Welcome I'm Sean Wilkerson Innovation
development program manager here at the
United States Patent and Trademark Office.
I want to thank you for joining us today
for the Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium.
We're excited to have you here for the
4th in our series of discussions held
every Wednesday in March celebrating
Women's History Month before we start
the panel investing in innovation.
I have a few housekeeping notes to go over.
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is in the inbox of everyone who
registered for the program,
but it can also be found on
our website at www.uspto.gov.
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At this time,
I'd like to ask our panel to please
make sure their microphones are
unmuted and their cameras are on,
and I'd like to introduce you to
our moderator for today's program,
Hope Shimabuku,
director of USPTO Texas Regional Office,
Hope.
Thank you Sean,
and thank you for allowing me to
moderate this very esteemed panel.
I am super excited to be here as
we're talking about a really important
topic on investing in innovation.
One of the things and the questions
that I get asked a lot is that OK,
I have this wonderful idea and I have all
of these products and services to sell,
but how do I get the funding to
be able to support the business
that I have and these women are
Leaders in the industry who
are going to be able to answer
that very important question.
So I'm gonna start off by introducing
each one of the panel members here
and then let them talk a little bit
about who they are and that the
organization that they are working
for or they are representing and
I'm going to start with Elizabeth.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Elizabeth is the founder of an
organization called SoGal Ventures,
and so can you tell us a little bit about
yourself. And SoGal Ventures and
then give us a quick introduction
on the differences between the
different types of investment.
An funding mechanisms. Specifically,
what's the difference between an Angel
investor and a venture capitalist?
Thanks so much Hope, hi everyone,
I'm Elizabeth Galbut.
I'm one of the managing partners of
Sogal Ventures were an early stage
venture capital firm that invests
in companies that are building
how the next generations live,
work and stay healthy.
So that's consumer tech.
Health tech.
In enterprise software we invest in
diverse founding teams so all of our
companies have at least one woman founder.
When we invest in them.
But we invest in broad based diversity.
So everything across
making sure the team has.
You know diversity and gender,
LGBTQ, immigrants,
veterans, different races,
socioeconomic backgrounds.
This is really important
because in venture capital,
these groups are traditionally under
represented and who gets funding?
And that's really important,
and why?
I'm sure all of you are on this
call to figure out if something
like venture capital or Angel
investing is right for your business.
So as a venture capitalist and our firm.
We invest anywhere between
100,000 and $1,000,000 into an
early stage company and we're
investing that on behalf of people
who have invested in our fund.
So we have investors ourselves
in when you're accepting venture
capital that's accepting.
Kind of this pool of capital
for many investors.
On the other hand,
Angel investors are individuals
who have created wealth in some way
in their life that are investing
their own Personal Capital.
Into your company,
oftentimes at the really early stages,
you might have actually Angel
investors in venture capitalists,
both coming in to fund your company,
but something that's really
important to sort of
Remember,
venture capital isn't right for everyone,
it's right for certain types
of businesses that do want to
be high growth and have their
sets have their sights set on.
You know,
growing a business between
$100 million a billion dollars.
And beyond and do want to grow the
business with prioritizing high
growth compared to things like
profitability or sustainability.
And typically they have some
sort of underlying technology,
IP or business model that really
makes sense when you're investing
a lot of money into a company
to grow very quickly.
So is the right fit for some businesses,
but not for all businesses.
I know it's really publicized.
A lot in the news as the only
type of capital.
Or you know the move special type of capital.
But there's so many other options
and I know all the panelists day will
be talking through the different
options and I think it's really
important as an entrepreneur to
learn about all these different things.
Whether it's venture capital,
Angel financing or some of the other
things we'll talk about today.
Alright, thank you Elizabeth. Our next
guest is Ruth who is the CEO of Crowd Funding
Road map incorporated.
Can you also tell us a little bit
about yourself and give us an
overview of your organization and
then also tell us a little bit
about the work that you have done
legislatively to enable crowdfunding
and why This is helpful especially
to a woman business owner.
Sure, thank you Hope.
Thank you so much for having me today.
Come. I am one of the original
pioneers of every crowdfunding.
I worked with a group of people who,
during the last recession in 2008,
we realized that there was no capital.
They've had all dried up,
unlike this recession.
And there was no PPP loans.
There was nothing basically
saving small businesses.
And so we went to Congress with this idea.
The original draft of this was
called the startup exemption
and we got we spent two years
walking the halls of Congress and
speaking to different people.
Actually Woopie
Goldberg was one of our original supporters.
Steve, the head of AOL,
was one of our early supporters.
the US Chamber of Commerce came
on board and then eventually
almost 400 Congressman 2/3 of the
Senate and President Obama signed
into law in the JOBS Act of 2012.
This our title 3486 which was the
bill that I helped create but we
got regulation A plus which is
another form of crowdfunding and we
were able to also convert 5
a Reg D offering to a 506C which
is another form of crowdfunding.
So in the bill there's three
different kinds of crowdfunding
that did not exist before and what
this means to all of you is that
you can go to a funding portal.
And or you can deal with if the
company is dealing with the broker
dealer on these registered offerings
and you can as an average American,
not as a VC and not as an Angel.
You can invest in any of these
companies and this was not legal
before and we really feel like this
is really where the conversation
needs to be because there's trillions
of dollars sitting in the hands of
350 million Americans and they don't
understand the power they have.
In transforming the kinds of cities
and communities that they want
to live in with their dollars,
and so we have launching later this year,
a platform called Rise Up crowdfunding.
Can learn about it at riseupcrowdfunding.com.
We're working on this project with
the Coca Cola Company and their head
of supplier diversity and we are
really trying to change the mindset
of people who have spent their
extra money on lottery tickets and.
And on on sports betting and
gambling and just consuming things,
purchasing things.
And during this pandemic specifically,
we we have seen a lot of people
Come to the rescue on crowdfunding
platforms and help save the the
small businesses in their community.
So I'm really excited about, you know,
having this conversation today and
thank you so much for having me.
Alright,
thank you Ruth,
our next panelist is Natalie who is
the assistant administrator for the
Office of Women's Business Ownership
and Small Business Administration.
Can you give us a little overview
of yourself as well as the office
that you are working for and
then specifically also talk a
little bit about the kind of funding
mechanisms that the government can
provide a specifically the SBA,
including SBIR and STTR grants?
Absolutely so first thank you
all so much for having me.
As was mentioned by name is Natalie
Madeira Cofield and I'm the newly
appointed assistant administrator,
leading the Office of
Women's Business Ownership,
which sits in the Office of
Entrepreneurial Development at
the Small Business Administration.
Our office is really the voice
for women business owners across
the federal government,
working to support entrepreneurship,
enterprise, access to capital,
access to contracts.
And access to equity for women entrepreneurs.
We're very proud to have created the
largest expansion of our women's
business center program in the history
of the Small Business Administration.
When this year,
we actually brought onboard
another 20 centers,
giving us a total of 135 women's business
centers and 135 cities across the nation.
And each year the centers work
with nearly 60.
Thousand women supporting them through
their entrepreneurial ambitions and
their entrepreneurial interests.
With that being said,
I think the Small Business Administration
is it has become a agency that
is top of mind for many people,
particularly during the covid pandemic.
I am sure that folks have already
heard of the PPP program,
which is an access to capital opportunity.
Given the covid pandemic as well
as the economic disaster
Loan program that we have.
I would like to make note that the PPP
program is set to expire on May 31st,
2021 and if you have not applied
and you are in need of funding
to support your business,
please go to sba.gov and learn more
about both the economic disaster
an injury loan program as well
as the PPP program.
With that being said,
if this is not disaster related,
SBA has a number of other financing
opportunities that it uses through
intermediaries and financial institutions
across the country as was just
mentioned by one of our other panelists.
The reality is that 99.95% of all
businesses in the United States of
America will not receive venture capital,
and so if you are interested in
scaling and growing your business,
then obviously things like
crowdfunding or seeking traditional.
Financing is important to you and so the
Small Business Administration provides
microloans through intermediaries of
up to $50,000 for small businesses.
The average loan size is about $13,000.
They also have the 7A
loan program which can give you
working capital up to $5 million.
SBA also provides the 504 loan
program which can give you a capital
for fixed assets up to 5,000,000.
Dollars and that's just a few of the
traditional lending programs that we have,
but also do want to mention,
and I was remiss in mentioning
this around the disaster recovery
funding opportunities.
But if you are working in the spaces of
entertainment or in the performance industry,
we are very proud to have launched
the shuttered venues Grant program,
which will officially open on April 8th,
providing $16.5 billion in federal
Relief to entrepreneurs who are
in the entertainment, production,
acting performance industries.
I encourage again you to take a look at that,
but Hope you asked me about
specifically the SBIR program,
and I think again when we think about
the vast richness of what comes out
of the Small Business Administration.
And I just really want to say
SBA has so many programs that many
people are not aware of so many
programs that are designed to empower
The nation's most critical businesses,
which are small businesses across
our country,
the small Business Innovation research
and the small business Technology
Transfer program actually provides
nearly 5000 new awards each year,
totaling about $4 billion.
And it is possible for you to apply
for funding through one of these
particular programs by going to and
I know Hope you mention this later
today when you share the resources.
By going to the website to learn
more about how to apply for either
SBIC backed investment companies
for these particular programs to
support startups that are creating
initiatives around new technologies,
new innovation and new technology transfer.
I do just want to also mention really
quickly before I close that things
that have been funded through the
SBIR program include the Sonicare
toothbrush as well as the Roomba.
So if you have ever had that little
vacuum going around your house one
you should be proud to know that
that is a company that was backed
by the hard working folks at the
Small Business Administration.
But two also know that that is a
company that was founded by women
entrepreneurs like the very folks
that we have on the call here today.
So I will close with that and again,
thank you for having me.
Thank you Natalie for that
wonderful information,
so our last panelist is Corrine and
She is the CEO of the Association
of Women's Business Centers,
so Corinne welcome.
Can you also give us a little bit
of an overview of your organization
as well as yourself and then what
kind of assistance do you provide
to women business owners?
Absolutely thank you so much for being here.
At the Association of Women's
Business Centers,
we work directly in support of the
same women's business centers that
Natalie's office serves so well.
And so we're so proud and excited
to be working with Natalie.
As of March 1st and applaud her
work and passion that we've seen
in demonstration already.
The Association of Women's
Business Centers and I,
We work each and every day to
ignite opportunities for women
who want to start and grow their
businesses through the support of
that network of 135 women's business
centers across the country.
And thanks to funding afforded
through the CARES Act in 2020 and the
record expansion of women's business
centers that Natalie just mentioned,
there are more women's business center
resources available in communities
across the country than ever before.
And it's really no coincidence that
women are breaking barriers and making
their dreams come true right here.
Right now during Women's History Month.
And so it's the power of
all of these partners.
SBA, USPTO in the synergy of organizations
on this call today that are behind
each and every one of these women
owned businesses and like wise women's
business centers have resources
to share in that regard and so.
You know, in 2020 we were able to
demonstrate an increase of our impact by
22% over 2019 serving 82,000 plus clients,
70% of whom were women.
So we're not turning anyone away,
but we're definitely focused on women
socially and economically disadvantaged.
56% of our clients were minorities,
you know, and they had a tremendous
impact last year in terms of really
inspiring business starts, we saw.
More than 30,000 business starts
and businesses sustained throughout
this pandemic period,
which was up 30% from 2019.
And women's been the centers
helped women businesses.
Most importantly for the theme
of this panel today leverage more
than $362 million in capital.
And that more than doubled the 2019 figures.
So really,
women's business centers are
a tremendous resource.
It's really just about #1 knowing
that there out there before I joined,
the Association of Women business centers,
I'll be honest,
I didn't even know that this
resource existed,
were sort of a best kept secret.
The program funding and the resources
at the Women's business centers are
directly channeled towards service
delivery and not as much as we
would like to see you in creating
awareness about the program.
So it's
Stage opportunities like this one
here today where we get to really
amplify the message and just
let people know you can go
to our website at awbc.org.
There's a WBC locator and we I
know we provided that link through
the panel resources.
You could also go to SBA.gov
and find this same link
the same access to information.
The fact is,
every single state and Puerto Rico
have women's business centers,
with the exception of Alaska.
So hopefully maybe someday we'll actually
be able to open one up again there soon.
But there's more.
Congress actually directed the
Association of Women's Business Centers
and America's SBDC to launch a website
specifically for small businesses
who are not necessarily even just struggling,
just operating or considering starting
up during this covid pandemic period.
And that website also provided as covid-sb.org
another great place to find local
assistance providers.
And most importantly,
federal agency information that
small businesses can use.
USPTO Department of Labor transportation.
Practically every federal agency has some
sort of small business resource out there,
and they're all being collected
and easily archived and searchable
at that covid-sp.org website.
So it's my goal to really amplify
the message for women's business
centers and help business owners or
aspiring entrepreneurs understand
what happens when they walk in the
door at a women's business center.
Which is, you know, being greeted warmly,
being told that they that their dream
is important and being instilled
with the confidence they need to
take the next step toward counseling
toward education and training.
And then, ideally, access to capital.
So those are the metrics that were
measured by starting that business,
sustaining that business,
and of course access to funding.
So that's critical to our success,
and we know critical to the
message of this panel today.
Thank you Corinne.
So now let's move a little
bit on to how to get educated
on at these different funds.
I know that you broadly
talked about each one of you,
the different things that
your organization works on,
but one of the important things that
I believe that you you touched on
when we were in our organizational
meeting is the importance of
improving financial literacy for
women and others who are starting.
Their businesses.
So are there important steps that
women can take to get educated and
become more financially literate
and based on your experience,
Are there things that are missing
when women are trying to pursue
funding for their business and I'm
actually going to start with Corinne
on this question and then we'll
move to our other panelists so.
Well, I'm probably gonna sound much
like a broken record, you know,
because step number one is finding the
Women's business center and finding your
partner finding your your fan club
If you will, and the person
who's willing to tell you,
here's where your weak points are.
Here's where you could use some training.
There's really no single nugget of advice
that's going to be the right answer for
every single business owner out there.
We all come to the table
with different skills,
different financial acumen.
And a different understanding
about how finances really such an
important lens that we can use to
plan for to judge and to determine
the success of our business.
And so sometimes it might be hey,
we need to start back.
Much earlier,
kind of in the financial education pipeline.
We might need to understand what
a balance sheet is and how we can
actually manipulate the outcome of
the business by changing different
things about the business and how
that translates to the balance sheet,
etc.
And so you know one of the critical
outcomes of really perfect financial
literacy education is knowing which
kind of capital is going to be the
right kind of capital for your business,
not to mention making sound financial.
Decisions in every other area,
how much,
how many expenses can you really tolerate?
How much revenue do you need to earn?
How much money should I be taking
out of the business's income?
How much can I afford to pay employees?
What should I charge for my product
for my services?
So really,
that financial literacy component,
it's pretty much important in every
aspect of the business and it's
really finding where are you weak
and where can you sort of enter into
that education stream at a point
where you don't have to waste time.
That's really the single thing we hear
from small business owners is yeah.
I left this skill. I need this training.
I need better acument in this financial area,
but I don't have time to go take,
you know,
an accounting course or understand all
all that there is to know about accounting.
I just need to know this one specific
thing and that's where women's
business center kind of understands
that small business need it can
provide just the dose of education
that that small business needs.
Thanks Corinne and so Elizabeth do you
have anything to add to that?
Definitely, so I think understanding
your different financing options
is really, really important,
and one way you can also go about
that is to talk to other entrepreneurs
in your communities and learn about
their experiences and how they went
about their own financing journeys.
We also run a nonprofit called
the Sogal Foundation.
We have 50 hyper local chapters
across 22 countries on six different
continents and these bring together.
Women, entrepreneurs and investors
in these local communities.
So you can find your tribe.
You know having that fan Club and also
peer support group as a business owner
is so so important and being able to
utilize your network to understand
different financing opportunities and
mechanisms is really important as well.
So if you want to see if there's a so
Cal chapter in your local community,
you can look at iamsogal.com.
We also have the opportunity to start
so girl chapters in new communities,
so if you're interested in doing
that we provide financial support.
To create, you know,
a network of women entrepreneurs
in your own local community and
we'd welcome folks on this call.
If you don't see your city represented,
please apply to be a chapter lead and
we're happy to support you and give you
resources in your journey of building
that local tribe of women business leaders.
I think there's tons of resources
online to learn about venture
capital in Angel investing.
We actually,
as a non profit,
also train Angel investors
Through a program called Fempire so
that we can get more Angel investors
investing into their local communities,
because that's really important as well,
and I think some of the resources
actually around being trained as an
investor also help you as an entrepreneur,
think about how potential investors are
looking at evaluating your business.
There are certain metrics in different
things that investors like myself
as a venture capitalist look for
When we're determining which businesses
to invest in in or not and sort of
seeing the other side of the table
an understanding these things that
range from financial metrics to
sort of investor terms and legal
terminology are really important,
as you're going on your financing
journey so you can be having the right
conversations and also understanding
those different levers of your business.
So Luckily there's so many resources out
there an I think finding sort of your tribe.
Of individuals in your local
community which the Women's Business
Center is also sound like.
An excellent resource to do so is
really important in helping determine
the right type of financing.
And I do want to say usually from
the businesses I've seen and funded,
is people utilized multiple different
types of financing for their success.
One company in our portfolio is cancer
immunology for animals biotech company
and they've been able to utilize.
Everything from tax credits.
You know NIH grants and loan loans
from banks, venture capital financing,
Angel financing,
self funding and bootstrapping
at their very beginnings.
So as you are an entrepreneur,
you'll probably utilized multiple
different types of financing,
especially as you grow.
So learning about all these resources
is an important step of your journey,
because although one may not be right
for you today, perhaps in a year or two,
it is the right type of financing
for you to go after.
As a business owner.
Alright, thank you Elizabeth and I'm
gonna move to Ruth to talk a little bit
about the crowd funding and how that
has been particularly impactful for women.
We also do have a question that has come
in and so just a reminder to our audience.
If you do have a question please
feel free to send it to the email
box that Sean had mentioned at the
beginning of the program and we will
try to weave it into our program.
So Ruth,
if you don't mind answering this
question or you can.
Send it to Natalie if you would like,
but when she connects on this the
question is do I need a business
plan when I look for funding
opportunities and so if you can
address that as well as crowd
funding that would be fantastic,
thanks.
So that you know there's a saying if
you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
And that nothing that is the the
absolute perfect statement to that
applies to running a business.
And it's not just what you would think of
as a traditional business plan, there is
Planning say a time like use of proceeds.
After you get the funding right,
how are you actually going to
spend this money?
Do you have a customer acquisition plan?
That's another plan,
so there's lots of pieces to this
bigger word of the business plan,
and you can kind of create those plans
in small little chunks so you don't
have to look at this whole thing
as is overwhelming business plan.
And you can create this plan in
anything that you feel comfortable in.
You know, back in the day and I'm
talking like the .com day,
people would have to write,
you know 100 page business plan
and it became this really big
project that they would just spend
an enormous amount of time on.
And
When you actually ask them the
specific questions about that plan,
they had no idea they could
not answer that plan.
So it's not just about
this formal business plan,
it's really more about you owning
a plan of action and understanding
the timeline of that plan,
and understanding how that plan
applies to the money that you
will need to execute that plan,
and how the money will come in.
And when the money comes in,
what you'll do with it?
So you really absolutely 1000% need a plan.
Yeah.
And then do you want me to speak
about the other? Yes, yes. So.
When comes to equity crowdfunding.
There is a bunch of terminology
that is new to the financial world.
In fact, the word funding portal,
which is the platform that you go to,
was not a legal word or
entity until the JOBS Act.
It was coined the funding portal.
And on the funding portal,
lots of funding portals have glossary's
where you can find a lot of terminology
about financing and I would recommend
that we come from failure with that
terminology because a lot of it's
applicable to every kind of funding.
In equity crowdfunding,
in certain types of equity crowdfunding
you may need audited financial statements,
so obviously you would have to have
an accountant do that for you,
but it would be important for you to
understand what that means so that you
get the right accountant to do that with you,
and I'm sure the.
The agencies that you all represent
understand how to help somebody do that.
There is obviously.
You have to understand the valuation.
That's another terminology
of financial terminology,
so understanding valuation.
'cause if you're going to
sell equity to the public,
you have to decide how much equity
you want to sell and then you have
to determine the value of that equity
and you have to have the due diligence
behind that and you have to be able
to quantify that and you have to
be able most importantly to defend
it because you can't just go out
there with some you know inflated.
Valuation and think the public's
going to buy into that.
So there there is,
you know,
a certain amount of financial
terminology that I think is important
not just for equity crowdfunding,
but long into the future of your business.
Because at the end of the day,
your business is going to continuously
be bringing in revenue and
scaling and maybe going back for
additional rounds of funding and.
And, like Elizabeth said,
you know they'll be a whole variety
of types of funding and they'll
be financial terminology that you
will have to be familiar with to
be able to understand what that you
know what it is you're doing so.
I hope that answers your question.
Thanks, Ruth.
Alright so now I'm going to turn
it over to Natalie to ask the same
question about financial literacy
and if you want to weigh in on
business plans.
But there's also another question
that I feel like is important that
has also come in and the question
is there support for building a
business without getting financing?
Or organizations that teach growing
without going into debt?
And so I think that's a great question,
especially since you know when
you build a business.
The last thing you want to do is to get
into too much debt when you're just.
Starting right off,
so do you have anything to add
to that? And then I'll open it up to any
of the other panelists who want to add to
that specific question as well so Natalie,
can you repeat that last question?
I just want to make sure I fully digest it.
So is there a place that you can go to seek
support for your business where you don't
have to assume debt for that support? Yes,
so that's the first part of the question,
and the second part of the question is
there an organization that teaches growing?
But without going into debt, got it OK,
so I'll try to answer all of the
questions as best I can without repeating
too much of what I've already heard,
because I think the panelists have done such
a fantastic job of covering so many bases.
The only thing that I'll add to what
you've already heard of those two
things as released a financial literacy.
One thing that I always say is the
way in which you manage your personal
finances is indicative of how you're
going to manage your business's finances.
And I also find that people are very
intrigued by the concept of running
a multi $1,000,000 business or having
$1,000,000. But if you can manage $1000,
you can manage $1,000,000.
If you can manage $1,000,000 you can
manage $2,000,000 and part of this is
about the growth process of learning
how you personally manage finances
and how you personally manage just the
resources that you have available to you.
You can blow $1000 just as easily
as someone can blow $1,000,000.
It will feel just the same.
So I think just being mindful of that
and then the second thing I will say
is social capital is something that
we haven't really talked a lot about.
As it relates to financial capitals,
so so much of the Angel investment community,
the venture capital community is
so predicated off of relationships.
Who do you know who can vouch for you?
Who is going to pick up the call to
say that they know this person,
that you have credibility?
That is social capital.
Even the ability for you to develop a
crowdfunding campaign and ask people
to do something on your behalf is an
intern utilizing your social capital
for the benefit and upliftment of
your business and social capital is.
The ability for you to take your
social relationships and turn them
into some form of economic.
Opportunity or gain,
and that only happens through
trust and through reputation.
So just as important as your credit score is
in terms of how you manage your finances,
so is your social capital score in terms
of how you manage your relationships.
So I will just add those as two
additional components to the financial
literacy piece as it relates to where
you can go to support your business.
So I think Corinne will smile
when she hears me say.
The women's business centers.
She has so eloquently talked
about the rich vastness of
of how the Women's Business Center
network again in 135 cities across
this country is supporting thousands
of women entrepreneurs and doing
so for free and so many of many,
many times and for many programs these
are come as you are walking into the
centre or join us on line in this kind
of circumstance and receive assistance.
There are very very very
few programs that you.
And possibly have to pay for it.
I also would say that the SBA has
a program called emerging leaders,
which is also a free resource for those
who are in the 250,000 or above mark
that are interested in being a part of a
cohort going through a structured program.
The application process for
that particular program,
which again is free,
is March 31st.
So I encourage you to go again to sba.gov
to learn more about emerging leaders to
find a women's business center in your.
Community now you know financing.
If so, there was the first question,
and then there's kind of like my
interpretation of what I feel.
This person is probably asking,
which is how can I get funded without
ever having to pay the funds back.
So I will just say, you know?
A couple of things one.
I think starting a business with the
idea that you're going to receive
grants is probably not the most
fortuitous way of creating a business.
I think that you want to always be
thinking about your monetization strategy.
How do you actually plan to make money?
And so having an initial business grant
if that is something that exists for you?
Many philanthropic private sector
organizations provide them.
There are no kind of direct business.
Grants for a startup circumstance
that I'm aware of that the Small
Business Administration provides,
but you may find something right,
but that can't just be the basis
for how your business is going to
succeed into perpetuity, right?
So you need to develop and hone how
you plan to actually make money from
your business and to sustain it through
revenue through sales and through service,
and that is.
Important at every phase of your
business endeavors and at every
phase of its scale and growth.
And I honestly feel to the question
about having a business plan.
This is something that you
should be looking at every year.
How can I improve the way in which I'm
spending my money and improve the access?
But I have to receiving additional
funds through services and through
revenue through sales for my company.
So that would probably be my best answer.
I'm sure that's not the answer
the person was looking for.
But I don't know about a a pot of
gold that sits under a bridge,
but I would just say, you know.
To think if you're thinking about that,
the energy that you have there
put that into thinking about how
you can monetize your business.
And I think that that will
actually position you better
in the long run.
Alright, thank you Natalie.
So Corrine Elizabeth And Ruth
Do you have anything to add to
that specific question and then
we'll move on to IP strategies
in addition to business plans
so opening it up for one of you
if you have anything to add.
I just think Natalie said it so
perfectly because the majority of the
calls that we do get right now are
businesses that are ideas they wanting
to start up there wanting to build
and they're wanting a grant to do so,
and I'm not really sure where the
assumption of there's got to be a
grant for me to start my business.
I don't know where that assumption
was born or why it does exist in the
minds of so many innovators and and
really intelligent people because
there aren't those pots of gold.
Under bridges or under rainbows,
or anywhere that I mean,
I have stumbled across one either and so
we women's business centers sometimes.
Do know about some very small,
very specific grants.
Sometimes there's training grants,
reimbursement grants, but you know,
usually a funder is going to want to
see some sort of record of performance
before they put their dollars there,
similar to the way an investor
is going to look at a business.
So I mean,
I just didn't want Natalie's remarks
to stand there un-echoed because
everything she said was completely right.
I've heard of the anomaly startup
Grant out there,
but it's really the exception
and not the rule by the way,
even though it's the most sought after
former capital yet truly isn't the
most healthy way to get this start.
Can I can I see something here long
before there was equity crowdfunding there
was what's called reward based crowdfunding.
And you did not take on any
debt with reward based crowdfunding.
Obviously you have to manufacture
the reward and deliver on that part,
but the funding takes care of that.
And you do not have to have
any assets to crowdfund.
That way you do not have to
have go into debt to crowdfund.
That way hundreds of thousands
of businesses every month go on
platforms like Kickstarter and
Indiegogo and thousands of other
platforms actually around the world.
They do reward based crowdfunding.
And they raised billions of dollars
collectively using this type of financing.
And you know,
I could sit here and talk for hours about.
All of this successful companies
who then took that money,
for example Oculus Rift,
which is the big 3D glasses,
was crowd funded by a 22 year
old on Kickstarter,
raised $1.2 million,
but then went on to raise $40
million in venture capital.
And then the next year was bought out
by Facebook for over a billion dollars.
So there are lots of ways to do this outside
of the traditional funding mechanisms.
If people are interested
in learning about that.
Alright,
thank you Ruth.
So let's change the topic a little
bit and let's talk about marketing
yourself and putting yourself
in the best position to qualify
for these financial resources.
I know we talked a little bit about it,
but let's specifically talk about IP,
which the USPTO,
the United States Patent Trademark
Office is very interested in.
For us, we recognize that
intellectual property,
meaning patents, trademarks,
copyrights, and trade secrets.
The ownership of that is very important
and that creating your business
strategy also means creating your
intellectual property strategy as well.
It's also important to have that
IP strategy 'cause it can help
support your ability to be able to
get funding as a matter of fact,
statistics show that patent ownership,
or even being able to say that you
have a patent pending increases the
likelihood of you getting funding by 70%.
And that's a lot but one of the
things that I know our organization.
Here's a lot is that?
Well, that's great that you know
getting an electoral property
will help me get the funding.
But it's also very expensive to
be able to get that intellectual
property right in the 1st place,
particularly a patent.
And so we wanted to spend a couple
of minutes just sharing some of
the resources that the USPTO has,
and then we'll talk about the
importance of intellectual property
with our panelists at with respect
to getting and securing.
Funding so at the USPTO we have many,
many resources that are available to you.
We've partnered with organizations
across the country to be able to
secure pro bono attorney services.
If you are below a certain income threshold,
you can secure those services
to help you with your patent
Filing an as well as your
trademark filing with some of the
organizations around the country
You can also get Copyright and
trade secret help as well.
And So what?
We've also secured an have relationships
with many law schools around the country,
in which if you don't qualify
for pro bono attorney services,
you can have a student attorney
who is under the supervision of a
practicing attorney help you with
those services and securing those
rights as well at the USPTO itself.
We have many one 800 numbers
or websites and emails that you
can ask us questions directly.
Our Trademark Assistant center,
as well as our inventor assistant center,
are opportunities for you to
reach out to us directly and
get your questions answered.
For things that you are
filing with our office.
In addition to that,
we have also partnered with libraries
over 80 libraries around the country
who are able to help you with your
searches to be able to find out, hey,
is my invention already out there and
patented or I want to start a new business.
I have a new logo,
a new brand name.
How do I know that someone else
has not taken that already?
You can do that search using the same
systems that the USPTO uses to be
able to search our registers to be
able to find out that information,
and those are really close at hand
because those are at your local
libraries around the country.
All of this information is actually
found on our PTO website,
so if you would like to find
out more information
and get contact information,
please feel free to go to uspto.gov
and click on small inventor resources.
And it will point you to all the contact
information with respect to that.
But you can also refer to some of our
previous programs that talks about
these specific resources in person.
You can visit our pro Women's
Entrepreneurship Symposium program page
and look at the different events that we
have held throughout the month on March 3rd,
March 10th and March 17th,
and listen to those particular videos and
hear more about those resources as well.
So with that in mind,
I'm actually going to transition
back to Natalie.
And ask this question,
can you also discuss some of the
additional resources beyond what
you've already talked about already,
that the SBA can provide to help our
organizations that are listening on this
call with some of the different things
that they are trying to apply for us?
They start their business. Absolutely
and hope I also think at the beginning
you kind of mentioned that companies
that own some form of intellectual
property seems to be more financially
viable and a lot of that has to do with.
The fact that when investors are looking,
they're looking for your competitive
advantage and the fact that you are
coming to the table with a patent would
potentially preclude someone else from
being able to get to market as quickly
as you would if you own the patent,
or if you only IP around this and
just kind of talking about what
IP is because it's so vast, right?
We're talking about service marks
were talking about copyrights
for talking about trademarks,
were talking about patents.
I mean,
this could be everything from you built,
the latest innovation and technology.
To you have a recipe that you
would like to actually
You would like you would like to protect
the ingredients of for something that
you might be selling for your family.
And so I think if we if we if
we share it in that context,
I think that people can see both
the things that they write on their
blogs as things that would be under
Copyright to what they would produced
for someone in a novel and sell off or
to provide access to in the same light.
And I only say that just because
you know we have women at every
stage of their business.
On this call we have women who are sole
proprietors who are creating Instagram posts,
blog posts,
or photographers that could be copywriting,
their their photography,
or we have people who are running
multi $1,000,000 manufacturing
companies that have just innovative in
the way in which they are producing
whatever it is that they are producing.
And I I want to speak to both of those.
With that being said again,
SBA has a vast network of resources to
support entrepreneurs at every level.
I'll mention a few additional
initiatives in addition to the
one for which my office funds,
which is the Women's Business center program.
But we have the service core
of retired executives which
provide one on one mentorship,
an advisement to entrepreneurs
who are seeking support for
the growth of their companies.
We have the small business
development centers SBDC's which are
in communities across the country
which provide access to resources,
training, scope and scale for
small businesses as well.
We have veteran business centers
across the nation supporting the
growth of veteran businesses and in
this support baked into that is is
this intellectual property piece for
which this question has been asked.
We also have tribal and Native Americans.
Centers that support our tribal and
native communities and indigenous
communities here in the United States
of America and so want to insure one
that we're letting folks know that
we have a portfolio of of centers.
A portfolio of programs and portfolio
of initiatives designed to support you.
And you can find out more about all
of them by going again to sba.gov
and finding a center near you.
Thanks Natalie,
I'm gonna move to Elizabeth and
Ruth next and then
I will ask you specific questions
that we've gotten as well.
In addition to answering these questions.
But Elizabeth and Ruth.
How often is IP actually brought
up in your discussions?
And how important do you feel it is to have
IP as part of a business owners portfolio?
Does it truly increase the likelihood
That you will get funding.
And as Natalie said I mean it does
reduce the risk for the investor so
I would like to think that that makes
it more attractive for the investor.
So Elizabeth if you could
start off with that.
I think it really depends on the
type of business and it also
matters not just that you have IP,
but if somebody else has the IP right?
So as an investor we're often looking
for if you're bringing a new technology.
Or product to market if somebody else
owns that IP, there's a lot of risk,
right?
And funding your company if you don't
kind of have the legal right of way
to actually produce and sell that
product or technology you're creating.
So I think IP is important,
and understanding what you're
actually building.
What technologically differentiates you,
what your competitive advantage is?
Are you able to actually sell?
In produce what you want to be
able to get that financing for,
I think a lot of I've seen just
in my own experience a lot of
women business owners do get,
you know,
legal sort of threats and orders
against their trademarks or
different words they've used,
or different product they sell
and that can be really scary for
a business owner when you haven't
gone through that before,
and I think you know.
Lawyers are here to help you write.
Understand that and you can find Pro
Bona resources to understand that.
But I think also knowing that
these are things that all business
owners face at some point in their
journey because right IP both
protects your business and protects
other people's businesses, right?
And so I think it is something
to think about.
It's something to have at top of mind,
and I think of course,
if somebody does have a very strong right,
let's say patent.
Portfolio that's obviously
an asset to their business,
and as an investor you're looking for
what are the competitive advantages
of a business you're investing in?
What are the assets that this business
owns an can capitalize on and right
IP is considered an asset in that sense,
so especially if you are,
you know,
a scientific company where you have
something super innovative and unique.
I would definitely say patent
protection is quite valuable.
Alright, and Ruth,
do you have anything to add to that?
Yes. So what we haven't touched on,
which is the other side of your sort of
intellectual property, which is your.
I'm your URL securing the right URLs.
Your Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter, branding all of the
branding around social media.
Email marketing.
All of those kinds of things,
anything that somebody
would Google about you,
the principles of the company,
all of those things matter
in in getting funded,
and then obviously protecting those things.
I can't tell you how many times I've
worked with companies where they have not.
They've already started down
this road and they have done.
Haven't done even those simple
basic things which are free and we
would take you know nothing to do,
but they haven't locked to those in.
And then when they go to find a set up
like a LinkedIn profile for their business,
they realized the name has
been taken by somebody else.
And sometimes they're not even using it.
It's just sitting there.
So it's really important in addition to.
The services that we talked about already.
The Trademark Patent Office offers.
These other places where your brands
name resides need to be secured as well.
Alright,
thank you Ruth and Corrine.
If you have anything to add to that,
please do so,
but a couple of questions that
came through with respect to
businesses and challenges during
covid and in particular in 2020.
There are many people who have actually
lost jobs and their credit was impacted.
We talked a lot about the importance of
your credit and how that will increase
your ability to be able to get funding.
But are there solutions or resources
for women entrepreneurs who are
trying to start a business and they
do not have a perfect credit score?
It is so amazing that questions
timing because my answer
The first question ties to this as well.
An intellectual property.
Ruth touched on this too with URLs,
but pretty much every business.
Is going to have some form of
intellectual property at stake.
It's the name, it's the logo. It's URL.
Ruth mentioned it's the recipe.
Of the hamburger seasoning,
it's the whatever it is.
There's always an electoral
property at stake,
and so having a plan to protect the
intellectual property and defend the
business against encroachment from
others and also claims of encroachment.
Super important and I dealt with
this in my own small business
which was an advertising agency.
We were creating marketing campaigns.
We were creating.
Brand identity is and this is a
world that I lived in and so it's
very much something that the small
business may not be aware that.
They will someday be affected by,
even if they planned not to address it.
So, just like Ruth said,
you know failing to plan is planning to fail.
I've adopted,
I've coined a new phrase which
is Plan B is better.
Most of the businesses come out
with a plan and you know it.
That's plan A and they think plan is
going to be just hugely successful.
And then they have to change something.
They have to adapt to their
environment or the consumer demand
or some other unknown circumstance.
And they end up sort of feeling
like they settled on Plan B,
but Plan B may be the one that's
super successful,
and so I like to remind people Plan
B is better. And here's where we are.
We're in this pandemic.
Small businesses have been challenged.
They may be closing.
They may have to be reinventing themselves.
This is their chance to develop
Plan B and Plan B is better.
Plan B is better because it's
better informed.
It's more wise it it has a sense of
Here's why it's so important
for me to succeed,
and so there's a new motivation
and excitement, enthusiasm,
and so for the business
who suffered a challenge,
who suffered a set back.
It's OK 'cause Plan B is better
and we want to build resiliency
into that new plan and that does
include addressing access or sorry,
the addressing intellectual
property and so it was funny
because while Ruth was talking I
did just a quick Google search and
I looked up intellectual property,
women's business center just to see
who out there in the 135 centers
is doing training on this right
now and I found a new women's
business center who's partnering
with several of the community.
Organizations in in their community
is offering a whole series on how to
be resilient and guess what one of
the weeks workshops is is completely
devoted to intellectual property.
It's so important as part of that planning
process here in this pandemic or not,
that that the Women's business
center devoted entire week to
it. And so every women's business center
should have some form of support.
Whether it's counseling or a training
workshop that's just sitting there
and waiting for you to register.
Thanks, Corrine And. I know it's at
the beginning of the hour again,
and but Natalie actually has another
engagement that she needs to jump to
So Natalie thank you so much for joining us.
We really appreciate the words of
wisdom that you have given us for today.
Absolutely, I'm grateful to have
been here and to have shared the
stage with each of you.
Thank you for having me.
Alright, and so let's move on to another
segment and that let's continue to talk
about what else business owners can do to
set themselves up and place them in the
best position to go ahead and get funding.
And specifically without any
purpose of stereotyping.
How do women owned businesses differentiate
themselves from other businesses to obtain
Funding? Is owning a business as a woman
generally an advantage or disadvantage
an are there niche areas that you suggest
women get into that are not seeing a
lot of women business participation?
And I'm actually going to start with
Ruth on this specific question.
I mean look women have gotten the short end
of the stick in this country on everything.
I just read an article the other day
that said that women need that one in
five or 20% of women compared to one in
three or 30% of men make investments in
in in the stock market in anything. Women,
That is one way to create wealth.
That is one way to create
generational wealth.
And that is one way to create wealth
to invest in a business.
If you're not doing any of
that over your lifetime,
you are losing out on creating that
kind of wealth that could help you.
At some point,
if you needed to launch a business.
I mean during this pandemic.
People had to tap into their 401K
plans to get access to capital for
their business to start a business
'cause they lost their job and that
was the only way that they could
build an income and sell their
homes and live in their cars and
do all kinds of you know really,
really sad and bad things.
And you know,
I wanted to to talk about this
quote from Vice President Kamala
Harris just a few weeks ago.
She,
she wrote an Op Ed in the Washington Post.
I believe it was and she said in February
2025 million women were business owners by
April one and four had closed their doors,
about 2.5 million women have lost
their jobs or dropped out of the
workforce during the pandemic.
That's enough to fill 40 football stadiums.
This mass exodus of women from the
workforce is a national emergency,
and it demands a national solution.
And you know,
we,
that's why we're launching Rise
of crowdfunding because we're
going to focus on women.
And minorities and veterans
and LGBT and all of the diverse
communities that have historically
been left out of funding
And we're changing the way we look at this
because we have looked at this lopsidedly,
which is that we have to
go to a funding source.
We are the funding source.
Crowdfunding is the crowd.
The crowd when they say crowdfunding,
it's all of us.
So you know,
we're really excited and hopeful to
really change this entire process
where somebody comes up with an idea
and where do they go to get funding?
Or they feel like they have to go
somewhere else to get funding,
but they're actually surrounded by funding.
They just don't understand the process
on how to tap into that funding.
Thanks, Ruth, Elizabeth
Do you have anything to add?
Yeah, I wanna take this at a little
bit more of an optimistic angle,
so just what we've seen we've made over
90 investments in the past five years.
And we've built a portfolio of women lead
businesses that's actually performing
at the top decile in the industry.
There hasn't been in venture capital.
Many firms that have invested in
majority women lead businesses,
so it's amazing to see the data
that even when you do invest.
In an entire portfolio of
women lead businesses,
you can actually outperform the market.
So as a woman business owner,
I think a lot of us right take
problems we see in our everyday
lives and find really unique.
An inventive solutions to help yourselves
and to help others in your communities.
And that's part of what you're
doing by building this business,
and I think that's the power we
really have as women, right?
As being intuitive, being empathetic.
Understanding what really needs
to happen in our communities and
how our businesses conserve them.
And so my advice would be,
you know,
continue on your path even when it
gets hard or there are obstacles,
because there is an incredible
amount of value that we can create as
women and that we should be creating
as women and that can be really,
really powerful.
Part of the reason that I do what I
do is through the investments we've made.
There's been over 2500.
New jobs created by these women
business leaders.
And that's just the start,
we're only a few years in right,
but I think when you're a woman
business owner,
you get to decide the culture
of your company.
You get to decide if you want right
to have an inclusive workforce
and culture and how you create
that within your own company.
And I'm really optimistic as we have
more women leaders leading these
companies that we can actually create a
Much more equitable and inclusive
workforce that will be better for
ourselves and future generations,
and I think that's really the power
you have as a woman, business owner.
And I would really encourage you
all to harness it an even when
the days get really,
really tough to just keep pushing
and keep going because what each of
you are doing is really important
and you know there's a lot of people
that are trying to build support systems.
Like ourselves and the other panelists
on this call to really support women
entrepreneurs and their journey.
And we're here for you and we want you to,
you know,
win and create the things that
you want to do.
So I want to just give it a little bit more
of an optimistic lens because there is,
you know,
this newgard of women LED businesses
that are thriving and overcoming
the obstacles that all of us face
and we just need to be right
resilient and tenacious.
Because there needs to be more of us,
and when there is more of us we can do
things like re invest that wealth into you
Know, crowdfunding campaigns
of other women LED businesses,
we can Angel invest into other women
LED businesses and become investors
ourselves as we've created that own
wealth within our own businesses.
So keep going and you know,
know that your intuition and your unique
perspective is really valuable and important.
Thank you Elizabeth.
And so before I move on to Corrine,
I wanted to remind everyone to continue
to please send your questions in and that
we can continue to answer your questions.
We have about 10 more minutes or actually 7
minutes in this particular program and so
please continue to send in your questions.
So Corrine.
Do you have anything else to add to
what Elizabeth and Ruth have said?
No, I I love what's already been
said and especially the optimism
and Elizabeth is so right.
That's where I want to connect is
that there are more women entering
the entrepreneurship cycle.
Right now they're they're exiting
the workforce because they're
finding it's not flexible enough.
They're looking to have more
control over their destiny.
They're looking to take part in the
entrepreneurial dream more than ever,
and so we are seeing more opportunities
for women who are entering into spaces
that are traditionally occupied by women.
And not traditionally occupied by women,
you asked what were some of the
areas where we're not seeing women?
Traditionally,
we haven't been seeing very many
in the defense contracting space,
for example, and really quite frankly,
federal contracting is still one
of the areas that there's so much
opportunity there set asides for women.
Business is going through the
SBA's program to be certified as a
woman owned small business is just
one step of the process.
There are other opportunities
out there as well,
to be a sub contractor before
ever becoming a prime, but.
But I wouldn't necessarily go
after an industry just because
there aren't a lot of women in it.
I think if that's where the drive is,
and that's where the talent is,
then that's where you should go.
But we are seeing more and
more women occupy those areas,
and that's exciting.
Hope I think you're on mute.
OK sorry, thank you, Corrine.
Let's move on to a couple of success
stories and I think success stories are
Things that all of you have experienced,
and so we're going to
actually start with you Corrine.
What are some of the success
stories that you can share and what
do you think made their funding
story of particular a success?
Yeah, so I I spent in preparing for this
panel today preparing for all of you.
I looked through literally hundreds
of success stories because I wanted
to find the right one that I thought
spoke to all of the the greatest
strengths of this panel and the message
is today an I found the perfect one
and you can actually see their website
and see that there in the middle
route of a crowd funding campaign
Right now it's an equity crowdfunding
campaign and the company is called
Neboso N like Nancy AB like Boy
OS like Sam o.com Novo so no Boso
was started by a woman who was
inspired by her drive to be healthy.
Her travels an understanding that
stimulating our bodies is what stimulates
our nervous system can make us healthier
and so she created these really exciting.
I don't know how to describe it like a
bumpy texture to an insole in your shoe.
Or a bumpy texture on a floor mat
or a floor tile standing on those
makes you stand taller,
it it corrects your posture,
it can it.
She has all kinds of blogs and all kinds
of studies out there about how it can
help with neuropathy with oh children.
It helps them with their brain,
you know, signals and learning to walk.
It can help with therapy.
Recovering from an injury.
It can help with athletes.
There are all types of different
textures and things to try so.
Here we are a woman who's got
something that's registered with
your office that she's designed
The product.
She's launched it and just like
Elizabeth mentioned earlier,
typically the small business owners going
to cycle through many forms of capital.
That's exactly what Doctor Emily did
when she started out her business.
She bootstrapped it.
She got money from family.
She did everything that it took
to scrape money in borrowed money.
She got the idle loan from SBA.
Get the forgiveable loan.
And now she's in a live
crowdfunding campaign,
and so you can actually go to her website.
And if you just wanted to see what
one looks like and see some of the
things that have been referenced today,
like valuations,
etc,
can actually go through her website and
click at the very top banner where it
says invest it in the future of movement
And I'm not suggesting that
you necessarily invest,
but you just Scroll down and see
like how does she market herself?
How does she tell her story?
How does she talk about what
the investment perks are?
You know how many shares did she sell?
Then she weaves in Prot.
You know product messages and she
goes into the history and talks
about the successes and and how
much her company is grown.
She's up 68% growth in revenue and so I
just think she's got a really colorful,
appealing and a success story.
You can walk away with and
say that's what a
woman owned business who went to a
women's business center has walked
away with a really smart crowdfunding
campaign who's obviously super successful.
Thanks Corrine and my mom would be very
proud for me to be able to stand tall
when I wear those shoes that she's
always telling me to have good posture.
So over to you Ruth.
Do you have any success stories that
you can share with our audience today?
Yeah, so I have a really great one.
It's a Hispanic female founder.
Her name is Liz Vilardi.
She created a company called
Delete and they raised more than a
billion dollars using equity crowd.
Anything under regulation,
CF to improve cancer detection,
Delete developed a device called cyto
catch it enables doctors to monitor
cancer cells in their patients.
The device finds and displays tumor cells,
which gives oncologist a more
complete image of the tumor and
it's possible mutations.
This technology makes diagnosis
and personalized therapy possible
and assist with the effectiveness
of early treatment so you know
a lot of people's perception of
crowdfunding has come from the ether.
The gofund me world where a lot of people
use it for emergencies or crisis or
You know the Boston bombing?
I mean, Katrina,
you name it.
People go to gofund me and or they
are familiar with the reward base
which is Kickstarter and Indigogo.
But they don't realize that now with
equity crowdfunding as of last week.
Women and men can raise up to $5
million using Regulation CF and up to
$75 million using reggae plus so very
sophisticated companies with great IP,
for example,
can now go onto these platforms
and raise serious money to help
advance their medical devices,
Their technology,
A franchise larger,
more established operations that they
may have historically had to go to a
bank for a loan or lease, or an Angel.
So we're really excited about the
future of equity crowdfunding,
especially for women and minorities, because.
The world is their oyster.
I mean this. This is a process.
If you do the work,
you have a much greater chance
of raising the money.
Thank you Ruth And Elizabeth.
You get us get around us out as
we are at the end of our program,
so if you wouldn't mind sharing
the success story in any last words
that you might possibly have.
Amazing, I'd love to share success
story kind of building off of Ruth And
individuals serving the cancer community.
We have a company in our portfolio
called Cherry Blossom Intimates.
It was founded by two black women,
Doctor Regina Hampton,
who was one of the first black women to
actually have her own surgical center.
She's a breast cancer surgeon
and Jasmine Jones,
who she was actually Miss DC.
And the two of them have created this
incredibly innovative company that
serves women breast cancer survivors,
so they are able to create 3D printed
prosthetics for breast cancer survivors
in 36 different skin tones and colors.
Before you know,
traditionally prosthetics or only come
in two colors which obviously don't
fit the wide range of individuals
that are dealing with breast cancer,
and they are able to use 3D scanning
technology to actually scan and individuals.
Chest wall and create a prosthetic
that looks like you know your body,
your skin tone.
Even you know freckles, veins,
anything that makes you feel you
know you've lost a part of yourself
and this helps you feel whole again.
In these prosthetics are actually
covered by insurance and as a breast
cancer survivor you're also able
to get special bras that promote
healing and don't have you know things
like wires and whatnot that could
actually re exacerbate you know.
The cancer growth in your body,
so they are also able to provide,
you know,
specialized bras that fit all sizes
of women because also a lot of
traditional providers of these only
have a very specific size range that doesn't,
you know,
fit the entire range of women.
So they have built this incredibly
inclusive tech enabled company to
serve breast cancer survivors and
they actually started as a single
store in Maryland right outside of DC,
where there's the largest prevalence
of breast cancer.
In the country and they started
as this retail model and they
actually were able to get a bank,
small business bank loan to start
their company after they had been
bootstrapping it and when we met
the two founders we also we said,
you know this is bigger than just,
you know,
the city in Maryland and Community
or serving women all over the
country and perhaps the world could
really benefit from this technology.
How can we use technology to
actually scale this into right a
billion dollar business where women
from the comfort of their homes?
You know can get these prosthetics in
bras and services they need as part
of their health care services and so
we invested as a venture capital firm.
We also utilized our Angel investing
community fempire to get many
aligned women Angel investors
as investors into the company
as, well, we help facilitate an
introduction to one of the top
business accelerators in the country.
Techstars for the company Cherry
Blossom Intimates to go through the
Techstars Accelerator program and
also receive an investment there.
And after that they actually raised
a $1.2 million venture capital round,
which you know that are have not
even been 100 black women in the US
in all of history that have raised
over $1,000,000 of venture capital.
And that's just you know,
a terrible statistic that I'm
working on changing every day.
But we're really proud of this
company being able to close.
You know,
the $1.2 million venture funding round
and I'm sure in their future they
may do something like crowdfunding.
Purchase order funding.
We actually help them make a
connection to Macy's and their
supplier diversity program,
which is really awesome that they
do as a retailer to get new brand.
Ends into their stores built by
women and minorities who may not be
suppliers into big retail before,
so they're launching also their
first retail line in Macy's,
which is really exciting,
and I think that's just such a
great story of how by building
a business that serves,
you know,
a really huge need that wasn't
being served before and doing
it in a way that actually serves
all women can be both powerful
from a business perspective
But also an impact perspective.
Well thank you Elizabeth and thank you
so much to Ruth as well as Corrine.
It has been wonderful to serve at the
moderate are for this program and to
hear your wonderful words of wisdom.
Sean, I'm going to turn it back over to you.
Thank you Hope for meeting today's
discussion and our panelists.
Ruth Corrine Natalie and Elizabeth thank
you for providing us with your experience.
The insight you have and all
of the resources you gave us.
We have so much to work with now.
I'd also like to thank all of our
virtual attendees were spending
your time with us today.
I hope you'll be joining us for
our final Wes program.
Wednesday,
March 31st.
Lessons from successful women
entrepreneurs who will be sharing
their insights and best practices
for business during this climate.
For links are more information
about how to register for a program,
you can register at our website
uspto.gov/events while you're
on our events page,
I encourage you to check out many other
free virtual intellectual property,
education and awareness programs
that are available to you.
Two of those programs coming up
one today at 5:00 to 6:00 PM,
is our wine and IP women's history
in the wine industry and on April
1st at noon to 1:00 PM.
The NCEAI innovation chat
creating innovators.
You'll be receiving a short
survey for today's program,
so we hope that you complete it.
We do value your feedback.
Your input is important in creating
future programs to meet the
needs of our customers.
So we look forward to hearing
from you and getting
a response to those surveys with
your information and what you'd
like to see us do in the future.
Thank you again for attending today's
program. We look forward to seeing
you next week at our final program.
Have a great day.