12 weeks of hard work, grit, and passion culminate in one unforgettable evening as the fifth WiSTEM cohort takes the stage to present their businesses to the Chicago community. Join us as we celebrate these thirteen amazing woman entrepreneurs over pitches, networking, and delicious food and drink from a few of our favorite diverse caterers.
This event has ended.
WiSTEM is 1871’s 12-week pre-accelerator for female founders. WiSTEM now has 51 portfolio companies that have collectively raised more than $10 million in funding and created over 200 jobs. That success is due a variety of factors: a strong curriculum which focuses on capital, community and technology resources, strong partnerships with marquee organizations including Ms. Tech (Nicole Yeary, co-facilitator of WiSTEM is the founder/CEO of Ms. Tech), the Women’s Business Development Center and InvestHER.
WiSTEM was founded as part of the Google for Entrepreneurs’ #40Forward initiative. Since then, the program has also been supported by JPMorgan Chase, Katrina Markoff, the Lefkofsky Family Foundation, the Motorola Mobility Foundation, Microsoft, KPMG, Accenture, the U.S. Small Business Administration, Latham & Watkins and the Butler Family Foundation.
Agenda
5:30PM - Doors Open & Networking
6:00PM - Opening Remarks
6:20PM - Presentations
7:20PM - Networking
WiSTEM Participating Startups
Advocatia provides hospitals and healthcare providers with the tools to assist their most vulnerable community while improving the hospital bottom line. Advocatia streamlines the screening and enrollment process to ensure patients and their families are assisted with all available healthcare programs, workflow efficiency is gained, more coverage is found, and revenue is increased. Advocatia helps the uninsured and underinsured population gain coverage and increase access to care.
AirProxima is using technology to build a new way to travel. Our search engine product opens the world of private aviation to everyone by allowing consumers to buy single, one-way trips on private charter aircraft. No membership required and accessible to all. By removing repositioning trips from your itinerary, we are creating a world of private flights at lower price points than traditional charter.
Burgundy Fox is an e-commerce, subscription company on a mission to celebrate all bodies and minds. They launched in 2017 with a focus on updating a $30 billion niche market in need of change, women’s lingerie and sleepwear. Burgundy Fox is not only modernizing the buying experience but they are reshaping traditional fashion advertising and empowering women to cultivate strong mind and body confidence.
CharacTour’s new social network aims to help you find your next favorite movie, TV show, book, or video game amidst a flood of options on the Internet. Instead of organizing choices around titles as other sites do, CharacTour is a platform focused on the characters at the heart of the stories. Through a patent-pending matching algorithm, personality quizzes, and other features, CharacTour empowers its users to discover for themselves which characters they want to watch and read about – and allows them to connect with the real-life “characters” who share their personality and entertainment interests.
Chicago Toy & Game Group (ChiTAG) celebrates the importance of play and innovation through hosting the world’s largest Toy and Game Fair, Inventor and Innovation Conferences, Innovation Awards and Young Inventor Challenge. ChiTAG is now expanding to provide an online platform for new inventors and industry to find needed resources and for the traditional and digital toy and game industry to showcase its people and products like their creative counterparts in film, music, literary and culinary industries.
The Difference Engine is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with additional pilot locations in San Francisco and New York City. The mission of this organization is to transform the lives of non-traditional developers by empowering them to launch new careers in tech via a web development apprenticeship program. The Difference Engine also provides professional technical solutions to nonprofit organizations and social enterprises to help carry out their purpose.
Evolved Educator is elevating the quality of education by reimagining lesson planning and professional development for teachers. We are creating a community progressive-thinking teachers who leverage our technology to become more effective educators.
Gorgeous Within is dedicated to providing women with tools to become the best version of themselves by giving them a safe space to grow, while inspiring them to work on their mind, spirit, and body. The new Gorgeous Within App is targeted towards on-the-go women which will feature vetted coaches, providing products and services to our global network, and saving them time and money while helping them grow.
LivingPath is an online platform helping people discover amazing senior living communities. 50 million Americans will need long-term care over the next two decades, and LivingPath is the catalyst connecting them with high-quality providers.
Packed with Purpose is a corporate gifting company with a social mission. We help companies gift with impact by transforming products from social enterprises and purpose-driven companies into carefully curated gifts for every occasion. Our business and personal gifts wow recipients, and positively impact the people and communities around us.
We believe hearing is what connects people to the music they love. Project Decibel is a hearing wellness initiative that equips the music community with the tools they need to protect their hearing. We've reimagined how a musician interacts with their hearing by designing "PdB;" a comprehensive, user-friendly concierge hearing wellness app. “PdB" ensures all musicians have access to high-quality audiological services whether they are on tour or in a practice room.
Respirare is a smart healthcare system that empowers asthmatics to take control of their lives. A tracking device paired with our intelligent application allows users to track usage, dosage and triggers with ease. With the power of Respirare's data, patients, caretakers, doctors, and researchers can work together to create a better quality of life for all asthma sufferers.
Wedmony is digitally transforming Millennial weddings by making the wedding planning process less stressful, more organized, and more fun. Wedmony is creating a community of like-minded couples connected with vetted vendors and supported by a powerful suite of dynamic, customizable planning tools. Wedmony will foster collaboration between couples, wedding parties, and vendors to create the perfect platform for sharing their most special moments.
