By Julia Crooijmans, news correspondent
Mayor Martin J. Walsh launched the third annual Women Entrepreneurs Week, a week-long event, Oct. 16 celebrating female entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs in Boston.
WE BOS Week included a pitch competition, educational workshops, informal panels and networking sessions. At these events, the majority of which were free and open to everyone, women entrepreneurs had the opportunity to compete for cash prizes, increase their companies’ visibilities and connect with investors and mentors.
“In Boston we believe that when women succeed, we all succeed,” Walsh said in an Oct. 4 press release. “That’s why it’s so important that we continue lifting up our women-owned businesses and entrepreneurs. I am proud to host the third annual WE BOS Week along with Boston’s women leaders to create and support opportunities to promote women entrepreneurs and ensure economic equity.”
At the “Fueling the Growth” pitch competition, hosted by The Refinery, a Connecticut-based accelerator focused on women-led startups, 12 companies competed for a first place $15,000 cash prize. Entrepreneurs gave a seven-minute pitch and received seven minutes of feedback from the judges.
The founder of The Refinery, Janis Collins, said she organized this pitch competition to uncover up-and-coming high tech companies led by women.
“[The Refinery team] really want to help the entrepreneurs be successful, we want to help them develop the right growth and funding strategy,” Collins said. “We are a passionate supporter of women-led companies and women entrepreneurs.”
Tracy Warren, CEO of Astarte Medical, a software company that helps preterm infants grow and develop, took third place in the competition.
“This is a really strong event,” Warren said. “There is a huge gap in early stage funding for women-led companies. Bringing together folks who are very purposefully trying to fix that problem just makes it more efficient and creates a better outcome, because you got everyone around the table for the right reasons.”
The first place prize went to Miriam Huntley, co-founder of Day Zero Diagnostics, a Harvard Innovation Lab & Life Lab-based startup that has developed a test to identify the strain and resistance to antibiotics profile of a patient’s bacterial infection within a few hours. Typically, running such a test would take two to three days.
For entrepreneurs trying to explore funding options or seek investors, SheStarts and The Capital Network co-hosted “Funding Options for Your Business.” At this event, founders were able to meet a panel of angel investors and venture capitalists who gave advice on various sources of funding.
Courtney Moore, the regional vice president of AR Funding, said this was her second year attending and speaking at WE BOS and found this event to be a great opportunity for female entrepreneurs to become more informed and empowered.
“There are so many hurdles that women in finance and business face,” Moore said. “Getting over the male-oriented world that we are in is so difficult … I am glad I can come to WE BOS and share my knowledge with these women.”
