Women Entrepreneurs in Startup League
The world over, women’s economic, political, cultural and social achievements are celebrated on International Women’s Day every year on 8th March. Gender parity, inclusion, women’s education, empowerment and achievements are underlying agendas behind celebrating this day.
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #BeBoldForChange which encourages people to create a more gender inclusive work environment and society. According to World Economic Forum’s predictions, gender gap will not come to a complete close until 2186. That’s a long way to go and hence the need to act is urgent and crucial.
Startup League is proud to have 8 dynamic women entrepreneurs who are part of the growing community of startups ready to make a dent in the world. On this International Women’s Day, we celebrate their entrepreneurial spirit, grit, and determination. These women are an inspiration to so many others.
1. Mignionette Fair, Founder – Director, www.edita.online
Mignionette refers to herself as ‘spelling mistake hater and eliminator’. Her mission to improve the quality of written communication led her to found Edita, a one-stop shop for copy-writing and editing. Mignionette has a background in journalism and when she received the opportunity to translate Annique Theron’s autobiography, she grabbed it! And so Fair Translation and Editing Services (now Edita Services) was born.
Edita is here to make your stories shine, in one of the fastest turnaround times in the industry. Whether you are a business owner, copy-writer, website developer, e-mail sender, newsletter distributor or love letter writer, Edita can help you and your story shine brightly through excellent language and fantastic prices.
2. Jo Eckersley, CEO, www.bubbl.tech
Jo has decades of professional experience in strategic consultancy and commercial development. Her expertise includes R&D innovation impact development, political affairs, public and community relations, market research and analysis, external and internal evaluation, funding and project management. She has a vast network of contacts and sits as a specialist in Digital Technology on various innovation assessment panels. She had earlier co-founded ThinkInnovate, a full-service Technology innovation consultancy.
Jo is the CEO at Bubbl.Tech, the highly innovative and disruptive geofence triggered app. Bubbl.Tech offers a pick and mix selection of location based marketing functionality for existing apps, unlocking new functionality from surveys to push and pull communications with live campaign analytics through the Bubbl Campaign Control dashboard.
3. Brianne Casey, CEO, www.checkedin.tech
Brianne is an ER nurse from Virginia who turned into an entrepreneur by making an app to save wait time. She has a rich background including a previous career as television director for PBS and ABC. As a nurse, Brianne hated to see hurting or sick patients having to wait for hours in line before their turn came. This led her to search for an app that would keep the patients informed about the exact time when they would be called in. Since she couldn’t find anything that fit her requirement, she went on to create it!
She founded Checkedin.Tech that produces mobile apps that track, measure, and publish current customer service wait times. Customers can look up wait times, check in, and receive a text message when the business is ready to serve them. The app is ideal for chains and multiple business locations across industries.
4. Amélie Lamont & Catt Small, Co-founders, www.goodforpocin.tech
Amélie and Catt, along with their friend Jacky Alciné, turned their frustration into action and made it a big entrepreneurial idea with their venture, Good for PoC. Good for PoC (People of Color) is a survey that can be filled out by people of color working at tech companies. It’s meant to be a measure of how people of color in the tech industry are treated/feel included at the companies they work for.
Amélie is a New York City-based product designer, writer and creative. Catt is a Product Designer, game maker, and developer who enjoys creating interactive experiences and teaching people to code. Together with Jacky, they are leading the way for building a more inclusive and diverse work culture.
5. Aino Aarnio-Juurinen, CTO & Co-Founder, www.avanto.tech
Aino is a MA Designer with a focus on wearable technology, product innovation and brand management. She founded Avanto with Visa Kupias. Avanto Technologies Oy specializes in the seamless integration between electronics and clothing. They develop a wireless infrared heating technology for sports, leisure, work and military applications.
Before co-founding Avanto, Aino had worked on creating a functional prototype of a sensor equipped cast shoe that would gauge the step pressure of an injured foot and give warnings with different feedback techniques according to the pressure level calibrated by a doctor.
6. Nicole Klein & Melissa Hargis, Co-Founders, www.Betagig.tech
Nicole and Melissa built the app for Betagig at the hackathon at Launch Festival 2016, one of the biggest startup events in the world, held in San Francisco. Not only that, they won the first prize and walked away with $250,000 which they used to launch their business.
Their app, Betagig, helps users try out various careers before choosing any one to understand what a job is like in practice. In other words, the app allows one to ‘beta test the next gig’ before actually taking the plunge. The founders believe that job shadowing is a highly underutilized technique currently in the career development process and they hope to change that with Betagig.
Here’s wishing all the women entrepreneurs out there a very Happy Women’s Day from Startup League!
