Startups

Here’s who won at this year’s Hera Fast Pitch DC competition

Three women-led startups — EnrichHER, The Storied Life and Forget Me Not ai — took home prizes at Hera Hub DC's second annual pitch competition. 

At the 2019 Hera Fast Pitch DC. (Courtesy photo)
Hera Hub DC awarded three women-led startups with prizes at its second annual pitch competition.

On June 13, 12 women founders who pitched at the Hera Fast Pitch DC competition at the female-focused coworking space in Friendship Heights.

The finalists competed in two categories: grow stage or early-stage. The growth companies were judged by an expert panel that included Arion Long, the first Hera Hub Fast Pitch DC winner and founder and CEO of Femly; serial entrepreneur LeRoy Pingho; Lisa Friedlander, entrepreneur and business development manager at Shulman Rogers and Zeluis Teixeira, managing coach at Higher Calling Ventures. The early-stage winner was selected by the audience.

The growth-stage winner was EnrichHER, a fintech platform focused on funding women entrepreneurs. The company’s cofounder, Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, was awarded $10,000 in cash, a free subscription to NEXT —powered by Shulman Rogers, marketing services sponsored by AMS Strategic Marketing Consulting, a professional head shot by Tamzin B. Smith Portrait Photography and a six month Hera Hub DC gold membership, valued at over $17,000 in prizes.

The early-stage winner went to Lana Jackson, CEO and cofounder of The Storied Life. Jackson who won over $1,000 in cash from the event’s ticket sales, along with a free subscription to NEXT – powered by Shulman Rogers, a branding coaching session with Maggy Sterner, a strategic coaching session with Barbara Guterman and a three-month Hera Hub DC gold membership, valued at over $7,000 in prizes.

Google awarded $1,500 to the company that strives to organize data and information in a way that is meaningful to consumers, a press release states. This award went to early-stage finalist Forget Me Not ai, a startup curating automated touchpoints with a personal touch powered by AI and machine learning.

“This year the Google Prize goes to a company that is putting machine learning at the forefront of their product development and positioning,” Senior Search Specialist at Google Lauren Epshteyn said in a statement. “The power of machine learning is core to everything we do at Google, but just as important is respect for human relationships. We find these values reflected in Forget Me Not ai’s pitch.”

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