Please Assist Me, Uplift advance to Vinetta Project pitch finals in September

Two more women-led startups have advanced to the final Vinetta Project DC Venture Challenge in September.

Four women founders pitched their ventures to the #dctech community at the new Capital One Café in Chinatown on June 19.

The pitches were judged by an expert panel including Lori Coulter from Summersalt, Michael Avon from ICX Media, Dan Mindus from NextGen Venture Partners and Margaret Donnell from Capital One. This year’s venture challenge is in partnership with BNY Mellon, Audi and Paley Rothman with sponsorship from Capital One, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte and more.

Earlier this year, the Vinetta Project welcomed Lola Han from CultivatePeople and Cynthia Adams from Pearl Certification to advance to the final showcase. Here’s who will be joining the pair to compete for the $20,000 cash prize in the fall:

• Stephanie Cummings, founder and CEO of Please Assist Me. The platform connects people with reliable assistants to help them manage day to day chores and tasks. During her pitch, Cummings explained that all assistants using the platform wear a body camera when they conduct their tasks. She also said she is currently partnering with apartment complexes to offer her platform.

.@truestartuplife, founder of Please Assist Me, is giving the gift of free time by providing personal assistants to apartment dwellers. @VinettaProject @dwtProjectW @Backstage_Cap pic.twitter.com/fheJpD0kxc

— Lynn Loacker (@lynnloacker) June 20, 2019

• Kari Clark, founder of Uplift. Clark publishes a daily newsletter chronicling the life of motherhood for moms to read in a minute. She is also currently working on a platform for employers to improve retention rates of mothers of all stages with coaching, digital exercises and more.

Kari Clark, founder of Uplift, is building the largest dataset of #workingmoms to make them more productive. Uplift is solving the #optout problem – working mothers can now #optin @VinettaProject @dwtProjectW. pic.twitter.com/jM0herPovI

— Lynn Loacker (@lynnloacker) June 20, 2019

With that, the finals are set. We’ll see all four women founders hit the pitch stage once again later this year for a chance to win the grand prize.