Startups

Boolean Girl Tech is slated to pitch at a competition hosted by Nationwide

This STEM-focused startup was one of seven selected from 3,300 proposals to pitch at Nationwide's Ohio headquarters on Oct. 3.

Ingrid Sanden, Boolean Girl Tech cofounder. (Courtesy photo)

Arlington, Virginia-based Boolean Girl Tech has secured a spot on the main stage at a Nationwide pitch competition next month.

Launched in 2014, the STEM-focused company curates an online curriculum, hosts innovative summer camps, runs after school clubs and deploys the Boolean Box for young girls interested in tech careers.

Boolean Girl Tech Cofounder Ingrid Sanden, a mother of two teenage daughters, is passionate about helping young girls explore their interests in coding and engineering, a Nationwide media rep told Technical.ly. The company’s Boolean Box includes a DIY computer engineering kit aimed at teaching kids to invent, build and learn code.

Ohio-based Nationwide, the large national insurance and financial services organization, teamed up with California-based BlueVine, a small business financing company, to launch the Pitch To Win contest that Booolean Girl Tech will be presenting at.

Along with founders from six other U.S. small businesses, Sanden will be traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to pitch her venture on Oct. 3 at Nationwide’s headquarters.

The pitch competition gives small business owners a chance to win cash prizes. Of the 3,300 proposals submitted, seven were selected to advance to the final contest on Oct. 3.

“All of the Pitch To Win finalists have demonstrated their industry expertise, commitment to growing their businesses and the unique market needs they are serving,” Tony Fenton, VP of underwriting, product and new product development at Nationwide, said in a statement. “We look forward to helping them take the next step with this contest and to partnering with BlueVine to continue supporting America’s small businesses.”

The first place winner will be awarded  $100,000, second place gets $20,000 and the third place winner gets $10,000. In preparation for the premiere event, each finalist will receive a consultation with business experts. Winning companies will not be required to give any of their company’s ownership to the competition’s sponsors, a press release states.

Sanden is no rookie to pitch competitions. The Boolean Girl Tech cofounder recently won $12,000 at the UPS Store’s Small Business Challenge last month.

All seven finalists will receive an all-expense-paid trip to the pitch competition, where they will present their ventures to an expert panel of judges that includes Kelley Earnhardt Miller, co-owner of JR Motorsports, Eyal Lifshitz, founder and CEO of BlueVine, Jasmine Green, chief customer advocate at Nationwide and Lisa Gobber, VP of small commercial and premium audit at Nationwide.

Another DMV company is also slated to pitch at the final contest: Baltimore-based Sonavi Labs, creator of AI-enabled digital stethoscopes and other medical tech for doctors, will be joining the six other small businesses on the main stage.

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