Last weekend more than 50 entrepreneurs competed at a women-only Techstars Startup Weekend hosted by incubator and coworking space Geekdom.
Five teams competed, each with a different tech startup pitch. The winning idea was Pocket Doc, a mobile platform to improve direct communication between patients and providers with the aim of creating better health care outcomes for trans, LGBTQ and Black women patients. The second-place team pitched Imagic, a camera and mobile app training tool to simulate X-ray scans for accuracy without exposure to radiation. WithMe — an app for students to meet new people and create timed video interactions with strangers in small groups for accountability and peer to peer learning — took third place.
Julia Bates, founder of MelloBe, a company selling posture-enhancing meditation cushions and furniture accessories, was a mentor at the event. She said she owes her own business to Geekdom's support. A meditation teacher and nurse, she won a TechStars Startup Weekend in 2017 with her cushion idea, and participated in Geekdom's preaccelerator program. Her startup pitch also won the Geekdom Community Fund in 2018.
While Bates has sold some 800 cushions since the company's inception, she has big plans to expand, aiming to sell at least $10,000 in cushions by the end of the year.
"I've learned so much in these past few years under (Geekdom's) guidance and care, so I also reach out and help others anytime I can," she said. "I'm kind of the mom around there."
The event's keynote speaker and mentor, Ashley Bird, founder of Blooming With Birdie, also got her start at a Techstars Startup Weekend.
A certified Montessori teacher, Bird attended a Geekdom startup weekend in the last quarter of 2020 and pitched her idea of a virtual educational curriculum inspired by "Maria Montessori and Mr. Rogers." In January 2021, she registered Blooming with Birdie as an LLC. Later that year, she attended Geekdom's preaccelerator program and won the fourth-quarter Geekdom Community Fund — and the $25,000 prize — in 2021.
In 2021, Bird received a grant from Valero which put Blooming With Birdie in 90 schools and classrooms in three counties. The company's overall growth from year one to year two more than doubled, and Bird aims to launch three new video series by the end of the year.
Bird said that as a woman of color, she appreciates Geekdom because it wants to see marginalized groups succeed. Her advice to any young entrepreneur would be to attend a tech startup weekend, since it's low-risk and can provide opportunities to flesh out a business model and meet like-minded people.
"I see it as an opportunity to give back to my community," Bird said.
