1871 Announces Members of First Cohort of WiSTEM

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 26, 2015

 

 CONTACT:

1871
Melissa Wooten
press@1871.com

 

1871 ANNOUNCES MEMBERS OF FIRST COHORT OF WISTEM

Innovative Program To Focus On Connecting Women Entrepreneurs To Capital, Technology, And Community

 CHICAGO (June 26, 2015)—1871 today announced the thirteen members of the inaugural class of WiSTEM, a first of its kind program designed to foster opportunities for women in technology. The thirteen members emerged through a lengthy selection and application process and will begin their participation in WiSTEM immediately. WiSTEM is part of Google for Entrepreneurs’ #40Forward initiative, and is also supported by the Lefkofsky Family Foundation and the Motorola Mobility Foundation.

“A significant component of the work of CEC and 1871 involves fostering diversity and inclusion in the technology and entrepreneurial communities,” said Laura Ferris Anderson, CEC Treasurer and Chief of Staff, Office of the Midwest Chairman, JPMorgan Chase. “WiSTEM is a key resource for supporting women entrepreneurs, and we believe that more women will be inspired to develop businesses with the launch of the program.”

The members of the initial WiSTEM class are:

• Alex Buck – Co-Founder and CEO, Plumwise
• Amanda Greenberg – Co-Founder and CEO, Baloonr
• Annie Mohaupt – Founder and CEO, Mohop
• Catherine Merritt – Founder and CEO, MUMZY
• Elena Valentine – Co-Founder and CEO, Skill Scout
• Holly Bellmund – Founder and CEO, Werenro Group
• Julie Novack – Founder and CEO, PartySlate
• Linda Zabors – Founder and CEO, Honorary Chicago
• Michelle Smyth – Founder and CEO, Pay Your Selfie
• Parminder Batra – Co-Founder and CEO, Sekure Trak, Inc./TraknProtect
• Reva Minkoff – Founder and President, Digital4Startups and DigitalGroundUp
• Rose Afriyie – Co-Founder and CEO, mRelief
• Veatrice Glenn – Founder and CEO, Insightful Decisions, Inc.

Further descriptions of each member are below.

WiSTEM will be focused around three primary areas – connecting women technology entrepreneurs to capital, technology, and community. Those three pillars were overwhelmingly the consensus reached during a year-long evaluation process run by 1871, which included multiple forums and discussions to determine the nature of the program.

“Women entrepreneurs play an important role in the growth of Chicago’s economy, and WiSTEM supports this growth by making more opportunities available for women,” said Parminder Batra, Co-Founder and CEO of Sekure Trak, Inc. “The program creates a singular place to connect with resources and learn from fellow entrepreneurs, and I look forward to building my business while also being a part of other women entrepreneurs’ journeys.”

The capital pillar will include connecting women tech entrepreneurs with potential investors, supporting women with additional training as they seek investment, and working with investment groups that are seeking to invest directly in women-owned businesses.

The technology pillar will focus on providing technical resources to women tech entrepreneurs and fostering opportunities for women entrepreneurs to understand their technical requirements and the best solutions available. There will be a further focus on placing technical women into key roles in these businesses.

Finally, the community pillar will revolve around mentorship, workshops, and community facing events for the participants in WiSTEM. This will include individual mentorship, group sessions, a lengthy curriculum, and more. It will also include a series of larger, public facing events for the general technology community.

“A key focus of WiSTEM is to develop and advance women-owned businesses and raise awareness of the opportunities presented to our local economy by supporting ‘nontraditional’ entrepreneurs.” said Maura O’Hara, Executive Director of the Illinois Venture Capital Association and CEC Board Member. “Through educational resources and public-facing programming, WiSTEM supports not only the participants in the program, but also the wider community of women in technology and entrepreneurship.”

The curriculum for the program will begin in September. During the summer months, the women business owners will be working individually and collectively to determine their individual areas of focus, begin mentoring relationships, and take introductory meetings with potential partners in finance and technology. The curriculum portion of WiSTEM will last three months; there will be a demo day at the conclusion of the program.

“Our goal in creating WiSTEM has been to produce a purposeful and long-lasting program that meets real needs and creates impactful opportunities for women,” said 1871 CEO Howard A. Tullman. “WiSTEM does exactly that by focusing on three critical areas for women entrepreneurs. We are excited to kick off the program and welcome the incredibly accomplished group of women in the first cohort to WiSTEM and 1871.”

For more information, visit www.1871.com/WiSTEM.

About 1871

1871 is the home of more than 325 early-stage, high-growth digital startups. Located in The Merchandise Mart, this 75,000 square foot facility is also the headquarters of nationally recognized accelerators, Techstars Chicago and Impact Engine; half a dozen industry-specific incubators in key areas such as real estate, education technology, food and financial technology; several emerging tech talent schools (Flatiron, The Fullbridge Program, Designation and the Startup Institute), and the state’s leading technology advocate, the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition. It is the second home to Chicago-based VCs, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, MATH Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels, OCA Ventures, OurCrowd and Chicago Ventures, as well as satellite offices for Northwestern University, University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, and DeVry. 1871 has fast become recognized as the hub for the city’s entrepreneurial/technology ecosystem and has been featured in TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business among other top media. 1871 is the flagship project of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center.

 

About the WiSTEM Cohort:

 

Plumwise – Alex Buck, Co-Founder and CEO

Plumwise is a private online community that connects members to providers they will love for services they need without endless reviews, vendor influence, or mediocre options. Members search for and contribute recommendations for service providers—we scrutinize, investigate and interrogate to determine whether a provider is Plumworthy. In short, we do the work you would do, so that you have more time to focus on what really matters.

Baloonr – Amanda Greenberg, Co-Founder and CEO

Baloonr is on a mission to unleash the hidden creative potential of every team, company, and organization in the world. Built on the well-studied, best practices for successful ideation, their app is the most efficient way to get the highest quality and quantity of ideas and information from any group.

Mohop – Annie Mohaupt, Founder and CEO

Mohop manufactures sustainable, ethically-produced footwear that delights customers with its comfort and versatility. Mohop’s talented team combines traditional footwear production techniques with emerging on-demand 3D fabrication techniques.

MUMZY – Catherine Merritt, Founder and CEO

MUMZY exists to help moms bring brilliant ideas to life by raising capital to launch and grow their businesses. It is a well-known fact that moms are inventive and resourceful and MUMZY’s mission is to support moms whether they are starting a company, developing invention new product, creating a non-profit, or simply looking to raise funds to help a fellow mom.

Skill Scout – Elena Valentine, Co-Founder and CEO

Skill Scout is an innovative HR services company that elevates how companies attract and identify talent. The company is turning the transactional nature of online job boards and applicant tracking systems into a relationship and brand building capability through video job postings, social recruiting, and hands on interviews. Skill Scout’s approach enables clients to build authentic workplace equity and an ongoing pipeline of qualified and engaged talent – one of the scarcest resources in building and growing companies today.

Werenro Group – Holly Bellmund, Founder and CEO

Werenro Group’s main product is iTravel Benefits. iTravel Benefits is a shared, elective benefit that rewards employees who save for personal travel by providing a company match. This is a new type of benefit for employers and employees. It can be customized by employers to meet the strategic HR needs of their organization: reduce turnover, reward savers, improve financial acumen and improve well-being by giving their employees something to look forward to – a planned and paid for vacation.

PartySlate – Julie Novack, Founder and CEO

Launching later this year, PartySlate will be the first digital platform specifically designed for party hosts and event professionals. High quality content posted by event professionals will be housed in an elegant user experience and curated by a topnotch editorial staff.  Event professionals who are interested in elevating their brand on PartySlate to drive more leads will have the opportunity to highlight their services through a local marketing program.

 

Honorary Chicago – Linda Zabors, Founder and CEO

Honorary Chicago is the source of gifts, tours, and events based on the stories behind the honorary streets, days, tributes, and other commemorations bestowed by the City of Chicago. Explore the who, where, and why of Chicago’s famous, infamous, obscure, and just plain odd honored folks. This one of a kind entertaining, informative, and inspiring content is curated by Honorary Chicago for Chicago enthusiasts and tourists in a selection of mobile, multi-media, electronic, and real-world formats.

Pay Your Selfie – Michelle Smyth, Founder and CEO

Pay Your Selfie brings brands and consumers together using selfies as the medium. For advertisers, we offer a performance-based mobile marketing platform that drives visibility, brand engagement, social exposure, and sales opportunities to enhance digital, mobile, and cause marketing campaigns. For consumers, the company pays cash for selfies, transforming their social currency into real currency. Pay Your Selfie is free and available for iOS and Android (July 2015).

Sekure Trak Inc./TraknProtect – Parminder Batra, Co-Founder and CEO

TraknProtect is a hardware tracking solution for the hospitality industry that provides real-time location of items such as rollaway beds and cribs on the hotel property to increase efficiency so that employees can focus on activities that create an exceptional customer experience for the hotel guests.

 

Digital4Startups and DigitalGroundUp – Reva Minkoff, Founder and President

DigitalGroundUp is an award-winning innovative technology platform that offers short, interactive online courses in digital marketing. DigitalGroundUp is also working with Facebook to provide courses on Facebook advertising to small and medium size businesses in the financial services industry. Digital4Startups is a digital marketing consulting firm that has worked with over 30 companies in the last two years, grosses six figures in revenue, and prides itself on doing digital marketing “The Right Way.”

mRelief – Rose Afriyie, Co-Founder

mRelief is modernizing public benefits through web tools and an unprecedented use of text messaging in social services that empowers people with whether they qualify and tells all users their best next step. For more information and to view the redesigned site, visit mRelief at www.mrelief.com

Insightful Decisions, Inc. – Veatrice Glenn, Founder and CEO

Insightful Decisions, Inc. is an ed-tech startup developing an engagement platform for middle through high school students to take ownership over their development process. Our one-stop platform support students with becoming the drivers of their own destiny, finding colleges aligned with their trajectory, and keeping them engaged and accountable to their process to meet their goals. Through their use of skill assessments to discover and develop talents and abilities, gap analysis that assesses performance, and customized road maps and action plans, students will go from being just another college applicant to their ideal incoming student.

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