The Cronkite School was home to aspiring and successful entrepreneurs alike at the third Women Investing in Women Summit on Friday and Saturday.
“(We want) to get women entrepreneurs in front of potential investors and also to get women investors socialized,” said Anu Bhardwaj, the founder of Women Investing in Women.
The summit featured a lineup of business and media experts and aimed for attendees to become part of a global economic revolution focused on women and girls. A large part of program revenues will support The State of Women Radio Network, the Women Investing in Women and Girls Radio Show and the Girls Rule Foundation.
Day two of the summit included the Seed Spot Women Entrepreneurs Pitch Session.
Seed Spot is a downtown Phoenix non-profit incubator focused on social entrepreneurship. Twice a year, the company runs a four-month program during which they assist entrepreneurs with a socially conscious idea to become successful.
Courtney Klein, co-founder and CEO of Seed Spot, said she wanted to help build a community for other entrepreneurs to have the same level of support she did in her other business ventures.
“We started it three years ago in 2012 and built a network of 350 plus mentors, an office space and really great experts that come in and help our entrepreneurs,” she said.
Klein founded her first nonprofit organization, New Global Citizens, when she was a senior at Arizona State University. After traveling to the Yucatan Peninsula for a summer to volunteer, she said she wanted to educate other young people about global issues and empower them to create change. She ran the organization for seven years, grew it into 14 states and 30 countries, and left in 2010 to help other entrepreneurs.
Klein said Seed Spot has 134 alumni, 88 percent of whom are still in business and 93 percent of whom are still in Arizona. The alumni have raised $1.7 million in capital and created 160 new jobs. The program is a highly competitive, full-time commitment, and there is also a program for high school students, Klein said.
Three alumni of Seed Spot spoke during the pitch session. Each had three minutes to pitch their business and explain what they were still looking for in starting their company.
After 10 years of real estate experience, Meghan Martinez, an alumnus, said she wanted to figure out a way to deal with floating keys and vacation rentals. Her time at Seed Spot allowed her to create an app called Keasy.
“A property manager can schedule access to the property using our online management portal,” Martinez said. “They issue an electronic key to the vacationer, who then uses their smartphone with the Keasy app to unlock the door.”
Martinez said she went into the Seed Spot program with an idea, but came out with a company.
“I’m surprised I don’t have a Seed Spot tattoo by now,” Martinez said. “I’m such a huge fan.”
Bhardwaj said she first met Klein at a panel three years ago.
“We stayed in close contact and we’ve always been talking about collaborating and she launched Seed Spot when I launched Women Investing in Women,” Bhardwaj said.
The other speakers had plenty of knowledge to share too, whether from the Girl Scouts organization or the LGBT community. Each experience provided insight to Women Investing in Women’s mission.
“Women CEOs represent 2.7 percent of the companies … invested by venture capital,” said Lisa Stone, SheKnows Media‘s chief community officer and co-founder of BlogHer.
“Less than 7 percent of all philanthropy in this country goes just to benefit women and girls,” said Debra Esparza, chief operating officer of Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus Pine Council.
“It is still lawful in this state and 29 others for people to discriminate against (the gay) community in employment and housing and public accommodations … and in 31 states if you’re transgender,” Angela Hughey, co-founder of One Community, said.
Megan Greenwood, an engineer from Chandler and a summit attendee, said she wanted to develop a consumer product. She said she learned a lot at the summit.
“I gained a lot of wisdom from each one of them,” she said. “The week was created very strategically, so each one of the sessions was very different and I gained something out of each session.”
Bhardwaj said she hopes people get new insights, perspectives and inspiration out of the summit. With the creation of Women Investing in Women Digital, Bhardwaj said they want to get the content from the summit out to the masses.
“We’re going to be building this and there is no way that we can stop because we’re not going to move forward otherwise,” Bhardwaj said. “We just want to set the right role models for the next generation.”
Contact the reporter at hbosselm@asu.edu
