As you've probably heard, women are still underrepresented in the business and tech realms. Which is why Dr. Anuranjita Tewary founded the Technovation Challenge in 2009: To offer young women the opportunity to start their own companies. Technovation, a program of the nonprofit Iridescent, started as a small pilot with just 45 girls. And over the past five years, it has grown into a global technology entrepreneurship competition. Now, over 2,500 young women from 28 countries have developed 650 mobile phone apps through Technovation, and in 2014, the competition saw more submissions than in all prior years combined. The MassTLC Education Foundation had almost 30 teams complete their Technovation apps this year, and Massachusetts is leading the competition in terms of numbers and recognition. Technovation selected five Massachusetts teams for the 2015 semifinal round. And two of those Boston startups—Team AMEKA of Winchester High School and Team WoCo of Phillips Academy in Andover—will now go on to the World Pitch event in California, where teams compete for funding to launch their companies and take their apps to market.
Some notable names were involved in judging the regional competition, including Pamela Aldsworth of Silicon Valley Bank, Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom formerly of Harmonix, Kara Shurmantine of MassChallenge and Aimee Sprung of Microsoft. On Thursday, the State House held a sendoff ceremony for the two winning teams before they head off to San Francisco, which Senate President Rosenberg and Governor Baker both attended.
Here’s what you need to know about the two Massachusetts teams moving on in the Technovation challenge:
WoCo
Short for Women who Code, WoCo is a startup located in Andover, Mass., currently run by high school students from Phillips Academy: Jenny Huang, Qiqi Ren, Sloane Sambuco and Moe Sunami. They come from all over: Tokyo, Kansas, Oregon and Florida.
Their iPhone app, PraisePop, seeks to make you feel more involved at your school. “It’s easy to feel excluded and unacknowledged in your school community, but with PraisePop...you can feel happier and more included in a matter of seconds,” the team says. By adding to an anonymous live feed open only to your community, it’s easy to connect with those around you. You can also invite the entire community to events and hangouts in the area.
“Your compliments, jokes, kudos, thank yous, funny stories, and invites will spread positivity and inclusivity quickly and effectively,” adds WoCo.
AMEKA
Comprised of a five young women from Winchester, Mass.—Melissa Zavez, Annie Wu, Kallisti St. John, Alexis Costales, and Eliza Albert—team AMEKA has developed an app called SafeGuard Driving. The app addresses the issue of impaired driving by evaluating whether a subject might be either under the influence or overly tired, and therefore unfit to drive. The test they designed is comprised of two cognitive components: reaction and balance. Points are accumulated by successfully completing tasks. If the subject fails them, options for getting home safely will be provided via direct message to a family member, friend or driving service.
“We hope to partner with automobile companies for ignition interlocks if a user fails,” says the team. “Our primary focus is teens, but we have the potential to expand to adults or the elderly."
Each girl took on different, specific responsibilities to write the business plan, build the app, and prepare the presentation and videos as well as other materials for the pitch.
The team is also supported by a number of mentors, including Dr. Alexandra Geyer, an expert in the biological and cognitive neuroscience fields, computer science teacher Mr. David C. Petty, and Claire Varner of HSTRY Company in Boston.
State House photo credit: Pretty Instant for MassTLC. Other photos via the Technovation teams.
