Typically, pitch competitions pit startups against each other for much-coveted funding and other prizes. However, the one at the Women in Tech Summit also had the goal of highlighting an under-represented demographic in the tech and startup industry – along with the bonus of a prize package.
Capping off the Accenture-presented virtual summit at Capital Factory, which focused on female diversity and inclusion in the industry, six startups (three from North Texas) made their pitches to a panel of judges, including True Wealth Ventures' Sara Brand, Notley Ventures’ Lawton Cummings, Amazon Web Services’ Sandy Carter and Baker Botts’ Natalie Gonzales.
Up for grabs was $10,000 in legal services from Baker Botts and a guaranteed meeting with general partners at Notley and True Wealth.
Competing startups are below:
- SalesBoost – a Plano-based sales training platform founded in 2016 by founder Gretta Brooks.
- MeBeBot – an Austin-based virtual assistant for FAQs founded by CEO Beth White in 2018.
- SOTAOG – a Houston-based cloud platform focused on disparate process control and field monitoring devices created in 2017 by co-founder and CEO Sarah Tamilarasan.
- NeuroRehabVR – a Fort Worth-based AR/VR physical and cognitive therapy startup co-founded in 2017 by Veena Somareddy and Bruce Conti - who was also Neuro’s original investor.
- SimiDigi – a Dallas-based AR/VR workforce training and development startup led by CEO Darlena Kelly.
- Skin ProBiotics – a Katy, Texas-based startup focused on skin health and wellness founded by Ellie Hang Trinh in 2017.
The Women in Tech summit, with talks on alternative ways women can secure funding and on the culture of perception in the workplace, was geared toward drawing attention to issues women in tech have faced for decades and ways they can be addressed.
A newly released survey conducted by careers site Hired of 2,400 job candidates and other hiring data found in the tech industry that 63% of women interviewed felt discriminated against in the workplace for their gender. It also found that salary expectations for women differs by race, with Black women expecting to make $0.88 for every $1.00 a white male expects.
“A better world must have strong women,” wrote the Texas Women’s Foundation in a recent report on economic issues facing women in the state. “Strengthening the building blocks provides a path so Texas women and girls can move from surviving to thriving.”
And through pitches made from home offices and outdoor patios, as well as some moments of finding the unmute button, NeuroRehabVR came out on top with its high tech approach to physical and cognitive therapies.
“This is leading to more functional independence and a happier life for [patients], that’s us,” Somareddy said during her pitch.
The startup is working to relieve some of the pain points associated with physical therapy -expense, travel and monotony. Neuro’s software has game-like therapies for a number of issues, like upper and lower extremities, stress and anxiety and cognitive health. The company operates on a monthly B2B SaaS model, serving individual clinics and hospital networks. Although, with the pandemic, the startup is looking to get into the telehealth and home markets.
“You’re fully immersed in the scenario and that’s one of the things that helps our patients a lot is we can do things that you cannot do in real life… so they feel like they are doing more than they actually can so that motivates them to accomplish their goals,” Somareddy said.
Neuro started small, working in a single clinic, where the four-person team was able to get real-time feedback from patients and physicians. Last year, the company landed a $225,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Now the Neuro is working with large partners and customers like U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the UNT Health Science Center and UT Southwestern Medical Center.
“We’re providing a turnkey solution for a clinic that can work with the whole of their patient population,” Somareddy said.
