Tampa Bay Wave TechWomen Rising Pitch Night

Pitch Night Showcased 15 Women-Led Startups Highlighting Fierce Female Ingenuity while Empowering the Women of Tampa

Thursday, November 4th, women and men gathered at Jeff Vinniks’s Embarc Collective to join Tampa Bay Wave and the 15 women-led startups in their TechWomen Rising Accelerator Program. No matter who you are or what you do, listening to the entrepreneurial TechWomen pitch their diverse startups was bound to give anyone chills. For two hours that evening the room was filled with intelligence, community, and aspiration creating an ambiance of empowerment showcasing fierce female ingenuity. 

Successful Women Radiating Empowerment

Jane Castor, Tampa’s first woman and openly gay Mayor, kickstarted the event expressing gratitude to the city that provided her with so many opportunities and allowed her to blossom into the leader she is today. Castor is a trailblazer and a woman of quite a few impressive “firsts,” having her open the event, set the tone with a message urging everyone to be authentic in following their passions. 

Tampa Bay Wave has raised over $100 million dollars solely for tech startups in their accelerator programs facilitating access to resources, expertise, and capital to grow their vibrant technologies. Pitch Night brought together Tampa’s most innovative women in the tech industry to share their disruptive startups, either en route to or already in the market, while networking friendships and business connections. Each startup had five minutes to pitch their companies to a room full of Tampa’s most successful businesses, people and investors. Thursday evening was the first round of pitches aiming and asking for communication, discussion and partnerships – second round is directed solely for investors.

Every TechWomen entrepreneur in the program deserves congratulations for their innovative ideas and accomplishments thus far. A few notable pitches that stuck with me, fayVen, a marketplace where mobile vendors can book retail space at local venues, is an app that every venue, artisan and pop-up shop needs now! Much like Airbnb transformed travel with technology, fayVen is revolutionizing the way business is done, not to mention, Founder April, quite literally radiates pure joy and genuinity.

I had the pleasure of sitting next to an intelligent TechWoman during Pitch Night, BarnWiz Founder Tori Sullivan. Sullivan is a kind soul that created a genius platform bridging a major gap in the equestrian industry by connecting barns with horse owners and clients. I was also attracted to an AI-powered career exploration platform, Shamrck, and it’s Founder Sheffie Robinson who is the only woman currently in AI Workforce Development. Robinson understands that college isn’t the most beneficial option for all students developing a program with 4 E’s: Enrollment, Enlistment, Employment, Entrepreneurship. A 14 year old Founder, Claire Barrow, is also amongst the female entrepreneurs in the accelerator program. 

Founder, CEO and serial-entrepreneur, Linda Olsen, started Tampa Bay Wave as a small meet-up group for tech entrepreneurs to exchange notes and potentially provide beneficial advice to other local startups back in 2008. This compelling founder, mentor and mother aims to transform Tampa Bay into the innovation hub of the nation fostering an innovation-based economy for the entire region while advocating for gender equality within tech industries. Pitch Night showcased 15 ambitious women entrepreneurs building the next breakout tech startups in Tampa Bay and the world.

Equal opportunities for women have consistently revolutionized the world allowing visibility into female brilliance while illuminating a powerful confidence that should never be dimmed. Women are leaders; Women make change; Women deserve to be celebrated and Tampa Bay Wave has made that possible through their 2021 TechWomen Rising Accelerator.