Last Call for Stella's Women's Fast Pitch 2022, apply now

Get funding. Receive feedback. Get Connected. Pitch to Investors. Join a community.

The annual Women's Fast Pitch lead by Stella, as a collaboration between our two programs, Stella Labs and Stella Angels, is nationwide, reaching female founders across our great nation. Why are we so passionate about the Women's Fast Pitch? In all the years we have lead the competition AND been involved with the nationwide InnovateHER competition, we know by connecting female founders with transformational ideas and a scalable business model to the RIGHT capital, mentorship and resources, magical goals are accomplished. One of our first Women's Fast Pitch women-owned businesses, Aquacycl, founded by?Orianna Bretschger,?has raised since her win at the Women's Venture Summit, over $5M in funding & grown her team & her customer size and numbers. Our two winners of the InnovateHER pitch competition, Once Upon a Farm and Uqora, are in your local supermarkets (Once Upon a Farm) and in the hands of thousands of customers (Uqora). Uqora has exited to PharmaVite and Once Upon A Farm is in every Whole Foods and supermarket nationwide.

We have a proven track record.

We wanted to push the boundaries again this year by continuing to support women entrepreneurs in Hawaii and Alaska, where we are assigning one of the finalists of the Southwest and Northwest regional competitions from those two states.

We meet founders where they are.

We know female founders and female funders. We build bridges.

Stella's exclusive network of accredited investors, Stella Angels, invested?$1.3 million?via direct investments and indirectly via syndications and crowdfunding. Through its annual events Women's Fast Pitch and Women's Venture Summit, and its advisory services and accelerator program, it facilitated another?$69.7 million?in funding for women-led companies nationwide, for a collective total of?$71 million.

The Women's Venture Summit is a startup ecosystem with a pointed mission: to bring more venture capital to female founders and BIPOC-owned businesses. The Summit's global impact has facilitated over $100M?in funding to women-owned businesses so far.

"Women's Fast Pitch is a venue for founders to gain exposure, support and potential investment from an audience of investors and advocates who recognize innovation and believe in growing the female economy," says Stella CEO?Raven O'Neal. "Through this event, we have championed hundreds of startups like Vaila, a lifestyle shoe retailer for women with extended shoe sizes, and Lilu, a pumping massage bra for nursing moms. These startups are creating creative solutions to improve women's daily lives."

Therefore, here are 5 reasons to apply for the?Women's Fast Pitch,?by the deadline, Wednesday, June 22, 2022.

1. Get funding.?The winner of the finals at the?Women's Venture Summit,?will receive $10K in funding. All finalists in every region will pitch to a group of investor-judges who are always trying to build their pipeline of strong female-founded companies to invest in, so you never know who will carry on the conversation with you. All finalists also get the opportunity, based on investor interest, to have Stella Angels help put together a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, to help investors invest at smaller amounts into an entrepreneur, but that entrepreneur only gets 1 investor on her cap table. Genius!
2. Receive valuable, timely, & promotion-focused feedback.?All applicants receive feedback about their application from our team of startup advocates, advisors, & educators at Stella Labs. If there are deeper questions or needs from the entrepreneur, we try to connect you with the right mentor who can give some more rigorous feedback. It's about getting you to your next level, not just perfecting your pitch.
3. Get Connected with the RIGHT gender-lens investors.?Building bridges is our main focus for continuing the vision of Women's Fast Pitch and Women's Venture Summit, because we know that for women founders to receive funding & for more women investors to activate their capital, it is a collective JOURNEY. Investor relations is just that, a long-term journey of reciprocity, trust and value sharing. For founders and funders, getting connected in a vetted, high-value setting, is key. Start the process, founders, by applying to the Women's Fast Pitch.
4. Pitch to ACTIVE Investors.?All judges and most of the 3rd party screening committee for the Women's Fast Pitch are investors, interested in gender lens investing. That means that they either invest in women-owned businesses, look at products that help women live healthier lives or many other iterations of uplifting women. At Stella Labs and Stella Angels, we are consistently searching, connecting, partnering, and syndicating with women investors and advocates in the gender lens investing space. It's what we do.
5. Join a community of support & resources.?Your application is the first step to join our new Stella learning platform we just built to build a more robust community across the world for women founders who are curious to innovate, committed to building their businesses, and community-minded to help each other out. There are 40 modules and over 300 registered users.

So, you have about 2 more days to apply to the annual nationwide Women’s Fast Pitch 2022 - seeking all womxn founders who have impactful startups to apply from ALL regions of the US:?#northwest?#southwest?#northeast?#southeast?#sandiego?#hawaii?#alaska?(1 regional finalist from NW will be picked from Alaska applicants & 1 from SW will be picked from Hawaii)

Apply here:?https://community.stella.co/signup/

More specific VALUE to entrepreneurs (because YOU are the reason we exist, we are mindful of the benefits got YOU):

? Awesome experience. Period.

? Pitch sessions with me, I open up my calendar ?? to all finalists and applicants for as many sessions as they need to be as prepared as possible.

? Pitch Prep course (on the Stella learning platform).

? Access to mentors from multiple female-focused Angel groups across the US.

? If picked as a regional finalist, recognition.

? Application viewed by the selection team of startup investors & advocate's who have expansive networks in the innovation space.

? If selected as a regional finalist, application & pitch heard by investor judges & audience. Priceless.

? If selected as winner of regional competition, (1) pitch to an audience of 500+ investors, entrepreneurs, and startup advocates at the Women’s Venture Summit (WVS) 2022 and (2) opportunity to work with?Stella Angels?to create an SPV for further investment as investor interest permits.

? If win WVS, receive a $10K investment from?She Invests!?& opportunity to work with?Stella Angels?to create SPV as investor interest permits. SPVs are lead by Stella Angels & Signal Rock Capital.

This all is made possible by a fantastic partnership / sponsors Sponsored by?Cooley LLP?and?The Impact Seat Foundation. #gratitude

Apply today!?

https://community.stella.co/signup/

Criteria for the Women's Fast Pitch competition includes:

• Female founder must have formed an entity by?June 1, 2022
• The Company must not have raised over ten?(10) million dollars?in funding from combined funding source
• At least eighteen (18) years of age at the time of their submission of an entry (or teams of such individuals)
• Registered corporations, LLC, or sole proprietorship within?the United States
• Must be majority woman-owned (51%, includes founders and investors)

Apply for the Stella Women's Fast Pitch Competition?here.

Entrepreneurs and investors are invited to watch the virtual pitch competition as it inspires and empowers female founders. Visit the WVS?YouTube channel?to re-watch the national Women's Fast Pitch 2021 competitions.

Mark your calendar for the Women's Venture Summit, held?Sept. 16-17, 2022, and watch for early bird ticket availability by following @wearewvs on social media.

About Stella:

Founded in 2012, Stella connects women founders and investors to the right resource–at the right time–in their journeys. From ideation to funding to exit, women founders and investors look to Stella for its powerful constellation of support made up of an inclusive community, curriculum, access to capital events and an annual Women's Venture Summit, advisory services and funding opportunities. Let's connect the stars, together. For more information, please visit?stella.co.

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