[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1522898327706{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Female-led startups are more capital efficient, research done by First Round Capital reported that companies with a female founder performed 63% better than their investments with all-male founding teams. Pitching opportunities are excellent ways to create momentum and more connections for startups. That is why Stella Labs, business accelerator for female entrepreneurs to LAUNCH and SCALE their ventures, values the importance of annual events like the Hera Fast Pitch to connect startup founders to investors, advocates and the innovation ecosystem in San Diego.

A highly competitive process, Stella Labs received 38 applications for 12 spots to pitch and 6 product showcase opportunities. The top 3 pitching ladies will go on to pitch at the Hera Venture Summit on 9/16 at the University of San Diego to a larger community of global investors.

Startups selected to pitch at the Hera Fast Pitch were from a variety of industries represented in the fabulous high-growth industries in San Diego, the highest being tech startups (35% of applications), followed by services and consumer products (22% each).[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”9066″ img_size=”750×568″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1522899117080{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]The 12 pitching ladies were selected by a committee of startup advocates and investors whose mission is to find interesting new products and services that have novel markets, interesting new business models or the “perfect” product-market fit. These female-led startups are among the top high-achieving San Diego female founders who have promise, grit, and determination to build your startups and have them grow exponentially! There are (in no particular order):

  1. Kiddie Commute – Founder: Shan Cureton – Kiddie Commute is a cost-effective transportation company that serves busy working parents in transporting their most precious assets, their children. Kiddie Commute provides a comprehensive solution that allows parents, caregivers, and schools piece of mind by providing affordable, timely, and convenient service. Ensuring safe and reliable transportation to and from school, and to extra-curricular activities. We are the new school bus!
  2. Lacti-cup – Founder: Diana Osorio – Lacti-Cups presents a solution by saving all the leaks that naturally happen throughout the day that normally gets wasted on nursing pads. By passively saving those leaks without added effort, moms can save up to 46% more breastmilk, which can become a significant amount. Some moms have saved over 20 liters of breastmilk in just two months.
  3. Save-it! – Founder: Brianne Korthase – save it! is a mobile app currently on iOS that allows the user to create profiles for kids, family and friends and save quotes, conversations and text messages along with a corresponding photo. Users will soon be able to print profiles in books and individual items on custom gift items. Users will also be able to collaborate with others using their save it! community. They are building a private social media platform based on another person, not yourself.
  4. Sandhill Crane – Founder: Sylvia Norman – Access to essential healthcare is limited in rural communities, due to doctor shortages and the long distances patients must travel for a doctor appointment. Sandhill Crane Diagnostics is developing a connected medical testing device for use at mobile clinics, remote rural clinics or retail clinics. Their device requires only a few drops of blood to quickly run a variety of diagnostic medical tests. The results are read and analyzed using an integrated Smartphone app, then saved to cloud storage. If a doctor is not on-site, they can access the test results remotely and then use their telemedicine app for a doctor-patient consult before the patient leaves the clinic.
  5. Dermala – Founder: Lada Rasochova – Dermala Inc., a spinout from the University of California San Diego, is a skin microbiome company utilizing a patented Microbiome Balancing TechnologyTM platform for rapid identification of novel topical skin formulations that can be used to 1) treat and prevent chronic skin diseases associated with an imbalance in the skin microbiome, and to 2) optimize skin health, longevity and appearance by balancing the skin microbiome.
  6. Genneve – Founder: Jill Angelo – Genneve is a digital health platform for women 40+ to connect with qualified health and wellness providers, find products and access a community of people with shared experiences. Their technology smart-matches the 50M women in midlife & menopause to the resources they need based on their profile and behaviors. Genneve’s business model is a consumer-membership model, they have 12,000 members, 150 health and wellness providers in their network, and significant revenue.
  7. Aquam – Founder: Orianna Bretschger – Aquam provides all-in-one technologies for distributed wastewater treatment, sludge reduction, energy recovery and water reuse for industry, agriculture and military end-users.
  8. Villashare – Founder: Sonia Guimil – VillaShare is an online booking platform where travelers can meet to book and share the costs of a luxury villa. VillaShare also serves as a marketing channel for rental agencies. The VillaShare Ambassador Program reaches audiences worldwide through top bloggers, vloggers, and social media influencers.
  9. Lash.live – Founder: Nichole MacDonald – Lash.live is the world’s first online dedicated live sales platform. They are taking the best parts of live sales channels like QVC & HSN (Home Shopping Network), & the ease of sales websites like Etsy and Ebay (with simple checkout functionality), & combining it with the power of social media platforms like Facebook & Periscope.
  10. Notes First – Founder: Patricia Lopez – NotesFirst helps doctors and healthcare providers in lower-middle income regions electronically document patient information at the point-of-care. It is a smartphone and cloud-based platform that is intuitive, customizable, quickly deployable, and requires no additional infrastructure. With HIPAA-level security, it works offline, and when connected provides a secure backup. Location-specific de-identified health data is analyzed in real-time for improved health statistics reporting.
  11. VisiCELL Medical – Founder: Mya S. Thu – Stem cell research is a fast-growing field. The current unmet challenge in the stem cell therapy research field and industry is that there is no way of tracking the stem cells after they are injected into the body. VisiCELL Medical solves this unmet need. The technology solution is a patent-pending Minimal Viable Product (MVP), CellTrak™ kit that allows researchers to track the stem cells in animal study and clinical trials.
  12. Affirmation Mirror – Founder: Lisa McCarthy – MeyeVU Interactive, Inc. develops, manufactures and sells unique products that integrate customized audio playback with visual interaction to motivate and deliver powerful messages. Their mission is to help individuals to motivate and transform their lives through their interactive, personal affirmation products like the Affirmation Mirror; enabling people to achieve their goals and live a life they love and enjoy.

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