Emily Levy has been running her startup Mighty Well, a fashion line of accessories meant to stylishly conceal treatment apparatuses, for three years full time.
But despite all of the trials and tribulations she has been through as a first-time founder, she has not had a lot of opportunities to work and collaborate with other female founders, let alone female entrepreneurs from all over the world.
The Babson College graduate got all of that and more earlier this year after completing The Cartier Women’s Initiative, an international business competition that has been running for 13 years and aims to encourage women entrepreneurs to solve contemporary global challenges.
Mighty Well was one of 21 finalists selected for the prestigious program, which received more than 3,000 applications from female founders and entrepreneurs from across the globe.
“A legacy brand recognizing us for this new category of fashion is huge validator for us."
“Old boys clubs have been around for hundreds of years, but I feel like women are really in a place to empower each other and stick their necks out for other women,” Levy told Rhode Island Inno. “The program is so laser-focused on female entrepreneurs and struggles that are unique to us.”
The initiative, which came with a $30,000, zero equity grant, began back in January and included intense mentorship and guidance from all-star entrepreneurs.
The initiative provided Mighty Well with due diligence from Ernst and Young, weekly coaching from a mentor (who happened to be Marc Van Pappelendam, the former vice president of Nike in the European Union) and helped the company create a business plan, which Mighty Well hadn’t previously done.
The initiative culminated with a week-long conference in San Francisco that included numerous sessions for the founders, time to network with one another and an awards ceremony.
The Cartier Women’s Initiative is one of several programs, initiatives and accelerators that Levy and Mighty Well have gone through.
The company has also completed the Women Innovating Now program at Babson College, MassChallenge and is also currently going through a program run by Morgan Stanley.
“One of the challenges still for women is access to capital, so our reason for doing these programs has been accessing capital and networks we don't have access to otherwise,” said Levy.
The people Levy has met and resources she has gained have been extremely helpful as the company has begun to further scale.
Mighty Well’s first product was a fashionable catheter cover, but has since released three other products. These include a special jacket designed specifically for breast cancer patients and a backpack with an insulated compartment that can store medications to be kept cold.
More products are on the way, and the company is in the early stages of raising a $1.5 million round.
Although going through Cartier has been extremely helpful in preparing for the new funding round and next stage of growth, Levy said it has also further proved to her that the company has huge potential.
“In terms of doing Cartier, besides the grant, the main reason we wanted to do this was that a luxury and established brand recognized [that] we are helping to pioneer a new segment of the fashion industry that is called adaptive wear,” she said. “A legacy brand recognizing us for this new category of fashion is huge validator for us."
