Dean Erika James knows a few things about rising to the top and breaking barriers along the way. The first woman and first person of color to become Dean of The Wharton School, James climbed from psychology grad student, to respected academic, to leader of what she described on Good Morning America as “America’s first, biggest, and best business school.”
The journey taught her plenty of lessons about how other ambitious women who want to make a difference can conquer self-doubt, navigate environments that hold them back, and help lift each other up. …
These female entrepreneurs saw large gender-based gaps in the startup ecosystem — and set out to address them.
Alice Zhang and Jarah Euston shared a surprising, but all too common, experience while attending a large San Francisco angel investment conference in 2018. At that point, the startup world appeared to be on the cusp of change. Groups like All Raise and Women Who Tech had been carving out inroads for women and driving awareness around the need for systems of support for female-founded startups.
But at that conference, Alice, who was launching a wellness soup line, and Jarah, who was building a B2B data company, only saw a sea of smartly accoutered men in their best Trunk Club…
A look at Highlight
Tell us a bit about your company
Highlight is a next-gen product testing platform that makes product testing faster, more flexible, and turnkey than ever before. Launched in 2021, this CPG-focused company is already being leveraged by the world’s largest CPG companies for new product research, including P&G, Nestle, Mondelez, Pepsi, and more..
What inspired you to start your business / what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
I went to Wharton with a mission to make product testing more efficient. Quantitative and qualitative research was getting better, faster, and easier via digital tools, but physical product testing was still incredibly difficult — I wanted to solve this. …
A look at Fulton
Tell us a bit about your company
Fulton is a modern brand of arch support, we developed a supportive, sustainable, and comfortable insole made from innovative materials like vegan cactus leather and cork. We seek to empower consumers to live healthier lives because wellness starts from the ground up.
What inspired you to start your business/ what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
Fulton is a modern brand of arch support. Our first product is a comfortable, sustainable and supportive insole. The idea behind Fulton started before I came to Wharton. While sitting at my desk job, I started experiencing back pain. I treated it very reactively — I would take painkillers, get massages, foam roll, etc. I was treating the…
A look at Navimize
Tell us a bit about your company
Navimize features a virtual waiting room platform that helps physicians and health systems manage workflow efficiently. Leveraging our proprietary schedule delay prediction and customizable message automation software, our customers thrive in the pandemic era and beyond by optimizing scheduling, increasing visit volumes, managing new hybrid schedules of virtual and office visits, and providing meaningful patient engagement, yielding lower costs and higher returns. Through seamless integration with existing EMR systems, Navimize’s innovative technology is highly scalable.
What inspired you to start your business / what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
I’m a Primary Care Physician, and I’ve always struggled with running behind schedule in my practice. Long wait times frustrated my patients, incurred more work…
A look at Nayko Naturals
Tell us a bit about your company
Nayko Naturals creates natural, handcrafted, preservative-free skincare products that get back to the basics. Our brand mission and beliefs are simple- integrity, clean beauty, handcrafted, and back to the basics.
What inspired you to start your business/ what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
I am a health and wellness advocate and care deeply about all-natural products and holistic wellness. I searched for YEARS, looking for a skin moisturizer that did not have a laundry list of ingredients. Oftentimes, companies would brand their product as “all-natural” or “shea butter body butter”, and I would be tricked into buying it. When I got home and peeled back the label to inspect the ingredients, there were…
A look at Stryke Club
Tell us a bit about your company
Stryke Club is clean, simple, effective, and locker room-worthy skincare for teen boys.
What inspired you to start your business / what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
My son is 18 and had barely ever washed his face. Yet, like most humans, of course, he cared about looking, feeling, and being his best. I realized that most boys were using products developed in the ’80s, borrowing from their sisters, or not engaging in self-care/grooming at all. I wanted to develop a dermatologist-created, super-effective line that boys could claim as their own. …
A look at Parentaly
Tell us a bit about your company
At Parentaly, we partner with companies to improve the experience of parental leave, primarily via our coaching-based programs that focus on minimizing business disruption and maximizing the careers of working parents.
What inspired you to start your business / what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
When an employee goes on parental leave, there are often significant disruptions to the employee’s career progression, organizational dynamics, and business outcomes. As parental leave expands in coverage eligibility and duration, the guidance to employees taking leave and managers supporting them is absent. Without thoughtful plans in place, parental leaves of 8+ weeks can lead to stalled projects, overburdened teams, and business deliverables missed. When the employee returns, they…
A look at Tohi Ventures LLC
Tell us a bit about your company
Tohi is a female-founded, plant-based wellness brand innovating performance and longevity-focused products from Aronia Berries, a Midwest-grown, phytonutrients, and antioxidant-rich regenerative specialty crop. Ready-to-drink clean-label beverage in the market, with a product pipeline from upcycled pulp by-product.
What inspired you to start your business / what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
Poor diet is the leading cause of illness in the United States, causing half a million deaths per year related to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancers. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the vulnerability of those with these underlying health conditions. A new global focus on Food as Medicine and Nutritional Interventions has emerged as a priority as we seek natural, sustainable approaches…
A look at Full Harvest
Tell us a bit about your company
Full Harvest is solving the massive food waste problem by running the first business-to-business online marketplace for imperfect and surplus produce, connecting farms directly to food and beverage manufacturers online.
What inspired you to start your business / what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
Billions of pounds of imperfect and surplus produce — more than 25% of all edible yields — go to waste every year in the US. Food waste is now the #1 contributor to climate change.
It’s a problem that so many food & beverage companies see, but one I wanted to solve. I spent 15 years in the logistics & food industries and saw a lot of waste and inefficiency…
