Device has to deliver a benefit. Benefit is housed in a product. Product is housed in a company.
Tonight, UCLA hosted The Women Founders Network 2019 Fast Pitch Event. An organization that provides Women Founders with access to capital, visibility, and mentorship. Tonight a community of highly motivated women came together to be inspired, celebrate, and to invest in the future. One of their initiatives is to increase the percent of women-led companies that get funding from 2% to 50%. They offer in-person workshops, coaching, competitions, and funding. Their main goal is to accelerate the growth path for early stage women-led companies. Research reveals that female-founded organizations contribute no less than $1.7 trillion to the U.S. economy. Plus, from 1997 to 2017, the number of women-owned companies rose by 114 percent.
I took notes on all the revenue streams the entrepreneurs didn’t mention in their pitches, just in case I see them again. Listening to their pitches, I had a few lightbulb moments that are worthy of mention…
I think its important for women to actively reframe risk-related questions about the technology and the startup to refocus investors on the opportunities the venture presents. One team was stumped when asked about how the violence in esports impacts our communities. She admitted she did not consider the social impact of games with guns. But what the audience wanted was not an apology but an action item or a solution, a quick solution to the challenge presented: “Our business could also take the opportunity to educate the 84 million viewers of esports (USA) about gun challenges (perspective: 79 million MLB viewers 63 million NBA viewers). The global esports audience will reach 380 million this year, made up of 165 million dedicated esports fans and 215 million occasional viewers. That’s a lot of customers to educate.”
One of the companies that pitched was EVENPRIME, a modern personal care company from Santa Monica, CA who works chemists in Korea to create high-quality line of affordable skin care products. I haven’t tried the products but what they do extremely well is capitalize on the social media marketing and sales machine. It’s obvious they have studied how social media drives incremental sales volume and earnings, but also creates more entrepreneurs. That’s their secret sauce, because nothing will propel a company further than creating a unique culture: An atmosphere that inspires their community to connect. They use influences to create the culturally appropriate sales channels to communicate the product which eventually gains allies in these groups which then turn into customers. Their social co‐production of their brands as meaningful representations of their customers was absolutely lovely.
Another company with promise is ReJoule. This team wants to maximize the value of every battery. They want to make batteries more reliable, safer, and longer-lasting which promotes sustainable transport and makes energy even more sustainable. ReJoule designs and builds a battery management system (BMS) that monitors, protects, and enhances the performance of large-format lithium batteries. They specialize in testing and grading battery modules used in electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage. Their custom in-house battery cycler can test multiple batteries in parallel to reduce test time and maximize performance and productivity. Their ask was: Connections to leadership at GM, Ford, Tesla, Toyota.
This team brought back memories of my first year in the USA, I worked at Select University Technologies in Newport Beach, CA on product development and wrote the user manuals. We launched Intellistick, a digital dipstick that could analyze the condition of motor oil by sensing additive depletion, coolant, fuel intrusion and contaminate build-up. It sent the wear characteristics profile from the sensor directly to the PDA or laptop. The Intellistick system can be adapted to virtually any engine type. Owners can find out exactly when the oil needs to be changed. Our device won an award at the SEMA Show — Popular Mechanics Editors Choice Award. What I learned about when working on this team is when launching an automotive product it’s a lot easier to connect with large ‘commercial companies/enterprises’ and demonstrate how with your device will save them time and increase their profits. One market they did not discuss is the North American fleet market. The biggest fleet in the US belongs to PepsiCo. It owns 11,245 tractors, 3,605 trucks, and 18,100 pickup trucks and 10,800 cargo vans. PepsiCo also owns 18,468 trailers for securing goods in transit. Also Walmart operates more than 6,000 trailers and more than 61,000 trailers in addition to 106 straight trucks. If I were them, I wouldn’t forget this market.
Overall, The Women Founders Network 2019 Fast Pitch Event at UCLA was fun. I saw many happy smiling faces.
