, Co-Founder & CEO Dottie is a living assistant device that helps people with memory challenges maintain their independence and communicate important information to family and caregivers.
EditMate Rachel King, Co-Founder EditMate is a video collaboration software and service. Marketing Teams around the world use EditMate to create video content with our mobile video tools, a network of vetted video editors and an easy to use project management system.
Fun World Language Academy Silvia Dubinsky, Founder Foreign Language classes for ages 3 to 103. We bring the brain-building benefits of bilingualism to students and expand their cultural horizon. Through high-quality gentle immersion classes, we increase the new generation’s cultural awareness and foster curiosity about the world as a global community.
Guilt Free Isabel O'Dogherty, Founder & CEO Guilt Free is a food and beverage company thought for people with diabetes, designed for everyone's palate.
La Conexión Melissa Castro, Founder La Conexión is a Latino marketplace (food hall) that celebrates, builds community, and provides a vibrant environment for food explorers. We curate cultural experiences and offer food-centric consumers an opportunity to enjoy fresh, authentic, and high-quality Latin foods; think Eataly meets Latin America.
Luana Kimia Sadeghi, Founder & CEO Luana offers healthy, high-quality, Hawaiian-inspired juice blends that share the delicious flavors of Hawaii in the healthiest way possible. Our juices are always made with 100% juice, no added sugar, and no artificial flavors or sweeteners.
Oma Sophia Bender Koning, Founder & CEO A tech-savvy grandma on your phone, who knows you and everything you need as a new parent
Open Avenues Danielle Goldman, Co-Founder & CEO Open Avenues helps America’s fastest-growing companies navigate the complex immigration system, solve visa challenges, and retain foreign talent. Through the Open Avenues program, foreign nationals work with students at Open Avenues' partner universities and become immediately eligible for an H-1B visa, exempt from the annual lottery cap.
Playa Society Esther Wallace, Founder Playa Society is a brand on a mission to celebrate + empower women in sports. Established in 2018, Playa Society creates sportswear designs that bring awareness to the social issues that female athletes face in an effort to influence social change, one t-shirt at a time.
Porté Bags Elia Innamorati, Founder Thoughtfully designed bags for beautiful traveling.
Purfect Palz Ednaide Alves, Founder & CEO Created by an RN with over 15 years of allergy and asthma experience, Purfect Palz is an entertaining new line of stuffed toys that feature an allergen resistant design. As a result of the design, children with allergies and asthma are given the opportunity to enjoy plush toys.
Qatchcode Raquel Phillips, Co-Founder & COO Nicole Phillips, Co-Founder & CEO Qatchcode makes online shopping simple & satisfying by delivering small-batch, personalized clothing recommendations from a user's favorite brands & websites, on one page.
Spring Tide Advisory Patricia DiGirolomo, Founder Spring Tide Advisory is a financial and strategic growth consulting firm, that focuses on uplifting female friendly voices and brands to the next stage of their company life cycle.
SUPERFRAU Melissa Martinelli, Co-Founder & CEO Inspired by our Alpine roots, we upcycle surplus fresh whey (the liquid co-product of yogurt and cheesemaking) into valuable consumer products. Naturally packed with high quality electrolytes, B vitamins, calcium, and lactic acid, SUPERFRAU is truly nature's energy drink.
Taylor Custom Rings Ashley Taylor, Co-Founder We create custom jewelry that is both personal and ethical, using real mine-free diamonds and recycled precious metals.
The Collier Connection Sheena Collier, Founder & CEO The Collier Connection is a home for content, programming, and physical spaces to enhance the ways that black people experience Boston. TCC is building an ecosystem that connects black people to information, resources, experiences, and each other
UNfabricated Prabaarja Bedi, Co-Founder UNfabricated utilizes the usable waste generated in its family business and hand it over to a semi-skilled and motivated women workforce to manufacture authentic yet contemporary clothing, accessories, and home furnishings.
About the Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab at Babson
Created by the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL) at Babson College, Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab provides women entrepreneurs in both Boston and Miami with an inspiring community and a rigorous, experiential process that catalyzes innovative thinking and enables them to successfully launch or transform businesses.
Going into its seventh year, WIN Lab has been designated as one of the top two specialty programs for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship®; earned BostInno’s designation as one of Boston’s “50 on Fire” innovators and visionaries; and was honored by the prestigious Rosoff Awards for diversity.
About Babson College
Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader of Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®. The top-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.
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