U
D

Conversation

the

11/04/12 | Uncategorized

Meet The Women Entrepreneurs In Astia’s Fall 2012 Global Entrepreneurs Program

Astia’s startup teams have a healthy mix of men and women, but clearly have a woman on the Founding/Executive team.
By Catherine Berman (Senior Vice President, Astia)

Throw a rock in Silicon Valley and you’ll find a group of startups convening. But woman-led startups? And high-growth woman-led startups that have the potential to transform the business world entirely? Welcome to the Astia Global Entrepreneur Program, a competitive international program that brings the sharpest, hottest woman-led companies from around the world together to convene, converse and dominate (their markets).

The Global Entrepreneur Program takes place three times a year in Silicon Valley, New York and London and each “cohort” consists of the most promising woman-led companies from the technology, clean tech and life science consumer sectors.

The key here is woman-led, not woman-only, so Astia’s startup teams have a healthy mix of men and women, but clearly have a woman on the Founding/Executive team. And what’s the result of having a talented woman at the helm? Check out the Dows Jones recent study confirming that women executives make venture-backed companies more successful.

Meet this impressive group of 21 startups who have been accepted into Astia’s Global Entrepreneur Program. Each cohort is welcomed and supported by Astia’s 3,000+ global community of experts – expect amazing things!

To apply for consideration for Astia’s next Global Entrepreneur Program, click here.
Lesley Silverthorn (Founder & CEO, Angaza Design)
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Industry: Clean Tech
Angaza is combining human-centered design with innovative technology to reshape the global energy market. Angaza is redefining the energy market in the off-grid world. Our technology tears down the up-front cost barrier to solar power: with Angaza, customers buy energy with their cell phone, as they need it.
Anna Jerstrom (Founder & CEO, Calavera Swimwear)
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Industry: Consumer Products & Services
Calavera is a line of bikinis catered for the female surfer with an special design that allows independent, adventurous women to showcase their personal style without losing the functionality of performance-minded swimwear.
Dr. Vandana & Lily Truong (Co-Founders, Clear Ear)
Location: Mountain View, CA
Industry: Life Science
Clear Ear is a medical device company developing innovative cost-effective products for the global market that will empower the everyday clinician to care like a specialist. They have two platform technologies that will enable it to develop multiple products in different medical verticals, with its first product line comprised of a cost effective total ear care system and cerumen removal tools that will deliver ENT standard of care.
Blaire Miller (CEO, Eaton Rapids Castings)
Location: Eaton Rapids, MI
Industry: Other
Eaton Rapids Castings is the first major foundry to be established in the US in more than 40 years. ERC offers newly licensed Scandinavian casting technology producing superior quality with competitive pricing for domestic production of ultra heavy iron and steel castings. ERC has prototyped and produced sample and short production runs for major global OEMs with the support of the Dept. of Energy, State of Michigan and Oak Ridge National Lab.
Erika Trautman (Founder & CEO, FlixMaster)
Location: Boulder, CO
Industry: Technology
FlixMaster offers a SaaS-model video technology that makes it incredibly easy for content creators to build next-generation HTML5 interactive videos that drive deep engagement and increased viewing time. With FlixMaster, you can embed interactive videos on any website, share them through social networks, and even create linked-buttons or hotspots within your videos, that take viewers to any online location. FlixMaster then tracks analytics, giving detailed feedback to video creators about which people make which choices within a video.
Chelsea Katz & Saloni Doshi (Co-Founders, Fresh Takes Kitchen)
Location: Denver, CO
Industry: Consumer Products & Services
Fresh Takes Kitchen is a for-profit social venture that makes healthy eating accessible to the working poor. We offer an affordable meal subscription service that distributes quality, fresh prepared dinners to individual and family customers through community organizations such as schools, churches and rec centers. We will serve as a powerful proof point that under-resourced communities demand healthy options, thereby spurring market innovation.
Lauren Sickles & Shamika Lee (Co-Founders, HerGameLife)
Location: New York, NY
Industry: Consumer Products & Services
HerGameLife is online destination for female fans of male sports. Launched in April 2012, HerGameLife began operations as a daily publisher of NFL news, fashion, food, and other lifestyle content produced by over 40 female contributors. Future plans include expansion to MLB, NBA, and college football and basketball. With contributions from everyday women, HerGameLife expands the sphere of high quality sports content by passionate fans, similar to SB Nation and Bleacher Report.
Heidi Lubin (CEO, Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies)
Location: Chicago, IL
Industry: Clean Technology
Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies (HEVT) is a technology company primarily focused on the development, commercialization and scale of a patented platform of technologies enabling high performing, more reliable and cost-efficient electric motor/generators and related power electronics. Specifically, their switched reluctance motor (SRM) technologies perform without the use of rare earth metals. Their patented family of SRMs provides a high performance, more reliable alternative to induction and permanent magnet motor/generators with disruptive cost benefits. HEVT’s systems allow you to hybridize existing powertrains or develop all new powertrains targeted at low-cost, moderate efficiency applications to industry-leading efficiency platforms.
Sharon Gaffney (CEO, MeebleMail)
Location: Pelham, NY
Industry: Consumer Products & Servies
MeebleMail’s personalized email stationery transforms email into extraordinary messages that say more. Personalize the email stationery with your name, address, monogram and more, there are endless ways to customize your email.
Adrienne Meisels (Founder & CEO, MyPlanit)
Location: New York, NY
Industry: Other
MyPlanit is a platform that interconnects time, location and all your disparate personal data into one unified private repository, reflecting how you truly experience and understand the real world. By contextualizing information the same way our brains do, myPlanit provides the most intuitive and elegant way to capture all the people, places, events and moments that matter to you.
Ana Roca Castro (Co-Founder & CTO, Picha Global)
Location: New York, NY
Industry: Technology
Picha Global is “Life Captured and Shared” – a revolutionary photo-sharing and stock photography platform where global real-time images are easily accessed and utilized by anyone from the media to a local aficionado. Picha Global believes in challenging the status quo, individual economic empowerment and the power of individuals to change the world.
Heather Scott (Founder, Purple Plant)
Location: San Francisco, CA
Industry: Consumer Products & Services
Purple Plant serves local, organic smoothies, while educating their customers about living a healthy, well-balanced lifestyle. Purple Plant Smoothies are committed to offering local, organic and sustainable products through our continuous supporting of local farming communities.
Sandra Sassow (Founder & CEO, SEaB Energy)
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK
Industry: Clean Tech
Seab Energy is a designer, manufacturer and installer of small scale anaerobic digestion systems, Muckbuster, which is built in a shipping container and converts food waste and animal waste into energy.
Heidi Darling (Founder, Songnote)
Location: San Anselmo, CA
Industry: Technology
A fast, fun way to share music with your friends & family, Songnote is both a nifty tool for sending songs and a new mode of communication. Songnote is a slick alternative to copying and pasting links, Songnote is both a new way to communicate and a new way share music. Simply select your song, write a note to go with it and press send to deliver to your best friend, girlfriend, crush, mom and just about everyone else.
Stacy Chapman (Co-Founder, Swoop Talent)
Location: San Francisco, CA
Industry: Technology
Swoop helps employers leverage social networks to find, engage and hire the best talent. With many years of experience in HCM, talent and recruiting solutions, we started Swoop because we know that technology can (and should) make finding the best easier, not harder! Headquartered in San Francisco, we work with companies in all kinds of sectors and locations to make hiring the best as easy as possible.
Julia Aiken (Founder & Designer, Toast)
Location: Seattle, WA
Industry: Consumer Products & Services
Inspired by a chair lift ride in the bitter cold, TOAST makes heated long underwear for people who work & play in the outdoors. TOAST heated clothes is a softgoods manufacturer specializing in heated long underwear. We make a patent-pending line of base layer with heat packs integrated in areas critical to maintaining core body temperature. Our target customers are people who work and play in cold weather environments. Our products will be sold via sporting goods stores, ski/snowboard shops and online retailers.
Andrea Turner Moffit (Founder & CEO, Wealthrive)
Location: New York, NY
Industry: Technology
Online wealth advisory firm empowering mass affluent women and their families to better understand and manage their financial resources. Wealthrive equips clients with insightful knowledge, personal wealth clarity and a trusted partner through our enriching educational platform, dynamic asset aggregating tool and holistic wealth planning and investment advisory services.
Virginia Rodriguez Perlado (Founder, Womenalia)
Location: Madrid, Spain
Industry: Technology
Womenalia is the first networking site dedicated to professional women.
Mercedes Iborra (Founder, Agriluk)
Location: Santiago, Chile
Industry: Technology
Agriluk is the marketplace of agriculture, connecting farmers with buyers. We provide agriculture-specific services, including commercial reports, business contacts, and social networks, while offering first-in-market competitive advantages of brand, image and data management.

Women 2.0 readers: Which Astia entrepreneurs and companies are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments!

About the guest blogger: Catherine Berman is Senior Vice President of Astia. She currently oversees Astia’s portfolio of women-led ventures and drives the organization’s entrepreneurial offering. Over the past decade she has co-founded several successful mission-driven ventures, including Deloitte Center for Leadership & Community, the Information Technology Consortium and most recently, Global Brigades – the world’s largest student development organization.

Editor

Editor

The Switch Editorial Team.

Straight to your inbox.

The best content on the future faces of tech and startups.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

SHARE THIS STORY

NEW COHORT STARTS JANUARY 2024

Join the Angel Sessions

Develop strategic relationships, build skills, and increase your deal flow through our global angel group and investing course.

RELATED ARTICLES
[yarpp]