Featuring Keynote Speakers Sallie Krawcheck and Pam Kostka, Prominent Investors Join Venture Academy Beta Boom to Celebrate Rising Female Entrepreneurs

CHICAGO, Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Beta Boom, a venture academy unlocking the $4.4T opportunity of overlooked female and multicultural founders, celebrated the culmination of their 6-month Women's Academy Program alongside hundreds of investors, entrepreneurs and tech leaders. Virtually gathered for the company's Female Founders Summit, attendees from Andreessen Horowitz, Salesforce Ventures and other prominent firms heard keynote sessions from Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest, and Pam Kostka, CEO of All Raise, in addition to pitch competitions highlighting rising female talent.  

"I would argue that the most important thing we need to pay attention to is not the gender pay gap, but actually the gender wealth gap. The messages we have received as women have kept us from addressing this," said Krawcheck. "If we are able to get more money into the hands of women, women will have more power, and our world will be a better place." 

With the spirit of creating opportunities and leveling the playing field for women and underrepresented founders, Beta Boom announced a new grant and mentorship program at the event called New Pattern Chicago. Women and founders of color will be granted up to $10,000 in funding as well as resources for skill-building and coaching. The grant application will open in November and be available on Beta Boom's website. The company launched a similar initiative, New Pattern Utah, earlier this summer.

As emphasized by Kostka during the Female Founders Summit: "The tech industry is innovating our future but still operating in the past. By creating a new version of visionary, and building at scale with diversity, equity, and inclusion at the core, we are shifting perceptions and lifting women into positions of power." 

Beta Boom's Women's Startup Academy, an intensive 6-month program led in partnership with Womenpreneurs and rooted in product, marketing, and fundraising coaching, builds upon this new version of visionary.The four leading women who were part of this cohort include: 

• Aireka Harvell of Nodat, a community marketing platform that drives repeat and new customers to small local businesses through incentives and gamification
• Constance Curtis of The List, a modern, data-driven online matchmaking service bridging the gap between self-service dating apps and expensive, traditional matchmakers 
• Dr. Shelley Cooper of SureShow, a software platform allowing medical practices to fill no-show appointments with billable telehealth visits
• Katleen Francois of the Geaux Network, a multi-media platform providing multicultural millennials with authentic, informative, and entertaining content 

Serving as a culminating event for all of their hard work, these female founders competed in a live pitch competition during the Summit. The List and Nodat were both chosen as winners and awarded $5,000 each.

The Friends and Family Pitch Competition included live pitches from Culture Pilot, Free to Feed, Memorē, Mira Therapeutics and Pairess. The winner, who received $5,000 in equity-free prize money, hands-on coaching with Beta Boom and a package from HubSpot for Startups, was Pairess, a female-founded brand on a mission to help womxn succeed in the workplace through stylish and functional apparel that makes your life easier. Additionally, Memorē received the Audience Choice Award.

A special thank you to the event's Platinum Sponsor, CI&T, a digital solutions partner helping some of the world's biggest companies drive growth and continuous innovation across business, people and technology. Additional event sponsors included All Raise, Ellevest, Morgan Lewis, Google Fiber and HubSpot for Startups.

About Beta Boom
Beta Boom is a venture academy unlocking the $4.4T opportunity of overlooked female and multicultural founders by providing early-stage startups with an intensive 6-month program focused on product, marketing and fundraising. Co-founded by Kimmy and Sergio Paluch, who have led product innovation projects for companies like Google, TiVo, and Bank of America, Beta Boom looks beyond Silicon Valley and invests human capital in diverse, scrappy, and persevering leaders who are creating solutions to today's biggest challenges. For more information, follow Beta Boom on Twitter (@betaboom) or visit https://betaboom.com/. 

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SOURCE Beta Boom

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