The Vinetta Project was created to connect women entrepreneurs with the capital they need for their startups. Now, three such D.C. entrepreneurs will get the chance to pitch their startups for a chance at $20,000 in venture capital investment at the first of three D.C. semi-finals of the 2016 Venture Challenge. The three were chosen out of more than 40 applicants from around the area.
"D.C. is such an interesting and unique market in terms of the extraordinary wealth of professional talented women," Anna Kohanski Mason, co-director of the Vinetta Project in D.C., told DC Inno in an interview "I'm constantly awed, but there are large gender-based gaps in funding that need to be closed."
Kohanski Mason knows how difficult it can be as a female entrepreneur. She struggled with funding for her social fitness app BurnThis, which she sold to BeachBody before moving from Los Angeles to D.C. at the end of last year. And the assumptions about what a woman-led startup should look like can be hard to overcome
"Women create much more than just 'pink space' startups," Amelia Friedman, the other co-director and the co-founder of mobile app building platform Hatch Technologies told DC Inno. "I'm really excited about all the fintech, cybersecurity and other companies we've seen."
Somewhat ironically, the first semi-final on March 29 will be at a very pink space, the new Social Tables headquarters. Then there will be two more on May 24 and July 25. The winner of each of the semi-finals will then go to the championship, also at Social Tables, in September. The winner will get the $20,000 from GSP Financial Services along with a free month of office space at Cove and other in-kind prizes. The events draw around 100 to 125 people, according to the two co-directors, but the jump in interest compared to last year is notable.
"I'm jazzed by the types and quality of people we're seeing," Kohanski Mason said. "There's a really wide range of industries represented."
The picks for the semi-finals certainly don't conform to any stereotype of a woman-run company. Aspire, founded by Lily Cua, has built a platform to help companies create and manage benefits and perk packages for employees, handling from end-to-end the sometimes very complicated arrangement of finding and running the perks that companies want to offer to their employees. Listenport, founded by Hulya Aksu, offers mobile solutions to businesses. It's software can analyze incoming text messages and emails, offering advice and sending complaints to higher-ups while immediately posting positive reviews on Facebook. The third semi-finalist is Prescient System, founded by Alexandra McManus, which applies data analytics to the construction industry. It helps keep track of projects, costs and other vital data in real time, improving the whole process.
"It's bigger and better even than last year," Friedman said. "The judges will have a tough time."
The Vinetta project hosts other events throughout the year, a mix of larger get-togethers and smaller events just for founders and potential investors. There's always plenty of enthusiastic interest, with an almost equal mix of men and women at some Kohanski Mason.
"One thing that's special about D.C. is that everyone rallies around female entrepreneurs," Kohanski Mason said.
There are still issues though, which is why the Vinetta Project keeps pushing to grow the ecosystem of women entrepreneurs who can help each other succeed. That includes in D.C., and that's why Friedman and Kohanski Mason say they have ambitions for an even bigger female presence in the D.C. tech startup scene.
"It's less of a boys club here in D.C.," Friedman said. "But there's still a lot of work to do."
